FilmPride makes its Brighton Fringe debut

FilmPride makes its Brighton Fringe debut with a curated retrospective of global queer cinema.

Across four dates – May 17, 22, 23 and 24 – the festival will take over Kemptown venue The Actors, showcasing a curated selection of films from its most recent seasons.

Festival director Deborah Espect said: “While FilmPride has been a staple of the city's queer cultural landscape since 2019, this marks the festival's first appearance as part of the official Brighton Fringe programme. The debut kicks off on May 17 with a special screening of the feature documentary 3,000 Lesbians Go to York, followed by a series of six thematic short film strands later in the week.

“This year’s Fringe programme offers a retrospective look at the festival’s most recent seasons, bringing together a specific collection of films that explore the friction between public perception and private reality. Through international narrative shorts, documentaries, experimental works and animations, the selection navigates themes of resistance, identity, and the radical act of living out loud.”

She added: “After years of screening across the city, we are thrilled to finally bring FilmPride to the Fringe. For our debut, we’ve curated a selection from our recent programmes that we feel speaks to the current moment. It’s a chance to reach new audiences and celebrate the voices that are shaping contemporary queer cinema.

“FilmPride is a volunteer-run mission to platform stories often sidelined by mainstream cinema. A core pillar of the festival is its commitment to intersectional representation; the team ensures that disabled and neurodivergent voices are always included in their programmes, reflecting the authentic diversity of the LGBTQIA+ community.”

Tickets are available now through the Brighton Fringe website. For the full programme details and a breakdown of the six short film strands, visit filmpride.org