Glasgow Film Festival Industry Head Reflects On Latest Edition: “It’s The Busiest Year We’ve Ever Had”

deadline.com:

While the Glasgow Film Festival wrapped a few weeks ago with more than 33,000 people in attendance at the 12-day event, the festival’s industry program saw a big boost in attendance this year, with numbers up 15% year-on-year.

It’s welcome news for Samantha Andie Bennett, who heads up the GFF Industry Focus section and its talent development labs as she and her team work to position the strand into a significant event on the festival calendar that can attract delegates from around the UK and beyond while, crucially, creating a pipeline to support new local talent.  “We’ve been trying to find a formula and see what works and we’ve been trialling things for the last few years but this year, it just feels like we found the right mix,” she tells Deadline.

We’ve been building our network and the new venue – The Social Hub in Glasgow – has been a huge help to making the industry strand what it is.”  In the last decade, the festival’s industry program has grown from a two-day local networking event in 2016 to a four-day national event today.

This year saw more than 750 delegates touch down in Glasgow for the Industry Focus strand, which ran March 3-6 and supported 39 filmmaking talents across its three year-round talent development initiatives.