Live coverage of Norwich Queer International Film Festival has now ended.
Expanding the Map of Queer Cinema
– Charlotte Ward
With the UK’s queer film-festival circuit so heavily London-centric, it’s refreshing to see a festival flourishing elsewhere. Norwich Queer International Film Festival (NQIFF) offers representation and comfort to audiences beyond the capital’s cultural orbit.
Where festivals like the British Film Institute’s Flare offer polish and prestige, NQIFF leans into experimentation and intimacy. Its smaller scale gives it freedom to take risks, programming films that blur genre and refuse tidy categorisation.
The result is a festival that feels both global and local — a meeting point for voices rarely heard in the mainstream, unfolding in venues that still carry the warmth of community.
That spirit was evident from Saturday’s opening film, Hyenas, which began with an unflinching portrayal of lesbian intimacy — a statement of intent that the festival would not sanitise queer desire. Across the day, we moved from heartfelt snippets of queer self-discovery (Crushing) to harrowing tales of international conflict (Hide and Seek).
Defying commercial formulas, these films captured the spirit of independent filmmaking — finding a home in Norwich and helping to expand the queer film-festival landscape beyond London.
NQIFF’s power lies in its resistance to containment — geographically, artistically, and politically. It reminds us that queer cinema’s most radical work often happens far from metropolitan spotlights, where filmmakers are free to experiment and audiences meet as collaborators rather than consumers.
For a few days each year, Norwich becomes a small but significant world capital of queer storytelling: a place that projects the kind of pride that refuses to shrink itself.
NQIFF screens Palestinian child’s story
– Alyssa Gava
The short, animated film ‘Hide and Seek’ was showcased at the Norwich Queer International Film Festival.
It narrates the story of a child who saves his fish after their home was bombed on raid on their hometown in Gaza.
Inspired by the true story of a little girl during the Gaza war in 2021, Nariman Al-Aqad, the film pays it homage to the children “fortunate enough to survive, and to those who were not fortunate and fell during a war that has not yet ceased.”
The animation captures their journey and its transformations, concluding as the child reaches one of the coasts.
The story is directed by a Palestinian filmmaker, animator, and painter Rami Abbas.
Abbas has directed several experimental and animated short films and exhibitions worldwide, addressing humanitarian and social justice issues.
Hide and Seek is also written by Khaled Alsaid and supported by AFAC (Arab Fund for Arts and Culture) a non-profit organization dedicated to funding individuals and cultural organizations in the field of cinema.
Ryan Paige’s Making Up: Navigating familial tensions in the 80s drag scene
– Macy Hall
Set amidst the 80s drag scene, Making Up is an exceptional depiction of tense familial reunions that are steeped in homophobia and a lack of understanding of the drag community.
Director and writer Ryan Paige has beautifully captured what was the reality for many drag queens of the time, where misconceptions and homophobia led to estrangement from family and ostracization. Paige created a series of events that are highlighted by almost consuming soundscapes and atmospheric lighting that, when combined, draws the audience into the moment.
The main character, Ted, attempts to reconcile with his daughter, Cassandra, following his diagnosis of a hereditary illness. He’s faced with her lingering bitterness from a childhood that, from her perspective, was shattered by her father’s passion for drag. As an audience, we’re drawn into an almost familiar familial awkwardness that seeps from the screen.
Between Ted’s desperate phone calls as he attempts to contact his daughter for the first time in years, and his later insistence that he’d settle for a relationship that consisted solely of those calls, the short film masterfully captures a glimpse into the wreckage of a family torn apart and a man who is scrambling to pull the pieces together.
In the last minutes of the film, Paige leaves his audience with a candid and optimistic moment between Ted and Cassandra, with the pair opting for small steps rather than giant leaps towards reconciliation.
The absence of a complete and joyous fresh start for the father and daughter made the ending even more poignant, leaving the audience to wonder and hope.
Koupepia: A story of acceptance
– Mia Lutchman
Directed by Yorgo Glynatsis and written by Sophia VI, Koupepia explores parental acceptance of queer children. It follows a Cypriot father attending his gay son’s engagement party. Though he does not fully support the relationship, he is shown to be trying.
Koupepia focuses on fatherhood but also touches on loss, through the father being a widow. One of the party guests, who is also Cypriot, has lost her families support after coming out as transgender. In a touching moment, the father says, “I would do anything for my son, it’s what family does,” to which the woman replies, “not always.”
These two characters bond over Greek food, language and culture. Through this connection, the father can be seen trying to learn about his son’s identity as he realises all that matters is that his son has found someone he loves.
A beautiful film for queer people, or friends and family of queer persons, to watch and enjoy.
Crushing: A teenage lovestory
– Mia Lutchman
This short coming of age film, produced by Babel Film Workshop, explores the anxiety inducing realisation of having a crush on someone. It’s directed by two Hong Kong high school girls, but due to its professionalism, I would not have guessed that if I wasn’t told. It focuses on a LGBTQ+ relationship which adds layers to the story.
The main character, Iris, meets her online crush for the first time, after talking to her for 4 years. She’s an awkward teenage girl; overthinking the whole situation, practising conversations in the mirror with interview style questions and typing out messages before deleting them.
I found her character endearing, and I also wished I could be her friend and give her advice on how to handle the situation.
The film ends with the two girls meeting. The second their eyes meet, the viewer knows that none of that anxiety was needed. The chemistry can instantly be felt between them.
Directors Maya Barreto and Ema Poposka said: “The biggest message of the film is to trust your friends, trust yourself, put yourself out there, and don’t be afraid of your true self, if you love yourself, your friends will love you as well.”
Film festival praised for “unseen queer voices”
– Alyssa Gava
The Norwich Queer International Film Festival has been praised by audiences according to the Lead Curator, Sarah Godfrey.
She said: “We’ve had loads of amazing responses.
“People are excited to see stories that they’re not seeing in the mainstream.
“They’re wanting to see different ways of telling stories, forms and playing around with genre and the types of queer people we see.”
Mind in motion: Tortor Smith’s Hot Mess
– Charlotte Ward
Hot Mess, a short, animated film from British director Tortor Smith, immerses viewers in the restless interior of an ADHD mind. The film’s domestic setting — a floor littered with laundry, abandoned hobbies, and a box labelled with childhood dreams — becomes a vivid reflection of mental clutter and emotional overwhelm. The home mirrors the mind: familiar yet fraught, tender yet suffocating.
As Smith writes in her director’s statement on FilmFreeway, “Our brain chemistry is simply not designed to be neat…” That sentiment anchors the chaos onscreen, as a toxic maternal voice threads through the disorder – at once comforting and corrosive.
External and internal worlds meld together: the maternal presence and the supposed comfort of the home coexist in constant tension, while the essence of the self feels as boxed in as those discarded childhood dreams.
Through jittering animation and a sharply empathetic gaze, Hot Mess emerges as a vivid portrait of neurodivergence — capturing the impossible search for calm amid perpetual motion.
Norwich Queer International Film Festival returns to UEA
– Alyssa Gava
Norwich Queer International Film Festival is screening at the drama studio on UEA campus for its second year.
The free event will run from 10th – 12th October and showcases short films no longer than 20 minutes. The films include a range of genres from superhero to horror and animation.
Its programming also explores underrepresented cultural narratives such as the experiences of Palestinian youth told through animation, gender non-conformity in India and Bangladesh, and neurodivergent mental health.
Lead Curator of the Festival, Sarah Godfrey, is leading the event and talks with the directors of some of the films.
Free tickets and refreshments are available upon arrival.
Norwich Queer International Film Festival has returned to the city for a second year.
Follow us here for the latest updates on the event.
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