Glasgow Film Festival kicked off yesterday with its Opening Gala: a screening of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s (Amélie, A Very Long Engagement) new release, Micmacs. The film screened in both of the Glasgow Film Theatre’s auditoriums to packed audiences — sold-out mere days after the tickets went on sale. Though I missed the screening myself, everyone I spoke to were jovial and hadn’t a bad word to say about feature. I even managed to nab myself a bag of freebies from one convivial young man. So much for missing out!

Prior to the festival’s grand opening, the Cary Grant retrospective eased us into the festival mood with a screening of Bringing Up Baby — an hilarious comedy starring Katherine Hepburn alongside the charming leading man. One of the great comedies of the 1930s, it is everything Gilmore Girls aspires to be: a farcical romp, a wild goose chase, and hijinks aplenty wrapped into one classic rom-com flick.

The party really started after the screenings of Micmacs wrapped up. Filmgoers in their hundreds flooded into Glasgow Film Theatre’s Café Cosmo, upstairs bar, and GFT1. Replete with that intangible film festival spirit and rounded off with a free bar, there was not a scowl to be found. How often do you find yourself pleasantly intoxicated in a cinema auditorium? It was quite an experience.

If you missed Bringing Up Baby, an additional screening takes place at Grosvenor cinema on Ashton Lane on Sunday 21st February at 6pm.

Micmacs is due for UK-wide cinematic release on Friday 26th February.

2010 marks the 82nd anniversary of the Academy Awards. Predictions are not my forte, but it’d be curmudgeonly of me not to join in. Some categories have been excluded due to my inability to make decisions. My favourites will be italicised, and predicted winners are in bold.

Best Picture:
Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air

• Big competition! I haven’t seen Avatar, The Blind Side, or Precious yet. I enjoyed all of Up in the Air, Up, A Serious Man, and Inglourious Basterds. However, I hated District 9, and have mixed feelings about The Hurt Locker. An Education is possibly my favourite film of the year, and therefore the one I’d most like to see win. While it’s a fantastic achievement for Up to have been nominated, I’d rather see Pete Docter with the statuette for Best Animation. My prediction? I’m with Mark Kermode: it will go to Avatar. Self-congratulation and all that.

Actor in a Leading Role
Jeff Bridges – Crazy Heart
George Clooney – Up in the Air
Colin Firth – A Single Man
Morgan Freeman – Invictus
Jeremy Renner – The Hurt Locker

• Since Clooney has succumbed to the Michael Cain school of acting, it’s a surprise he has even been nominated. Since Colin Firth is such a surprise nominaiton, and seems to be garnering the most media attention, I reckon he’s truly in the running.

Actor in a Supporting Role
Matt Damon – Invictus
Woody Harrelson – The Messenger
Christopher Plummer – The Last Station
Stanley Tucci – The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz – Inglourious Basterds

• Call me a band-wagon jumper, but it was an amazing performance, and I didn’t even hate him!

Actress in a Leading Role
Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side
Helen Mirren – The Last Station
Carey Mulligan – An Education
Gabourey Sidibe – Precious
Meryl Streep – Julie & Julia

• I’m going to stick my neck out here and give it to Carey Mulligan. Yes, she’s up against Mirren and Streep, but here’s hoping she might just clinch it. To me, Meryl Streep as Julia Child was only highlighted as a great performance when contrasted with Amy Adam’s poor job in this film. Those are the only two I’ve seen, and The Last Station looks pretty intense but… yeah, I love Carey.

Actress in a Supporting Role
Penelope Cruz – Nine
Vera Farmiga – Up in the Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal – Crazy Heart
Anna Kendrick – Up in the Air
Mo’Nique – Precious

• Mo’Nique seems to have garnered the most acclaim, so let’s go with it!

Animated Feature Film
Coraline – Henry Selick
Fantastic Mr. Fox – Wes Anderson
The Princess & the Frog – John Musker & Ron Clements
The Secret of Kells – Tomm Moore
Up – Pete Docter

• As I mentioned above, I want to see Pete Docter win a statuette. I’m pretty ashamed to say that Up is the only one of these that I’ve seen so far (despite much bitching and whining at friends and boyfriend to accompany me!) In this category, it’s all about being an unabashed Pixar fangirl.

Directing
Avatar – James Cameron
The Hurt Locker – Kathryn Bigelow
Inglourious Basterds – Quentin Tarantino
Precious – Lee Daniels
Up in the Air – Jason Reitman

• While I didn’t love the Hurt Locker, there are reasons aplenty to choose Bigelow. The Hurt Locker is a great achievement, especially when you consider that the only other big Iraq war film was Stop-Loss in 2008, the marketing campaign for which had to be completely reinvented, before it eventually flopped. I thought that Basterds was air-tight, but there’s something about putting Tarantino forward for an Oscar that doesn’t quite feel right. Jason Reitman certainly has not yet earned his place on this list.

Film Editing
Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious

• I really loved the editing in Inglourious Basterds. I doubt that that will matter much to the academy, though. I’m putting my money on District 9 as some kind of we-still-love-you-Peter redemption. It’s a close call!

Visual Effects
Avatar
District 9
Star Trek

• … there were other options?

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
District 9
An Education
In the Loop
Precious
Up in the Air

• This is a toughie. Although I haven’t seen In the Loop, it seems to be getting a lot of hype. I imagine that contention for this category gets greater each year. None of these would be a surprise winner, though, so I’m going to go ahead and hope for the best – An Education to win, please!

Writing (Original Screenplay)
The Hurt Locker – Mark Boal
Inglourious Basterds – Quentin Tarantino
The Messenger – Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman
A Serious Man – Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
Up – Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, Tom McCarthy

• While I can’t comment on The Messenger, this is quite a category. Inglourious Basterds and A Serious Man are my top contenders. A Serious Man is quite unconventional, but possibly serious enough (for the Coen’s, that is: no pun intended) for a win. The beauty of Up is all in the exposition, and The Hurt Locker seems to have been heavily edited towards the end. Since I’ve no fear of being wrong; let’s go with A Serious Man.

Oscar night takes place on Sunday, March 7th at 5pm PST, or 1am GMT.

For a comprehensive history of previous Academy Award nominees and winners, visit http://www.filmsite.org/

[Image from Oscars website.]

Beginning its sixth year, the Glasgow Film Festival is one fast-growing festival. Taking place over 10 days at 17 Glasgow venues, GFF10 aims to mirror the uniqueness of Glasgow’s cultural scene.

The rich and diverse programming incorporates 15 strands, including The Best of British, European Cinema, FrightFest, Stranger than Fiction, and The State of Independents. From contemporary Japanese cinema to newly restored classics, Glasgow Film Festival has it covered. They also host an annual retrospective to celebrate a famous Hollywood star. Previous years have celebrated Bette Davis and Audrey Hepburn. Cary Grant is the subject of this year’s retrospective, which will include screenings of films such as Bringing Up Baby, North By Northwest, and Notorious.

The festival incorporates premiers, special screenings, events, and a number of special guests. It also features some minor festivals, or “festivals within the festival”: the Youth Film Festival (which is already under way), the Short Film Festival, and the Music and Film Festival.  Special guests at Glasgow Film Festival will include the inimitable James Earl-Jones, fellow actors Emma Thompson and Joe Dempsie, and directors Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amélie) and Kevin MacDonald (The Last King of Scotland).

I will be in attendance, bringing you as many film reviews and as much up to the minute news as humanly possible. If there is anything in particular you want to see covered, drop us a comment and I’ll see what I can do. If you’re joining the festivities, perhaps I’ll see you there (I’ll be the one sitting on the floor with a netbook and spilling coffee)!

Glasgow Film Festival runs from Thursday 18th to Sunday 28th February.

For more information, visit the official website at http://visitgff.glasgowfilm.org/

You will find all of my coverage of the film festival at http://www.obsessedwithfilm.com