The UK’s largest queer film event, BFI Flare returns to the BFI Southbank (and to the BFI Player online) for its 38th edition this month, showcasing the best new LGBTQ+ cinema from around the world over ten days. This year’s festival kicks off with a world premiere of ‘Layla’, a debut film from London-based drag performer, screenwriter and director Amrou Al-Kadhi, and closes with ‘Lady Like’, Luke Willis’s documentary on ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ contestant Lady Camden.
Other special presentations include ‘Close To You’, in which Elliot Page plays a man returning home for the first time since transitioning, in his own first major film role since coming out as trans in 2020, and ‘Crossing’, Levan Akin’s feature, in which a disaffected young man and a retired schoolteacher form an unlikely alliance as they trying to trace a young trans woman who has vanished in Istanbul.
As usual the festival’s extensive programme features several different strands, Hearts, Bodies and Minds sitting alongside a roundup of the past year’s best queer cinema and ‘Best of the Fest’, offering additional screenings of the festival’s most popular picks on its closing day.
And there’ll also be plenty of enriching events alongside screenings, including talks with actors and makers including Elliot Page, Amrou Al-Kadhi and Jeffrey Schwarz, a quiz night hosted by drag artist Mr Ted, an illustrated lecture on homoerotic photography and DJ nights in collaboration with London nightlife crews Fèmmme Fraîche and Club Kali. Check out the jam-packed full programme here.
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