As Germany's oldest and largest queer film festival, the International Queer Film Festival Hamburg has emerged from a cultural free space and is firmly established both regionally and nationally and will take place for the 31st time in 2020.
Meanwhile the International Queer Film Festival Hamburg has become the second largest film event in the city. More than 15,000 guests attend the International Queer Film Festival in Hamburg every year. The special thing about the Film Days is the close connection to the audience and the queer communities. Hamburg's viewers take an active part in the events, thus creating a unique festival atmosphere.
The Film Festival 2020: Online and Offline
Due to the current Corona pandemic, this year's Lesbian Gay Film Days will take place both offline and online. "In a year in which unexpectedly everything is different and many queer events had to be cancelled, it is especially important to us to create perceptibility of homo- and bisexuality, of trans*- and intersexuality. That's why we decided that the Film Days must definitely take place, albeit in new ways," says Hanne Homrighausen, one of the organizers of the Film Days. According to the motto "Streams Are My Reality", all films can be viewed not only on the screen in the Metropolis cinema, but for the first time as a stream from home. As usual, tickets can be purchased for the films, after which the titles are available for 30 hours.
The program: relevant, critical, colorful
The program is somewhat narrower this year, but its social relevance is not. This year, the focus is on topics such as the persecution of people from the LGBT+ community in Russia and Poland (documentary "Welcome to Chechnya") or the Black Lives Matter movement (documentary "Our Dance of Revolution"). The opening will also be a little different than before: instead of one long film, three shorter animated films will be shown. Of course there will be a supporting program consisting of guest talks and talks - also available via stream.
Further information about the 31st Queer Film Festival Hamburg 2020 can be found here.
Review of the 30th International Queer Film Festival 2019
Last year, Germany's largest queer film festival once again presents an extensive programme that takes up many of these themes and is usually more than just lesbian or gay. The Film Days were opened on 15 October with the dance film "And Then We Danced" on the grounds of Kampnagel. A wide variety of films from all corners of the world were shown on the following days in the Metropolis, Passage, Studio and the Rote Flora.
