For the first time in its history the London Film Festival (LFF) is presenting a series of films outwith London and, beginning on October 7, one of the venues chosen to host screenings is the Glasgow Film Theatre. Among the LFF highlights screening north of the border are Shirley, featuring Mad Men and The Handmaid’s Tale star Elisabeth Moss; Ammonite, starring Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan; Supernova, starring Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci (what a match-up!); David Byrne’s Utopia, a filmed version of the former Talking Heads singer’s acclaimed Broadway show; and Mangrove, a film by Oscar winner (and Turner Prize winner) Steve McQueen.

Shirley sees Moss play cult American author Shirley Jackson, whose The Haunting Of Hill House has been turned into a hit Netflix series, in a biopic directed by experimental film-maker Josephine Decker. The story of another woman, 19th century palaentologist Mary Anning, is at the heart of Ammonite, by God’s Own Country director Francis Lee. Winslet plays Anning, while Ronan is the woman who falls for her. Supernova tells the story of long-term couple Sam (Firth) and Tusker (Tucci) whose lives have been turned upside down by Tusker’s early onset dementia and who are making a road trip across England to meet up with old friends. It’s the second feature from British actor-turned director Harry Macqueen. Meanwhile LFF opening film Mangrove is one of five films Steve McQueen has made as part of an anthology titled Small Axe, and tells the story of the Mangrove Nine, a group of black activists tried for inciting a riot in Notting Hill in 1970.