QueerCine Celebrates its Bold Second Edition with Powerful Queer Voices and Stories

The 2nd edition of QueerCine came to a close after five days of bold storytelling, cinematic discovery, and unforgettable conversations. This year’s selection featured a remarkable range of short and feature films that gave voice to the richness and diversity of queer experiences across the globe.

Winners:

Best Documentary Feature Film:

It's Always Been Me (Denmark) by Julie Bezerra Madsen

Best Documentary Short Film: 

Go On, Rituparna (United States) by Aashish Kumar

Best Narrative Short Film: 

Pink (United Kingdom) by Yassa Khan

Best Experimental Film: 

Born With An Extra Rib (United States) by stefa marin alarcon, Lilleth

Best Underground Film: 

Fifi La Comète and the cosmic dancers  (Belgium) by Kadjou Jadot

Best Super Short Film: 

Shame (عيب) (Lebanon) by Hadi Moussally

Best Poetry Film: 

1+5+4 presents Vibrant  by Blacqwildflowr (United States) by Dev Thompson

Best Dance Film:

Parda (United States) by Akhil Joondeph

Best Music Video:

Yesod (Netherlands) by Lilia Scheerder

Best New Voice:

A Different Home  (United Kingdom) by Jules Lacave-Fontourcy

Best Belgian Film:

A Shameful Waste of Madness (Belgium) by Lewis De Cooman

While the festival is proud to announce this year’s winning films, the heart of the edition lay in the thought-provoking appearances by several special guests to reflect on their work and share deeper insights into their creative processes.

Jules Lacave-Fontourcy, director of A Different Home (UK), opened a conversation on the often unspoken tension between rural identity and queer belonging. In a moving talk following the screening, Lacave-Fontourcy spoke of the longing many queer people feel for the landscapes they grew up in, even when those places cannot embrace them fully. The film's poetic imagery and layered interviews offered a tender meditation on dislocation and memory.

From the Netherlands, artist and filmmaker Lilia Scheerder joined us to present Yesod, a dreamlike music video with drag king Antoine Panaché. Scheerder described the project as a “nightmare transformed into a ritual,” evoking the film’s surreal forest journey as a metaphor for queer searching and cosmic confrontation. We were captivated by the film’s haunting imagery and enigmatic symbolism.

Director Aashish Kumar visited from the United States to discuss Go On, Rituparna, his portrait of Rituparna Neog, a queer and trans activist from Assam, India. Kumar emphasized the importance of grassroots activism and storytelling as acts of resistance. The film’s deep focus on love — familial, political, and communal — resonated strongly with us and sparked one of the festival’s most emotionally charged discussions.

Belgian filmmaker Kadjou Jadot dazzled audiences with their sci-fi short Fifi La Comète and the Cosmic Dancers, and joined a lively conversation about gender performance and spectacle in future worlds. Jadot described the film as “a space opera of resistance,” celebrating queerness through dance, absurdity, and interstellar glam.

Finally, Yassa Khan presented Pink, a deeply personal retelling of a fleeting yet transformative day with his father. In his conversation with the audience, Khan spoke candidly about memory, masculinity, and the courage it takes to reveal oneself. His coming out story — nested within a criminal father-son odyssey — offered a poignant reflection on reconciliation and identity.

QueerCine continues to affirm the power of cinema to reflect, challenge, and reimagine queer lives. This second edition showed that the festival is not only a platform for emerging and established filmmakers, but a space for dialogue, healing, and joyful resistance.

https://www.queercine.com