Vancouver Queer Film Festival unveils September program of 100 films, under new artistic director Mary Galloway
Local documentary A Place Where I Belong makes world premiere, while Starwalker musical movie makes its Vancouver debut
A Place Where I Belong.
Starwalker.
THE VANCOUVER QUEER Film Festival has unveiled 100 films from 25 countries for its event September 11 to 21, and online September 22 to 28.
The fest launches with the Opening Presentation: Then. Now. Forever., a program of seven short films from across 2SLGBTQIA+ communities.
The Centrepiece Presentation will be Just Kids, a documentary about three families living in states that have banned gender-affirming care, directed by Gianna Toboni and featuring Jacqueline Toboni (The L Word: Generation Q).
Amid the 37th annual fest’s world premieres are local documentary feature A Place Where I Belong, about a group of people fighting for queer disabled rights, directed by Rheanna Toy, and queer Muslim filmmaker and actor Panta Mosleh’s deeply personal documentary Pride & Prayer. Elsewhere, the event features the debut of sapphic French drama Amantes, directed by Caroline Fournier, and L.A. filmmaker Maritza Navarro’s Another Take, a documentary that follows the struggles of six female and nonbinary filmmakers to direct fully funded features under a new Hollywood studio that wants to shatter the industry’s biased status quo.
The Closing Presentation will be Four Mothers, Darren Thornton’s heartwarming Irish comedy and the audience-award-winner at the BFI London Film Festival; it’s about a gay novelist who is saddled with the care of his friends’ eccentric, strong-willed mothers over Pride weekend.
Under the leadership of new artistic director Mary Galloway, a Cowichan filmmaker, this year’s program also makes 2-Spirit and Indigiqueer stories and artists a strong focus. The 2025 festival artwork is designed by Vancouver-based Cowichan artist Charlene Johnny, blending traditional Coast Salish art with contemporary queer and Indigenous symbolism. Galloway has introduced the new Matriarch of the Year Award to honour an Indigiqueer or 2-Spirit Matriarchal leader in the film and television industry across Turtle Island who has made a significant impact on Indigenous and 2SLGBTQIA+ storytelling with a $5,000 cash prize. And VQFF will also present the hometown premiere of the Indigenous feature-length musical drama Starwalker, directed by Corey Payette, about an Indigiqueer 2-Spirit call boy finding family and identity through drag—based on his Urban Ink production that debuted at the York Theatre.
Actor and activist Vico Ortiz (of Our Flag Means Death, The Sex Lives of College Girls) will be in attendance throughout the fest, moderating several post-screening Q&As with filmmakers and special guests, as well as performing as their drag king persona. Other familiar faces in this year’s programme include Elliot Page and Laverne Cox in the doc Heightened Scrutiny, about trans civil-rights attorney Chase Strangio’s fight for gender-affirming care at the Supreme Court. Lea DeLaria, well-known from Orange Is the New Black, appears in the feature drama Outerlands and the short “Old Dykes”. Comedians Murray Hill, James Tom, Roz Hernandez, and others star in We Are Pat, while comedian Vic Michaelis features in the opening narrative short “Dandelion”. Local personalities incude artist Phranc and business owner Burcu in their respective short documentaries “Phranc: The Butch Closet” and “Burcu’s Angels”.
The festival will also feature parties, performances, post-screening Q&As with filmmakers and special guests, and a new slate of industry events—including the inaugural VQFF Pitch Competition, which is accepting applicants now until August 17. Special guests from the hit Yellowjackets will feature in the panel “Eat You(r Heart) Out: Queer Horror with Yellowjackets”.
VQFF has once again partnered with the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival (which runs September 4 to 14) to copresent a queer shorts program called “Through Our Kaleidoscope” and the Opening Weekend Party: Fuego Fogo on September 13.
Passes and tickets are on sale now, with more information here.
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