This week we are in the midst of celebrating World Pride in Madrid, the global LGBT pride celebration taking place from June 23 to July 2. It is an excellent time to review LGBT festivals and their calls for entries over the coming months.
The LGBT festival circuit is one of the most important, as it features festivals in most countries, some of which are particularly prominent, such as Frameline, the San Francisco LGBT Festival, which is one of the first festivals of this theme (it has already celebrated over 40 years) and took place from July 15 to 25. Along these lines, the Outfest in Los Angeles also holds great prestige and is currently being held in July, from the 6th to the 16th. In Spain, we have LesGaiCineMad, which celebrated its 22nd edition this year, making it one of the most important in our country and on the international circuit. Its call for entries is open until July 15.
When we speak of LGBT festivals, we mean film festivals that feature themes related to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender community. Most festivals cover all of these, but as with other festival segments, some are more specialized.
There are several examples of this “ultra-segmentation”, such as the Transgender Film Festival, also in San Francisco and dedicated to transgender cinema, which has a deadline of August 1 and takes place from November 9 to 12, or the London Lesbian Film Festival, dedicated to lesbian cinema and held in London, Ontario, Canada, which took place from April 28 to 30.
Most of these festivals do not usually have premiere requirements, with some exceptions, especially regional and national ones, and sometimes international, such as Queer Lisboa, which takes place from September 15 to 23 and requires a premiere in Portugal, or the LGBT film awards held at the Berlin Film Festival (Teddy Award), Cannes (Queer Palm), Venice (Queer Lion), or Guadalajara (Maguey Award), which, therefore, have the premiere requirements inherent to these festivals.
As I mentioned at the beginning, I have been reviewing the open calls for entries at festivals of various sizes, with submission deadlines between next July and August. The list, ordered by deadline and with information for each festival, is available for download via this form:
>>The form is no longer available. If you are interested, you can write to me via the contact page<<
In total, I have selected 19 festivals where you can already submit. Most of them do not charge submission fees. In cases where they do, I have noted them and converted them to euros to make it easier for you to prepare your budget.
I hope this list helps you distribute your film at festivals (whether feature film or short film) and that you have great success.