Pink Screens, Brussels’ queer film festival, celebrates its 25th edition from 28 October to 7 November 2026 with a record programme of more than 170 films, alongside exhibitions, discussions, readings, performances, encounters and parties. The festival will once again take over cinemas and cultural venues across central Brussels, with an extended programme at CINEMATEK throughout November devoted to queer cinema of the 1970s.
Organised by Brussels non-profit Genres d’à côté, Pink Screens has spent a quarter of a century bringing queer stories, desires, bodies, identities and political struggles to the big screen. For its anniversary edition, the festival says it has no intention of becoming more respectable or predictable.
“25 years and still not behaving!” is the spirit of this year’s editorial. Yellow and fuchsia will once again dominate the participating venues as the festival brings together films, debates, readings, performances, artistic projects and parties.
A record 170-plus films
The programming team sifted through hundreds of submissions before selecting more than 170 films, making this the largest programme in Pink Screens’ history.
The selection covers feature films, documentaries, short films, animation and experimental cinema. Rather than seeking consensus, the festival says it favours films that shift perspectives, provoke discussion and challenge established certainties.
Queer lives are presented through love, sex, friendship, family, political struggle, pleasure, grief, anger and contradiction. Short films remain particularly important to the festival, providing space for emerging filmmakers and forms that can struggle to find a place in conventional cinema distribution.
The festival has also introduced trigger warnings for some screenings dealing with particularly sensitive subjects. Audiences are advised to check the individual film information before attending.
Three themes: identity, the city and class
Three thematic strands structure the 2026 programme.
‘I Is Another‘ focuses on films rooted in personal experience and intimate relationships. The selection includes first-person documentaries and fictionalised accounts in which filmmakers turn their cameras towards themselves, their families, lovers and friends.
In ‘Adam’s Apple‘, filmmaker Amy Jenkins documents the transition of her adolescent son. Chloé Barreau revisits her former relationships in ‘Fragments d’un parcours amoureux‘, while Florent Gouëlou follows preparations for the final cabaret of the season in ‘Habibi, chanson pour mes ami·e·s‘. Philippe Vallois films his lover in the fictionalised narrative ‘L’enquête de mon cœur‘.
Together, the films explore queer identities through the relationships in which they are formed, rather than treating them simply as political categories or coming-out stories.
‘When We Arrive in Town‘ looks at the city as a place of intimacy, housing, friendship and collective life. The films move between different urban spaces, from thermal baths and apartments to streets, clubs and temporary refuges.
Anoche Conquisté Tebas uses a thermal bath as a space where two friends can talk, while ‘A Second Life‘ centres on a meeting in Paris. ‘Lucky, Apartment‘ explores tensions within a couple and the desire for a home, while ‘The Crowd‘ turns an empty space in Tehran into a collective refuge.
The theme also extends to the short-film programme ‘Plus belle la ville‘, which explores questions of connection and memory through urban life.
The third strand, ‘Working Class Heroes‘, brings social class into queer cinema. Pink Screens argues that class is too often overlooked in discussions of intersectionality and queer representation.
The programme asks which queer people are absent from dominant narratives, whose bodies are placed at risk through their work and which stories of love, resistance and working-class struggle remain unseen. Films include ‘Du fioul dans les artères‘, ‘Miss Carbón‘ and ‘Iván & Hadoum‘.
Two exhibitions instead of one
Pink Screens is also expanding beyond cinema with two exhibitions for its anniversary edition.
‘Radical Pillow Talk‘ and ‘Queer Resistance‘ explore the relationship between intimate queer experiences and collective political struggle. The exhibitions move between bedrooms, streets, clubs, bodies, archives and imagined spaces, examining how desire, fantasy, community and resistance can become sources of emancipation.
One exhibition will take over the cellars of Cinéma Galeries, while the other will be presented at LaVallée.
Performances, readings and other artistic projects will further blur the boundaries between cinema, visual art, literature, activism and nightlife.
The festival will also host more encounters and discussions with filmmakers, artists, associations, activists and other guests. Its closing Pink Night remains one of the major queer party events associated with the festival.
From the 2026 festival to the queer cinema of the 1970s
The anniversary will continue after the main festival. Throughout November, CINEMATEK will present a special programme dedicated to queer cinema from the 1970s.
The decade was marked by liberation movements, feminist organising and experimental approaches to sexuality and gender on screen, while censorship, homophobia and patriarchal norms remained widespread.
Looking back at this period allows audiences to trace how queer representation has changed, but also to identify struggles and exclusions that remain relevant. The archive can reveal both the achievements of earlier liberation movements and the groups and experiences that were left outside their narratives.
Four prizes for short films
Short films will also be at the centre of the festival’s awards programme.
With support from the National Lottery, Pink Screens will award prizes for the best Belgian short film, best international fiction short, and best animation and/or experimental short. RTBF will also award a prize for best Belgian fiction short.
The four winning films will be screened at a special session at Cinéma Nova on 7 November at 19:00.
Twenty-five years of queer cinema
For Pink Screens, the anniversary is about more than the number of editions. The festival describes its history as a collective project built by previous generations of queer people, carried forward by today’s communities and intended to make room for those still to come.
Over 25 years, the festival has brought thousands of films, encounters, debates, performances and parties to Brussels. Its 2026 programme continues that tradition by putting queer stories on screen while connecting them to questions of class, cities, intimacy, politics and collective resistance.
As the festival puts it: whether audiences have been coming since its first edition or are arriving for the first time, the doors are open, and Pink Screens intends to keep the party going late into the night.
Practical information
- Pink Screens – Brussels Queer Film Festival.
- Dates: 28 October–7 November 2026.
- Extended programme: Throughout November at CINEMATEK.
- Venues: Cinéma Nova, Cinéma Aventure, Cinéma Galeries, Beursschouwburg, Cinéma Palace, Les Halles de Schaerbeek, LaVallée and other central Brussels venues.
- Tickets: €7 standard / €4 reduced at Cinéma Nova; €10 standard / €8 reduced at the other partner cinemas. Online booking is available through most partner cinemas.
- People requiring accessibility support can contact the festival team at gdac_logistique@gdac.org.
- The full programme and updates are available on the Pink Screens website.
