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Queer Lisboa
Friday, 19 September 2025 until Saturday, 27 September 2025
Queer Lisboa is the sole Portuguese film festival with the specific purpose of screening films about gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, intersex and other non-normative sexualities and identities, in a genre coined internationally as “Queer Cinema”. This is a genre with an increasing presence in major international film festivals and it is our goal to program the most aesthetic and narrative-wise relevant titles within world cinema, aiming to bridge the fact that these films are of limited access to larger audiences. Queer Cinema runs through the entire history of cinema and its genres, despite corresponding to a recent label: it was in the beginning of the 1990s that a new cinematographic language emerged, pointing towards new negotiations of subjectivities linked to sexual and gender identities, largely as a direct consequence of the effects of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and its impact on artistic creation.
In 2015, the Queer Lisboa team finally pulled through a long-awaited project: the organization of Queer Porto. After a “zero” edition in October 2014, the project for a queer festival in the city began to take shape. In October 2015, Associação Cultural Janela Indiscreta organized Queer Porto which, based in Teatro Rivoli, has occupied several other spaces in Porto over the years. Taking place two to three weeks after Queer Lisboa, Queer Porto is not a replica of the films programmed in Lisbon. Queer Porto aims to reach the various audiences and different expressions of the cultural fabric of the northern city, putting cinema in dialogue with other arts. In what we believe to be a strong strategy that meets the expectations of the city's audience, the Festival has its own, multidisciplinary identity, where, in addition to the screening of Portuguese premieres, we organize educational and parallel activities, seeking to promote our activities and to attract audiences to the event.
Queer Lisboa and the more recent Queer Porto continue to invest in the screening of Queer Cinema in Portugal, and in inviting to the country a set of individuals linked to it, as well as encouraging theoretical thought around their themes and concepts; so as the screening, inducement and promotion of queer-themed Portuguese films. All scheduled films are organized around the Competitions for the Best Feature Film, Documentary, Short Film, European School Short Film and Queer Art, in Lisbon; and Competitions for Best Fictional or Documentary Feature, Portuguese School Short Film, and Casa Comum Award, in Porto. In parallel, we program out-of-competition sections, special screenings and thematic cycles dedicated to a filmmaker, theme or country, retrospectives on queer representations in the history of cinema, sections dedicated to Queer Cinema sub-genres, as well as parallel activities such as exhibitions and performances, or debates and more educational and academic lectures. We also take on the project of promoting Portuguese cinema, of which we regularly present retrospectives and organize programs at international film festivals.
Created in 1997, and a contemporary of its “sister” festivals of Madrid and Paris, Queer Lisboa is preparing to celebrate its 25th edition in 2021, as the longest-running film festival in the city of Lisbon. Over its almost 25 years, the Festival has consolidated its reputation at an international level, being currently one of the most recognized festivals of its kind in Europe and around the world, be it for the quality of its program and activities, be it for the many international guests attending.
Taking advantage of the synergies created during 26 years of continuous activity, Queer Lisboa has established privileged relations with some of the main European and worldwide queer and generic film festivals, with which it regularly collaborates through programs, cultural and training networks, and to which our programmers regularly travel. These networks are also essential for the dissemination of Portuguese cinema abroad.
Having always sought to embrace a broader approach to the concept of “queer”, the programming policy of Queer Lisboa and Queer Porto, rather than looking for queer themes in film narratives, seeks above all to understand what are the foundations of a queer aesthetic, and to screen works that suggest a queer gaze at the world. We understand the concept of “queer” as a space of intersection with problematics and realities such as racism, xenophobia, migration, social exclusion, physical and mental health, poverty, crossing all the above with theoretical thought and movements linked to post-colonialism, anti-capitalism, ecology, post-pornography, among others, that help us understand the reality of queer individuals and communities under the lens of a more complex network.
Queer Lisboa and Queer Porto are sought out annually by an increasing number of independent producers, distributors and filmmakers who recognize the prestige of the Festivals and intend to show their films in Lisbon and Porto as a platform to the international festival circuit or even to access the national distribution market. The Festivals are still sought after by a growing number of spectators, interested in a fresh and eclectic program, always complemented by a set of parallel activities, theoretical texts that support the screenings, book publishing, the presence of international guests, in addition to all the environment created in the days of the events. We understand a film festival as a communal and physical experience, a space for gathering and confronting ideas, something that is increasingly relevant in a world steeped in solitary virtual experience.
Feature Film Competition
Documentary Competition
Short Film Competition
In My Shorts - European Student Short Films Competition
Queer Art Competition
2025 films...
150 poèmes mis en sang
Lionel Soukaz, Michel Journiac
QL - Retrospective
A Body to Live in
Angelo Madsen
QL - Documentary Competition
a tangled web drowning in honey
Hannah Hull, Tara Hakim
QL - Queer Resistance
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Osadolor Osawemwenze
QL - Queer Focus
Abgad Hawaz
Robin Riad
QL - Queer Resistance
Alexina B. Composing Lives
Alexis Borràs
QL - Panorama
Aliens in Beirut
Raghed Charabaty
QL - Queer Resistance
All Possible Neighborhoods / Todos los barrios posibles
Matteo Giampetruzzi
QL - In My Shorts Competition
Are You Scared To Be Yourself Because You Think That You Might Fail?
Bec Pecaut
QL - Short Film Competition
Artistes en Zone Troublés
Lionel Soukaz, Stéphane Gérard
QL - Retrospective
Autoportrait
Lionel Soukaz
QL - Retrospective
Ballade pour un homme seul
Lionel Soukaz
QL - Retrospective
Before the Sea Forgets
Lê Ngọc Duy
QL - Short Film Competition
Being Blue
Luke Fowler
QL - Short Film Competition
Between Goodbyes
Jota Mun
QL - Special Screenings
Big Boys Don’t Cry
Arnaud Delmarle
QL - Short Film Competition
Birthdays
Adrian Jalily
QL - Short Film Competition
Blood like Water
Dima Hamdan
QL - Queer Resistance
Born at Night
Alba Cros
QL - Short Film Competition
By Hook or by Crook
Harry Dodge, Silas Howard
QL - Queer Focus
Cactus Pears
Rohan Parashuram Kanawade
QL - Feature Film Competition
Carottage
Lionel Soukaz, Powers, Stéphane Gérard
QL - Retrospective
Cherub
Devin Shears
QL - Queer Art Competition
Close to September
Lucía G. Romero
QL - In My Shorts Competition
Correct Me if I’m Wrong
Hao Zhou
QL - Short Film Competition
Death and Life Madalena
Guto Parente
QL - Special Screenings
Don’t Take My Joy Away
Omar Gabriel
QL - Queer Resistance
Dreamers
Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor
QL - Feature Film Competition
Dreams of Sunlight through Trees
Theo Jean Cuthand
QL - Queer Focus
Drifting Laurent
Anton Balekdjian, Léo Couture, Mattéo Eustachon
QL - Feature Film Competition
Drunken Noodles
Lucio Castro
QL - Feature Film Competition
Edhi Alice
Ilrhan Kim
QL - Documentary Competition
En corps +
Lionel Soukaz, Stéphane Gérard
QL - Retrospective
Erogenesis
Xandra Popescu
QL - In My Shorts Competition
Familiar Places
Mala Reinhardt
QL - Documentary Competition
Ghosts of Hard, chapter 2
Lazare Lazarus
QL - Short Film Competition
Holy Electricity
Tato Kotetishvili
QL - Queer Art Competition
Homunculus
Bonheur Suprême
QL - Short Film Competition
Howl
Domini Marshall
QL - Short Film Competition
I Am a Flower
Ariel Victor Arthanto
QL - In My Shorts Competition
I Never Promised You a Jasmine Garden
Teyama Alkamli
QL - Queer Resistance
I've already Died Three Times
Maxence Vassilyevitch
QL - Documentary Competition
I’m Your Venus
Kimberly Reed
QL - Panorama
Icebergs
Carlos Pereira
QL - In My Shorts Competition
Ixe
Lionel Soukaz
QL - Retrospective
Jone, Sometimes
Sara Fantova
QL - Feature Film Competition
L’année des treize lunes
Lionel Soukaz, Tony Tonnerre
QL - Retrospective
La loi X - La nuit en permanence
Lionel Soukaz
QL - Retrospective
La Marche gaie
Lionel Soukaz
QL - Retrospective
Latin Blood - The Ballad of Ney Matogrosso
Esmir Filho
QL - Panorama
Le Sexe des anges
Lionel Soukaz
QL - Retrospective
Les Corps d’amour de Pasolini
Kami Kaz, Lionel Soukaz, Olivier Hérkaz
QL - Retrospective
Lesbian Space Princess
Emma Hough Hobbs, Leela Varghese
QL - Feature Film Competition
Life Story
Jessica Dunn Rovinelli
QL - Queer Focus
Lloyd Wong, Unfinished
Lesley Loksi Chan
QL - Short Film Competition
Lolo Mégalo blessé en son honneur
Lionel Soukaz
QL - Retrospective
Lovers in the Sky
Fermín de la Serna
QL - Documentary Competition
Maman que man
Lionel Soukaz
QL - Retrospective
Metamorphosia
Elsa Michaud
QL - In My Shorts Competition
Museum of the Night
Fermín Eloy Acosta
QL - Queer Art Competition
My Boyfriend the Fascist
Matthias Lintner
QL - Panorama
My Kingdom for a King
Sónia Baptista, Raquel Melgue
QL - Gender Play
My Sweet Child
Maarten de Schutter
QL - Documentary Competition
My Therapist Said, I Am Full of Sadness
Monica Vanesa Tedja
QL - Short Film Competition
Neko
Inês Oliveira
QL - Short Film Competition
Night Stage
Filipe Matzembacher, Marcio Reolon
QL - Panorama
Not even God Is as Fair as Your Jeans
Sergio Silva
QL - Queer Art Competition
Nu lacté
Lionel Soukaz, Othello Vilgard, Xavier Baert
QL - Retrospective
Oceania
Valentin Noujaïm
QL - Short Film Competition
Off to Die
Jordan Brandao Rodrigues
QL - In My Shorts Competition
Out of Gaza
Jannis Osterburg, Seza Tiyara Selen
QL - Queer Resistance
Palcorecore
Dana Dawud
QL - Queer Resistance
Peter Hujar’s Day
Ira Sachs
QL - Panorama
Pillion
Harry Lighton
QL - Panorama
Plainclothes
Carmen Emmi
QL - Special Screenings
Queerpanorama
Jun Li
QL - Feature Film Competition
Rains over Babel
Gala del Sol
QL - Queer Art Competition
Rezbotanik
Pedro Gonçalves Ribeiro
QL - In My Shorts Competition
RV, mon ami
Lionel Soukaz
QL - Retrospective
Sally!
Deborah Craig
QL - Panorama
Salomé
André Antônio
QL - Feature Film Competition
Sirens Call
Lina Sieckmann, Miri Ian Gossing
QL - Queer Art Competition
Something Must Break
Ester Bergsmark
QL - Queer Focus
State of Firsts
Chase Joynt
QL - Queer Resistance
The Crowd
Sahand Kabiri
QL - Queer Resistance
The First Times
Giulia Cosentino, Perla Sardella
QL - Short Film Competition
The Growing Edge
Ian Kaler
QL - Queer Focus
The Homosexual Century
Guy Hocquenghem, Lionel Soukaz
QL - Retrospective
The Light that Covers the Wounds
Pol Merchan
QL - Queer Focus
The Mud under my Window
Violette Delvoye
QL - Short Film Competition
The Shipwrecked Triptych
Deniz Eroglu
QL - Queer Art Competition
Thesis on a Domestication
Javier van de Couter
QL - Panorama
This Is my Body
Jérôme Clément-Wilz
QL - Documentary Competition
This Woman Is a Man
André Murraças, Flávio Gil
QL - Gender Play
To Live, to Die, to Live Again
Gaël Morel
QL - Special Screenings
To Our Gardens
Samuel Dijoux
QL - In My Shorts Competition
Touch Me with Your Eyes
Anaïs Kaboré
QL - In My Shorts Competition
Towards the Sun, Far from the Center
Luciana Merino, Pascal Viveros
QL - Short Film Competition
Tripoli / A Tale of Three Cities
Raed Rafei
QL - Documentary Competition
Truth or Dare
Maja Classen
QL - Queer Art Competition
Twilight Ladies
Alain Soldeville, Alexe Liebert
QL - Short Film Competition
We Were No Desert
Agustina Comedi, Chiachio & Daniel Giannone
QL - Short Film Competition
When We Dead Awaken
Paula Tomás Marques
QL - Queer Focus
Whoever Deserves It, Will Be Immortal
Nay Mendl
QL - Short Film Competition