Cinema of Scotland

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Scotland has produced many films, directors and actors.

Scottish film directors[]

Scotland has also been the birthplace of many film directors, some of whom have won multiple awards or enjoy a cult reputation.

May Miles Thomas is one of these multi award-winning Scottish directors, having won Best Film, Best Director, Best Writer and Best Performance at the BAFTA New Talent Awards and Best Achievement in Production at the British Independent Film Awards for her film One Life Stand. Thomas also won the prestigious Scottish Screen Outstanding Achievement Award and was recognised as a pioneer of digital cinema for this film, for which she received a NESTA Fellowship.

Bill Forsyth is a director and writer noted for his commitment to national film-making. His best-known work is Gregory's Girl, which won an award for Best Screenplay at the BAFTA Awards.

Paul McGuigan is another Scottish director who has won awards for his work. His 2006 thriller Lucky Number Slevin, which featured an all-star cast, received awards for both Best Film and Best Actor (Josh Hartnett) at the Milan International Film Festival. It has since been recognized as a cult film.

Donald Cammell has a cult following due to his work on Performance (1970), which was co-directed by English film director Nicolas Roeg and featured Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones fame.

List of Scottish film directors[]

  • Donald Cammell
  • Michael Caton-Jones
  • Bill Forsyth
  • Frank Lloyd
  • Gillies MacKinnon
  • Paul McGuigan
  • David Mackenzie
  • Lynne Ramsay
  • May Miles Thomas
  • Kevin Macdonald
  • Bill Douglas
  • John McPhail

Scottish movie & TV actors[]

Sean Connery
Alan Cumming
David Tennant
Kelly Macdonald

There are a significant number of actors who have been born in Scotland and went on to have international success. Among these is Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, and BAFTA Award winning actor Sean Connery, who famously portrayed James Bond in seven of the earliest Bond movies.

Scottish actor Ewan McGregor has had success in mainstream, indie and art house films. He is perhaps best known for his role as Mark Renton in Danny Boyle's 1996 film Trainspotting, for which he won a BAFTA Scotland Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, or for portraying the young Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy. In October 1997 he was ranked 36th in Empire magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list.

James McAvoy is a BAFTA Rising Star Award winning Scottish stage and screen actor. He has featured in a number of films, including 2007's BAFTA Award-winning The Last King of Scotland and Disney's highest-grossing live action film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. McAvoy was nominated for a Golden Globe for his work in 2007's Atonement. He has also made appearances in British TV series such as Shameless and Early Doors.

Actor, comedian and author Robbie Coltrane, widely known for his role as Rubeus Hagrid in the Harry Potter series of films, is another BAFTA Award-winning actor from Scotland. He was voted 6th in a poll to find the 'most famous Scot' and placed 10th in ITV's list of "TV's Greatest Stars."

David Tennant is a multi award-winning Scottish actor best known for his role in Doctor Who as the 10th incarnation of the Doctor. He has also featured in numerous other television shows, movies, theatre productions and radio dramas.

Kelly Macdonald is a Scottish Emmy Award winning and Screen Actors Guild Award-winning actress. She has starred in many notable films, including Trainspotting alongside Ewan McGregor, the Coen brothers’ No Country for Old Men and the science fiction comedy The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Brian Cox, CBE is an Emmy Award-winning Scottish actor. He is perhaps best known for portraying Hannibal Lecter in the 1986 thriller Manhunter, and has since become a familiar face in film and television. He is also known for his work with the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he gained great recognition for his portrayal of King Lear.

Some of the best-known Scottish actors include:

Main article: List of Scottish actors
  • Billy Boyd
  • Gerard Butler
  • Robert Carlyle
  • Sean Connery
  • Henry Ian Cusick
  • Sean Biggerstaff
  • Robbie Coltrane
  • Tom Conti
  • James Cosmo
  • Brian Cox
  • Alan Cumming
  • James Finlayson
  • Ashley Jensen
  • Deborah Kerr
  • John Laurie
  • Kelly Macdonald
  • James McAvoy
  • David McCallum
  • Sylvester McCoy
  • Ewan McGregor
  • David McKay
  • Kevin McKidd
  • Gray O'Brien
  • Dougray Scott
  • Alastair Sim
  • David Tennant
  • David Elliot
  • Karen Gillan

Scots-language films[]

Scottish Gaelic language films[]

Scottish films[]

Scotland's success as a film industry can also be seen through its national films. Films such as 1982's BAFTA Award-winning Gregory's Girl have helped gain Scotland recognition. Despite its low budget, it has still managed to achieve success throughout the world. 1983's Local Hero, which was rated in the top 100 films of the 1980s in a Premiere magazine recap of the decade and received overwhelmingly positive reviews (it holds a 100% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes).

Movies filmed in Scotland[]

Braveheart (1995) was filmed, shot and set in Scotland. It has become one of the highest-grossing films to be associated with Scottish cinema

On top of the works created by Scottish directors, there have been many successful non-Scottish films shot in Scotland. Mel Gibson’s Academy Award-winning Braveheart is perhaps the best-known and most commercially successful of these, having grossed $350,000,000 worldwide. The film won 5 Academy Awards, including ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Director’ and was nominated for additional awards. The film's depiction of the Battle of Stirling Bridge, which the plot of the film surrounds, is often regarded as one of the greatest movie battles in cinema history.[citation needed]

Other notable films to have been shot at least partly in Scotland include Dog Soldiers, Highlander and Trainspotting and Stardust.

List of movies filmed in Scotland[]

2001: A Space Odyssey
633 Squadron

A

A Man Called Peter
A Shot at Glory
Aazoo
Aberdeen
The Acid House
The Adventures of Greyfriars Bobby
Ae Fond Kiss
AfterLife
American Cousins
The Amorous Prawn
The Angels' Share
Another Time, Another Place
Around the World in 80 Days
Astérix et Obélix contre César
Attack of the Herbals

B

The Battle of the Sexes
Beautiful Creatures
Being Human
The Big Tease
Blinded
Blind Flight
Blue Black Permanent
Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius
Bonnie Prince Charlie
Breaking the Waves
Braveheart
The Bridal Path
The Brothers
The Bruce

C

Carla's Song
Carry On Regardless
Casino Royale
Centurion
Chariots of Fire
Charlotte Gray
Chasing the Deer
Cloud Atlas (2013)
Comfort and Joy
Complicity
Country Dance
Culloden


D

The Da Vinci Code
Dear Frankie
Death Watch
The Debt Collector
The Descent
Dog Soldiers
Dragonslayer
Double X: The Name of the Game
The Duellists

E

The Eagle
The Edge of the World
Enigma
Entrapment
The Evil Beneath Loch Ness
Eye of the Needle

F

Festival
Flash Gordon
The Flying Scotsman
The Flying Scotsman
From the Island
From Russia with Love

G

Geordie
The Governess
Gregory's Girl
Gregory's Two Girls
Greyfriars Bobby
Greystoke

H

Hamlet
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Heartless
Heavenly Pursuits
Highlander
Highlander III: The Sorcerer
Highlander: Endgame
Hold back the Night
The House of Mirth
Hunted

I

Ill fares the Land
I Know Where I'm Going!
In a Man's World
In Search of La Che
Incident at Loch Ness

J

The Jacket
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Jude

K

Kidnapped (1960)
Kidnapped (1971)
The Kidnappers
Kuch Kuch Hota Hai

L

The Land that Time Forgot
The Last Great Wilderness
The Last King of Scotland
Late Night Shopping
Laxdale Hall
Les Liaisons Dangereuses
The Little Vampire
Local Hero
Loch Ness

M

Macbeth
Madame Sin
The Magdalene Sisters
The Maggie
Man Dancin'
Man to Man
Mary, Queen of Scots
Mary Reilly
The Master of Ballantrae
The Match
Max Manus: Man of War
The Missionary
Mission Impossible
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Monty Python's The Meaning of Life
Morvern Callar
Mrs Brown
My Ain Folk
My Childhood
My Life so Far
My Name is Joe
My Way Home

O

On a Clear Day

One More Kiss
Orphans

P

Postmortem
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes
The Purifiers
Pyaar Ishq Aur Mohabbat

Q

The Queen
Quest for Fire

R

Ratcatcher
Regeneration
Restless Natives
Riff-Raff
Ring of Bright Water
The Rocket Post
Rockets Galore
Rob Roy
Rob Roy, the Highland Rogue

S


Salt on Our Skin
Shallow Grave
Shepherd on the Rock
The Silver Fleet
Sixteen Years of Alcohol
Skagerrak
Skyfall
Small Faces
Soft Top Hard Shoulder
Solid Air
The Spy in Black
The Spy Who Loved Me
Staggered
Strictly Sinatra
Supergirl
Sweet Sixteen

T

That Sinking Feeling
The 39 Steps (1935)
The Thirty Nine Steps (1959)
The Thirty Nine Steps (1978)
The Inheritance
This Is Not a Love Song
To Catch a Spy
To End All Wars
Trainspotting
Trouble in the Glen
Tunes of Glory

U

Under the Skin

Unleashed

V

Valhalla Rising
Venus Peter

W

What a Whopper
When Eight Bells Toll
Where Do We Go from Here? (2015 film)
Whisky Galore
The Wicker Man
Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself
The Winter Guest
De Wisselwachter
Winter Solstice
Women Talking Dirty
The World Is Not Enough
World War Z (2013)

Y

Year of the Comet
Young Adam
You Instead

Further reading[]

  • Caughie, John; Griffiths, Trevor; and Velez-Serna, Maria A. (eds.) (2018), Early Cinema in Scotland, Edinburgh University Press, ISBN 9781474420341
  • Hardy, Forsyth (1991), Scotland in Film, Edinburgh University Press, ISBN 9780748601837
  • McArthur, Colin (ed.) (1982), Scotch Reels: Scotland in Cinema and Television, BFI Publishing, ISBN 9780851701219
  • McArthur, Colin (1983), Scotland: The Reel Image, 'Scotch Reels' and After, in Hearn, Sheila G. (ed.), Cencrastus No. 11, New Year 1983, pp. 2 & 3, ISSN 0264-0856
  • McArthur, Colin (1983), The Maggie, in Hearn, Sheila G. (ed.), Cencrastus No. 12, Spring 1983, pp. 10 - 14, ISSN 0264-0856
  • McArthur, Colin (2001), Brigadoon, Braveheart and the Scots: Distortions of Scotland in Hollywood Cinema, Bloomsbury - I.B. Tauris, ISBN 9781860649271
  • Skirrow, Gillian (ed.), Bain, Douglas and Ouainé (1982), Woman, Women and Scotland: 'Scotch Reels' and Political Perspectives, in Hearn, Sheila G. (ed.), Cencrastus No. 11, New Year 1983, pp. 3 - 6, ISSN 0264-0856

See also[]

References[]

External links[]

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