40th edition of BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival wraps with global talent attendance and 12 feature film world premieres

The 40th edition of BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival (18 to 29 March), the UK’s leading LGBTQIA+ film event, closed on 29 March seeing a continued growth in audiences attending in person events at the festival’s home, BFI Southbank. The 40th anniversary edition of BFI Flare attracted audiences of 41,283. This included 8,087 attendances for two special anniversary exhibitions and a documentary marking BFI Flare at 40. This year’s festival saw a 32% increase in overall audience attendance, with a 6% increase in attendance for screenings, events and BFI Player.

Over 12 days between 18 to 29 March, audiences enjoyed 65 features and 63 shorts from 48 countries at screenings at BFI Southbank.

The festival hosted 31 world premieres, 9 international premieres, 11 European premieres and 33 UK premieres from across the programme of features and shorts.

Over 250 filmmakers and their teams attended with guests including Pamela Adie, Celyn Jones, Callum Scott-Howells, Ruby Stokes, Louis Hynes, Tom Rhys-Harries, Hiroaki Matsuoka, Alex Burunova, Fionn Whitehead, Helen Walsh, Lorne MacFayden, Xiaodan He, A.P. Pickle, Richard Bernstein, Nick Butler, Noah Parker, Liza Weil, Kaden Connors, Douglas Smith, James Lewis, Lexi Powner, Friedel Dausab, Rosana Flamer-Caldera, Isabel Daly, D’Arcy Drollinger, Ethan Fuirst, Julian Lautenbacher, Daniel Ribeiro, Brydie O’Connor, Fabian Suarez, Juan Ramos, Todd Wiener, Simone Mercado, Ramiel Petros, Nicholas Freeman and Xinyi Cao.

This year’s festival marked the 12th edition of #FiveFilmsForFreedom, delivered in partnership with the British Council. This landmark LGBTQIA+ digital initiative showcases five films from the BFI Flare programme, made available free to audiences worldwide. It invites people everywhere to watch, share and spark conversations, showing solidarity with LGBTQIA+ communities in countries where freedom and equal rights remain limited.

The 2026 selection featured films from Vietnam (Sweat / Mồ Hôi), France (Room 206), the USA/Mexico (Rag Dolls), Brazil (Theo) and the UK (I Hate Helen). Early figures indicate the campaign has already generated over 3.5 million views, with global totals still being counted. The five filmmaking teams were also welcomed to the UK at a reception at the Houses of Parliament. Alongside the digital programme, in-person screenings and events took place worldwide, including in New Zealand, Brazil and across Europe.

Over the past eleven years, #FiveFilmsForFreedom has grown into a global movement, reaching more than 32 million views and bringing audiences together to celebrate love as a human right.

This year’s edition opened with the world premiere of Hunky Jesus, Jennifer Kroot’s riotous documentary, and closed with the UK premiere of Sandulela Asanda’s exuberant romance Black Burns Fast.

Other highlights from this year’s film programme included the Special Presentation of Paloma Schneideman’s tender, unflinching portrait of queer adolescence Big Girls Don’t Cry.

BFI Flare also welcomed television writer and producer Russell T Davies onstage at BFI Southbank on 23 March to discuss his acclaimed career in Screen Talk moderated by actor-director Amrou Al-Kadhi. The entertaining discussion went through Russell’s groundbreaking career to a packed audience and included an exclusive clip of his new show Tip Toe launching on Channel 4 later this year.

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 incredible 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 indie romantic drama 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 completely silly world of erotic dancer Champagne Horowitz Jones Dickerson White, in Lady Champagne from D’Arcy Drollinger.

In offbeat comedy by Nick Butler Lunar Sway, a bi guy 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 the battle of one gay Namibian man 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, by Julian Lautenbacher, while Isabel Daly’s charming Cornwall‑set drama Washed Up finds a struggling artist falling in love with a mythical selkie.

The awe‑inspiring 4K restoration of Pink Narcissus (1971) was also presented in the programme. Directed by James Bidgood, this milestone of experimental cinema and a landmark of queer representation, presenting 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 UCLA Film & Television Archive.

The BFI Flare UK Premiere of the 4K restoration of Pink Narcissus coincided with UK‑wide screenings of the film at venues including Tyneside Cinema Newcastle upon Tyne, Filmhouse Edinburgh, Showroom Sheffield, HOME Manchester, Chapter Cardiff, Midlands Art Centre Birmingham, Queen’s Film Theatre Belfast, and Glasgow Film Theatre.

The final day of the festival also offered audiences a second chance to catch a selection of the buzziest BFI Flare 2026 films that they may have missed, in the Best of Year section. These included Joy Gharoro‑Akpojotor’s impressive feature debut Dreamers, where Nigerian immigrants Isio and Farah dare to imagine a vibrant future outside of their confinement at a British immigration removal centre; Marcelo Caetano’s Baby, following 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; Harry Lighton’s charming, sexy, tender and frequently hilarious award‑winning debut Pillion; and Urška Djukić’s sensorial, sensitive and sublime coming‑of‑age feature debut Little Trouble Girls, following a Slovenian Catholic girl navigating the exhilaration and confusion of first desire.

The programme featured a wide range of events and talks, which included a return of the festival’s popular interview sessions The Makers with acclaimed Black lesbian filmmaker Cheryl Dunye (The Watermelon Woman), award‑winning filmmaker Campbell X (Low Rider), and a joint talk with transgressive Canadian filmmaker Louise Weard (Castration Movie Chapter III) and emerging Australian filmmaker Alice Maio Mackay (The Serpent’s Skin).

Events celebrating the 40th anniversary of the festival included a 40 Years of BFI Flare exhibition tracing the evolution of festival artwork at Queer Britain; BFI Flare: Four Decades of Queer Cinema Magic!, where Flare programmers past and present came together to reflect on the films the festival has championed over the years; and a Back to ’86 DJ night travelling back in time to the music that defined the year the festival began.

Additional events included a special screening of the Oscar‑nominated short film and in‑depth conversation with the filmmaking team for The Road to the Oscars: A Friend of Dorothy; Heartstopper Forever!, an exclusive talk with writer‑creator and executive producer Alice Oseman and executive producer Patrick Walters of the hit Netflix series; an illustrated talk exploring BDSM and the gay leather scene on film in Leather Boys!; and Camp Classics Presents: Queerly Beloved?, a look at hidden LGBTQIA+ cinematic gems hosted by Crystal (RuPaul’s Drag Race UK) and award‑winning drag monstrosity Baby Lame.

The festival’s 2026 industry programme offered topical industry‑focused discussions in addition to networking events and press and industry screenings. Industry events included Before You Shout “Action”: The Legal Checklist for Filmmakers, in which Alastair Mavor, a partner at Lee & Thompson specialising in film and television law, ran through the essential legal checklist every producer and filmmaker needs to know.

Frameline 50 explored the history of Frameline in its 50th anniversary year, and what lies ahead for LGBTQ+ film festivals in an ever‑changing global landscape, with Allegra Madsen, executive director of Frameline. Behind the Camera: Ensuring Inclusivity on Set focused on deaf, disabled and neurodiverse talent, and looked at how inclusive hiring, crew culture, leadership and on‑set practices shape not only who gets to work in film but also improve day‑to‑day experiences on set and creative outcomes.

Do No Harm: Portraying Trauma and Resilience Responsibly was a thoughtful discussion on telling stories shaped by past trauma and lived experience, exploring how to portray trauma and resilience with care, honesty and responsibility. Where We Are Now: A Decade of Resilience and Queer Voices celebrated ten years of the BFI NETWORK and BAFTA Mentoring Programme in partnership with BFI Flare, bringing together programme alumni shaping today’s screen industries, including Joy Gharoro‑Akpojotor, dir. Dreamers (alumni 2016); Georgi Banks‑Davies, dir. The Night Manager season 2 (alumni 2018); Nosa Eke, platform‑agnostic writer‑director (alumni 2018); and Charlie Tidmas, writer‑director whose work focuses on intersectional masculinities and trans identity (alumni 2024).

The Business of Queer Cinema: Navigating Festival Circuits, Distribution and Streaming was a practical, industry‑facing event focused on what happens after a film is finished, diving into festival strategy, sales, distribution and the evolving streaming landscape. BFI Doc Society Roundtables saw the BFI Doc Society team shed light on their funds for short films and features, outlining their criteria and how they work during two informal roundtables.