CIQFF 2026

Reel Desires: Chennai International Queer Film Festival 2026 will be held August 21-22-23, 2026. We invite  submissions of Indian and international feature films, shorts and documentaries that address the themes of sexuality, gender diversity and intersex variations, and explore how these intersect with class, caste, religion, age, disability, location and other markers of identity.

Please use this form to submit your entry. Email [email protected] for more information. You can also submit via FilmFreeway at https://filmfreeway.com/ciqff

THIRTEENTH  EDITION OF REEL DESIRES: CHENNAI INTERNATIONAL QUEER FILM FESTIVAL, SHOWCASES DIVERSE GENDER AND SEXUALITIES  AUGUST 8-10, 2025

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Image stills and Trailer videos are available at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1wMh57un0lDtUv4ns2e1V-RX0HIKUrFaF?usp=sharing

For more information, contact 98415-57983, email [email protected] or visit www.ciqff.org.

The thirteenth annual edition of Reel Desires: Chennai International Queer Film Festival will be held at the Goethe-Institut, Chennai,  from August 8 to 10, 2025. Reel Desires features films, shorts and documentaries showcasing sexuality and gender diversity issues.  This year’s line-up consists of 15 films from 9 countries, selected via a community-led review process. The principal organisers of CIQFF 2025 are Orinam and Goethe-Institut, working in collaboration with Nirangal Charitable Trust  and SAATHII.

On Friday, August 8, the inauguration will be followed by Amma’s Pride, a heart-warming short documentary featuring Valli, a woman from rural Tamil Nadu, and the unconditional love that supports her trans daughter Srija through trying times.  Other shorts to be screened  on Day 1  include  NGGAK!! (2024) and  The Story of Yuvraj and Shahajahan (2024).  Friday’s feature-length film Neabau (2020) from Germany follows  the life of Marcus, a trans man living in the Uckermark,  torn between the love for his grandmother in need of care and the longing for a different life with queer chosen family in Berlin. Films on Saturday, August 9th, will  focus on shorts that address universal themes of family, education, livelihood, sex, and romance with humour, poignancy and passion.  Highlights include Thet (2025) that explores how  a Welsh father and son  bond over the latter’s  detached post-surgery nipple and missing prosthetic penis, and Tawaif (2023), that examines the relationship between two queer men conducted despite constraints imposed by heteronormative society. Tudo que importa (2024) features a group of adults and elders in Brazil who stand up for  their trans and gender non-conforming children and grandchildren in remarkable ways. An award-winning Odia short, B and S (2025), tells a tale of the tender friendship between two trans women. 

Saturday’s film screenings will be followed by a panel discussion Getting Settled: Queer Perspectives. Panelists, who include members of Chennai’s LGBTQIA+ communities and allies,  will address the heteronormative script that posits a sequence of education-employment-marriage-children progressing towards the state of “getting settled”. The panelists will discuss how and why queer lives depart from this script. 

Following the panel discussion will be The Fab Glitter party —featuring a DJ, glitter makeup, fun, and celebration.  It will take place from 7:30 PM onwards on the rooftop of Goethe-Institut, with entry limited to 100 persons. 

The program on Sunday, August 10th, will commence at 3 p.m. with the internationally-acclaimed performance ITEM: More than a Drag Show, written, designed and performed by Ahon Gooptu from Kolkata. ITEM is a  genrefluid show incorporating dance, drama, and drag, that takes viewers on a journey across cultures, homes, and nightclubs to address notions of home and self.

Following ITEM, we will screen the Tamil Nadu premiere of I am Revathi (2025)  exploring the life  of the eponymous trans rights activist, writer, speaker and theatre actor, through the lens of Kerala-based photo-journalist and filmmaker P. Abhijith. IUS del tiempo (2025) will then transport audiences to the bucolic Asturia region of Spain, where Luca, a young visiting photographer encounters Xuan, an experienced cheesemaker marked by a past full of rumors and prejudices. Through Luca’s camera and Xuan’s craft, they both discover unexpected connections in an intimate encounter between two seemingly opposing worlds. 

The closing feature film of the festival is Manok (2025), a sharp and heartwarming comedy from South Korea that was an official selection at this year’s BFI Flare in London. Feisty lesbian elder Manok flees Seoul’s queer youth culture—only to face an even messier showdown in her rural hometown. With a stubborn and homophobic ex-husband-turned-mayor in her way and unexpected allies by her side, she’s ready to rewrite the rules of home, love, and belonging.

Brochure is available at https://tinyurl.com/CIQFF-2024

TWELFTH EDITION OF REEL DESIRES: CHENNAI INTERNATIONAL QUEER FILM FESTIVAL, SHOWCASES DIVERSE GENDER AND SEXUALITIES  AUGUST 16-18, 2024

MEDIA RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For more information, contact 98415-57983, or email [email protected] or visit www.ciqff.org.

The 12th annual edition of Reel Desires: Chennai International Queer Film Festival will be held at the Goethe-Institut, Chennai,  from August 16-18, 2024. Reel Desires features films, shorts and documentaries showcasing sexuality and gender diversity issues.  This year’s line-up consists of 20 films from nine countries, selected via a community-led review process. The principal organisers of CIQFF 2024 are Orinam and Goethe-Institut Chennai, working in collaboration with Nirangal Charitable Trust  and SAATHII.

Commencing Friday Aug 16, 2024, the film festival opens with Love and Let Love, an evocative short by Shailaja Padindala  (2024) that examines unconventional love in couples of two generations.  Other highlights of Friday include  Prayers for  Sweet Waters by Elijah Ndoumbe (2021) a look into the vivid realities of three transgender women living in Cape Town, South Africa, during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Ili-Ili (Little One)  by Clister Santos (2024) is a charming animation in which a pregnant woman seeks parenting advice from her two gay dads. It was part of the 2024 Five Films for Freedom selection of BFI FLARE, London International LGBTQIA+ film festival.  Friday’s feature film My Father’s Clothes (Anima: Die Kleider meines Vaters, by Uli Decker(2022), set in Bavaria, is a story about family secrets, gender issues and the turmoil of love - told as a roller coaster ride through animated and documentary imagery. Among the films on Saturday, August 17,  the internationally acclaimed  Jodi (If)  Bengal short  by Tathagata Ghosh (2024) explores the  tribulations of an arranged marriage that tears a lesbian couple apart,  suggesting that with a mother’s love, perhaps another future is possible.  Samlingi a documentary debut by Mohan Singh Aulakh (2024) explores queer lives in rural and urban lives in Punjab.   Hai Con Chuột (Two Little Mice) by Nguyen Anh Thach  (2024) depicts the tender affection between a gay man and his crush, on the eve of the latter’s wedding to his girlfriend.  Make-up Majhi Dhaal Ga (Make-Up Is My Shield) by Kunal Vijayakar (2024) is a short music video in the Laavni style of song and dance from Maharashtra. It follows the affectionate banter between a cis heterosexual man and his trans sister as the latter recounts her process of embracing her transness and decision to perform an exaggerated femininity. As part of CIQFF2024’s collaboration with the British Council, we bring you three shorts from the British Council Touring Programme series ‘More Films for Freedom’.  On Saturday, the UK/Nigerian film Egungun (Masquerade) by Olive Nwosu ( 2021) explores a woman’s return to her hometown in Lagos, and her new understanding of the people and experiences that shaped her. 

Saturday’s film screenings will be followed by a panel discussion Surviving Queerphobia: Online and Offline. Panelists, who include members of Chennai’s LGBTQIA+ communities and allies,  discuss the upsurge in homophobia and transphobia in recent months leading up to Pride month,  influenced by the “gender critical” movements and bathroom panic of the global north. Following the panel discussion will be a hip-hop party on the roof of Goethe-Institut, with spot registration and entry limited to 100 persons.  It will be DJ’ed by K. Phani Kumar and team.

The program on Sunday, August 18,  commences at 3 pm with Naan oru Pen (I am a woman) a 17 minute solo theatrical performance by Sowmiya in Tamil, directed by A. Mangai.  The performance draws on  poet-memoirist Maya Angelou’s Phenomenal Woman and Still I Rise, to present an embodied narration of un-making the body, lived experience and resilience of queerness, especially of a trans life in India.

Highlights among the shorts on Sunday include Ragasiya, a Tamil short on love and friendship by Chandrasekar Srinivasan (2024) featuring Chennai’s own Prahasini Arumugam as the protagonist. Love Positive by Tushar Tyagi (2024) speaks of love among two gay men, one of whom is living with HIV.  Melvilasam (Address) by  Hariprasad KN (2024) is a heartwarming documentary of Parvathi T.S and her arduous journey of becoming the first openly trans postwoman in India, and successfully changing name and gender markers in her government identity documents. They/Them by Phelian (2023) describes the self-realisation of a 49-year-old art professor of their non binary identity.

The film festival closes with  the Gujarati feature film Katlaa Curry by Rohit Prajapati  (2024). Set in a sleepy fishing village along the banks of the river Narmada,  a local fisherman, Raaymal, pulls a young man, Ratan, adrift in his fishing net, setting off a journey of profound connection and self-discovery.

As LGBTQIA+ collectives in India advocate for inclusive institutions and reduced discrimination,, we also work to engender change in hearts and minds, a task substantially more challenging than legal reform. One way we do this is by participating in and producing cultures that reflect both the universality and specificity of our experiences.

DAY 1: Friday, August 16, 2024, starts 6 pm

1.1  Love and Let Love | Shailaja Padindala | India | No Dialogue | 2024 | 8 mins 

1.2  Prayers for Sweet Waters | Elijah Ndoumbe | UK, South Africa | English, French and Kirundi | 2021 | 16 mins *

1.3  Ili-Ili (Little One) | Clister Santos | Philippines | Filipino | 2024 | 9 mins 

1.4  Mehroon | Abu Sohel Khondekar | India | Bengali | 2024 | 10 mins 

1.5  Anima: Die Kleider meines Vaters (Anima: My Father’s Clothes) | Uli Decker | Germany | German | 2022 | 95 mins 

DAY 2: Saturday, August 17, 2024, starts 3 pm

2.1  Jodi (If) | Tathagata Ghosh | India | Bengali | 2023 | 26 mins 

2.2 Summer Night's Fantasy | Guby Moon | Spain | Spanish | 2022 | 6 mins 

2.3 Samlingi (Same-Gender) | Mohan Singh Aulakh | India | Punjabi | 2024 | 37 mins 

2.4  Hai Con Chuột (Two Little Mice) | Nguyen Anh Thach | Vietnam | Vietnamese | 2024 | 16 mins 

2.5 Egungun (Masquerade) | Olive Nwosu | UK, Nigeria | English, Yoruba | 2021 | 15 mins *

2.6 Make-up Majhi Dhaal Ga (Make-Up Is My Shield) | Kunal Vijayakar | India | Marathi | 2024 | 6 mins 

Panel Discussion: Surviving Queerphobia: Online and Offline (90 mins)

DAY 3: Sunday, August 18, 2024: starts 3 pm

Naan oru Pen (I am a woman) a 17 minute solo theatrical performance by Sowmiya in Tamil, directed by A. Mangai (17 mins)

3.1 IYKYK (If You Know You Know) | Bonita Rajpurohit | India | English, Hindi and Gujarati | 2024 | 18 mins 

3.2 Nowhere  | Christopher Manning | UK | Arabic, English and Hebrew | 2020 | 22 mins *

3.3 Ragasiya | Chandrasekar Srinivasan | India | Tamil  | 2024 | 28 mins 

3.4 Love Positive | Tushar Tyagi | India | Hindi, English | 2023 | 17 mins 

3.5 Sifar | Edythe | India | English | 2024 | 20 mins 

3.6 Melvilasam (Address) | Hariprasad K N | India | Malayalam | 2024 | 15 mins 

 3.7 They/Them | Phelian | India | Language | 2023 | 17 mins 

3.8  Muscat | Léa-Marie Montreuil | Canada | French, English and Darija | 2023 | 16 mins 

3.9 Katlaa Curry | Rohit Prajapati | India | Gujarati | 2024 | 111 mins 

Reel Desires: Chennai International Queer Film Festival 2024 will be held in August 2024. We invite  submissions of Indian and international feature films, shorts and documentaries that address the themes of sexuality, gender diversity and intersex variations, and explore how these intersect with class, caste, religion, age, disability, location and other markers of identity.

We are an entirely community-driven and supported event, and do not seek corporate sponsorships for the festival. This also means we may not be able to afford to pay screening fees. We do not charge submission/entry fees either.

Submit your film(s) below. Email [email protected] for more information.

ELEVENTH EDITION OF REEL DESIRES: CHENNAI INTERNATIONAL QUEER FILM FESTIVAL, SHOWCASES DIVERSE GENDER AND SEXUALITIES  AUGUST 18-20, 2023

MEDIA RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Stills are available for download at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1vUnmOyBYLb2jvHrljE1D5EPVClwsPGv7?usp=share_link Brochure is available for download at https://tinyurl.com/ciqff2023-brochure For more information, contact 98433-73433. 98415-57983, email [email protected] or visit www.ciqff.org.

The eleventh annual edition of Reel Desires: Chennai International Queer Film Festival will be held at the Goethe-Institut, Chennai,  from August 18-20, 2023. Reel Desires features films, shorts and documentaries showcasing sexuality and gender diversity issues.  This year’s line-up consists of 30 films from 12 countries, selected via a community-led review process. The principal organisers of CIQFF 2023 are Orinam and Goethe-Institut, working in collaboration with Nirangal Charitable Trust  and SAATHII.

On Friday Aug 18, the inauguration will be followed by a short performance by Chennai-based drag artist Nethu Night Neelambari. Shorts to be screened include Chummy Matrimony (2021), Thine Own Self (2021), That Dark Day (2022), Vaanavil (2022) Stiletto (2023),  and Bésame (Kiss Me) (2022). Friday’s feature-length documentary film Who Owns The Sky? (Wem Gehört der Himmel) features interviews with activists from artistic and academic environments in Argentina and Switzerland. They question the validity of enforced hetero norms and their consequences, in response to an innovative Gender Identity Law that was passed in Argentina in 2012. The discussions  are embedded and impressively addressed in art activism through performances that centre the body as a political instrument. Films on Saturday, August 19, will  focus on families in which queer and trans people are born into, forced into or choose for ourselves. These include Impasse (2022), that features the life of Ashok, an immigrant auto driver from Tamil Nadu, living in Mumbai, who is torn between his  life of married respectability with a wife and child, and his desire for men. Binary Error (2022) from Kerala highlights the choice some queer and trans people have to make between their natal families and living their truth. The joyous Russian animation All Men Should Have Shoes (2021) narrates the story of  trans guy Herman, whose supportive mother believes that only men’s shoes will help her son complete his social transition. A highlight will be the film-festival premiere of Ekka Dokka Tekka (One Two Three) by Tirthankar Guha Thakurta.  In this short, three popular mainstream writings in Bengali literature (Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay and Rabindranath Tagore)  are retold through a queer lens set in Kolkata.   Saturday’s film screenings will be followed by a panel discussion Queer Families: Beyond the Marriage Equality Debate. Panelists, who include members of Chennai’s LGBTQIA+ communities and allies,  explore the notion of family beyond what is affirmed by our laws, culture, religion, media, and advertisements. The panel discussion assumes relevance in light of the awaited Supreme Court verdict on marriage equality. Following the panel discussion will be a hip-hop party on the roof of Goethe-Institut, with entry limited to 100 persons.

Films to be screened on Sunday, August 20, include Diva, a fan letter to Diva Cat Thy, a Vietnamese trans woman, street food vendor, and performer, who openly shares her life and struggles daily on social media. Oas (Dewdrops) (2022) is a story of two queer women who broke up sometime back but are still in love.. In Required Reading (2022), a  cis, straight-identifying male and a non-binary person fall in love. Will they find the courage to be honest with both themselves and the world?  Pussy Cruising (2021) tackles the topic of lesbian cruising in a humorous way and takes viewers on a flirtatious journey between vibrant fantasy and mundane reality. The just-released short documentary Transcending Boundaries (2023) features queer, trans, and intersex activists speaking about struggles for transgender rights in Kerala.

On Sunday evening, the play Neela Bhoomi directed by Tamilarasi R., captures the life of a lesbian couple as they strive to make a home together against all odds.

Sunday's closing film is  the acclaimed feature Neubau (German, Vietnamese). It follows a trans man Markus, who is torn between his love for his grandmothers in need of care and his longing for urban self- determination in Berlin.  When Vietnamese technician Duc enters his life, things become more complicated, as Markus has to decide if he should stay or go.

As LGBTQIA+ collectives in India advocate for inclusive institutions and reduced discrimination,, we also work to engender change in hearts and minds, a task substantially more challenging than legal reform. One way we do this is by participating in and producing cultures that reflect both the universality and specificity of our experiences.

Reel Desires: Chennai International Queer Film Festival 2023, curated under this name since 2013, is the latest in a series of over 18  queer-themed film festivals held in Chennai to date, beginning in November 2004. The event is free and open to individuals 18 years and older.

Reel Desires: Chennai International Queer Film Festival 2023 will be held in August 2023. We invite  submissions of Indian and international feature films, shorts and documentaries that address the themes of sexuality, gender diversity and intersex variations, and explore how these intersect with class, caste, religion, age, disability, location and other markers of identity. Please use this form to submit your entry. Email [email protected] for more information. We are an entirely community-driven and supported event, and do not seek corporate sponsorships for the festival. This also means we may not be able to afford to pay screening fees. We do not charge submission/entry fees either.

TENTH EDITION OF REEL DESIRES: CHENNAI INTERNATIONAL QUEER FILM FESTIVAL, SHOWCASES DIVERSE GENDER AND SEXUALITIES  NOVEMBER  11-13, 2022

MEDIA RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For more information, contact 98843-73433. 98415-57983, email [email protected] or visit www.ciqff.org.

Timing: Friday: 6 pm - 9 pm Saturday: 3 pm - 730 pm Sunday: 3 pm - 9 pm

The tenth annual edition of Reel Desires: Chennai International Queer Film Festival is being held at the Goethe-Institut, Chennai,  from Nov 11 to 13, 2022. Reel Desires features films, shorts and documentaries showcasing sexuality and gender diversity issues.  This year’s line-up consists of 22 films from 8 countries, selected via a community-led review process.

The principal organisers of CIQFF 2022 are Orinam and Goethe-Institut Chennai, working in collaboration with Nirangal Charitable Trust  and SAATHII.

Highlights among shorts include Pride  (India: 2022) by  Arun Siddharth,  the animation Stars and Freckles (Argentina: 2022) by Constanza Garcia, Fado Menor  (Portugal: 2022) by Salvador Alejandro Gutiérrez, Fake (France: 2020) by Alexandre de Villeneuve, and An Alarippu (India: 2022) by Talin Subbaraya.

Two outstanding feature-length documentaries will feature in CIQFF this year. Screening on Friday Nov 11, Zuhur's Daughters (Germany: 2021)  by Laurentia Genske and Robin Humboldt  chronicles four deeply complex and life-changing years in the lives of siblings Lohan and Samar, two young transgender women who fled Syria with their family and are now embarking on a very different life in Germany.

On Saturday, Nov 12, we will screen the India premiere of  Blooming on the Asphalt (Brazil: 2022) by Coraci Ruiz. This film follows the journey of a teenage transgender boy, Jack.  In the words of the director “We started shooting in 2016, when we learned that a friend of our eldest child was starting a gender transition process. We wanted to make a film that had the passage of time as a central element, telling in parallel the story of a character and a country. It was also from 2016 that a huge conservative wave hit Brazil. The national context became highly adverse, and culminated with the election of an openly LGBT-phobic  president of the country in 2018. In 2019 we started to follow our main character in several of his daily activities: gatherings with his friends, political organisation meetings, name change procedures, etc. In doing that, we ended up incorporating some of his friends as characters in the film - among them, our son. What we could see was a process of building a community of solidarity and affection among young LGBTQIA+ people in a hostile environment. This process shows the resilience and strength of resistance of a group harassed by the state and society.”

Sunday’s feature film highlight Valentine @3 by Chennai-based filmmaker and faculty member Mani Shankar Iyer, is an anthology of stories of three gay men in different stages of their journeys through life and love. The first story narrates a teenager’s feelings towards his school and college crush and his mother’s understanding of  his sexuality. The second story deals with two gay men deciding to get married in an unexpected context. The third story features a conversation between a cab driver and his passenger.

On Saturday, Nov 12, 2022, there will be a panel discussion on the pressing need for shelter and housing for LGBTIQA+ persons, involving city activists,  staff of NGO- and  government- supported shelters, and community members who have needed and sought shelter to escape family violence.

As LGBTIQA+ collectives in India work to expand inclusion and reduce discrimination on the ground, we also work to engender change in hearts and minds, a task substantially more challenging than legal reform. One way we do this is by participating in and producing cultures that reflect both the universality and specificity of our experiences.

Reel Desires: Chennai International Queer Film Festival 2022, curated under this name since 2013, is the latest in a series of over 18  queer-themed film festivals held in Chennai to date, beginning in November 2004. The event is free and open to individuals 18 years and older.

The brochure with schedule is at http://tinyurl.com/ciqff2022-brochure and the teaser video available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DteOtRHhu8 - also embedded below.

The tenth edition of Reel Desires, Chennai International Queer Film Festival will take place Nov 11-13, 2022. LGBTIQA+ community members and allies/supporters are cordially invited. We will screen 19 shorts and three feature-length films from eight countries, and host a panel discussion on housing and shelter for the trans and queer communities. Also, there's a limited-entry hip-hop party on Sat night that requires prior registration.

The films and panel discussion do not require prior registration: seating is on a  first-come first-served basis. Reel Desires CIQFF2022 is brought to you by Orinam in partnership with the Goethe-Institut, Nirangal and SAATHII. Film festival venue: Goethe-Institut, 4, 5th Street, Rutland Gate, Chennai. For queries, contact [email protected] or 9841557983

#reeldesires

#ciqff

Thanks to all the filmmakers and partners who submitted their work for consideration and made Reel Desires, Chennai International Queer Film Festival 2021 a success.

All films, and the panel discussion and play reading may be viewed at the link http://www.tinyurl.com/ciqff2021 The feature film Futur Drei is geo-restricted to India.