30 QUEERCINEMAD
With more than 110 films across over 20 venues throughout the Madrid region, the festival will honor American filmmaker Ira Sachs with its Lifetime Achievement Award and feature a retrospective of his work.
Queer Cine Mad has become one of the world’s most important LGBTIAQ+ film festivals—a nationally and internationally renowned event with a 30-year history of excellence. Its mission is to continue increasing visibility for the LGBTIQ+ community by reaching new audiences, countercultural neighborhoods, and emerging creative hubs. The vision of QueerCineMad is to keep fostering awareness of sexual and gender diversity through dialogue and cultural engagement, striving toward genuine equality for LGTBIAQ+ people.
This year’s edition will be especially significant as it celebrates 30 years of queer cinema and introduces a new name, marking both a political and organic decision—a moment to reflect on the films we watch and the audiences that gather each year. While LesGaiCineMad was born in 1996 amid specific social struggles, in 2025 queer cinema explores identity with broader artistic diversity and inclusivity. Thus, LesGaiCineMad evolves into QueerCineMad.
Once again, Cineteca will serve as one of the main festival venues, hosting the opening program featuring Spanish short film competitions, reaffirming its status as a Goya Awards qualifying festival. Throughout the week, audiences can also enjoy screenings of international and dissident shorts, including films that have triumphed at major festivals such as: Pojaa, Sir by Deepak Rauniyar (Nepal), based on a true story about a police inspector in Kathmandu, screened at the Venice Film Festival, Salomé by André Antonio (Brazil), which was acclaimed at D’A Barcelona, Apenas Coisas Boas by Daniel Nolasco (Brazil), featured at the Guadalajara Film Festival y Álbum de familia by Laura Casabé (Argentina), a documentary on trans activist Claudia Pia, screened at BAFICI.
Among the Spanish documentaries, highlights include Queer Me by Irene Bailo, a queer cartography spanning from home-video archives to recent footage from squats in France, and Eloy de la Iglesia, Adicto al Cine by Gaizka Urresti, a definitive portrayal of one of Spanish cinema’s most controversial auteurs, featuring José Sacristán, Fernando Guillén Cuervo, Pedro Olea, José Luis Garci, Gaspar Noé, and Luis E. Parés.
German cult filmmaker Rosa von Praunheim will present Satanische Sau, an irreverent and provocative documentary blending autofiction and queer memory to question the boundaries of art and national identity. Also screening will be Janine Moves to the Country by Jan Eilhardt, a surreal and subversive film set between rural Germany and acts of neighborhood resistance, featuring Eilhardt and adult film actor Pierre Emo, who weave together real and fictional fragments of their lives.
The program also includes debuts from Santiago Álvarez Giraldo with the world premiere of Buenos Fucking Aires; Pablo Terrazas (Bolivia) with the documentary Nicola; and Divine Sung (South Korea) with Summer’s Camera.
Reduced mobility
