GLASGOW Film Festival has announced its opening and closing gala films, with the world premiere of the long-awaited biopic of Scottish psychiatrist R D Laing, starring David Tennant as Laing, bringing the programme to an end on February 26. Directed by Robert Mullan, Mad To Be Normal also stars Elizabeth Moss, Michael Gambon and Gabriel Byrne.

The thirteenth festival opens on February 15 with the European premiere of the new feature from the director of The Stag, John Butler. Handsome Devil is a coming-of-age story set in a rugby-mad all-boys boarding school in Ireland with Andrew Scott as the teacher of two very different boys, played by Fionn O'Shea and Nicholas Galitzine, who become friends as a result of shared taste in music.

As a tribute to John Berger, who died on Monday, the festival will also be hosting the Scottish premiere of The Seasons of Quincy: Four Portraits of John Berger. A collaboration between Tilda Swinton, Colin MacCabe, Christopher Roth and composer Simon Fisher Turner, the four film essays combine images from his him in France with ideas from his work.

glasgowfilm.org

THE FIRST Scottish Portrait Awards (SPA) opens for entries today. The new competition aims to discover the best portraits by 60 fine artists and photographers born, living or studying in Scotland, which will feature in a month-long exhibition to be held in the capital. The overall winner of the SPA in Fine Art will receive £5000 while the winner of the Richard Coward SPA in Photography will get £2000. Other major prizes include a £3000 portrait commission from the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS). Artist Gordon Mitchell is the director of the awards and will chair the SPA Fine Art panel.

scottishportraitawards.org