Glasgow Film Festival 2025: How snow storms and Covid were weathered to create Scotland's leading festival

“There was a time in the 1970s when people said cinema was dead, then Jaws came along,” says the chief executive of Glasgow Film and director of the Glasgow Film Festival.

Ms Gardner is retiring after more than 30 years at the forefront of the Scottish cinema industry. The 21st edition of the festival - her last at the helm - begins this week with the world premiere of survival thriller Tornado, from Scottish director John Maclean.

“People went to the cinema in huge numbers to see the likes of Jaws and Grease - they brought people back into the cinema-sphere,” she says. “Then we had people saying ‘here’s VHS, cinema is dead’ again. Then streaming. But we are weathering the storm, we have weathered it.”

Starting out as a duty manager at the Glasgow Film Theatre (GFT) in 1993, Ms Gardner quickly progressed through the ranks in several roles, including the body’s head of cinemas. The Glasgow Film Festival was launched in 2005 and Ms Gardner took over as director two years later. In 2020, she became chief executive of Glasgow Film, which runs the GFT.

Under her watch, the festival has grown exponentially, from a small-scale event to its position as Scotland’s leading film festival, with 114 feature films, plus some short films. The Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) was meanwhile plunged into crisis three years ago with the collapse of the arts charity behind the event and re-emerged last year under new ownership.

“We’re trying to grow a love for cinema,” says Ms Gardner. “Cinema for all is the ethos we drive everything through. The cinema is a great place to watch movies.”

The festival has a strong track record in supporting new directors. Its New Audience Award, introduced by Ms Gardner in 2015, puts the spotlight on films which have often not yet found a distributor, such as The Hermit of Treig - a documentary about a hermit who spent 40 years living in isolation in the Scottish Highlands. The documentary won the award at the 2022 festival and then secured a distributor to be shown across Scotland.

Ms Gardner recalls a visit to the Toronto Film Festival, which inspired the launch of the award.

She says: “They have an audience award, but it was for the big gala films, like La La Land. I thought ‘yeah, I think La La Land will manage just fine without an award’.

“So, we thought if we can support emerging filmmakers, then the audience can help these people start their careers.”

Ms Gardner took over the chief executive role at GFT in April 2020, weeks after the pandemic shuttered entertainment venues across Scotland.

“[It was] probably the worst time to take over running a cinema - ever,” she says. “But we've come out of that, we've come out successful on the other side. The festivals are growing, GFT is doing really well.”

She adds: “I think leaving those things as my legacy is about as much as I feel I could do.”

In future, Ms Gardner’s role is to be divided into two - as a chief executive of Glasgow Film and a new post heading up GFF. A search for her replacements is to begin before she steps down in October.

“I've pretty much done every job in the organisation,” she says. “It’s a great place to work. Everybody's working towards the same aim: the vision, mission, values.

“I've done a lot, so it's the right time. But I'm sure there will be some tears somewhere along the line.”

Earlier this year, the cinema saw its Creative Scotland funding nearly double over the next three years from £1.9 million to £3.6m.

Aside from the pandemic, Ms Gardner has other memorable moments from her career, not least in 2018, when the Beast from the East storm hit as celebrities and film-makers were due to travel to Glasgow, forcing organisers to cancel parts of the festival.

“We started sending people home and then we started cancelling events,” she recalls. “And then, by five o'clock it was clear that nobody was going anywhere. Some staff actually stayed in the cinema and watched a film.”

With many guests unable to travel to Scotland - and others unable to leave - the team matched up vacant hotel rooms and people who needed them.

“We divided up the rooms, there weren’t many of us left,” she says. “My frustrations were so high, I spent the next day clearing the street myself. I couldn’t stand and do nothing.”

While Ms Gardner is keen for someone new to take on the role “to give it that extra thrust”, she is certain the future of Glasgow film will remain at the GFT building on the city’s Rose Street - an art-deco cinema purpose-built in the 1930s.

She recalls a conversation with her predecessor, when they realised how important the physical building was to Glasgow’s cinema-goers.

“We realised that people really loved this building and didn't want us to move, ie ever to get a modern, six-screen artplex built on the south side,” she says. “The building is historically significant. And when we realised that, we said ‘OK, how can we use every spare centimetre of this building?’”

Ms Gardner adds: “GFT will always be at the heart [of Glasgow cinema]. It has its challenges and limitations because it was built in 1939, but the positives are about it being a jewel in the crown. That doesn't mean we wouldn't like some more space to do other things, so it doesn't mean that we won't use other spaces.”

She points to a recent “Scorsese of the Month” series running at GFT, which saw some people attend every screening over the past two-and-a-half years, as an example of the community’s commitment to the venue.

“People love the cinema, so it's really important that we honour that,” she says. “I think those things are really very important and will continue in the future. I have absolutely no doubt about that, because everybody who works here is dedicated and committed.”