Glasgow Film Festival CAGE-A-RAMA Announces Guests & UK Tour
Josh Millican
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Matchbox Cineclub is delighted to announce the full lineup and participating guests for their third edition of Cage-a-rama, the UK’s only annual film festival dedicated to the eclectic career of Nicolas Cage. The festival is taking place at Glasgow’s Centre for Contemporary Arts between the 3rd and 5th of January, 2020, before heading on a tour to London’s Genesis Cinema and Bristol Improv Theatre the following week.
Matchbox Cineclub is the programming collective behind viral sensation KeanuCon, a film festival celebrating Keanu Reeves, and also Weird Weekend, a festival devoted to screening genuine obscurities never released on home video or streaming in the UK. Both these festivals will also return for new editions in 2020.
Marco Kyris, who worked with Cage on almost 20 films between 1994-2005, will join Lindsay Gibb, Toronto-based author of National Treasure: Nicolas Cage and world-leading Nicolas Cage expert, for an in-conversation event and a screening of Uncaged: A Stand-in Story (trailer embedded at the top of the article) at CCA Glasgow on Saturday 4th January. Kyris will also introduce several of Cage-a-rama 2020’s films across the festival weekend: Leaving Las Vegas (for which Cage won an Academy Award® for Best Actor), the first of the fan-favorite National Treasure films, and Martin Scorsese’s urban horror Bringing Out the Dead, the latter of which he will introduce alongside journalist Josh Slater-Williams (Sight & Sound, Little White Lies). Kyris has also guest-programmed a special opening night screening of one of his favorite collaborations with Cage, Brian De Palma’s Snake Eyes, followed by a Q&A. Throughout the festival, Marco will be open to any questions about his “Cage Wage” years, and offer genuine call-sheets and other Cage memorabilia from his archive for the best questions posed by audience members. Cage-a-rama’s opening night is sponsored by Drygate.
Directors Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas) and Stephen Campanelli (Grand Isle) will introduce their films via specially recorded videos. Joining them are Nicolas Cage aficionados from across the globe, including Timon Singh of Bristol Bad Film Club, Tara Judah (Watershed Bristol), Torïo Garcia of the Spanish NicCagepedia, and Mike Manzi & Joey Lewandowski, the New Jersey-based hosts of the much-beloved #CageClub: The Nicolas Cage Podcast.
The subsequent Cage-a-rama 2020 UK Tour will feature a 35mm screening of Con Air at the Genesis Cinema in London on Thursday 9th January, and a 20th-anniversary screening of Gone in 60 Seconds in collaboration with Bristol Bad Film Club at Bristol Improv Theatre on Saturday 11th January. Both screenings will be accompanied by Marco Kyris’s short film, Uncaged: A Stand-In Story, and a post-screening Q&A.
Cage-a-rama 2020 highlights Cage’s relationship with directors: from big guns to young guns, from huge budgets to low ones, from his career’s early days to now. The festival features 10 films over three days, closing with the UK premiere of brand-new Nicolas Cage film Primal (2019), to be released by Lionsgate in February 2020. Sunday 5th January also sees the UK premiere of Grand Isle, which pairs Cage with Kelsey Grammer, set to be released by 101 Films. The rest of the program features Cage classics from some of his earliest roles, in Francis Ford Coppola’s Peggy Sue Got Married and Top Gun “homage” Fire Birds, to blockbuster sequel National Treasure: Book of Secrets and a midnight screening of Zandalee, his erotic thriller co-starring Judge Reinhold.
Weekend and Day Passes and individual tickets are on sale via Matchbox Cineclub’s online shop (bit.ly/CAGEARAMA). Tickets for Con Air in London are available via Genesis Cinema’s website (genesiscinema.co.uk) and tickets for Gone in 60 Seconds can be purchased via Bristol Improv Theatre (improvtheatre.co.uk).
Are you a Nicholas Cage fan? Are you attending Cage-a-rama in Glasgow next month? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram! You can also carry on the convo with me personally on Twitter @josh_millican.
