It's gone all Pink at the 2024 London Film Festival

October 2024 By Simon, PinkUk.

Simon Williams takes a look at what's screening at the festival 9-20 October.

LGBTQ+ Londoners and those visiting the Big Smoke are doubly lucky with two Pink film festivals each year in the capital where you can see some of the latest and most creative LGBTQ+ films in the world. Not only is London treated to its globally acclaimed LGBTQIA+ Film Festival, which usually screens over a hundred feature and short films in late March each year, for those who just can't wait, the city’s big daddy of film, the London Film Festival opens for eleven days this month - and it’s Pink too. Hosted on the South Bank, and in selected London cinemas and venues around the UK, LFF 2024 is featuring 16 international LGBTQ+ related films this year. The festival opens its doors on 9 - 20 October with screenings on select dates. There’s also a separate stream of in-production films - one of which is worth noting for LGBTQ+ audiences - more on that below. See the full LGBTQ+ programme

Some highlights

Queer

Queer, the famous novel by William S. Burroughs about an American expat drifter in 1940s Mexico who falls for an attractive younger man, gets a top star treatment in this eponymous new film starring Daniel Craig as lead character William Lee. Sensual and evocative of the period, it's one of the big queer films of the year. A must-see. English language. Queer film

Queens of Drama

Drama queen or not, you might like Queens of Drama, a new French film (not to be confused with the American TV series). It’s a gorgeously camp satire starring Louiza Aura, and Gio Ventura with evocative euro-pop music scores featuring a love affair between a punk and a pop diva Mimi Madamour. Set in the early 2000s, it satirically charts the ups or often the downs of their relationship. French and English with English subtitles. Queens of Drama film

Viêt and Nam

Another international must-see is Viêt and Nam. As its name kind of tells you, it’s a new queer Vietnamese film. Directed by Trương Minh Quý, it's a haunting exploration of identity, history and the ghosts of the past as seen through a relationship formed between two young men, working as miners in an intimate cavern sparkling with crystals. Vietnamese with English subtitles. Viet and Nam film

Don't Say Gay - in development

Finally, a hugely important film still in the works so pre-release and in fund-raising stage: a documentary revisiting a momentous and frightening era in British LGBTQ+ history. Don't Say Gay, directed and written by Sarah Elizabeth Drummond, looks back at 80s & 90s Britain when paranoia about what was seen as the ‘gay plague’ of HIV/AIDS was still intense - a homophobic backdrop which paved the way for the UK's own ‘Don't Say Gay’ law known as ‘Section 28’, the first anti-gay law in the UK for a hundred years.

Introduced by the Thatcher Government in 1989, the measure was thankfully repealed in 2003 in England & Wales. However, Don't Say Gay reminds us this isn't just history; it's uncannily resonant of the present day, echoing more recent homophobic and transphobic laws that ban LGBTQ+ cultural content being introduced around the world, notably in parts of the United States. Keep an eye for when it’s released. In the meantime, watch the teaser; you can also donate to help the film

Tickets

Updated Thursday 3 October
Pretty in Pink! The 2024 London Film Festival has released more tickets after most of its LGBTQ+ screenings were snapped up in its first release. Each day at 10 am UK time from today, Thursday 3 October. Find tickets At time of writing, you can also arrive on site 30 minutes ahead of any showing and there may be some tickets available on the door.

Enjoy!
The 2024 London Film Festival
9-20 October
British Film Institute
Belvedere Road
South Bank
London
SE1 8XT