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SEARCHThe 38th annual Vancouver Queer Film Festival will take place in-person on September 10-20, 2026 and online September 21-27, 2026. We would like to thank all of our Industry Partners and Industry Panelists for their support.
2026 VQFF Panels
Feature Film Budgeting for Producers
- What are the special considerations when covering Gillian Anderson and Hannah Einbinder in blood?
- How do you make it snow in the middle of the summer?
- How do you plan and budget for shooting on film?
Find out all of this, and more from Notable Studios’ Amanda Drake of Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma. Amanda will take you through an overview of line producing for premium indies and budgeting feature films. This workshop is geared towards first and second feature producers, and encourages participants to bring their questions.
Queering Genre Film
Horror, thriller, sci-fi… perhaps these are not genres for the faint of heart, but for the queer of heart. Join a conversation with the exciting wave of genre film directors from this year’s Festival! Delve into process, production, and the peculiarities of genre storytelling through a modern queer lens.
Featuring: Josalynn Smith (Ride or Die) and Mia Moore Marchant (Again Again). Moderated by: Doaa Magdy
The Future Starts Now
Imagine the future of queer cinema. The one that we actually want. Stronger networks, abundant opportunities, sustainable careers, and creative spaces where we actively shape the future of the industry.
What becomes possible when we start thinking collectively? What can we create together that we can’t create alone?
Hosted by UBCP/ACTRA, this panel gathers queer members from the Director’s Guild of Canada, the Writers Guild of Canada, and UBCP/ACTRA to discuss where we want to go next as creators of 2SLGBTQIA+ film and television, and how to leverage our collective talent, resources, and energies in service of queer storytelling.
Pitch Competition
2SLGBTQIA+ creators have something to say and an original story to prove it! Five filmmaking teams will present their pitches for a narrative short film, digital series, or proof of concept. Featuring a live jury of film and TV industry professionals to determine who gets to be on top.
Cheer on the finalists as they compete to bring their projects to the next level!
Roll Call: BIPOC Mixer
Black, brown, film nerds all around! Find your festival buddies at this social for BIPOC folks working or studying in film, TV/media, and animation! Enjoy a casual industry meet-up meant to grow your connections in Vancouver. Come meet the curators of this year’s VQFF and recipients of the Programming Disruptor Fellowship. Don’t be late for the link up!
Ages 19+
Dog Park Social
Calling all dog moms, dads, and puppy parents! Join filmmakers and their four-legged friends for a laid-back afternoon in the park. Meet fellow 2SLGBTQIA+ artists, chat about your latest pet projects, or simply stop by to say hello! Dogs optional.
This year, we encourage dogs to enter our low stakes competition and show! Categories include:
- Best Matching Outfits (between pet and human)
- Cutest Bandana
- Queerest Trick
This is a FREE event.
Trans* Film Industry Social
Films are better when we make them in community. Join trans and nonbinary staff and programmers from VQFF for a casual coffee crawl / tea trot before the Centerpiece Presentation: Apolo. Crawling and trotting optional. Cafe drinks are on us!
*This social is for Two Spirit, trans, nonbinary, gender-diverse and gender-questioning folks working in or studying film, TV/media, and animation. (Yes, you are trans enough.) Come and meet your future collaborators!
FREE
All ages
VQFF 2026 Industry Panelists
Amanda Drake
Aryn Mott
Brianne Nord-Stewart
Corey Liu
Doaa Magdy
Jason Sakaki
Jess McLeod
Josalynn Smith
Mia Moore Marchant
Recorded Industry Panels
Recordings of the three industry panels from the 2023 Vancouver Queer Film Festival are now available to view for free on YouTube!
Cultural Strategy and Narrative Change
Meet cultural strategist Sonya Childress, co-founder of Color Congress; award-winning journalist Tre’vell Anderson, author of We See Each Other: A Black, Trans Journey Through TV and Film; and film strategist Asad Muhammad, the Vice President of Impact and Engagement strategy at POV.
This powerhouse trio will walk us through practical ways storytellers can transform how 2SLGBTQIA+ folx are seen and understood. Join us to dream up a new queer canon. Moderated by: Lucy J. Mukerjee.
Recorded on August 14, 2023 as part of the 35th Vancouver Queer Film Festival.
A Present History of LGBTQ Representation
A panel of experts discuss their work, the progress they’ve witnessed in LGBTQ storytelling, and where they’re pushing the future of LGBTQ storytelling forward.
Featuring Megan Townsend, GLAAD’s Senior Director of Entertainment Research and Analysis, Monica Trasandes, GLAAD’s Senior Director of Spanish Language and Latinx Media, Nick Adams, Vice President of the GLAAD Media Institute, and Tre’vell Anderson, award-winning journalist and author of “We See Each Other: A Black Trans Journey Through Film and TV,” and moderator Alex Schmider, GLAAD’s Director of Transgender Representation.
Recorded on August 14, 2023 as part of the 35th Vancouver Queer Film Festival.
Positionality, Authentic Authorship and Stereotypes
Join Rico Johnson-Sinclair, Director of the Anti-Racist Taskforce for European Film, and Gian Franco, Co-Founder and Chairman of The Stereotype Project, for an immersive and interactive workshop on authentic authorship and positionality, designed to give filmmakers practical tools to enable authenticity both above-the-line and below-the-line.
Using case studies to clarify the contemporary barriers of storytelling under capitalism, the power of the parable and commodifying trauma, we’ll engage in exercises to identify the common situations that breed voyeurism in documentary and narrative fiction, allowing us to have the foresight to tackle storytelling practically and to consider equity for historically marginalized communities and intersections of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. Bring a pen and some paper!
Recorded on August 14, 2023 as part of the 35th Vancouver Queer Film Festival.
Awards
The Festival recognizes accomplished filmmakers through a variety of juried and audience awards. Learn more about our awards and recent winners.
Archive
We have more than 30 years of queer film history to help us to chart the way forward. Visit our Archive to learn more about past Festivals and the enduring legacy of queer film.
