The 39th edition of BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival, one of the world’s most significant and long-standing queer film events in the LGBTQIA+ calendar recently revealed its full program, with general tickets to go on sale February 27th.
As previously announced, BFI Flare will open on March 19th with the International Premiere of The Wedding Banquet, Andrew Ahn’s joyful comedy of errors which recently had its World Premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. With a pitch- perfect cast of multigenerational talent that includes Bowen Yang, Academy Award nominee Lily Gladstone, Kelly Marie Tran, Han Gi-Chan, Joan Chen, and Academy Award winner Youn Yuh-Jung, this fresh reimagining of Ang Lee’s beloved rom-com teems with humor and heart is a poignant reminder that being part of a family means learning to both accept and forgive.
BFI Flare will take place once again at the BFI Southbank which, alongside packed screenings, will be buzzing with special events and DJ nights during the festival. Now in its 11th year in partnership with the British Council, ‘Five Films For Freedom’ presents five shorts selected from the festival line-up to audiences globally for the duration of the festival. Five Films For Freedom is promoted across the British Council’s global digital networks as well as on BFI Player for UK-wide audiences. BFI Flare is divided into three thematic program strands: Hearts, Bodies and Minds. This year the festival will present 34 World Premieres (across features and shorts) with 56 features, 1 series and 81 shorts from 41 countries. Tickets go on sale on 25 February for BFI Members and on general sale from 27 February, on the BFI Flare website. The festival will take place from March 19-30, 2025.
The #FiveFilmsForFreedom is a landmark international initiative presents five films from the BFI Flare shorts program, available for free online to audiences globally for the duration of the festival and invites everyone everywhere to show solidarity with LGBTQIA+ communities in countries where freedom and equal rights are limited. The 2024 LGBTQIA+ digital campaign attracted over three million views from around the world with a quarter of views coming from parts of the world where freedom and equal rights are limited. The project allows audiences worldwide to show solidarity with LGBTQIA+ communities and the 2024 selection spanned films from the Philippines, India, Spain, USA and the UK with each story celebrating love as a human right. This year’s selection features films from the UK, the US, Indonesia and New Zealand.
The closing night film is the UK premiere of multi award-winning writer-directors Filipe Matzembacher’s and Marcio Reolon’s Night Stage. This thrilling tale follows an actor and a politician who begin a secret affair and discover they both have a fetish for having sex in public places. However, the closer they get to their dream of fame, the more they feel the urge to put themselves at risk.
The BFI Flare 2025 Programming team is made up of Grace Barber-Plentie, Diana Cipriano, Zorian Clayton, Jaye Hudson, Rhianna Ilube, Darren Jones and Wema Mumma.
BFI Flare Programmers said: “Flare is a place for community, thought and discussion through film and this year we have an abundance of cinematic riches and events to spark endless conversation. We can’t wait to welcome talents from the UK and across the globe to share these incredible stories with audiences this March.”
Other notables screening this year' at the BFI Flare include Luca Guadagnino’s stunning Queer, starring Daniel Craig as expat writer Lee who falls for the young and elusive Allerton in 1950’s Mexico. The film is a personal favorite, perhaps because of what the BFI Flare’s press release calls “an evocative depiction of loneliness and infatuation.”
Also Will & Harper, the BAFTA nominated documentary about the extraordinary lifelong friendship between actor and comedian Will Farrell and SNL writer Harper Steele.
And fresh from Berlinale, Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s directorial debut Hot Milk, starring Emma Mackey, Fiona Shaw and Vicky Krieps. The film is an atmospheric adaptation of Deborah Levy’s Booker Prize-nominated novel by the same name.
Finally, from the SWANA region, Mea Culpa, a film which traces the personal journey of director Patrick Tass’ complex family history across Lebanon and Belgium, leading him to discover the intersections between sexuality and nationality. And the short film Pink by Yassa Khan, starring Gordan Warnecke who achieved worldwide fame for having played Omar alongside Daniel Day-Lewis in the Oscar-nominated My Beautiful Laundrette. And of course, Onir’s We Are Faheem & Karun which features the story of a romance between a South Indian security man with a young Kashmiri man, told by the creator of the touching 2005 film My Brother… Nikhil.
Check out the BFI Flare website for tickets and the full program.