PREVIEW: FilmPride Festival to return to Brighton

Hello cinema lovers, FilmPride is back for its seventh year, bringing independent queer cinema to Brighton during LGBTQ+ History Month.

FilmPride's mission is "showcasing the work of LGBTQ+ independent filmmakers from all corners of the world". Films by us, for us. The programming spans documentary, fiction, animation and experimental cinema. Respect.

This year's programme promises to explore "love, identity, family, community and resistance", though let's be honest, at least one of these films will feature a coming-out scene where someone cries in a car. It's a rite of passage. That final word, "resistance", is doing heavy lifting, when governments are still legislating which bathrooms we're allowed to use and which books can mention our existence.

The volunteer-run energy is strong with this one, and there's something liberating about buying tickets on pure faith and a great trailer. No algorithm recommendations, no Rotten Tomatoes discourse telling you which films are "problematic" before they've even screened.

FilmPride is community infrastructure supporting its own, queer people making space for queer stories. For Brighton's queer community, it's a space where we're the default audience, not the niche market.

The festival's seven years volunteer-run, programming independent work is genuinely impressive when funding for the arts has been slashed repeatedly. Will every film be a masterpiece? No. Some may be self-indulgent, some will have sound mixing that makes you want to file noise complaints. That's independent cinema, and the hits hit harder because you've waded through some swings-and-misses to get there.

But, even the imperfect films matter. They exist outside the studio system that demands our stories be palatable, profitable, and please 'not too gay'. FilmPride platforms the weird ones, the angry ones, the ones that don't care if you're comfortable. Sometimes those are exactly the films we need.

The venue is St George's Church in Kemptown, it's wheelchair accessible and every film is captioned.

Here are some highlights

A Note to My Young Queer Self: Queer adults offering wisdom to their younger selves, creating an intimate archive of intergenerational care and resilience, allowing emotional truth to emerge without sentimentality.

3000 Lesbians Go to York: This cult fly-on-the-wall documentary captures the York Lesbian Arts Festival with infectious energy, celebrating queer women's community and joy. The film's greatest strength is trusting its subjects to simply be themselves on camera.

River Mama: Set against Jamaica's hostile religious climate toward gay men, this drama weaves mythical elements into a story of survival and dignity. The film makes queer mythology to illuminate lived experience.

Why We Pride: Documentary traces Pride's evolution in UK while interrogating what these events mean for contemporary queer liberation.

Demons: This stark revenge drama confronts African anti-LGBTQ violence with a powerful ensemble cast. The film doesn't flinch from depicting hatred while centring queer resilience and agency.

Old Girl in a Tutu: This profile of queer artist Susan Rennie celebrates her work, influences, and irreverent humour. The film understands that queer artistic legacy deserves documentation as much as any canonical figure.

A Little Bit of Glitter: A widowed woman and her young gay tenant form an unexpected multigenerational friendship in this touching drama. The film avoids patronising either character, allowing genuine connection to develop organically.

I Saw the Sunbeams: This beautifully rendered animation follows a trans man returning to his childhood village, visualising memory and transformation. The medium allows both poetry and specificity in depicting trans experience.

Love Lost: A young sex worker seeks connection and belonging in a men's bordello in this powerful Portuguese drama. No morality just tender survival with clear-eyed compassion.

Clam Divers for Beginners: This colourful sex-positive comedy follows a young lesbian's sexual exploration with supportive friends and a coach called Daddy.

Never My Love: This tense Italian thriller transforms a nightclub pickup into something sinister, examining queer vulnerability in cruising culture.

House Hunters: A lesbian couple encounters a ruthless estate agent in this tense short that weaponises property viewings, the film interrogates how heteronormative systems can turn hostile in mundane contexts.

Magic Cottage: The camp sensibility of this satire skewers public cruising culture through a living-dead cottage scenario.

Black Hole Barry: A young man spirals into sex app destructiveness and encounters a demonic hookup in this cautionary tale.

Sleepeater: This supernatural shocker features a young family conspiring to take over a relative's home with terrifying results. The domestic horror framework explores queer family anxieties and belonging.

The Blossom and the Mountain: This beautifully filmed short explores love and connection through poetic visual language. The restrained storytelling allows emotional resonance to accumulate naturally.

Alma: A woman navigates grief after loss and the possibility of new connection with a kindly shopkeeper and is a tender portrayal of queer middle-aged experience with real dignity .

Apnea: This Italian short follows a young man's coming-out journey within our hyperconnected technological world and examines how digital spaces both enable and complicate queer self-discovery.

My Endless Eclipse: This standout powerful Canadian drama refuses to simplify intersectional experience or offer false comfort and centres an Iranian trans man fighting for survival, acceptance, and belonging.

Kingdom: This wonderfully joyous short celebrates London drag kings.

...and so many more excellent films to watch here.. Seriously, spend some time browsing this wonderful festival from talented queer filmmakers exploring themes that affect us and inspire us, whoever we are. Bravo all round.

FilmPride 2026 runs 6-14 February at St George's Church, Kemptown. Programme details, and creative credits at filmpride.org.