BFI Flare and British Council celebrate 10 years of Five Films for Freedom with 2024 selection

Ahead of the 2024 BFI Flare LGBTQIA+ Film Festival, this year’s Five Films for Freedom has been announced.

The scheme, run in partnership with the British Council, sees five films made available for free online around the world. 2024 also marks 10 years of the programme. Since its launch in 2015, films have been seen by 23 million people in over 200 areas.

The 2024 selection features five short films from the Philippines, India, Spain, the UK, and the USA. They will be available here from 13 March. The films are:

Little One – Directed by Clister Santos (Philippines – 9 mins)

A pregnant mother, unsure of how to raise a child, wants to chat with her two gay dads, but fate intervenes when one suffers a heart attack. Memories captured on an old camcorder help her reflect on their family’s history.

Halfway – Directed by Kumar Chheda (India – 14 mins)

A turbulent couple ends up at different entrances of Mumbai’s Juhu Beach, forcing them to walk towards each other and meet halfway.

Cursive – Directed by Isabel Steuble Johnson (UK – 9 mins)

When a woman on the verge of a breakup gets help to improve her handwriting from a mysterious stranger, she finds the inner voice she has always longed for.

The First Kiss – Directed by Miguel Lafuente (Spain – 9 mins)

Today is a special day for Andi, heading to Madrid to have his first date with a boy he’s met online, but things don’t turn out quite as he expected.

Compton’s 22 – Directed by Drew de Pinto (USA – 18 mins)

Three years prior to Stonewall, trans sex workers and drag queens revolted against police violence at Compton’s Cafeteria in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district. Compton’s 22 imagines what happened.

“Five Films for Freedom has allowed global audiences to encounter incredible filmmaking talents and celebrate LGBTQIA+ stories”

Briony Hanson, the Director of Film at the British Council celebrated the programme turning 10. “When we launched our very first Five Films For Freedom programme back in 2015, the idea was simply to share some of the brilliant films curated by BFI Flare with as many people in as many places as we could.

“10 years and 50 films later, we’ve found that people all over the globe are hungry to see queer lives on their screens; we’ve found audiences in extraordinary situations to be braver than we ever imagined they’d be; and we’ve realised that LGBTQIA+ filmmakers have the ability to change lives with their stories. Bring on the next 10 years!”

Kristy Matheson, the Director of BFI Festivals added: “For a decade Five Films for Freedom has allowed global audiences to encounter incredible filmmaking talents and celebrate LGBTQIA+ stories and communities. I would like to express my gratitude to the filmmakers for generously sharing their films and to the BFI Flare programming team and our friends at the British Council who’ve once again crafted an exceptional programme for us all.”

The 38th edition of BFI Flare runs from 13-24 March 2024. The full programme was released last month. For further details about the festival, click here.