Admissions to screenings and events at the 37th edition of the British Film Institute (BFI) Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival, increased by 16% year on year, with 57% of the audience attending for the first time.
Overall, BFI Flare saw 28,923 audience attendances across BFI Southbank screenings, events and on BFI Player, compared to 25,023 attending the BFI Southbank and on BFI player last year.
Over the first four days of the festival, 800 attendees experienced the first BFI Flare Expanded programme, a selection of five immersive art and virtual reality works from boundary-pushing LGBTQIA+ artists working across emerging technologies.
The festival welcomed 280 filmmakers and their teams in person from 30 countries. Special guests included Richard Wilson, Chris Jenks, Marielle Scott, Zackary Drucker, Kristen Lovell, Malcolm Kenyatta, Jewelle Gomez, D. Smith, Shamim Sarif, Hannes Hirsch, Carter Smith, François About and Leslie Caron.
BFI Flare and the British Council made five LGBTQIA+ short films from the BFI Flare programme were available to global audiences for the duration of the festival, titled Five Films For Freedom, attracing over three and a half million views from around the world.
The programme featured six world premieres: Kenyatta: Do Not Wait Your Turn, Big Boys, American Parent, Jess Plus None, Willem and Frieda and Polarized, plus 13 international premieres, four European premieres and 18 UK premieres from 41 countries.
New programmers for 2023 were Rhianna Ilube and Wema Mumma, while Ulrich Schrauth took up the mantle of BFI Flare’s expanded programmer. It was Michael Blyth’s final edition as senior programmer.
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