The 12th edition will take place from November 3 to 7, featuring international premieres, competitions, special screenings, and a new venue.
The Queer Porto International Queer Film Festival returns to Porto from November 3rd to 7th, with a program that includes 37 films in competition, special screenings, tributes, and a new screening venue, it was announced this Wednesday.
In a statement, the organisers of the event emphasise that the 12th edition of Queer Porto presents itself as a "reflection of the excellent crop of queer cinema" of 2026, with eight fiction and documentary films in the Official Competition, ten short films in the Portuguese Short Film Competition, two feature films from the Cannes Film Festival, the usual Queer Resistance and Panorama sections, and two Special Sessions.
In this year's edition, Queer Porto returns to Cinema Batalha, Casa Comum at the University of Porto's Rectorate, Cinema Passos Manuel, and arrives at Cinema Trindade.
International films
The official competition includes eight titles, both fiction and documentary: "What Will I Become?", by Lexie Bean and Logan Rozos, "Mouse", by Alex Thompson and Kelly O'Sullivan, "Something You Should Know About Me", by Andy Fidoten, "Lesbian Lines", by Cara Holmes, "Little Tragedies", by Daniel Nolasco, which will have its international premiere at this festival, "Du fioul dans les artères", by French director Pierre Le Gall, "Mickey & Richard", by Ryan A. White and AP Pickle, and "Bouchra", by artist-directors Orian Barki and Meriem Bennani.
The winning title will be chosen by a jury composed of writer and lawyer Joana Ferraz, programmer and producer Joana Gusmão, and curator and professor Juan Luis Toboso, with the prize being the acquisition of broadcasting rights by RTP, valued at 3,000 euros.
Short films take centre stage
The festival also includes the 5th edition of the Portuguese Short Film Competition, with 10 titles in competition, and which presents the national premiere of "No Azul Penumbra", by Tomás Basílio, "This Feminine Side", by Alice Siniscalchi, and "A Vaqueira, a Dançarina e o Porco", by Stella Carneiro and Ary Zara, with the prize to be awarded being 500 euros.
Special screenings
The opening night of Queer Porto features the national premiere of "Garance" by Jeanne Herry, starring Adèle Exarchopoulos, and the closing night will feature the film "Seis Meses en el Edificio Rosa con Azul" by Bruno Santamaría Razo.
In the Panorama section, the organisation highlights the title "Acting Like Women," and this section also includes—out of competition—works such as "The Education of Jane Cumming" by Sophie Heldman, "It's Dorothy!" by Jeffrey McHale, and "Jim Queen" by the French authors Marco Nguyen and Nicholas Athané.
The Queer Resistance, which crosses the editions of Queer Lisboa and Queer Porto "about a cinema of resistance in politically and socially turbulent territories", proposes this year "A Culinary Uprising: the Story of Bloodroot", by Annie Laurie Medonis, "A Song Without Home", by Rati Tsiteladze, "Gays Against Guns", by Paul Rowley, and "Fucking Different Generations", a collection of seven short films with a humorous, poetic and reflective approach.
The Queer Focus, titled "Figures of Queer Literature," will present four recent documentaries about writers and poets: "Cinq regards," by Karim Debbagh, "Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World," directed by Sasha Waters, "Un Hombre Libre," by Laura Hojman, and "Life Story," directed by Jessica Dunn Rovinelli.