The annual festival will return to the BFI Southbank in 2023.
It has been announced that the 2023 edition of BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival will return from the 15th to the 26th March 2023. The festival celebrates the best in contemporary LGBTQIA+ cinema from around the globe at the BFI Southbank as well as a rich selection of events and archive titles, and a selection of shorts available to watch for free UK-wide on BFI Player.
For the first time BFI Flare will also feature Immersive and XR work, programmed by the BFI’s Immersive Art and XR Curator, Ulrich Schrauth. This will build on the work of the BFI London Film Festival’s Immersive Art and Extended Realities strand, LFF Expanded, as well as BFI Southbank’s year-round BFI Expanded strand, which both showcase work from creators working at the forefront of emerging technologies, including interactive virtual reality, screen-based installations, augmented reality, mixed reality, immersive audio experience and live performance.
Meanwhile, next year’s festival will also see the return of #FiveFilmsForFreedom in partnership with the British Council. This initiative presents five films for free to audiences globally, and invites everyone everywhere to show solidarity with LGBTQIA+ communities in countries where freedom and equal rights are limited.
Submissions are now open for the 2023 edition, with the dates as follows:
Final deadline dates for receipt of online submission forms and film screeners:
o UK and international short films (40 minutes or less) – Wednesday 21 December 2022, 17:00 Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)
o UK and international feature-length films (more than 40 minutes) – Wednesday 21 December 2022, 17:00 Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)
o Link to submission details: https://www.bfi.org.uk/submissions-bfi-flare-2023
Further details will be revealed in the coming months, with the full programme being announced on Wednesday 15th February 2023.