Dates announced for 28th LLGFF

Margarita

The BFI has announced that the 28th BFI London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival (LLGFF) will present 11 days of the best in queer cinema from around the world from Thursday 20 March – Sunday 30 March 2014 in one of the most eagerly anticipated events in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) cultural calendar.

The LLGFF will take place right across BFI Southbank, the heart of cultural cinema in the UK, with all screens dedicated to LGBT content in a packed programme including Opening Night and Closing Night gala screenings, celebrations, sponsored galas, and a full supporting programme of special on-stage events, weekend late bars, DJs and more.

New for this festival will be a special fundraising event and a dedicated LLGFF channel on the BFI Player, the BFI’s new VOD platform, ensuring audiences all over the UK can enjoy the riches of the festival. Full details of the programme will be released at a public preview event on 19 February 2014 at BFI Southbank, and on our website.

The 2013 edition of the LLGFF took place over 11 days and enjoyed extraordinarily high levels of attendance. More than 22,000 people enjoyed over 130 programmes of screenings and events, an increase of 1,000 on the 2012 festival. Over 300 international delegates (press, filmmakers and industry) attended the festival. Visiting directors included Jeffrey Schwarz (I Am Divine – Opening Night gala), Dominique Cardona and Laurie Colbert (Margarita – Closing Night gala), Negar Azarbayjani (Facing Mirrors), Myriam Fougere (Lesbiana), Kevin Hegge (She Said Boom), Michael Mayer (Out in the Dark), Oscar-nominated David France (How to Survive a Plague) and many more.

Directors Mark Ravenhill & Jeremy Jeffs and their subject attended the world premiere of Bette Bourne: It Goes with the Shoes, a new documentary about a living legend of British gay cultural life. Other highlights included the UK premiere of Travis Matthews’ and James Franco’s Interior. Leather Bar, attended by actor Christian Patrick, and the first screening in a generation of the newly rediscovered earliest British gay-themed television drama, South (1959). Evan Davis hosted a reunion of the team from Framed Youth (1983) with a youth filmmaking workshop, and a series of discussion events were held on Pasolini, Chantal Akerman and Global Queer Space.

Led by BFI Head of Exhibition and Festivals, Clare Stewart, the festival is programmed by a team of five programmers: Brian Robinson, Emma Smart, Jason Barker, Michael Blyth and Nazmia Jamal.