39th edition of BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival wraps with audiences up 6%, global talent attendance and 6 feature film world premieres
Audiences attending screenings and events at BFI Southbank increased by 6%, with 50% of these audiences new to BFI Flare.
The 39th edition of BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival (19 to 30 March), the UK’s leading LGBTQIA+ film event, closed on 30 March seeing a continued growth in audiences attending in person events at the festival’s home, BFI Southbank.
Overall BFI Flare saw 29,831 audience attendances across BFI Southbank screenings, events and on BFI Player*. BFI Flare was delighted to welcome so many to the festival with 92% occupancy at BFI Southbank, up from 87% in 2024, with 50% of bookers new to BFI Flare.
Over 12 days between 19 to 30 March, audiences enjoyed 56 features, 1 series and 81 shorts from 41 countries at screenings at BFI Southbank.
The festival hosted 34 world premieres, 18 international premieres, 7 European premieres and 47 UK premieres from across the programme of features, shorts and series.
Over 260 filmmakers and their teams from 28 countries attended with guests including Andrew Ahn, Bowen Yang, Lily Gladstone, Kelly Marie Tran, Han Gi-Chan, Joan Chen, Zackary Drucker, Elena Oxman, Laurie Townshend, Staceyann Chin, Lloyd Eyre-Morgan, Neil Ely, David Tag, Lorraine Stanley, Kerry Howard, Jacob Partali, Filipe Matzembacher, Marcio Reolon, Shatara Michelle Ford, Sasha Compere, Onir, Michael Clowater, Charlie Creed-Miles, Rebecca Lenkiewicz, Marco Berger, Darren Thornton, Colin Thornton, James McArdle, Sara Harrak, Dame Kelly Holmes, Leah Harvey, Alexander Lincoln, Jack Brett-Anderson, Anaiis Cisco, Gordon Warnecke, Kimberly Reed, Jonovia Chase and Esteban Arango.
This year’s festival saw the 11th year of #FiveFilmsForFreedom in partnership with the British Council. This landmark LGBTQIA+ digital initiative presents five films from the BFI Flare programme for free to audiences globally and invites everyone everywhere to watch, share, and spark conversations, to show solidarity with LGBTQIA+ communities in countries where freedom and equal rights are limited.
The 2025 film selection spanned from Indonesia (NGGAK!!!/NO!!!), the USA/China (If I Make It to the Morning), New Zealand (Wait, Wait, Now!) and the UK (Dragfox and We’ll Go Down in History) and early viewing figures show the digital campaign attracted over 2.2 million views, with worldwide figures still being counted. The five filmmaking teams were guests at a reception at the Houses of Parliament in the UK welcomed by Alan Strickland MP. Meanwhile, multiple in person screenings and events took place across the world including Greece, India, Nepal, Poland and New Zealand. This global movement has attracted over 28.2 million views in the last eleven years, with audiences joining together to celebrate love as a human right.
This year’s edition opened with the international premiere of Andrew Ahn’s touching dramedy The Wedding Banquet, fresh off its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. The UK premiere of erotic thriller Night Stage by award winning filmmakers Filipe Matzembacher and Marcio Reolon closed the festival.
Other highlights from this year’s film programme included the Special Presentation of award-winning writer-director Shatara Michelle Ford’s Dreams in Nightmares. An exploration of identity, the film follows three Black queer femmes in their mid 30s as they take a road trip across the Midwestern United States in search of their friend who has seemingly disappeared off the grid.
BFI Flare also welcomed Bowen Yang onstage at BFI Southbank on 20 March for a Screen Talk hosted by fellow actor-comedian and collaborator Matt Rogers. The entertaining discussion went through Yang’s eclectic career in an illuminating discussion to a packed audience.
The successful professional development programme, BFI NETWORK & BAFTA Mentoring programme in partnership with BFI Flare, once again returned to the festival. This year’s cohorts of six talented UK-based writers, directors and producers, each working towards their long-form debuts in film and television were: Adam Bennett-Lea, Sarah Drummond, Yasmin Godo, Ames Pennington, Masha Thorpe, and Laura Jayne Tunbridge. Made possible thanks to National Lottery funding, BFI Flare marks the start of a year-long programme designed to equip the participants with the tools, connections, and support needed to navigate the realities of developing long-form LGBTQIA+ work in the UK and internationally.
An impressive list of alumni of the programme have gone on to build sustainable careers in the industry over the past decade, including Emily McDonald, director of Am I Being Unreasonable? (2025); Amrou Al-Kadhi, director and writer of Layla (2024); Georgi Banks-Davies, BAFTA-winning director of I Hate Suzie (2020) and The Night Manager (2025); Georgia Oakley, BAFTA-nominated director of Blue Jean (2022); and Aleem Khan, BAFTA-nominated director and writer of After Love (2020). Several alumni also had films in BFI Flare this year, including Matthew Jacobs Morgan, director and writer of Lisbon; and Charlie Tidmas, director of We’ll Go Down in History.
The BFI Flare 2025 programming team are Grace Barber-Plentie, Diana Cipriano, Zorian Clayton, Jaye Hudson, Rhianna Ilube, Darren Jones, Wema Mumma.
* For the 2024 edition of BFI Flare, the total attendance figure reported excluded Industry Day bookers and attendances. To standardise BFI Festivals attendance reporting, the 2025 total attendance figure includes attendees of press and industry screenings and events.