Queer Porto – International Queer Film Festival is returning to Batalha Centro de Cinema, Casa Comum da Reitoria da Universidade do Porto, Passos Manuel, and this year it will also be held at Cinema Trindade for its 12th edition, from November 3rd to 7th. With a total of 37 films, the festival is unveiling its full lineup today, which reflects this year’s excellent crop of queer cinema, a substantial portion of it coming from the most recent Cannes Film Festival edition. This cinema proved to be in extraordinary form last September during the festival’s 30th-anniversary edition in Lisbon, which drew a record of 11,666 attendees, the highest number in the history of Queer Lisboa, representing a 55% increase compared to the 2025 edition.

 

The new edition of the Porto version of the festival, with a program independent of Lisbon’s, now brings to Invicta a series of films that are enjoying success on the international circuit, the usual competitive program of national short films, and various guests and side events. In addition to the eight fiction films and documentaries that make up the Official Competition and the ten Portuguese short films in the Portuguese Short Film Competition, Queer Resistance is returning along with the Panorama section, the Queer Focus section, two feature films from the Cannes Film Festival that will be screened as the Opening and Closing Films, and two Special Screenings: one in tribute to the recently deceased German director Rosa Von Praunheim, and another featuring the preview of the highly anticipated Spanish film La Bola Negra.

 

Between fiction and documentaries, the Queer Porto Official Competition features eight films. In What Will I Become?, Lexie Bean and Logan Rozos explore the vulnerability of their trans men’s community, delving into their own personal experiences and weaving together the stories of two young trans men who took their own lives. From the United States come two other feature-length films with a distinct indie feel: Mouse, by Alex Thompson and Kelly O’Sullivan, a tragicomic look at adolescence, friendship, and the family ties that keep us grounded, presented at the last Berlinale, and Something You Should Know About Me, by Andy Fidoten, a sweet and funny rom-com from a predominantly trans crew (with Lilly Wachowski's executive production) that blends live-action and animation to tell the story of the insecure cartoonist Al and his shifting feelings for his best friend. From Ireland comes Lesbian Lines by Cara Holmes, a documentary about the network of underground helplines created by a small lesbian community in a silenced Ireland of 1979; and from Brazil, in its international premiere, Little Tragedies, Daniel Nolasco’s new film, a daring hybrid in which the director examines the idiosyncrasies of his small hometown of Catalão, located in the interior of Goiás. Rounding out the official competition are the unexpected romance between two truck drivers in Flesh and Fuel, by French director Pierre Le Gall, which won the special prize Queer Palm Révélation at Cannes; the documentary Mickey & Richard, by Ryan A. White and A.P. Pickle, a portrait of model Mickey Squires, an iconic figure in queer pornography, here portrayed on his quest for personal acceptance and meaningful human connections; and also Bouchra, by artists-filmmakers Orian Barki and Meriem Bennani, one of the most surprising animated features of the year, which tells the story of a Moroccan filmmaker in New York and her affectionate, yet complex, long-distance relationship with her mother, who lives in Casablanca. The jury for the Official Competition consists of writer and lawyer Joana Ferraz, programmer and producer Joana Gusmão, and curator and professor Juan Luis Toboso. The prize to be awarded consists of RTP's acquisition of the broadcast rights, for 3.000€.

 

The 5th edition of the Portuguese Short Film Competition once again presents an eclectic selection of queer short films produced in the national film industry in 2026. Competing in this section are ten films produced in Portugal or by Portuguese filmmakers working internationally. Making their national debuts are In The Blue Penumbra by Tomás Basílio, This Feminine Side by Alice Siniscalchi, and The Cowgirl, The Showgirl and the Pig by Stella Carneiro and Ary Zara, which premiered in the La Factory sidebar program at the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 2025. Rounding out the competition are Abril, Helena's Daughter, by Maria Moreira and Victor Hugooli (a double award winner at the last edition of IndieLisboa), We Were just Brats, the directorial debut of actor João Nunes Monteiro, as well as Of Love and Folklore by Miguel De, Monstro by Nuno Baltazar, The Red I Sowed by Sofia Afonso, Three of Cups by Mário Macedo and Enotea, and Unruhe by Carlos Pereira. The prize to be awarded is worth 500€.

 

Presented in the Cannes competition last May, the Queer Porto Opening Night features the national premiere of Another Day. Starring an extraordinary Adèle Exarchopoulos, Jeanne Herry’s fourth feature film is a portrait of a young, talented actress whose alcohol addiction quietly begins to take over her life, though a tender love story tempers it. The Closing Night will screen the feature film Six Months in a Pink and Blue Building, coming straight from Cannes’ Critics’ Week and which marks the return of Mexican director Bruno Santamaría Razo to the festival; a story set in Mexico City in the early 1990s, in which the feelings that 11-year-old Bruno begins to harbor for his best friend clash with the sudden news that his father has contracted HIV.

 

The Special Screenings feature a tribute to the iconoclastic German filmmaker Rosa von Praunheim, who passed away in December of last year, with the screening of what is perhaps the most emblematic work of his prolific career, It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, but the Society in which He Lives, from 1971, a film essay that critiques the bourgeois aspirations of the gay community while calling it to political action. And in partnership with Cinema Trindade, the festival presents a preview of the highly anticipated The Black Ball, by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, one of the standout films at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Best Director Award, inspired by the life of Spanish author Federico García Lorca and which follows the lives of three men across three different time periods: 1932, 1937, and 2017.

 

In the Panorama section, a highlight is Acting Like Women, by Cheri Gaulke, a documentary that chronicles and critically examines the emerging performance art scene in Los Angeles in the 1970s, centered around the Woman’s Building, a space for creative expression and political awareness. The director and the film’s co-screenwriter, Anne Gauldin, both prominent figures from the period documented, will be in Porto for a conversation moderated by Carla Cruz. Also featured in this out-of-competition section are: The Education of Jane Cumming, by Sophie Heldman, a lavish period film based on the events that inspired Lillian Faderman’s play "The Children’s Hour", starring Fiona Shaw; the documentary It’s Dorothy! by Jeffrey McHale, which celebrates the protagonist of "The Wizard of Oz" as a cultural icon, exploring the character’s significance and evolution across different eras; and Mineshaft: the Cruising Murders, in which acclaimed documentary filmmaker Jeffrey Schwarz (Vito, I Am Divine) explores how Hollywood overshadowed the true tragedy behind "Cruising", the William Friedkin film starring Al Pacino, while also documenting the protests that sought to boycott the film because of the way it portrayed the gay male community. Straight from the latest edition of the Cannes Film Festival and a sold-out screening at Queer Lisboa 30, the animated film Jim Queen, by French filmmakers Marco Nguyen and Nicholas Athané is presented, a fun tribute to the queer community and the bear subculture, starring a sex symbol and influencer from the Parisian gay scene whose life is turned upside down when he contracts a strange virus that turns gay men into straight men.

 

The Queer Resistance program, which spans the Queer Lisboa and Queer Porto editions and focuses on cinema of resistance in politically and socially turbulent regions, and which this year offers a look at acts of resistance in a more personal and community-based context, is returning to the festival with four films. A Culinary Uprising: the Story of Bloodroot, by Annie Laurie Medonis, explores the history of Bloodroot, a feminist, lesbian, and vegan restaurant and bookstore in Connecticut, and its impact on the local community. In A Song Without Home, Rati Tsiteladze follows Adelina as she flees her village in Georgia for Vienna, seeking the freedom to be herself and to live without fear as a trans woman and artist. Paul Rowley’s Gays Against Guns traces the history of the organization of the same name dedicated to preventing gun violence, from the Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando, USA, to the present day, including landmark demonstrations by the Human Beings movement, all the way to a confrontation with the gun lobby and the NRA’s “puppets” in the corridors of power. The German film compilation project Fucking Different, launched twenty years ago, adds a new chapter with Fucking Different Generations, a collection of seven short films that take a humorous, poetic, and reflective approach to the possibilities of sexual and erotic connections across generations in the queer community, exploring the similarities and differences in how boomers and millennials view the world and millennials' views on boomers.

 

Queer Focus, titled “Figures of Queer Literature”, with screenings scheduled at Casa Comum, will showcase four recent documentaries about writers and poets. In Five Eyes, Moroccan filmmaker Karim Debbagh explores the legacy of the famous American writer Paul Bowles from a Moroccan perspective, far removed from the usual Orientalist clichés. Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World, directed by Sasha Waters, is an intimate portrait of the acclaimed lesbian poet and Pulitzer Prize winner, whose life and work are dedicated to celebrating nature, animals, and life itself, while A Free Man, by Laura Hojman, explores the life and work of Agustín Gómez Arcos, an exiled Spanish writer who achieved great success in France in the 1970s and is now being rediscovered by new generations and remembered here through friendships such as those with Pedro Almodóvar and Marisa Paredes. Finally, Life Story is a portrait of the Australian writer and scholar McKenzie Wark, directed by New York filmmaker Jessica Dunn Rovinelli, and its screening will be followed by a discussion titled “‘Okay, But let’s Read It,’ or: How to Write Queer Lives,” organized by Livraria Aberta and featuring miguel bonneville, Odete, and António Manso Preto, with Ricardo Braun moderating.

 

And also, Noite no Passos, where a double feature presents the 1994 short film 21st Century Nuns - starring the gay male nuns of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, with a special appearance by Derek Jarman -, and Hunky Jesus, the new documentary by director Jennifer M. Kroot about the annual Easter Sunday tradition, extremely popular in San Francisco, in which the legendary group of drag queens and activists, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, elect a new Jesus Christ every year. Four of the Sisters, the film’s protagonists, will be in Porto to present the film and host a night of Queer Bingo at the Hunky Jesus Party on Thursday, the 5th, at Bar of Soap. The festival’s nightlife lineup is rounded out with an opening party at Bar of Soap on November 3 and a closing party at Pérola Negra on November 7.

 

Tickets for the screenings at Batalha will go on sale starting October 20 at BOL and at the box office. Tickets for the screenings at Passos Manuel go on sale on the day of the screening, one hour before it begins. Admission to the Casa Comum screenings is free, subject to room capacity. Tickets for The Black Ball are already on sale on the Cinema Trindade website.

Queer Porto 12 is supported by, among others, ICA - Instituto do Cinema e do Audiovisual, and the Porto City Council / Ágora, in addition to key partnerships with FLAD, the Spanish Embassy, the Irish Embassy, Absolut, ASUS, and TVCine, among other public and private entities.

 

Complete Program for Queer Porto 12:

 

OPENING NIGHT      

Another Day, Jeanne Herry (France, 2026, 120’)

 

CLOSING NIGHT

Six Months in a Pink and Blue Building, Bruno Santamaría Razo (Mexico, Brazil, Denmark, 2026, 104’)

 

SPECIAL SCREENINGS

 

The Black Ball, Javier Calvo, Javier Ambrossi (Spain, France, 2026, 155’)

It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, but the Society in Which He Lives, Rosa von Praunheim (Germany, 1971, 64’)

 

OFFICIAL COMPETITION

Bouchra, Orian Barki, Meriem Bennani (Italy, Morocco, U.S., 2025, 83’)

Flesh and Fuel, Pierre Le Gall (France, Poland, 2026, 91’)

Lesbian Lines, Cara Holmes (Ireland, 2026, 77’)

Mickey & Richard, Ryan A. White, A.P. Pickle (USA, 2026, 70’)

Mouse, Alex Thompson, Kelly O’Sullivan (USA, 2026, 120’)

Little Tragedies, Daniel Nolasco (Brazil, 2026, 118’)

Something You Should Know About Me, Andy Fidoten (USA, 2026, 85’)

What Will I Become?, Lexie Bean, Logan Rozos (USA, 2026, 87’)

PORTUGUESE SHORT FILM COMPETITION

Abril, Helena's Daughter, Maria Moreira, Victor Hugooli (Portugal, 2026, 20’)

We Were Just Brats, João Nunes Monteiro (Portugal, 2026, 19’)

Of Love and Folklore, Miguel De (Portugal, 2026, 18’)

Monstro, Nuno Baltazar (Portugal, Egypt, 2026, 22’)

In the Blue Penumbra, Tomás Basílio (Portugal, 2025, 15’)

The Red I Sowed, Sofia Afonso (Portugal, 2026, 15’)

This Feminine Side, Alice Siniscalchi (Portugal, Finland, Belgium, 2025, 7’)

Three of Cups, Mário Macedo, Enotea (Denmark, Portugal, 2025, 15’)

Unruhe, Carlos Pereira (Germany, 2026, 12’)

The Cowgirl, the Showgirl and the Pig, Stella Carneiro, Ary Zara (Brazil, France, 2025, 10’)

PANORAMA

Acting Like Women, Cheri Gaulke (USA, 2026, 90’) + conversation with Cheri Gaulke and Anne Gauldin, moderated by Carla Cruz

The Education of Jane Cumming, Sophie Heldman (Germany, Switzerland, United Kingdom, 2026, 114’)

It’s Dorothy!, Jeffrey McHale (USA, 2025, 97’)

Jim Queen, Marco Nguyen, Nicolas Athané (France, 2026, 85’)

Mineshaft: the Cruising Murders, Jeffrey Schwarz (USA, 2026, 84’)

 

QUEER RESISTANCE

A Culinary Uprising: the Story of Bloodroot, Annie Laurie Medonis (USA, 2025, 82’)

A Song without Home, Rati Tsiteladze (Georgia, USA, 2026, 75’)

Fucking Different Generations, Monika Treut, Todd Verow, Sofia Alvarado, Jo Pollux & Theo Parker, Emre Busse, Jiz Lee & Shine Louise Houston, Kristian Petersen (Germany, 2026, 87’)

Gays Against Guns, Paul Rowley (Ireland, 2026, 86’)

 

QUEER FOCUS / Figures in Queer Literature

Five Eyes, Karim Debbagh (Morocco, France, 2025, 71’)

Life Story, Jessica Dunn Rovinelli (USA, 2024, 10’) + talk with Miguel Bonneville, Odete, and António Manso Preto, moderated by Ricardo Braun

Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World, Sasha Waters (USA, 2026, 91’)

A Free Man, Laura Hojman (Spain, 2024, 88’)

 

NOITES NO PASSOS

21st Century Nuns, Tom Stephan (United Kingdom, 1994, 10’)

Hunky Jesus, Jennifer M. Kroot (USA, 2026, 85’)

 

PARTIES

Opening Party @ Bar of Soap

Hunky Jesus Party @ Bar of Soap

Closing Party @ Pérola Negra