The ninth Glasgow Film Festival is to introduce a strand looking at the big-screen appeal of video games; a retrospective on James Cagney; and a focus on new cinema from Brazil.

The 2013 event, which will run from Feb 14-24, will feature a gaming strand curated by Robert Florence, star of BBC sketch comedy Burniston.

It will explore whether computer games could challenge the cinema-going experience as they increase in their scope and includes a costume gala screening and a live review of new game Aliens: Colonial Marines before a screening of James Cameron’s Aliens.

The New Brazilian Cinema strand will feature titles including Xingu [pictured], from director Cao Hamburger; Prime Time Soap (A novellas das 8), directed by Odilon Rocha; Neighbouring Sounds (O som ao redor), from director Kleber Mendonca Filho; and Southwest (Sudoeste), directed by Eduardo Nunes.

James Cagney: Top of the World, Ma! will offer a retrospective of the Hollywood tough guy. The programme includes The Public Enemy (1931), Angels With Dirty Faces (1938),The Roaring Twenties (1939), White Heat (1949) and Love Me Or Leave Me (1955).

Other strands include Crossing the Line, celebrating Glasgow’s visual arts scene; Fashion in Film; Kapow!@GFF, curated by comic book legend Mark Miller; and both the Glasgow Short Film Festival (Feb 7-10) and Glasgow Youth Film Festival (Feb 3-13).

The full programme will be launched on Jan 16.

Funded by Glasgow City Marketing Bureau, Creative Scotland and EventScotland, the festival recorded more than 35,000 admissions to more than 350 events last year.