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13 December 2022 4:08 PM

BFI Flare LGBTQ Film Festival announces dates for March 2023

Submissions for the 37th edition of the LGBTQ film festival are open.

By Alastair James

BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival
BFI Flare returns in March 2024 (Image: BFI/Millie Turner)

The British Film Institute (BFI) has announced the dates for the 37th edition of BFI Flare: London LGBTQ Film Festival.

The festival, the UK’s largest queer film event will return to BFI Soutbank between 15 and 26 March 2023. Once again, some of the best contemporary LGBTQIA+ cinema from around the world will be screened, as well as archive titles and shorts.

Grace Barber-Plentie, Jay Bernard, Michael Blyth, Zorian Clayton, and Brian Robinson return as content programmers. Rhianna Ilube joins and will specialise in curating films for, by, and about queer women.

Next year’s event will also see, for the first time, the Immersive and XR work, programmed by the BFI’s Immersive Art and XR Curator, Ulrich Schrauth. This will build on the work of the BFI London Film Festival’s Immersive Art and Extended Realities strand, LFF Expanded, as well as BFI Southbank’s year-round BFI Expanded strand, which both showcase work from creators working at the forefront of emerging technologies, including interactive virtual reality, screen-based installations, augmented reality, mixed reality, immersive audio experience and live performance.

BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival
BFI Flare returns in March 2023 (Image: BFI/Millie Turner)

The 2023 event will also see the return of #FiveFilmsForFreedom in partnership with the British Council. Here, five films are made free for audiences around the world and encourage people to stand in solidarity with the LGBTQ community in countries where their rights are limited. Since launching in 2015, more than 20 million people have viewed #FiveFilmForFreedom in more than 200 countries and principalities.

A partnership between BFI Flare and the BAFTA Mentoring programme continues for a ninth year in 2023 and will see six emerging LGBTQ filmmakers offered the opportunity to strengthen their professional networks.

The programme includes access to bespoke events and case studies during BFI Flare, one-to-one meetings with senior industry figures and filmmakers, and free annual membership to BAFTA Connect. Applications are open now.

BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival
BFI Flare returns in March 2023 (Image: BFI/Millie Turner)

Submissions are open for BFI Flare 2023. The final deadline dates for online submission forms and film screeners are as follow:

  • UK and international short films (40 minutes or less) – Wednesday, 21 December 2022, 17:00pm
  • International feature-length films (more than 40 minutes) – Wednesday, 21 December 2022, 17:00pm

A full programme for BFI Flare is expected to be released in February 2023.

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