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Edito

25 years and still going strong!

Pink Screens is celebrating its 25th edition. Almost a quarter of a century of showing queer films, shaking things up on screen, stirring up desires, strong emotions, and ideas… and clearly, we still have no intention of slowing down. For this anniversary edition, yellow and fuchsia are once again taking over the cinemas and cultural venues in the centre of Brussels. Films, discussions, readings, performances, meet-and-greets, parties, and a few surprises: at 25, we can still go all out.

And there will be films! Our programming team has spent many, many, many hours poring over hundreds of submissions to select more than 170. A record! There's no question of seeking consensus: Pink Screens loves films that shift perspectives, spark discussions, and challenge assumptions. The loves, joys, struggles, bodies, desires, and contradictions of queer lives will permeate our feature films as well as our essential short film screenings.

This year, "When We Arrive in Town" will explore the city as a place of intimacy and coming together, while "I Is Another" will delve into the heart of personal experiences and intimate connections. With "Working Class Heroes," we'll explore the realities of the working class and the struggles too often overlooked in our queer narratives.

But Pink Screens has never been one to remain passively in front of a screen. And since you can't celebrate your 25th anniversary by doing less, all the festival's departments have decided to go the extra mile. An exhibition? Far too sensible. This year, there will be two: one will take over the cellars of Cinéma Galeries, the other will be held at LaVallée. Performances, readings, and artistic projects will further blur the lines between cinema, art, and joyful queer chaos.

There will also be more meetings and discussions with filmmakers, artists, associations, activists, and other guests. And as for parties and events, let me tell you: it's going to be wild!

And since ten days were clearly no longer enough for our midlife crisis, Pink Screens is extending its run. Throughout November, a special program at CINEMATEK focusing on queer cinema of the 1970s will close out this anniversary edition.

So, 25 years. Thousands of films, encounters, debates, performances, parties, favourites, and probably many late nights. But above all, it's 25 years of a collective adventure built by yesterday's queers, carried on by today's, and already ready to welcome tomorrow's. If Pink Screens is still here after 25 years, you've certainly played a part in this.

So, whether you've been here since the first kiss or this is your first date with Pink Screens: fling open the doors, the queer crowd is coming.

And at 25, they plan to stay out late.

Focus

I as another

Sometimes, real life seems stranger than fiction. The filmmakers have chosen to focus on their own personal experiences or those of their loved ones. In Adam’s Apple, a mother, Amy Jenkins, documents her teenage son’s gender transition. Chloé Barreau takes her camera to interview her ex-partners in Fragments d'un parcours amoureux, while Florent Gouëlou, himself a drag queen, follows the preparations for the season’s final cabaret show in Habibi, chanson pour mes ami·e·s (Habibi, a song for all my friends). Philippe Vallois films his lover within the fictionalised narrative of L'enquête de mon cœur. These films offer us what first-person documentary does best: a look at queer identities shaped by intimate relationships.

When you get to the big city

Here, the city is, in turn, a place of intimacy, home, friendship, and community. The thermal baths become a timeless space where two friends can talk (Anoche Conquisté Tebas), while Paris serves as the setting for an encounter and a sense of openness (A Second Life). The apartment crystallizes the couple’s tensions and their longing for a home (Lucky, Apartment) at the very moment when an empty space in Tehran transforms into a collective refuge (The Crowd). This focus extends the quests for connection and memory that run through the short films in the “Plus belle la ville” program.

Working Class Heroes

Social class is often an overlooked aspect of intersectionality. Yet how can we talk about queerness without addressing the realities of our fellow truckers (Fuel in the Arteries)? Which queer people are forgotten in spaces where the body is put at risk (Miss Carbón)? What stories of love or struggle escape the perception of our identities—which have become almost uniform, stripped of the issues of working-class resistance (Iván & Hadoum)? A celebration of our Working Class Heroes and their battles.

Pink Memories

Hidden, ashamed, and ostracized for decades!

In the 1970s, films began to openly address the lives and demands of gay men, lesbians, and transgender people.

One of the catalysts for these changes was the Stonewall Riots, during which gay men, lesbians, transgender people, sex workers, and homeless youth who frequented the bar took to the streets to respond to daily harassment by the police.

Other factors, such as the sexual revolution and the rise of feminist movements, contributed to the emergence of films in which gay and lesbian characters are (almost) like any other fictional characters, and activist films advocating for equal rights.

On the occasion of its 25th edition, the Pink Screens festival invites you to explore this brief period when screens flourished with films free of taboos and increasingly provocative—films featuring liberated queer people, far removed from the victimization that had been their lot in previous decades.

This diverse—though by no means exhaustive—retrospective is scheduled primarily at Cinematek throughout November.

Trigger Warnings

Once again this year, Pink Screens presents films that have shaken and moved us—films that sometimes make us laugh and sometimes make us cry. Above all, we’d like to remind you that most screenings are intended for a mature, informed audience. Be sure to read the synopses and details carefully. We strive to provide an accurate impression of the films. This year, trigger warnings have been added to certain screenings with more sensitive content.

Queer Expo 2026

Awards and jurys

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