Scottish Queer International Film Festival

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Scottish Queer International Film Festival

SQIFF is a charity programming accessible LGBTQIA+ film events in Scotland 💖
Est. 2015 ✨
🏳️‍⚧️ SQIFF 2026: 19th-24th Oct 🏳️‍🌈
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For more details, see our website www.sqiff.org.

12/06/2026

Want to see what the Q***r Filmmakers Group made last month, and help shape what thousands of festival-goers will see this autumn? Join The Q***r Filmmaker’s Group in a creative and practical session making the official festival trailer for the 2026 edition of the Scottish Q***r International Film Festival!

Location and Time
📍Boardwalk, Glasgow
📍Wednesday 17th June from 6:30-8:30pm

Book your tickets here: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/sqiff/2216029 💞

Working as a group, we will use this session to brainstorm and come up with ideas for making a short trailer over the course of the month. This session is a casual, fun, and hands-on way to get creative with a group of other q***r filmmakers in Scotland.The completed trailer will be shown before each screening of the 2026 film festival, and will be watched by over 5000 people.

This session will start with special screening of all the completed films made in the SQIFF 48 Hour Film Challenge in the previous month’s Q***r Filmmaker’s Group.

Accessibility:
🌈 BSL-English interpretation for the whole event.
🌈 Wheelchair Access.
🌈 We have an Audience Access Fund for travel costs. If you would like to take this up, please contact [email protected].

If you have any other access needs you would like to discuss with us, please get in touch by emailing [email protected].

Supported by Screen Scotland

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24/05/2026

Meet our new cohort of filmmakers for SATURATE Filmmaking Course 2026😊➡️🤪

31 participants will meet weekly for 10 weeks over the summer to learn about all aspects of independent filmmaking in small groups. From storyboarding, camera and sound recording skills, to directing and shooting on location, all the way through to how to edit, finish and distribute a film. All the sessions are facilitated by filmmaker .monde and SQIFF director ✨

We had a great first session getting to know each other and our ideas and ambitions for making films together. Look out for more updates on this year’s cohort and how to catch their final films, premiering at SQIFF 2026!

Supported by Screen Education Fund

21/05/2026

Are you a q***r filmmaker? Do you want to meet other q***r filmmakers? Do you want to make a film in two days? Join SQIFF for the return of the Q***r Filmmakers Group for a 48 Hour Film Challenge!

Location and Time
📍Boardwalk, Glasgow
📍Wednesday 27th May from 6:30-8:30pm

Book your tickets here: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/sqiff/2215794 💞

The SQIFF 48 Hour Film Challenge works like this: by signing up you will work with a group of other filmmakers to complete the challenge of making an entire film from beginning to end in just two days.

The Brief, which includes film themes, required elements, guidelines, and time frames for the challenge will be discussed in person at the start of our 48 hours. You will then set out in your teams to make your films. All completed films will then be screened at the next Q***r Filmmaker’s Group session in June (bring your friends)!

The challenge is open for any and all levels of filmmaking experience and we encourage people who are brand-new to film to attend.

Accessibility:
🌈 BSL-English interpretation for the whole event.
🌈 Wheelchair Access.
🌈 We have an Audience Access Fund for travel costs. If you would like to take this up, please contact [email protected].

If you have any other access needs you would like to discuss with us, please get in touch by emailing [email protected].

Supported by ✨

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19/05/2026

🍿 Once again, SQIFF and Porty Pride are teaming up to bring you an eclectic mix of q***r short films 🎉

This edition celebrates multi-cultural intersections in q***r cinema. The first film, Who Will Be Remembered Here, is a brave tale of reclaiming history against the backdrop of rural Scotland. Next is Dissonance which follows a young Black woman fleeing a homophobic upbringing and discovering herself in Glasgow.

Then we have Oceania, a colourful, softly lit short about a teenage gamer dealing with grief. This is followed by a moving animation named Two Black Boys in Paradise that explores the joys and woes of q***r black g**s passionately in love.

Then comes Two Travelling Aunties, the adorable and funny story of two older le****ns from Singapore living out their dream travelling the world together in their van. Last but not least is the hilarious Sriracha. An east-asian drag king and a Turkish kebab chef clash over the condiment but are brought together by their rage towards some drunk British lads.

Then please join us for a chatty informal Q&A with some of the filmmakers, including Aderayo Adenekan, hosted by Nat Lall.

Curated by Nat Lall ✨

Book tickets here: https://www.sqiff.org/event/sqiff-x-porty-pride-film-night-3/ 🫶

Location and Time
📍Portobello Town Hall
📍Sunday 7th June from 7-10pm

Access
🏳️‍⚧️ Age recommendation of N/C 16+.
🏳️‍⚧️ English language descriptive subtitles.
🏳️‍⚧️ BSL-English interpretation provided for the introduction and panel discussion.

Films included in this programme:
🌈 who will be remembered here by Michael Sherrington, Lewis Hetherington, CJ Mahony
🌈 Dissonance by Aderayo Adenekan
🌈 Oceania by Valentin Noujaïm
🌈 Two Black Boys in Paradise by Baz Sells
🌈 Two Travelling Aunties by Christine Seow
🌈 Sriracha by Weili Hsing

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14/05/2026

🎥 SQIFF’s Q***r Filmmakers Group is coming back for 12 brilliant sessions 😱

This project will happen at The Boardwalk in Glasgow between May 2026-March 2027 and will be facilitated by the wonderful filmmaker Erica Monde ✨

Tickets for the first two sessions are already available to purchase on our website www.sqiff.org/events/ 🎟️

🎞️ About the group
The SQIFF Q***r Filmmakers Group is a monthly meetup designed for LGBTQIA+ filmmakers in Scotland to meet other q***r creatives and do everything film. From challenges to networking events, skills development to special guest speakers, the SQIFF Q***r Filmmakers Group is THE place to be if you’re q***r and into film.

The group is open for any level of filmmaking or film supporting arts (ie. acting, prop making, music and sound design…) and we really encourage people just starting out in these mediums to come along.

Join a very friendly and supportive cohort of q***r artists in Scotland making films!

🍿Accessibility
📍All sessions have BSL-English Interpretation
📍The Boardwalk Theatre is a wheelchair accessible venue with accessible toilets
📍We have an Audience Access Fund that can support any audience member with costs within Scotland to be able to attend our events (ie. travel or childcare costs). Please get in touch by emailing [email protected] if you require this.

Supported by Screen Scotland 💞

06/05/2026

🎸 Q***R AS PUNK Scottish Preview 🏳️‍⚧️

📍 8:30pm, 13th May,

We’re teaming up with for a special Scottish preview of this bold, infectiously energetic documentary, ahead of its UK release with . 🏳️‍🌈🎸

Faris is a transman and the lead singer of “Shh..Diam!” (meaning “shut up!” in Malay), an openly q***r punk band in Malaysia. Together with his bandmates Yon and Yoyo, they use their music to fight for LGBTQI+ rights in a country where conservative Muslim policies and society severely curtail human rights and freedom of expression. As discrimination against them intensifies, Yoyo chooses to leave the country. However in the face of the many challenges, Faris opts to stay, determined to continue using their music as a platform to advocate for freedom and equality, refusing to let the pressures of society silence their voice.

Director Yihwen Chen followed the trio for several years as they toured, documenting their gigs, experiences, and wide-ranging discussions. Q***r As Punk continue to use their nonconformist live performances to fight for justice, in the face of intense pressure to and threats to silence their voices.

You don’t want to miss this incredible preview with an intro by .khidir, a visual artist, researcher and organiser working with expanded sculpture, drawing and self-publishing. Rooted in collaborative inquiry and community-building, their practice extends beyond the studio into organising spaces that foreground collective knowledge, mutual support, and slower modes of active engagement ✨

The event will also count with a recorded Q&A with director Yihwen Chen, hosted by Kai Khidir Hassan 🎬

🔗 Book via the link in bio

***rAsPunk ***rFilm

01/05/2026

🎬 DEADLINE EXTENDED FOR SQIFF 2026 SHORT FILM SUBMISSIONS 💞✨

This year’s festival will happen from 19th-24th October 💖

We are open to short films (50 minutes and under). Films must have had people with lived LGBTQIA+ experience involved in the production. We will prioritise films made by people/communities with typically less access to film industries. For example Black and PoC, Deaf, Disabled, working class, and refugee and immigrant filmmakers.

Submission fees are on a Pay What You Can basis. Please choose the submission fee you are able to afford. If you are able to pay to submit your film, we very much appreciate this as it helps support the most marginalised and exploited q***r communities to submit their films and attend our Festival. If you need to submit your film for free, that’s completely fine, and we will treat your submission the same as everyone else’s. Please email us at [email protected] to get a fee waiver code.

The Pay What You Can price options for short films are £50, £40, £30, £20, £10, £5, or free fee waiver.

New Deadline: 5th June 2026 🎞️

📍Apply via www.filmfreeway.com/sqiff

26/04/2026

🔥 1 week left to apply: SATURATE: Q***r Filmmaking Course by SQIFF 🔥

We’re still accepting applications for our new FREE practical 10 week filmmaking course, covering the entire independent filmmaking process from beginning to end, situating practical learning in technical filmmaking and creative directing skills within wider LGBTQIA+ film history, screenings, and readings.

Applications can be made by filling in a short form by 3rd May 2026 at midnight:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1J7jACfjAXUUPhRdSMhdeK3X9uJYgt2rmWBN4LDfadZE

We have lots of accessibility measures available, including BSL-English Interpretation for all sessions, an Audience Travel and Access Fund to cover the cost of travel if needed, and snacks and drinks will be provided.

Supported by Screen Scotland's Screen Education Fund 💞

Check out the FAQs at the info sheet here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1w8i1c9y1UZeQ0q9d5F2sFQxV7r94iM5qv1OtMRNufsg/edit?usp=sharing, and get in touch if with us you have any other questions at [email protected].

19/04/2026

💥SATURATE: Q***r Filmmaking Course by SQIFF 🎞️

Apply now for this FREE practical 10 week filmmaking course which will cover the entire independent filmmaking process from beginning to end, situating practical learning in technical filmmaking and creative directing skills within wider LGBTQIA+ film history, screenings, and readings.

👀 Who can apply?
📍All members of the LGBTQIA+ community who are 18+, living in Scotland and available for all 10 sessions.

🐣 How to apply?
📍Follow this link to a simple form with a few questions to answer:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1J7jACfjAXUUPhRdSMhdeK3X9uJYgt2rmWBN4LDfadZE

🎬 What's the deadline?
📍Apply by 3rd May 2026 at midnight.

❓Any other Questions?
📍Get in touch with us at [email protected]

Supported by Screen Scotland Screen Education Fund 💕

12/03/2026

🎬 SHORT FILM SUBMISSIONS OPEN FOR SQIFF 2026 💞✨

We are open to short films (50 minutes and under). Films must have had people with lived LGBTQIA+ experience involved in the production. We will prioritise films made by people/communities with typically less access to film industries. For example Black and PoC, Deaf, Disabled, working class, and refugee and immigrant filmmakers.

Submission fees are on a Pay What You Can basis. Please choose the submission fee you are able to afford. If you are able to pay to submit your film, we very much appreciate this as it helps support the most marginalised and exploited q***r communities to submit their films and attend our Festival. If you need to submit your film for free, that’s completely fine, and we will treat your submission the same as everyone else’s. Please email us at [email protected] to get a fee waiver code.

The Pay What You Can price options for short films are £50, £40, £30, £20, £10, £5, or free fee waiver.

Deadline: 1st May 2026 🎞️

📍Submit films via FilmFreeway: http://filmfreeway.com/SQIFF

📷 Photo by

Address

Glasgow

Website

http://www.sqiff.org/

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