2025 Real Utopias festival programme launched

Take One Action is publicly launching the programme for its 2025 film festivals across Scotland today, with the theme of Real Utopias, using cinema as a way to gather together to imagine local and global solutions to some of the pressing issues of our time.

Festival dates are 17-21 September in Edinburgh, with most screenings take place at the freshly re-opened Filmhouse; 25-28 September in Glasgow, with films and workshops at GMAC; 10-12 October in Inverness at Eden Court; and 7-8 November in Dundee at the DCA and Dundee Libraries’ Steps Theatre.

The festivals will feature films from Mexico to Kenya via the US, UK and Philippines and will explore ideas from community responses to climate change to trans identity and thriving, workers’ rights and speculative futures where prisons no longer exist. We’re excited to present the Scottish premieres of creative documentaries Power Station, How To Build A Library and NIÑXS, as well as exploring unions and community organising through Amazon documentary Union and housing justice in Scotland through archive film Red Skirts on Clydeside in collaboration with local branches of Living Rent (more details on these films in Editor’s Notes below).

For the first time we have included a grassroots co-programming strand across our festivals - working with groups in different cities to hand over the reins of programming and support screenings that reflect their priorities and interests. Co-programmed events will include films as diverse as ASOG and The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing in Glasgow, Knit’s Island in Dundee, and The Miracle on George Green in Edinburgh.

In Edinburgh, we have a short film programme on Dismantling Tech Fantasies, looking at the ramifications of AI and automation. We also have an array of beyond the screen talks and events, including an Imagining A Better Future for the Arts gathering in Glasgow, Radical Library Tours in Dundee and Utopian Zine Making in Inverness.

You can see the full programme, dates and booking details on our website here.