40th BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival full programme announced

One of the most significant and longest-running LGBTQIA+ film festivals in the world, BFI Flare today unveils its full programme and celebrates its 40th anniversary. Host venue BFI Southbank will be buzzing with packed screenings, special events, talks, panels and DJ nights throughout the festival. BFI Flare is divided into four thematic programme strands: Hearts, Bodies and Minds, alongside a new strand for the 40th edition celebrating the history of LGBTQIA+ films, Treasures. This year, the festival presents 31 world premieres (across features and shorts), with 65 features and 62 shorts from 47 countries. Tickets go on sale on 24 February for BFI Members and on general sale from 26 February via BFI Flare.

As previously announced, BFI Flare opens with the world premiere of Hunky Jesus, Jennifer Kroot’s riotous documentary that follows unique social justice movement The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence while interweaving a wildly popular annual Easter Sunday tradition in San Francisco. In addition to the premiere, Sister Roma – the iconic and long‑serving member of the San Francisco chapter of the Sisters – will join us for a talk, Divine Dissidence: A Sistory of the Sisters, alongside members from the UK chapters, exploring the history and impact of their work.

The festival’s Closing Night film is the UK premiere of Sandulela Asanda’s exuberant romance Black Burns Fast. Following the adorkable and studious Luthando, who is on track for a normal academic year at the prestigious South African boarding school she attends on scholarship, the arrival of a new girl in her class ignites Luthando’s suppressed desires, threatening her relationships and everything she thought she knew about herself.

The BFI Flare 2026 Programming team are Grace Barber-Plentie, Diana Cipriano, Zorian Clayton, Jaye Hudson, Darren Jones and Wema Mumma.

BFI Flare Programmers said: “As we celebrate our 40th anniversary, we are delighted to present a programme full of cinematic gems and compelling events. For four decades, BFI Flare has championed bold storytelling and created a vital space for connection and visibility. We look forward to welcoming talent from the UK and around the world to the BFI Southbank, to share their films with our audiences. At a time when visibility and authentic representation remain as vital as ever, we are proud to continue providing a platform where our communities can see themselves reflected on screen unapologetically, truthfully, and with pride.”

We are delighted to announce that for our BFI Flare Screen Talk, Russell T Davies joins us to discuss his acclaimed career and upcoming Channel 4 show Tip Toe. As a television writer and producer known for prominent LGBTQIA+ representation, Russell introduced openly queer characters and storylines to Doctor Who, bringing LGBTQIA+ experiences into mainstream television with unprecedented visibility and nuance. He created Queer as Folk (1999), Cucumber (2015) and its sister series Banana (2015), and It’s a Sin (2021), which explored gay lives, relationships and the impact of the HIV/AIDS crisis. Russell’s writer credits include A Very English Scandal (2018), which stars Hugh Grant as gay Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe, and the dystopian science fiction drama Years and Years (2019). His upcoming C4 drama, Tip Toe, will explore the most corrosive forces facing the LGBTQIA+ community today, examining the danger as prejudice creeps back into our lives.

Exciting world premieres presented at the festival include Madfabulous, Celyn Jones’ quirky period drama based on the life of Henry Cyril Paget, the dancing Marquess of Anglesey, starring Callum Scott Howells, Ruby Stokes and Rupert Everett. Directed by Hiroaki Matsuoka, Beyond the Fire: The Life of Japan’s First Pride Parade Pioneer dives deep into Japan’s queer history, highlighting the extraordinary life of Teishiro Minami, who pioneered the country’s first Pride march. Two queer best friends are forced to confront the gradual dissolution of their friendship when they go on an annual hiking trip in Ethan Fuirst’s Can’t Go Over It. In this bold new chapter of Louise Weard’s trans epic, Castration Movie Chapter III. Junior Ghosts – Premorphic Drift; A Fragmentary Passage, a heterosexual couple are upended by an abrupt transition. A T4T couple move in together and are forced to face their differences in Daniel Ribeiro’s touching tale I Am Going to Miss You, featuring an all‑trans cast. Pamela Adie’s highly anticipated sequel to Nigeria’s first lesbian film, Ìfé: (The Sequel), reunites former lovers Ífé and Adaora years after their separation. Enter the lewd, rude and delightfully silly world of erotic dancer Champagne Horowitz Jones Dickerson White in Lady Champagne from D’Arcy Drollinger. In Nick Butler’s offbeat comedy Lunar Sway, a bi man living in a desert town receives a surprise visit from his con‑artist birth mother with chaos ensuing. Lexi Powner and James Lewis’ strident film Out Laws chronicles one gay Namibian man’s fight to stand up for the rights of same‑sex couples. In To Dance Is to Resist, two Ukrainian dancers seek life and artistic freedom following Russia’s invasion of their country, in a moving documentary by Julian Lautenbacher. Isabel Daly’s charming Cornwall‑set drama Washed Up finds a struggling artist falling in love with a mythical selkie.

As previously announced, Paloma Schneideman’s tender, unflinching portrait of queer adolescence Big Girls Don’t Cry screens at the festival as a Special Presentation. The first feature to emerge from Dame Jane Campion’s A Wave in the Ocean programme, it stars newcomer Ani Palmer alongside Almost Famous’ Noah Taylor and The Summer I Turned Pretty’s Rain Spence. Big Girls Don’t Cry follows one transformative summer for 14‑year‑old Sid Bookman in rural New Zealand.

The awe‑inspiring 4K restoration of Pink Narcissus (1971) is presented in the programme. Directed by James Bidgood, this milestone of experimental cinema and landmark of queer representation—depicting the erotically charged dreamscape of a young hustler – is a celebration of the male body and has gone on to influence artists such as John Waters, Pierre et Gilles and Charli XCX. Once shrouded in mystery, this canonical work of queer cinema has been restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive. The BFI Flare UK Premiere of Pink Narcissus coincides with UK‑wide screenings of the film at venues including Tyneside Cinema Newcastle upon Tyne, Filmhouse Edinburgh, Showroom Sheffield, HOME Manchester, Chapter Cardiff, Midlands Arts Centre Birmingham, Queen’s Film Theatre Belfast and Glasgow Film Theatre.

In addition to several documentaries mentioned above, further non‑fiction titles include Barbara Forever by Brydie O’Connor – a striking portrait of trailblazing experimental filmmaker Barbara Hammer. Sze‑Wei Chan’s 10s Across the Borders, a soulful documentary, takes a deep dive into Southeast Asian ballroom culture. Ricardo Ruales Eguiguren’s film The Broken R reflects upon his rare genetic condition and his sexual identity, while Efraín Mojica and Rebecca Zweig’s captivating, dreamlike documentary Jaripeo journeys into the world of Mexican rodeos. Ryan A. White offers a frank portrait of Richard Bernstein, also known as 1980s porn star Mickey Squires, in Mickey & Richard. Based on the book Trans Histories from Beirut’s Forgotten Past*, Treat Me Like Your Mother is a contemplative journey through the lives of five Lebanese women by Mohamad Abdouni. We Are Pat examines an androgynous character from Saturday Night Live in Rowan Haber’s uproarious, thoughtful film, which invites trans comedians to recreate and reclaim Pat.

Other highlights include Montreal, My Beautiful, with Joan Chen delivering a stunning turn as a Chinese immigrant in her fifties tentatively awakening to long‑suppressed lesbian desire. Satisfaction, directed by Alex Burunova, offers a tender and finely observed study of intimacy and creative tension between two British composers, while Queen of Coal offers a defiant portrait of self‑determination through the story of Patagonia’s first female coal miner, indelibly played by Lux Pascal, in a world shaped by tradition, labour and masculinity. In Ramiel Petros’ documentary feature debut The Last Guest of the Holloway Motel, a former British soccer star reflects on his past and the family he abandoned to hide his true identity. Mysterious Skin, Gregg Araki’s haunting and uncompromising drama, is newly restored by the Academy Film Archive and the UCLA Film & Television Archive, in collaboration with the Sundance Institute. The Watermelon Woman is the first feature directed by an African‑American lesbian, and Cheryl Dunye’s film is as funny, thought provoking and original as it was 30 years ago. Finally, Campbell X’s long‑awaited second feature Low Rider takes us on a fun ride across South Africa.

Trans narratives are powerfully represented across the programme, including Death and Life Madalena, Guto Parente’s dryly witty eleventh feature, in which a heavily pregnant woman takes the reins of a kitsch B‑movie juggernaut following the death of her father, an eccentric film industry legend. In I Am My Own Woman, German trans icon Charlotte von Mahlsdorf recounts her own semi‑fictionalised story in this landmark doc‑drama classic, screening in memory of director Rosa von Praunheim. Punk queer horror The Serpent’s Skin delivers a visceral mix of lesbian goths and vampiric trade, unfolding like a Gen‑Z answer to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, while What Will I Become? offers a vital memorial to the often‑silenced vulnerabilities of trans masculine youth, and an urgent call for trans‑led support and education. Completing the selection is Woubi Chéri, Africa’s first transgender film, which made a significant impact on release in the 1990s, collecting Best Documentary awards at festivals across New York, Italy and London.

Asian cinema features prominently across the programme, including Impure Nuns, a transgressive 1950s treasure, previously unseen outside Japan, which chronicles an affair between two nuns at a boarding school. In The Deepest Space in Us, an aromantic asexual woman seeks connection among people who repeatedly misunderstand her, while Warla, directed by Kevin Alambra, is a provocative socio‑realist drama in which a group of vigilante Filipino trans women kidnap foreign businessmen to fund gender‑affirming surgeries. Whisperings of the Moon, Lai Yuqing’s handheld debut feature, is a vivid portrait of an actress returning to Cambodia following a bereavement and reconnecting with her former lover.

South American stories also feature strongly across the programme, including Baby, in which Marcelo Caetano follows his debut Body Electric with a complex and loving relationship between two men, set against a vibrant exploration of São Paulo’s queer scene. Cherri offers a poignant, melancholic character study that challenges pigeonholing and prejudice while promoting respect for diverse body types, while Keep Coming Back, directed by Sergio De León, follows an 18‑year‑old navigating grief, financial pressures and uncontrollable hormones as he transitions into adulthood. Additionally, Perro Perro is a boldly absurdist fairy tale from Marco Berger that playfully reimagines the idea of pet ownership.

BFI Flare will also screen four of the best queer films from the past 12 months. A shy young man finds his place in the world as a submissive to a handsome biker, in Harry Lighton’s charming, sexy, tender and frequently hilarious debut PILLION. In Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor’s impressive feature debut DREAMERS, Nigerian immigrants Isio and Farah dare to imagine a vibrant future outside of their confinement at a British immigration removal centre. Marcelo Caetano follows Body Electric with a portrait of a complex and loving relationship between two men that close out alongside a dynamic exploration of São Paulo’s vibrant queer scene in BABY. In Urška Djukić’s LITTLE TROUBLE GIRLS, a Slovenian catholic girl navigates the exhilaration and confusion of first desire in a sensorial, sensitive and sublime coming-of-age feature debut.

Alongside the Screen Talk, BFI Flare will also host many exciting events and talks, including Heartstopper Forever!, The Makers with Cheryl Dunne and the 40 Years of BFI Flare exhibition at Queer Britain.

As previously announced, this year’s Festival marks the 12th year of Five Films For Freedom in partnership with the British Council. This landmark international initiative presents five films from the BFI Flare shorts programme, made available to audiences worldwide to watch free online for the duration of the Festival, and invites everyone everywhere to show solidarity with LGBTQIA+ communities in countries where freedom and equal rights are limited.

This year’s BFI Shorts programme is split across over a dozen thematic selections and features with themes including Queer Africa: New Visions, Sporty Spice! and Let Trans Kids Bloom. Further breakdown below.

The 2025 LGBTQIA+ digital campaign reached 2.7 million views globally, with 87% of audiences tuning in from parts of the world where freedom and equal rights are restricted. The project enables audiences worldwide to stand in solidarity with LGBTQIA+ communities.

Since its launch in 2015, Five Films For Freedom has received nearly 29 million views across more than 200 countries, offering vital visibility in places where same-sex relationships remain criminalised in over 60 nations. This year’s Five Films For Freedom shorts will be available to watch for free across the UK on BFI Player. The 2026 programme will be announced on 20 February.

For professionals working in the film and screen industries, this year’s BFI Flare industry programme will return with delegate networking and dedicated events. Press and Industry screenings will be back in venue at BFI Southbank. The full BFI Flare industry programme line-up will be announced in the coming weeks and accreditation opens on 18th February.

The current cohort of the BFI NETWORK and BAFTA Mentoring Programme, in partnership with BFI Flare, will participate in bespoke events at BAFTA and BFI Flare. In addition, BFI NETWORK and BAFTA will deliver a special panel event for mentees and Festival Industry delegates celebrating the previous ten years of the programme. Further details will be communicated next week alongside the wider industry programme.

To apply for accreditation and for more information, please visit BFI Flare Press and Industry.

The 40th BFI FLARE: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival takes place from 18-29 March 2026 at BFI Southbank and on BFI Player.

Explore the full programme for BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival