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Scottish Queer International Film Festival
Wednesday, 06 October 2021 until Sunday, 10 October 2021
SQIFF (Scottish Queer International Film Festival) was formed with the aim of adding to the exciting and growing amount of queer film stuff happening around Scotland. Since 2015, we have held an annual festival in Glasgow alongside providing year round events across various locations. Our goal is to get people watching, talking about, and making more queer films. We screen movies that people might not otherwise get a chance to see. We create inspiring and informative events alongside challenging inequality and barriers to accessing the arts.
SQIFF is not-for-profit. We receive project by project funding, which means we typically have around 4 months of funding to pay staff during the Festival period with the rest of the Festival work done on a voluntary basis.
Best Scottish Short - open to all films under 50 minutes produced within Scotland. Prize money/equivalent received by winner varies.
2021 programme...
SQIFF 2021 Opening Night Shorts
Our festival opens this year with the first of our 2021 Scottish Shorts programmes, including multiple works giving a taster of the many themes to expect from the festival. Featuring a poetic film in British Sign Language (Affirmation #6), selections from queer Black artists from…
Queer Asia
This event hosts films that provide insight into contemporary queer Asian life. The films present tender moments of love and acceptance as well as conflict. We are often shown the pain, protest, and fear of being queer in Asia in the media. This is important…
LUX Scotland Presents: After the Ice, the Deluge
Artist, writer, and educator Linda Stupart screens their new experimental moving image work After the Ice, the Deluge, a mostly diptych film which consists of both Linda’s performance as well as their research in the Arctic. The work also makes use of degraded film to…
Rollick/Dance: From dirty to sensuous
Join us for an evening of music videos that will have you glad to be alive! In this screening, we present music videos and dance interpretations that encourage us to be carefree, to frolic, and to ponder the links that bind us all together as…
Queer Brazil
This screening is a raw look into various Brazilian queer cultures. Despite the challenges faced by queer people in Brazil, this event was curated to primarily celebrate queer joy and community love. Tattoo, BEAT 97 and From time to time, I burn show the powerful connections between queer relationships. And…
Spill your Kinky (kink)
Join us to talk about all things kinky. This screening includes films which focus on how we view and experience sex in an age of technology from the seemingly simple to the more extreme. These filmmakers offer us a space to consider our own understanding…
Reimagining Filmmaking
This screening brings together a diverse range of work with each artist taking a unique approach to what it means to make a film. From videography to animation, these films play with the technical and artistic aspects of filmmaking. They offer provocations around the idea…
Horror Hour with Final Girls Berlin
Prepare yourselves for an hour of very spooky and very queer cinema. In partnership with the feminist horror film collective, Final Girls Berlin, we have put together a selection of otherworldly shorts. The screening is an amalgamation of the best queer horror submissions sent in…
Workshop: Queer Sounds in Music Production with TAAHLIAH
Local legend TAAHLIAH will lead an electronic music production workshop for members of the queer Black and people of colour community. Attendees will be given an introduction as to how she created her experimental pop project, Angelica. There will also be opportunities for one-on-one advice. An exciting…
Category Is…
Come and join us for some quality filmmaking from the Queer community. An eclectic mix of genres from horror to love stories to family drama – we’ve got you covered all in one screening. Come and share in film journeys about what it is to…
Aspects of the Embodied Self
In each of the films in this screening, people take centre stage as they offer us insight and a more challenging way of thinking about body image. Exploring the theme of perceptions of our bodies that challenge normative thinking, these films are platforms for discussions…
Scottish Shorts Part 2
The second part of this year’s Scottish Shorts programme presents works of critique and documentary. The selected films share thought-provoking responses to rainbow capitalism and cis-sexism. Also included are very honest and touching accounts of mourning whilst queer. Featuring Sweætshops’s dark animation on corporate Pride…
Filmmaker Social
Are you a queer filmmaker working in Scotland or beyond? Come and join us for some networking, schmoozing, and boozing (non-alcoholic options also available). A chance to meet others who are LGBTQIA+ and interested or already working in film and related media. Share ideas, discuss…
Sci-fi Happening
A selection of strange occurrences captured in neon blues and deep greys. Partnered with distorted vocals and deep echoes. A satisfying watch for fans of classic sci-fi. And whilst paying ode to a genre spanning over two centuries these recent works also bring contemporary references…
A New Chapter Begins
SQIFF is proud to present a showcase of films from deaf filmmakers telling stories of love, understanding, and courage. In each of these short films, we see human beings reaching out to connect with one another through sign language, endeavouring to discover not only themselves…
Poetics of the Visual
An evening of visually striking films that offer us a space to explore what it is to be a human being through a visual poetic medium. Each work uses a diverse way to express ideas of human feelings, thoughts, and voices in beautiful and startling…
D.E.B.S.
Sultry crime boss Lucy Diamond (Jordana Brewster, The Fast and the Furious) is back in the states and the D.E.B.S. - an elite team of paramilitary college co-ed superspies - are hot on her trail. But when their top agent, gorgeous Amy Bradshaw (Sara Foster,…
Workshop: Identity & Documentary with Scottish Documentary Institute
Join us to explore the notion of identity through the medium of short documentary, with guest filmmakers working in animation, broadcast, and creative documentary. Organised in partnership with Scottish Documentary Institute, this workshop is aimed at emerging filmmakers and artists who are developing projects around…
GA(Y)MERS
There is a freedom that comes with gaming; an ability to exist in another realm without necessarily leaving the real world. For some the realm of a game exists as an alternate reality and for others it synthesises with the physical world. For queer and…
Workshop: Unlocking Your Imagination with Joe Dunn
Artist Joe Dunn hosts a workshop on exploring creativity and identity through the art of collages and getting messy and creative with tee shirts! No restrictions on imagination. Attendees can bring their own materials along such as newspapers, magazines, or old books, and any art supplies…
Adam
Adam, an awkward teen, spends a summer with his older sister, who is part of New York City’s lesbian and trans activist scene. He meets the girl of his dreams but can’t figure out how to tell her he’s not the trans man she thinks…
Closing Film: Changing the Game with LEAP Sports Scotland
Changing the Game (Michael Barnett, 2019) follows the lives of three trans teen athletes in the USA. Sarah is a skier and activist policymaker; Andraya is a track star; and Mack is the Texas State Champion in wrestling. This documentary takes us into their personal…