Welcome

Milestone birthdays are a time for huge celebration and reflection. Over the past four decades, our beloved festival that we now know as BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival has been a site of community and culture. Starting life in 1986 as a seven-day season of films called Gays’ Own Pictures, then renamed the BFI London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival in 1988, the festival’s mission to centre community and artistic expression has been shaped by many brilliant and dedicated individuals, to whom we all owe a great debt. And this year is no exception.

My deepest thanks to all my festival colleagues and the programming team of Grace Barber-Plentie, Diana Cipriano, Zorian Clayton, Jaye Hudson, Darren Jones and Wema Mumma, who together spent the winter crafting a programme that will bloom this spring at BFI Southbank, across the UK on BFI Player and globally with Five Films for Freedom – in partnership with the British Council. As we prepare to stride into our next decade, we’re excited to invite friends old and new to join us in celebrating the joy and breadth of the LGBTQIA+ experience.

Kristy Matheson, Festivals Director, BFI London Film Festival and BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival