Vancouver Queer Film Festival 2025
The 37th annual edition of the Vancouver Queer Film Festival (VQFF) will take place in person September 11-21, 2025, and online September 22-28, 2025, with screenings, parties, industry panels, Q&As, and networking socials.
Guests | Programme Highlights | Special Events
Vancouver Queer Film Festival
- Dates: September 11-21 in person, and online September 22-28, 2025
- Location: International Village and various venues in Vancouver
- Tickets: Passes and tickets are on sale now.
- All individual tickets are sliding scale from $7-$21.
- Digital Pass is $100. Festival Pass is available at $100 (accessible pricing) or $195 (regular price). Select films will be available to stream online within BC.
They have just announced a programme with over 150 artists and special guests who will be in attendance this year, including filmmakers, performers, panelists, hosts, award jurors, and pitch competition finalists.
Programme Highlights
- Mary Galloway not only has a short film at the festival, but has made some big changes this year as the first Indigenous Festival Director. She has introduced the Matriarch of the Year Award and aims to Indigenize the festival moving forward. Mary was selected as a TIFF Rising star for her work in the award-winning Never Steady, Never Still alongside Shirley Henderson and Theodore Pellerin and is a filmmaker herself who directed the CBC Documentary The Cowichan Sweater: Our Knitted Legacy and starred in and directed the webseries Querencia amongst many other credits and accolades.
- Pride & Prayer – World Premiere Documentary from local Canadian-Kurdish filmmaker and actor Panta Mosleh. Panta is a Graduate from Groundlings School of Comedy in Los Angeles and a recipient of the 2021 SNL scholarship, she is a Queer Muslim Middle Eastern- Canadian Writer-Producer-Director-Actress who is based in Vancouver. She is an Alumni of the women in director’s chair and is currently part of the Emerging top 20 writers in Canada program with Reelworld. She has worked in production for a decade not only as a performer (The Last of Us, A24’s Eternity – TIFF 2025), but as a production coordinator, production manager, producer and a director as well.
- Starwalker – Corey Payette is a Vancouver-based Anishinaabe writer, composer, and director whose large-scale musicals challenge what the genre can be; rooted in Indigenous narratives and sparking meaningful dialogue. His latest feature, Starwalker (2025), is an Indigi-Queer musical celebrating drag, identity, and resilience and has already been called “a beacon of fabulous joy!” (exclaim! Magazine) on the festival circuit, and featured in The Hollywood Reporter garnering acclaim for its originality, heart, and catchy music.
- A Place Where I Belong – Documentary World Premiere/Hometown premiere and feature debut from Vancouver director Rheanna Toy. Facing a system that fails to recognize their full humanity, six 2SLGBTQIA+ people with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities fight for visibility, love, and freedom through a radical program that’s at risk of disappearing.
Special Guests & Appearances
Actor and multi-disciplinary artist Vico Ortiz (Our Flag Means Death, Sex Lives of College Girls) will be in attendance throughout as the Festival’s “Hosting Hottie Festival Darling”, hosting, moderating Q&As, and performing in their drag king persona. Other notable names in attendance include actor Lea Delaria (Orange is the New Black) for the world premiere of the short film Old Dykes, alongside director-writer Ezra Rose; and actor Johnny Wu (Joy Ride) with director Jason Sakaki for the BC Premiere of short Ramen Boys.
International artists in attendance include: Emmy-award-winning American producer Samantha Wender and documentary editor Sasha Perry with this year’s Centrepiece Presentation: Just Kids; German directors Isis Rampf and Juan Bermudez (Where You Find Me (Oben Ohne)); American documentary filmmaker Courtney Hermann (Outliers and Outlaws); Emmy-nominated filmmaker Jota Mun (Between Goodbyes). Special guest Debra K Madsen will be in attendance for the screening and Q&A of Row of Life about her late wife, Paralympian medalist Angela Madsen’s fatal attempt to row unassisted from Los Angeles to Hawai’i.
Additional Events
The Opening Weekend Party: FUEGO/FOGO at The Birdhouse on Saturday, September 13th, co-presented with the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival will feature performances from Vico Ortiz, Salseo Queer Dance, additional drag and vogueing performances, and DJ sets from DJ Millie Wissar and DJ Sopresa.
The Closing Weekend Party at the Birdhouse on Saturday, September 20th will feature a live music performance from Tahltan and Tlingit musician Edzi’u, drag performances from Velvet Ryder and Vico Ortiz, and DJ sets from DJ O Show and Binky. Ortiz will also be hosting.
Two Indigenous ensembles, the Indigenous women musical ensemble M’Girl and the award-winning all-Indigenous burlesque troupe Virago Nation Burlesque, will kick off the Opening night program with live performances at the Vancouver Playhouse on Thursday, September 11th.
Canada’s Drag Race S4 star and legendary local Two-Spirit drag queen Jaylene Tyme will perform alongside fellow drag artists Whore-ia Estefan and Amanda Peters at the world premiere of A Place Where I Belong on Sunday, September 14th, the latter–who goes by Peter out of drag–is also a subject of the film.
There will also be industry panels and the pitch competition. Follow VQFF on Facebook for more information.
About Out on Screen
VQFF is presented by Out on Screen, a non-profit that illuminates, celebrates, and transforms 2SLGBTQIA+ lives through film, education, and dialogue. They pursue our mission with two core programs: The annual Vancouver Queer Film Festival; and the award-winning Out In Schools program brings age-appropriate 2SLGBTQIA+ cinema into school classrooms and communities across BC to combat anti-trans and anti-gay sentiments and bullying, and to provide the language and tools for inclusion. Out On Screen works to create an equitable society where 2SLGBTQIA+ people are respected, valued, and protected across all our intersections of identity.
