Returning to its usual venues, Cinema São Jorge and Cinemateca Portuguesa, between 18 and 26 September, the special 30th anniversary edition of Queer Lisboa celebrates the power of cinema and queer identity. Firmly rooted in the programming policy the festival has championed over the last three decades, and underpinned by concepts dear to Queer Lisboa such as ‘memory’, ‘resistance’, ‘utopia’ and ‘desire’, the extensive 2026 programme brings together a past that envisioned ways of being in the world, a present that continues to shape ways of looking at reality, and a future that, even in adverse times, the festival stubbornly chooses to imagine with hope.
The year 2026 marks a particularly significant period of creation and production for queer cinema, but the current political and social reality shows us that we must not take our struggles and achievements for granted. The festival thus champions a vibrant cinema whose essence continues to have much to tell and teach us. In addition to the recent announcements of the Special Screenings, Panorama, the new Queer Family section and the Retrospective, it’s now announced the opening and closing night films, the five official competitions, a talk, the attendance of official guests and the parties.
Following Passages and Peter Hujar’s Day, both screened at the festival, Ira Sachs’s new film, The Man I Love, will be screened as Opening Night as a national avant-première. This work establishes Sachs as an essential filmmaker who knows how to engage with the legacy of New Queer Cinema and bring it into the present day. Set in 1980s New York, at the height of the AIDS epidemic, the film features outstanding performances by Rami Malek, Rebecca Hall and Tom Sturridge. On that same evening, the group Alarido – Feminist and LGBT Choir will take to the stage to perform a cappella arrangements of pop songs and anthems, in a tribute to the values of the queer community.
The Closing Night honours go to the animated film Tangles, Leah Nelson’s adaptation of Sarah Leavitt’s graphic novel “Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer’s, My Mother and Me”, fresh from Cannes. Nelson’s directorial debut is a moving and unexpectedly humorous portrait of a family coping with the impact of Alzheimer’s disease. With an impressive voice cast – Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Abbi Jacobson, Bryan Cranston and Seth Rogen – and striking hand-drawn animation, Tangles is now running for an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature.
The Feature Film Competition presents eight films that all share a common theme of destiny. They all explore journeys of acceptance or life-changing decisions that the central characters in the stories are faced with. Following her breakthrough in 2018 with Daniel fait face, Marine Atlan crafts in La Gradiva a sweeping portrait of the vicissitudes of youth. It marks the confirmation of the cinematographer of choice of French filmmakers such as Jonathan Vinel, Caroline Poggi and Alexis Langlois; the film took home the Best Film Award at Cannes’ Critics’ Week and is presented here as a Portuguese avant-première. Premiered in the Orizzonti section of the Venice Film Festival, Strange River, by the Catalan director Jaume Claret Muxart, is yet another story about discovery and learning, about youth as a source of the future. Muxart will be present in Lisbon. With its world premiere scheduled for the Venice International Critics’ Week, the festival presents the international premiere of London, by the Brazilians directors Victor di Marco and Márcio Picoli, a fearless film about living with a disability, starring di Marco. Both filmmakers will be present at the festival. Five further films will be competing for the best film prize, worth €1,000, awarded by a jury comprising programmer and cultural manager Kathleen Gomes, film programmer Maria João Madeira and actor Miguel Nunes.
The Documentary Competition, also comprising eight debut works, spans a wide range of geographical and aesthetic territories. Up and Running, by Lorena Ros, offers a candid look at the accumulation of marginalisation and homelessness amongst the trans ex-prisoner population, set on the outskirts of Barcelona. The director will be present at the screening. Making its European premiere is Public Access by David Shadrack Smith, which premiered at Sundance; it is a passionate retrospective of the history of American public cable TV channels, which witnessed the upheavals of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, and Summer Drift, which premiered in the ACID parallel section at Cannes, a staged portrait of Johanna Schopfer and her old Volkswagen Beetle, which serves as a means of coming to terms with the wounds of transition, whilst rekindling her passion for motoring. The directors Céline Carridroit and Aline Sutre, as well as the lead actress and the producer Aurélien Marsais, will be attending the festival. The jury comprises film programmer Diana Cipriano, journalist Filipe Santa-Bárbara and Luis Rosado from the RTP2 editorial team. They will award the prize for best documentary, sponsored by RTP2, which consists of the acquisition of the film’s screening rights, worth €3,000.
The Queer Art Competition explores the boundaries of cinematic languages and genres and highlights the most transgressive aspects of queer culture. Among the eight films screened are two world premieres: Life Is about Losing Everything, by the German brothers Benjamin and Stefan Ramírez Pérez, a fascinating and colourful hybrid film that serves as an adaptation of the highly distinctive universe of the Canadian poet and feminist writer Lynn Crosbie; and Nothing Left, the fiction feature debut by the Portuguese director André Godinho, who here presents a speculative dystopia of queer individuals struggling against the world. Godinho won both the audience and jury awards for the short film Immaterial Girl in 2022. Gustavo Vinagre and Ester Bergsmark, both previous award-winners at the festival, return with The Passion according to G.H.B. and A Sweetness from Nowhere, respectively. The jury, comprising director Leonardo Mouramateus, curator Marta Mestre and filmmaker Matthias Müller, will award the prize for best film, worth €1,000.
The Short Film Competition seeks to capture, as broadly as possible, what it means to be queer, with a variety of approaches to the pursuit of freedom and self-discovery. Returning to the festival are the works of Abdellah Taïa and Maryam Tafakory: in Cairo Streets, the Moroccan director and writer revisits footage from 2007, encountering the master of Egyptian cinema, Youssef Chahine, along the way, whilst in Daria’s Night Flowers, excerpts from Iranian cinema illustrate a story of forbidden love. I Want My People to Be Remembered showcases the work of the North-American lesbian photographer Donna Gottschalk, rediscovered by the writer Hélène Giannecchini, whilst in Sanctuary, Sam Ashby travels to California in search of the legacy of Purusha Larkin, a pioneering monk, author and sex guru of the 1980s. Also featured in the competition are the Lebanese filmmaker and sculptor Ali Cherri, who presents The Sentinel, and the Portuguese director Rita Barbosa, with The Hour of the Star, a comedy in which an influencer in trouble, played by June João, comes face to face with a kitten with superpowers. There are 22 entries in total, to be judged by cinematographer Aline Belfort, director Caio Amado Soares, and multidisciplinary artist Lou Loução, who will award the prize for best short film, worth €500 and sponsored by Contranatura, as well as a logistics prize granting access to AltContent’s music catalogue.
Finally, the ‘In My Shorts’ Competition (European School Short Films), which will be judged by the same jury as the short films, features films from the DocNomads master’s programme at the following institutions: DFFB (Berlin), ESCAC (Barcelona), The National Film & Television School (London), The Netherlands Film Academy, Le Fresnoy, HEAD (Geneva), Stockholm University of the Arts and two schools in Brussels, INSAS and LUCA. There are ten films in competition, notably For Those Who Love, Leave, and Love Again by Paolo Laganà, a collaborator of filmmakers such as Radu Jude and Corneliu Porumboiu, which presents a delicate exploration of loneliness and belonging, delving into silences and fears through a carefully crafted narrative psychology; Āsheghetam by Filmsaaz, a 3D animated film that serves as an ode to resistance against the oppressive imperialism of war, seeking illusions in marginalised worlds; and the autobiographical documentary Red Elephant, in which Pakistani filmmaker Iqran Rasheed reflects on a bureaucratic system that promises protection to the queer community whilst simultaneously exacting a traumatic price in return. The prize for best film is worth €500.
Queer Resistance returns for the third consecutive year. Having, over the past two years, highlighted stories of resilience and collective struggle in politically and socially troubled territories, this year the four documentaries offer more personal portraits and examples of community and organisational engagement. Directed by veteran filmmaker Monika Treut, Cooking Up Democracy takes us to Taiwan to view an island not as an occupied and blackmailed territory, but as a place serenely engaged in the day-to-day construction of a pluralistic society. From Brazil come five testimonies from trans people with disabilities. Listened to and observed by a team—itself made up of transgender people—Desire to Live (mutatis mutandis) shows that even the singularities the world is not yet ready to accept find their place. Meanwhile, Hélène Transnational Treasure introduces us to a unique figure from the French cultural scene: rejected by her family, a sex worker, and an activist on the fronts of gay rights, sex workers’ rights and HIV/AIDS, Hélène Hazera was also a regular presence in the experimental cinema of the 1970s. Director Judith Abitbol and producer Paola Valentini will be attending the festival. Finally, a foray into the countryside of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in France with Country Queer, an “uncompromising paradise” for those who have chosen to live near their home village, freely and discreetly, cultivating the land and weaving, whilst also engaging in activism. The screening will also be attended by the director, Antoine Vazquez.
Also worth highlighting is a film screening followed by a discussion. Presented as an international premiere, the latest film by French director Léolo Victor-Pujebet, A Political Consciousness, identifies and responds to the violence of our institutions through the work of the philosopher Geoffroy de Lagasnerie, one of today’s most celebrated philosophers and sociologists, with over 15 published books, whose work primarily explores the intersections between politics, law, art and critical theory. The film is a call to action, conceived in collaboration with Assa Traoré, Édouard Louis, Didier Eribon and other allies committed to paving the way towards collective emancipation. Following the screening of the documentary, there will be a discussion with the director and Geoffroy de Lagasnerie, moderated by António Guerreiro, a columnist for the newspaper Público and editor of Electra magazine. The discussion will address themes such as repression, family, friendship, democracy, art and sexual norms, amongst other central issues in Lagasnerie’s thinking, as well as cinema as a tool for the dissemination of knowledge and ideas.
The Panorama section has announced two new additions. Stop! That! Train!, directed by Andy Shankman (Hairspray, The Wedding Planner) and starring RuPaul alongside a troupe of drag queens from the Drag Race universe, is one of the most eagerly awaited comedies of the year. Outerlands, Elena Oxman’s debut feature starring Asia Kate Dillon (Orange Is the New Black), is a tender indie drama set in San Francisco and a heartfelt exploration of the conflicting effects that family can have on the individual.
The brand-new Queer Family section fulfils a long-standing desire of the festival to screen films dedicated to young people and their families, offering an intergenerational and emotionally resonant experience through independent cinema that explores themes of inclusion and identity. Two Brazilian features make up the Queer Family programme: Gugu’s World, by Allan Deberton, and Papaya, by Priscilla Kellen, in its national avant-première.
The retrospective “Rescuing Futures: Queer Cinema Looks in the Mirror”, presented in partnership with the Cinemateca Portuguesa and designed to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Queer Lisboa, will take place this year across the festival’s two venues in a series of eight thematic double bills, showcasing a selection of films which, in their time, sought to build utopias and served as benchmarks for the idea of community. The programme revisits works by leading figures in queer cinema, such as Cheryl Dunye, James Bidgood, John Greyson, Kenneth Anger, Kim Longinotto, Marlon T. Riggs, Lana and Lilly Wachowski, Lisa Cholodenko, Sally Potter, Su Friedrich, Ventura Pons and Yonfan. In total, 19 titles will be screened, many of which are being screened at the festival for the first time and have recently undergone restoration, thereby regaining their status as canonical works.
The aesthetic and narrative qualities of the 94 films forming part of the 30th edition of Queer Lisboa are particularly noteworthy, a sign of the absolute maturity of queer cinema. With films hailing from cinematic traditions as diverse as those of Mexico, the Philippines, Sweden, Slovenia and Iran, Spanish, African (Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Africa), Asian (Pakistan, Vietnam, China, Singapore, Hong Kong) and North American cinema stand out, as does Portuguese cinema, with the world premiere of a feature film, the first screening of a new digitisation by the Portuguese Cinematheque of a classic of Portuguese underground cinema, and the Lisbon premiere of a short film. Of the 118 filmmakers, 51% are cisgender men, 36% are cisgender women, 13% are trans or non-binary people, and 25% are BIPOC filmmakers. Filmmakers from Spain, Germany, Brazil, France, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland, Ireland, Greece and Iran will be in Lisbon to present their films.
As usual, Queer Lisboa will host a series of parties to celebrate the films as a community, at venues in Lisbon’s queer nightlife scene such as Purex Clube, Drama Bar and TR3S. Meanwhile, Ministerium will host the festival’s opening party, in collaboration with mina.
Queer Lisboa 30 has a budget of €150,000.00 and is supported by Lisbon City Council / Lisboa Cultura and the ICA – Instituto do Cinema and Audiovisual Arts, as well as key partnerships such as those established with FLAD – the Luso-American Development Foundation, the Institut Français du Portugal, the Goethe-Institut, the Embassies of Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland, Acción Cultural Española (AC/E), German Films, RTP2 and Antena 3, Turismo de Lisboa and the Parish Council of Santo António; with private partners including Contranatura, AltContent, Absolut, Filmin, ASUS, Gulato, the Pousadas da Juventude, and The Late Birds Lisbon hotel, amongst many others.
Tickets for Queer Lisboa 30 will go on sale from 7 September at the Cinema São Jorge box office and online via BOL.
Queer Lisboa 30 complete programme:
OPENING NIGHT:
The Man I Love, Ira Sachs (USA, France, 2026, 95’)
+ Alarido – Feminist and LGBT Choir
CLOSING NIGHT:
Tangles, Leah Nelson (USA, 2026, 94’)
SPECIAL SCREENINGS:
Amarga Navidad, Pedro Almodóvar (Spain, 2026, 112’)
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, Jane Schoenbrun (USA, Canada, 2026, 112’)
FEATURE FILM COMPETITION:
Black Burns Fast, Sandulela Asanda (South Africa, 2025, 100’)
On the Road, David Pablos (Mexico, 2025, 93’)
Strange River, Jaume Claret Muxart (Spain, Germany, 2025, 105’)
La Gradiva, Marine Atlan (France, Italy, 2026, 145’)
Iván & Hadoum, Ian de la Rosa (Spain, Germany, Belgium, 2026, 100’)
Julian, Cato Kusters (Belgium, The Netherlands, 2025, 91’)
London, Victor Di Marco, Márcio Picoli (Brazil, 2026, 90’)
Raging, Ryan Machado (Philippines, 2025, 87’)
DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION:
Baby Jackfruit Baby Guava, Nông Nhật Quang (Vietnam, South Korea, 2026, 105’)
La belle année, Angelica Ruffier (Sweden, Norway, 2026, 95’)
La Carn, Joan Porcel (Spain, 2025, 84’)
Up and Running, Lorena Ros (Spain, 2025, 71’)
The Hidden Face of the Earth, Alain Arnaud (France, 2026, 68’)
Public Access, David Shadrack Smith (USA, 2026, 108’)
Two Mountains Weighing Down My Chest, Viv Li (Germany, The Netherlands, 2026, 85’)
Summer Drift, Céline Carridroit, Aline Sutre (Switzerland, France, 2026, 89’)
QUEER ART COMPETITION:
A Sweetness from Nowhere, Ester Bergsmark (Sweden, 2026, 81’)
Desire Lines, Dane Komljen (Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, The Netherlands, Croatia, Germany, 2025, 107’)
Joy Boy: a Tribute to Julius Eastman, Mawena Yehouessi, Fallon Mayanja, Rob Jacobs, Victoire Karera Kampire, Paul Shemisi, Anne Reijniers (Belgium, Democratic Republic of the Congo, France, 2026, 63’)
Life Is about Losing Everything, Benjamin Ramírez Pérez, Stefan Ramírez Pérez (Germany, The Netherlands, 2026, 100’)
Nothing Left, André Godinho (Portugal, 2026, 126’)
Our Body Is an Expanding Star, Semillites Hernández Velasco, Tania Hernández Velasco (Mexico, 2025, 84’)
The Passion according to G.H.B., Gustavo Vinagre, Vinicius Couto (Brazil, 2026, 82’)
Uchronia: Parallel Histories of Queer Revolt, Fil Ieropoulos (Greece, The Netherlands, 2026, 97’)
SHORT FILM COMPETITION:
As I Belong to My Life, Sarah Bliss (USA, 2025, 4’)
Cairo Streets, Abdellah Taïa (France, 2025, 19’)
Cosmonauts, Leo Černic (Slovenia, Italy, 2026, 14’)
Daria’s Night Flowers, Maryam Tafakory (Iran, UK, 2025, 16’)
Delay, Wang Han-Xuan (China, USA, 2025, 15’)
Fiji, Andrea Lamedica (Italy, 2025, 12’)
Fronteriza, Nay Mendl, Rosa Caldeira (Brazil, Paraguay, 2025, 21’)
Our Body Is an Expanding Star, Miguel Ariza (Spain, 2025, 21’)
The Hour of the Star, Rita Barbosa (Portugal, 2026, 20’)
Time to Go, Renzo Cozza (Argentina, 2026, 20’)
I Want My People to Be Remembered, Hélène Giannecchini (France, 2026, 26’)
The Jezebels, Thanasis Tsimpinis (Belgium, 2025, 21’)
My Structuralist Film, Angelo Madsen (USA, 2026, 6’)
Obi Is a Boy, Dika Ofoma (Nigeria, 2025, 17’)
Precious Fantasy, Nino Bouhnik (France, 2025, 13’)
Sanctuary, Sam Ashby (UK, 2026, 24’)
Seek No Favor, Elle Clay, Leilah Weinraub (USA, 2025, 14’)
The Sentinel, Ali Cherri (France, 2026, 29’)
TMWYH, Helen Esther Aschauer (Austria, 2026, 17’)
Victim of Circumstance, Kalil Haddad (Canada, 2024, 21’)
Xylella Fastidiosa, Thomas Colineau (France, 2025, 21’)
Your City, Ting Su (USA, China, France, 2026, 14’)
“IN MY SHORTS” EUROPEAN SCHOOL SHORT FILM COMPETITION:
Looking for the Lost Tail of Humankind, Sofia Cecere (Belgium, 2025, 13’)
Ãsheghetam, Filmsaaz (France, Switzerland, Iran, 2026, 21’)
Cruising Lesbiana, Joyce Victoria Newrzella (Spain, 2026, 18’)
Destroy Me, Please, Flora Woudstra Hablé (Belgium, The Netherlands, Lebanon, 2025, 16’)
For Those Who Love, Leave, and Love Again, Paolo Laganà (Germany, 2025, 18’)
kiss kiss bang bang, Ollie Launspach (The Netherlands, 2025, 28’)
Crocodile Tears, Mathilde Sauvère, Jonathan Leggett, Achiraf Djakpa (Switzerland, 2026, 12’)
Red Elephant, Iqran Rasheed (Pakistan, Belgium, Hungary, Portugal, 2026, 22’)
Sister of Mine, André Vaara (Sweden, 2026, 12’)
Sunday Lunch, Lyndon Henley Hanrahan (UK, 2026, 15’)
PANORAMA:
Barbara Forever, Brydie O’Connor (USA, 2026, 102’)
Blue Film, Elliot Tuttle (USA, 2025, 85’)
Jim Queen, Marco Nguyen, Nicolas Athané (France, 2026, 85’)
Maspalomas, Jose Mari Goenaga, Aitor Arregi (Spain, 2025, 109’)
Outerlands, Elena Oxman (USA, 2025, 101’)
Prosecution, Faraz Shariat (Germany, 2026, 113’)
Stop! That! Train!, Adam Shankman (USA, 2026, 92’)
A Very Good Boy, Sébastien Lifshitz (France, 2026, 87’)
QUEER RESISTANCE:
Cooking Up Democracy, Monika Treut (Germany, 2026, 82’)
Desire to Live (mutatis mutandis), Giorgia Narciso (Brazil, 2025, 83’)
Hélène Transnational Treasure, Judith Abitbol (France, 2025, 94’)
Country Queer, Antoine Vazquez (France, 2025, 84’)
SCREENING AND TALK:
A Political Consciousness, Léolo Victor-Pujebet (France, 2026, 71’)
+ talk with Geoffroy de Lagasnerie and Léolo Victor-Pujebet, moderated by António Guerreiro
QUEER FAMILY:
Gugu’s World, Allan Deberton (Brazil, 2026, 93’)
Papaya, Priscilla Kellen (Brazil, 2025, 74’)
RETROSPECTIVE:
Reclaiming Futures: queer cinema through the looking glass
Programme 0
The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions, Paul Rice (USA, 2026, 40’)
Word Is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives, Peter Adair, Nancy Adair, Andrew Brown, Rob Epstein, Lucy Massie Phenix, Veronica Selver (The Mariposa Film Group) (USA, 1977, 132’)
Programme 1
Fatucha Superstar – Ópera Rock… Bufa, João Paulo Ferreira (Portugal, 1976, 43’)
Pink Narcissus, James Bidgood (USA, 1971, 68’)
Scorpio Rising, Kenneth Anger (USA, 1963, 28’)
Programme 2
Ocaña, an Intermittent Portrait, Ventura Pons (Spain, 1978, 85’)
Orlando, Sally Potter (UK, Russia, Italy, France, The Netherlands, 1992, 94’)
Programme 3
Bugis Street, Yonfan (Singapore, Hong Kong, 1995, 101’)
Shinjuku Boys, Kim Longinotto, Jano Williams (UK, 1995, 53’)
Programme 4
Bound, Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski (USA, 1996, 109’)
High Art, Lisa Cholodenko (USA, 1998, 102’)
Programme 5
The Wounded Man, Patrice Chéreau (France, 1983, 119’)
Taxi to the Toilet, Frank Ripploh (West Germany, 1980, 90’)
Programme 6
Black Is... Black Ain’t, Marlon T. Riggs (USA, 1995, 87’)
Spin Cycle, Aarin Burch (USA, 1991, 6’)
The Watermelon Woman, Cheryl Dunye (USA, 1996, 90’)
Programme 7
Greetings from Washington, D.C., Lucy Winer (USA, 1981, 28’)
The Lesbian Avengers Eat Fire, Too, Su Friedrich, Janet Baus (USA, 1993, 56’)
Zero Patience, John Greyson (UK, Canada, 1993, 100’)
PARTIES:
mina x Queer Lisboa @ Ministerium (line-up to be announced)
Teenage Sex @ Purex with 2babydjs
The RuPaul Train @ Drama Bar
Watermelon Woman @ Purex with M.A.R.T.A
Jim Queen @ TR3S
Confirmed Official guests:
Feature Film Competition
Jaume Claret Muxart – director – Strange River
Victor Di Marco, Márcio Picoli – directors – London
Documentary Competition
Aurélien Marsais – producer – Summer Drift
Céline Carridroit, Aline Sutre – directors – Summer Drift
Johanna Schopfer – subject/actress – Summer Drift
Joan Porcel – director – La Carn
Lorena Ros – director – Up and Running
Queer Art Competition
André Godinho – director – Nothing Left
Benjamin Ramírez Pérez, Stefan Ramírez Pérez – directors – Life Is about Losing Everything
Johanna Senger – production designer – Life Is about Losing Everything
Paul Faltz – DOP – Life Is about Losing Everything
Vinicius Couto – director, actor – The Passion according to G.H.B.
Short Film Competition
Ana Camillo – sound designer – TMWYH
Andrea Lamedica – director – Fiji
Fabio Mota – DOP – TMWYH
Helen Esther Aschauer – director – TMWYH
Lyn Santos – sound designer – Fronteriza
Rita Barbosa – director – The Hour of the Star
Sam Ashby – director – Sanctuary
Thanasis Tsimpinis – director – The Jezebels
Thomas Colineau – director – Xylella Fastidiosa
“In My Shorts” European School Short Film Competition
Filmsaaz – director – Ãsheghetam
Flora Woudstra Hablé – director – Destroy Me, Please
Iqran Rasheed – director – Red Elephant
Paolo Laganà – director – For Those Who Love, Leave, and Love Again
Rhama Corvalán González – actress – For Those Who Love, Leave, and Love Again
Panorama
Faraz Shariat – director – Prosecution
Jose Mari Goenaga – director – Maspalomas
Queer Resistance
Antoine Vazquez – director – Country Queer
Judith Abitbol – director – Hélène Transnational Treasure
Paola Valentini – producer – Hélène Transnational Treasure
Screening and Talk
António Guerreiro – moderator – A Political Consciousness
Geoffroy de Lagasnerie – subject – A Political Consciousness
Léolo Victor-Pujebet – director – A Political Consciousness
Mathieu Morel – subject – A Political Consciousness
Retrospective: Reclaiming Futures: queer cinema through the looking glass
Paul Rice – director – The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions