A spotlight on Indonesian filmmaker Riar Rizaldi (Tellurian Drama, Larung), who will be in attendance for two retrospective screenings and a live sound-based performance. Rizaldi has so far produced a consistent body of work that, through speculative science-fiction, explores the relationship between technology, socio-political strata, historical memory and its contemporary (re)formulations, and
composite belief systems, most recently delving into Sufism and particle physics. In the desert there are only ghosts and mirages is a two-programme focus surveying the artist’s moving image practice, complemented by an expanded cinema
performance.

Minikino Presents: Indonesian Spice Route captures life’s turning points, from bustling harbours to quiet villages. These films weave stories of resilience, longing, and self-discovery, offering a glimpse into Indonesia—a Muslim-majority nation with a rich and diverse cultural heritage. Minikino Film Week is a Bali-based International Short Film Festival whose programme partnership with GSFF extends to co-hosting a Scotland-Indonesia filmmaker residency exchange, supported by the British Council Connections Through Culture Programme.

Speculative Ireland, curated by Oisín Kealy with support from Culture Ireland and CMC Ireland, will see the IFFR award-winning film Few Can See, by filmmaker Frank Sweeney, play in Glasgow for the first time. Following this will be a special new ensemble performance by musician and Miuín label-head Neil Quigley, drawing on his latest full-length ambient release, Boglands. As part of the festival, Sweeney will
also be leading an artist workshop looking at histories of cross-border pirate radio in Ireland.

A collaboration with Palestinian collective Gaza Film Unit will see members of the collective in attendance for four short films that take us on a journey through Gaza’s past and present, reflecting on what has been lost and what must still be fought for.

Xuanlin Tham, author of Revolutionary Desires: The Political Power of the Sex Scene, curates a programme that explores sex as a dissolution of boundaries. Your Body, Dissolving into Me spans animation to documentary in celebrating sex and its representations, but also confronts the thorniness of what sex under systems of control and image production entails.

Grieving Tomorrows, curated by Ren Scateni, aims to utilise grief as a methodological tool to investigate macro-sociopolitical nodes affecting, shaping, and dictating our current lives. The programme proposes to explore three areas: the environment, or the ecological crisis; acts of political resistance through mourning and embalming; and queer and trans identity.

Milda Valiulytė curates Spatial Desire, a programme inspired by the words of American writer, professor and activist Audre Lorde which invites us to conceptualise the borders that often come to define our lives.

Welcome to the Multiverse is BACK for 2025 and Heather Bradshaw is ready to bring you the weirdest and wildest world-building that animation has to offer. The second programme in the multiverse series, ‘Dystopia Now’ uncovers an anthology of animated dystopias, holding a mirror to the flawed injustice of our own society.

Scottish Opera is delighted to present the Scottish premiere of its first-ever animated opera short, Josefine. Inspired by Franz Kafka’s last short story ‘Josefine the Singer’, directed by the Company’s resident filmmaker Antonia Bain and composed by former Emerging Artist Composer-in-Residence Samuel Bordoli, with a libretto co-authored by Antonia.Kialy Tihngang is the recipient of the inaugural Too Happy Studios Artist Moving Image Commission. Produced by Glasgow production company Forest of Black, her film ‘OOO’ will premiere at GSFF.

Festival Favourites includes a selection of big hitters and darlings from 2024’s international festival circuit, and we welcome back essentials such as comedy programme For Shorts & Giggles, Family Shorts, Visible Cinema and, after a year off, our acclaimed-by-the-true-horror-freaks strand, Scared Shortless. Several of these programmes will take place at the festival’s new home in the West End, the
Grosvenor Picture Theatre.

Last year, GSFF were proud to be able to present six of Bill Douglas’s unearthed Super 8 amateur shorts for the first time. Celebrated for his honest and innovative approach to cinematic storytelling, The Bill Douglas Award showcases new international short films that
reflect these qualities.

The GSFF25 audience will have the opportunity to choose their favourites to win the International Audience Award and the Scottish Audience Award, whilst the Bill Douglas Award for International Short Film and the Scottish Short Film Award are selected by international jury. For the second year GSFF is also bringing the Scottish competition and other elements of the programme to the populations of HMP Polmont, as well as running workshops. The Young Scottish Filmmaker Prize also returns for a fourth year, with two
competition categories dedicated to showcasing talented Scottish filmmakers aged 18 - 25.The full GSFF25 industry programme will be unveiled in the coming weeks.

Festival Director Matt Lloyd says: “I can’t wait to unleash this programme on Glasgow. Touching on themes of grief, loss, community and speculative history, it offers a wide-ranging response to, and engagement with, contemporary realities and challenges. This has been a truly collaborative effort between programmers Ren Scateni and Oisín Kealy and a range of independent curators and partners, some returning, some new to GSFF. I’m particularly thrilled by our collaboration with Minikino Film Week, in which we host Indonesian filmmaker Haris Yuliyanto for two weeks, at Cove Park and here in Glasgow, and which will in turn see us send a Scottish filmmaker to Bali in September, and I’m immensely proud to be unveiling a new artist moving image commission by Glasgow-based Kialy Tihngang. Above all, GSFF exists to nurture and inspire diverse forms of cinematic expression, in Scotland and around the world, and these two initiatives do exactly that.”

Chair of Glasgow Life, Bailie Annette Christie, says: “Over the years, Glasgow Short Film Festival has grown into Scotland’s premier short film event, uniting filmmakers, and film fans to celebrate bold and original storytelling. Now in its 18th edition, this year’s festival promises to entertain, spark discussion, and challenge perspectives with an exciting programme of ground-breaking films. Hosting GSFF further reinforces Glasgow’s reputation as a leading destination for world-class culture and international cinema, and we look forward to welcoming everyone in March."