The Toronto Queer Film Festival is an LGBT film festival held annually in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. [1] Launched in 2016 by a collective of artists and activists who perceived the programming of the city's established Inside Out Film and Video Festival to be too mainstream and commercialized, the event stages a program of independent feature and short films and videos over several days in the fall of each year, focusing primarily on works created from an alternative or activist perspective. [2]
The event is staged primarily on the campus of OCAD University, with some screenings also taking place at the Art Gallery of Ontario's Jackman Hall. [3]
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in Toronto, the festival launched the Queer Emergencies Fund to offer grants to LGBT filmmakers for the creation of new short works. [4]
Midsumma is Victoria's premier queer arts and cultural organisation, bringing together a diverse mix of LGBTQIA+ artists, performers, communities and audiences. The primary event, Midsumma Festival, usually runs over 22 days in Melbourne's summer (January/February) with an explosion of queer events that center around both hidden and mainstream queer culture, involving local, interstate and international artists. The festival program comprises a curated Midsumma Presents program plus the community-driven Open-access stream, and is made up of diverse art forms and genres, including visual arts, live music, theatre, spoken word, cabaret, film, parties, sport, social events, and public forums. In addition to the primary festival in summer, Midsumma works year-round to provide artists, social-changers and culture-makers with support and tools to create, present and promote their work.
The Inside Out Film and Video Festival, also known as the Inside Out LGBT or LGBTQ Film Festival, is an annual Canadian film festival, which presents a program of LGBT-related film. The festival is staged in both Toronto and Ottawa. Founded in 1991, the festival is now the largest of its kind in Canada. Deadline dubbed it "Canada’s foremost LGBTQ film festival."
Outfest is an LGBTQ-oriented nonprofit that produces two film festivals, operates a movie streaming platform, and runs educational services for filmmakers in Los Angeles. Outfest is one of the key partners, alongside the Frameline Film Festival, the New York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Film Festival, and the Inside Out Film and Video Festival, in launching the North American Queer Festival Alliance, an initiative to further publicize and promote LGBT film.
The Frameline Film Festival began as a storefront event in 1976. The first film festival, named the Gay Film Festival of Super-8 Films, was held in 1977. The festival is organized by Frameline, a nonprofit media arts organization whose mission statement is "to change the world through the power of queer cinema". It is the oldest LGBTQ+ film festival in the world.
The B-Girlz are a Canadian drag comedy trio, based in Toronto, Ontario. The troupe's core members are Michael Boyuk, who performs as Kora Harcourt and Mark Peacock, who performs as Barbara Quigley (Barbie-Q); while the third member has varied at different times, with performers including Robert Windisman as Conchita Castillio and Shawn Hitchins as Ivana.
This is a timeline of notable events in the history of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in Canada. For a broad overview of LGBT history in Canada see LGBT history in Canada.
Richard Fung is a video artist, writer, public intellectual and theorist who currently lives and works in Toronto, Ontario. He was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad and is openly gay.
Out On Screen is an LGBT-oriented arts organization based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It began as a small, community-based film festival in 1988 and was registered as a BC society in 1989, in anticipation of the 1990 Gay Games. Since then, Out On Screen has evolved to become a professional arts organization with two key program initiatives: the Vancouver Queer Film Festival, the annual queer film festival in Vancouver, and Out In Schools, a province-wide educational program aimed primarily at high school students, but with program delivery across the education system, that employs film and video to address homophobia, transphobia, and bullying.
The Fairy Tales Queer Film Festival (formerly the Fairy Tales International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival) is an annual event held in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Since its founding in 1999, the festival has attracted over 35,000 attendees. It is currently the longest running LGBT film festival in Alberta.
Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA) was a Toronto-based grassroots LGBT group involved in the movement against what the organization see as Israeli apartheid and is a member of the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid. The group has been involved in Israeli Apartheid Week as well as Toronto Pride Week. QuAIA formed shortly after the 2008 iteration of Israeli Apartheid Week at which queer activists had a discussion about "pinkwashing", or the use of gay rights as a propaganda tool to justify Israel's policy toward Palestine. The group went on to form contingents for the 2008-2010 and 2012 Pride parades, as well as holding forums, discussion panels and cultural events in Toronto.
Keith Cole is a queer Canadian performance artist and political activist. Originally from Thunder Bay, Ontario, he is currently based in Toronto, Ontario. An alumnus of York University's Fine Arts program, Cole has worked in film and video, dance and theatre performance, both as himself and in character as drag queen Pepper Highway.
XUKIA is a queer collective based in Assam, India that works for LGBT issues in the region. It is one of the first Queer Collectives to come up in the North East India.
image+nation. LGBTQueer Montreal is an annual eleven-day film festival, which takes place in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Held in November each year, the festival is dedicated to sharing the stories and experiences of LGBTQ+ people and is the first festival of its kind in Canada.
The Queer North Film Festival is an annual film festival in Sudbury, Ontario, which presents an annual program of LGBT film. Presented by the Sudbury Indie Cinema Coop, the festival was staged for the first time in 2016. The same organization also stages the city's Junction North International Documentary Film Festival.
The Rainbow Visions Film Festival is an annual film festival in Edmonton, Alberta, which presents an annual program of LGBT film.
The OUTEast Film Festival is an annual film festival in Halifax, Nova Scotia, which programs a lineup of LGBT-related films. Launched in 2012, the event is staged in June of each year at a variety of venues, including the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History and the Halifax Central Library.
CINEMQ is a queer cinema collective and LGBT film festival held in Shanghai, China. CINEMQ was first established in 2015.
The Making Scenes Film and Video Festival was an annual film festival in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, active from 1992 to 2005. The festival programmed an annual lineup of LGBT film, alongside other arts and cultural events.
Syrus Marcus Ware is a Canadian artist, activist and scholar. He lives and works in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and is an Assistant Professor in the School of the Arts at McMaster University. He has worked since 2014 as faculty and as a designer for The Banff Centre. Ware is the inaugural artist-in-residence for Daniels Spectrum, a cultural centre in Toronto, and a founding member of Black Lives Matter Toronto. For 13 years, he was the coordinator of the Art Gallery of Ontario's youth program. During that time Ware oversaw the creation of the Free After Three program and the expansion of the youth program into a multi pronged offering.