The Glasgow Film Festival has unveiled the first films for its 2026 edition, taking place Feb. 25-March 8, including a retrospective program under the theme “Truth to Power” and a country focus on Sweden.
The “Truth to Power” retrospective will feature 10 classics from the 1930s to the present day “that stand as cinematic statements of resistance, or feature characters that rise against the machines of power,” organizers said. Highlights from the program include the Stanley Kubrick-directed satire Dr Strangelove (1964), starring Peter Sellers, Oscar-nominated civil rights epic Selma (2014) from director Ava DuVernay, and the 50th anniversary of political thriller All the President’s Men (1976), following the journalists who broke the Watergate scandal and starring and produced by Robert Redford.
The lineup will also include In the Name of the Father (1993), starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Erin Brockovich (2000), and The Battle of Algiers (1966), a recreation of Algeria’s 1950s battle for independence from France.
GFF26 will be the 22nd edition of the festival and will also put a spotlight on films from Sweden under the country focus theme “Take a Chance on Me: Swedish Cinema.”
The selection will include the U.K. premieres of political satire Eagles of the Republic about an adored Egyptian actor who takes the lead role in a major government propaganda film, horror film The Home, in which strange events unfold after the protagonist takes his mother into a care facility for dementia; and sci-fi movie Egghead Republic, set in an alternative reality where the Cold War didn’t end.
The Sweden program will also include the U.K. premiere of drama Live a Little, which follows “a young woman’s exploration of her boundaries on an interrailing trip after she wakes up in a man’s bed with no memory of the night before,” and the Scottish premiere of Redoubt, about a farmhand who builds a fortress in his home during the Cold War.
Paul Gallagher, head of program for Glasgow Film, which runs the festival, said: “The idea for this year’s retrospective began as I reflected on the legacy and influence of the late Robert Redford. With his classic All the President’s Men serving as a starting point, ‘Truth to Power’ focuses on filmmakers who have taken on daunting targets – power, corruption and injustice – and created all-time classic films in the process; films that are not only hugely entertaining but retain sharp relevance to this day.”
