Glasgow is to enter the crowded calendar of global eventswith the establishment of a World Film Festival. The first edition of theFestival will run from Feb 10-17, 2005, screening 90 features.

The programme will comprise a mixture of advance screenings offorthcoming UK releases, films currently without UK distribution, foreignlanguage titles and screenings from the holdings of the Scottish ScreenArchive. Plans are also underway for a possible retrospective and a silentcinema event.

Director Nick Varley claims that the Festival is notintended to compete with Scotland's long-established EdinburghInternational Film Festival held annually each August.

"Glasgow is the biggest cinema-going city in Britainoutside of London and the event is a way of acknowledging that and creatingsomething special for the people of Glasgow," he said.

The Festival is funded by Glasgow City Council's ERDFFund and will run in partnership with the UGC's flagship 18-screen venuein the city along with the Glasgow Film Theatre, and CCA arts venue. The eventwill be non-competitive and has already received strong support from UKdistributors.

Varley has already announced an initial trio of titles thatcomprise Woody Allen's Melinda andMelinda, Wes Anderson's ensemble TheLife Aquatic and Danny Boyle'sYuletide heartwarmer Millions.

Varley said he doesn't rule out the possibility ofworld premieres but in the first year "you have to be realistic and anyworld premieres would just be the icing on the cake."

The timing of the event at the heart of the UK awards andOscar promotion season also increases the possibility of some high-profilecelebrity presence if stars can be diverted to Glasgow from the London andBerlin promotional trails.

A full programme will be announced at a press launch in lateJanuary