Utah Queer Film Festival
(formerly Damn These Heels)
Friday, 25 October 2024 until Sunday, 27 October 2024
Utah Film Center proudly presents the newly renamed Utah Queer Film Festival (UQFF) in 2024! This the 21st year of what was previously known as Damn These Heels. This year's Festival is October 25th - 27th , 2024 at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center in downtown Salt Lake City and October 27th - November 3rd online.
Highlighted in The Advocate in 2015 as one of the reasons Salt Lake City is one of the top ten "Queerest Cities in America" and named one of Indiewire’s “10 LGBT Film Festivals To Head To This July” in 2014, Utah’s premier LGBTQIA2S+ film festival features the best independent, documentary, and foreign feature-length films from around the world that explore LGBTQIA2S+ issues, ideas, and art.
Utah Queer Film Festival (formerly Damn These Heels), is excited to announce an open call for feature-length and short films. In the past, Festival topics have ranged from profiles of prominent politicians to touching coming-of-age stories, slapstick comedies to slasher films.
To have your film considered, please submit a dramatic, documentary, animated, or experimental feature-length or short film. All entries will be viewed by a member of the UQFF Programming Committee. Short films must be less than 60 minutes. Other forms of digital storytelling will be watched and considered, as long as work explicitly expresses the ideas or tells the stories of the LGBTQIA2S+ community.
Submission Fees
Feature-length Film $25
Short Film $15
We look forward to viewing your work!
Audience Award, Dramatic Feature
Audience Award, Documentary Feature
Festival laurels will be shared for Festival acceptance and Audience Award winners.
2024 films...
Indigo Girls: It’s Only Life After All
The World According to Allee Willis
Utah Queer Short Film Showcase
Canyon Chorus by Chris Cresci
17 min | United States
Set against the backdrop of Desolation Canyon, UT, Mikah Meyer, a world-record traveler and LGBTQ+ advocate, reflects with three close friends and his mentor, Larry Edwards, on their stories and the power of mentorship within the queer community.
Dear Money: A Trans Perspective by Fletcher Gibbons
5 min | United States
Three trans siblings share about how money has impacted their lives and their gender-affirming care.
First Date by Ashlyn Brooke Anderson, William Cowser, Parker Rawlins
7 min | United States
As Andy navigates the vibrant tapestry of queer, non-monogamous dating, they experience a series of humorous and heartfelt encounters.
Grounded by Andrea “Andy” Whipple
6 min | United States
A pre-transitioned trans boy is transformed into a harpy and learns the importance of knowing one’s limits. He realizes that although he doesn’t have his ideal body, he can work with his body to create a life that’s worth living.
TRANS PUNK by Margo Plumb
30 min | United States
Hailed as the “The Narrative of Being a Societal Menace”, Trans Punk explores the hateful rhetoric and hyperbole surrounding the “transgender issue.”
Utah Drag by Sally Shaum, Kelton Wells
11 min | United States
Discover three queens showcasing what it means to “show up” in the vibrant world of drag in Utah.
HallowQueen Short Film Showcase
Amphibian by Jie Zhang
8 min | Hong Kong
Being amphibious is a forced, reluctant choice. This film aims to make people see- see a few brave souls becoming themselves. Like amphibians, our protagonists, the four members of the queer cultural collective around Pharos, live a life of constantly shifting identities.
Beach Logs Kill by Haley Z. Boston
10 min | United States
In this nightmarish queer awakening story set at a high school football game, the star quarterback promises to pass down her lucky number to the most deserving girl on the team. But when the game goes horribly awry, an awkward girl in detention attempts to prove herself worthy of the captain’s love, legacy, and soul…
Future Flowers by Hao Zhou
10 min | China
A lesbian and a gay man in a sham marriage ambivalently follow a propagandistic program that nudges them toward a single goal: procreation.
Piecht by Luka Lara Steffen
30 min | Germany
For 17-year-old Johanna, a vacation in idyllic Piecht is anything but relaxing. While her mother dreams of an ecological alternative life, a real nightmare unfolds for Johanna as she is confronted with a far-right community and their backwards ideas.
Safety State by Jeanette Buck
16 min | United States
In the dystopian near future, a gay and a lesbian couple form an unlikely friendship as they flee the midwest for safety in New England.
Willa Justice: Drag Queen Private Eye by Jonathan Andre Culliton
15 min | United States
With Willa Justice hot on the trail of high desert murderer Pink Face, she must follow her heart, and a mysterious chicken, to solve the case.
Black, Bold & Brilliant Presents: Queer BIPOC Short Film Showcase
Emerald City by Josef Steiff
21 min | United States
Two lone hitchhikers, unknowingly connected by the secrets they carry, cross paths near the US/Mexico border where they develop a tentative friendship that gradually becomes more.
If by Tathagata Ghosh
26 min | India
An arranged marriage tears a lesbian couple apart, but with a mother’s love, and perhaps, another future is possible.
Remember, Broken Crayons Colour Too by Shannet Clemmings, Urša Kastelic
13 min | Switzerland
Shannet, a Black Transgender woman from Jamaica, shares her journey of healing as she wanders the empty streets of a European city.