An LGBTQ film festival or queer film festival is a specialized film festival that has an LGBTQ focus in its selection of films.[1][2][3] LGBT film festivals often screen films that would struggle to find a mainstream audience and are often activist spaces for awareness-raising around LGBT rights as well as for community building among queer communities.[citation needed]
The first LGBTQ-focused film festivals were organized in the United States as part of the awakening LGBTQ movement in the United States in the 1970s. The longest-running film festival with an LGBT focus is the Frameline Film Festival in San Francisco, which was established in 1977.[4] Until the 1990s, LGBTQ film festivals were mostly informal screenings in Western countries. In the 1990s, NGOs were founded to create and promote queer-focused film festivals and festivals became more commercialized. Around this time, more queer-focused film festivals began to emerge, especially in East Asia and Eastern Europe.[5]
^Renzi, Daniel (2020-01-29). "10 of the world's best queer film festivals". www.gaycities.com. Retrieved 2021-04-20.
^"the big queer film festival list". www.queerfilmfestivals.org. Retrieved 2021-04-20.
^Coleman, Ryan (2021-02-15). "20 Fantastic LGBTQ+ Film Festivals Around the Globe". MovieMaker Magazine. Retrieved 2021-04-20.
^Loist, Skadi (2016). "Crossover Dreams: Global Circulation of Queer Film on the Film Festival Circuits". Diogenes: 1–16. doi:10.1177/0392192115667014.
^Richards (2016), p. 8.
^Richards, Stuart James (2016). The Queer Film Festival. Popcorn and Politics. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 5. ISBN 978-1-137-59034-3.
^Jeff Ewing, "Major LGBTQ Film Festivals Partner To Create The 'North American Queer Festival Alliance' (NAQFA)". Forbes, June 17, 2020.
^ a bRosanna Flamer Caldera (12 June 2017). "Colombo PRIDE: Challenge and Change". Daily Mirror, Sri Lanka. Retrieved 5 May 2018.
^"Damn These Heels". Archived from the original on 2018-07-15. Retrieved 2018-07-15.
^Benensohn, Meagan (2024-05-09). "Damn These Heels Queer Film Festival is renamed to Utah Queer Film Festival". Utah Film Center. Retrieved 2024-07-08.
^"Archive: Filmfest". homochrom.de (in German and English). Retrieved 2024-03-21.
^"Vilniaus LGBT festivalis "Kreivės" – jau po dviejų savaičių". 15min.lt. Retrieved 2018-06-13.
^"Vilniaus queer festivalis "Kreivės"". renginiai.kasvyksta.lt (in Lithuanian). Retrieved 2018-06-13.
^SiQRD. "Ljubljana LGBT Film Festival". www.ljudmila.org. Retrieved 2018-10-17.
^"Europe's oldest gay and lesbian film festival". www.visitljubljana.com. Retrieved 2018-10-17.
^"'Exciting, ambitious' Muskoka Queer Film Festival on tap". Orillia Matters, March 6, 2021.
^Maimunah (18 October 2008). "Indonesia's Q! Film Festival". Inside Indonesia. Retrieved 4 July 2017.
^"About Us - WHO WE ARE". Q! Film Festival. 2004. Retrieved 4 July 2017.
^"Queer Film Festival". Retrieved 12 July 2022.
^"San Francisco Transgender Film Festival - About Us". San Francisco Transgender Film Festival. Retrieved November 11, 2016.
^Michael Rinaldi (16 February 2017). "New Shanghai Queer Film Festival to launch this September". Time Out Shanghai. Retrieved 5 May 2018.
^"上海骄傲电影节 | 上海骄傲节 ShanghaiPRIDE".
^Marta Bałaga, "Ukraine to Host its First Ever Queer Film Festival: 'We Are Here, We Are Queer, and We Are Defending This Country'". Variety, January 31, 2023.