Now in its 40th year, the BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival returns to BFI Southbank with one of its most expansive and internationally minded editions to date. Long considered a key fixture of the global queer film calendar, the festival continues to balance discovery with legacy, pairing brave new voices with restorations, talks and community-led events that transform the Southbank into a cultural home.
The anniversary programme will run across four strands – Hearts, Bodies, Minds, and the archival Treasures – moving fluidly between romance, identity, politics and film history. Across features and shorts, the scale alone is impressive, but it’s the emotional and geographical breadth that stands out most: stories stretch from South Africa to Southeast Asia, from intimate coming-of-age tales to defiantly radical genre pieces.
Opening the festival is the world premiere of Hunky Jesus, Jennifer Kroot’s spirited documentary chronicling the activism and irreverence of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, while the UK premiere of Black Burns Fast closes the event with a gentle boarding-school romance. Among the special presentations, Paloma Schneideman’s Big Girls Don’t Cry offers an unflinching portrait of queer adolescence, presenting one of the year’s most anticipated debuts.
Elsewhere, the feature slate is rich with world premieres and festival standouts. Celyn Jones’ flamboyant period drama Madfabulous revisits the life of Henry Cyril Paget with theatrical verve, while Beyond the Fire: The Life of Japan’s First Pride Parade Pioneer explores the untold history of Japan’s first Pride movement. Ethan Fuirst’s Can’t Go Over It captures the dissolution of friendship on an annual hiking trip, and Daniel Ribeiro’s I Am Going to Miss You centres an all-trans cast in a gentle, lived-in love story. In a more mischievous register, Lady Champagne leans gleefully into absurdity, while Nick Butler’s desert-set Lunar Sway delivers offbeat humour with heart.
Documentary and non-fiction work remain a backbone of Flare’s identity. Brydie O’Connor’s Barbara Forever pays tribute to experimental trailblazer Barbara Hammer, while The Last Guest of the Holloway Motel reflects on secrecy, masculinity and identity through the story of a former football star reckoning with his past.
This year’s Treasures strand offers a vital reminder of queer cinema’s lineage. The dreamlike erotic landmark Pink Narcissus screens in a new restoration, alongside The Watermelon Woman, Cheryl Dunye’s witty and groundbreaking exploration of Black lesbian film history, and Gregg Araki’s haunting Mysterious Skin, newly restored for contemporary audiences.
Asian cinema features prominently across the programme, emphasising Flare’s increasingly global outlook. Highlights include Impure Nuns, a rarely screened Japanese gem; The Deepest Space in Us, following an aromantic asexual woman searching for connection; Warla, Kevin Alambra’s provocative tale of vigilante trans women fighting for survival; and Whisperings of the Moon, Lai Yuqing’s intimate reflection on grief and reunion. Collectively, these works broaden the emotional and cultural vocabulary of queer storytelling beyond Western frameworks.
Short films, as ever, provide some of the festival’s most immediate discoveries. The dedicated This Is Home programme spotlights Indian filmmakers in particular, presenting stories where queer lives unfold through friendship, family and chosen community – small, precise narratives that resonate long after the credits roll.
Beyond screenings, Flare once again expands into talks, DJ nights, exhibitions and industry conversations, including a Screen Talk with Russell T Davies, whose work continues to shape mainstream LGBTQIA+ representation. It’s this combination of cinema, dialogue and celebration that gives the festival its distinctive atmosphere.
At forty, BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival continues to build its future through powerful storytelling and the artists given a platform to share their voices.
- 24 February 12:00: Booking opens for BFI Members
- 26 February 12:00: Tickets on general sale
- 12 March 12:00: Extra tickets released
- 18 to 29 March: The festival takes place
Featured image courtesy of BFI Flare
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