Queer East Festival returns for its seventh edition from 1 May to 6 June, showcasing cinema and performing arts in venues across London.
This five-week celebration includes feature films, shorts, documentaries, and moving image work, exploring East and Southeast Asia’s ever-evolving queer landscape.
The festival opens on 1 May at the Barbican with the UK premiere of the 4K restoration of The Outsiders (孽子, dir. Yu Kan-Ping, Taiwan, 1986), the first screen adaptation of Pai Hsien-Yung’s groundbreaking novel Crystal Boys, now restored to include previously censored material and presented in its “full, hallucinatory glory”.
With screenings hosted at Barbican Centre, BFI Southbank, Centre 151, Genesis Cinema, ICA, Rich Mix, Rio Cinema, The Garden Cinema, Museum of the Home, UCL East Community Cinema, and more, this year’s programme spans fiction and documentary, classic restorations and UK premieres, comprising features and shorts from across Asia and its diaspora communities, including two rare screenings in 35mm.
Yi Wang, Queer East festival and programme director, said: “To look back is a crucial step in understanding how to move forward.
“This year’s programme places a strong focus on queer cinema heritage, featuring a series of screenings with 35mm prints, stunning 4K restorations, and rare archival materials spanning over six decades of queer filmmaking across Asia.
“While sometimes overlooked, these films hold the collective memory of our communities, and by bringing them to the big screen again, we want to create a space for dialogues between our queer past and today’s audiences.”
Alongside The Outsiders, highlights of the 2026 programme include:
- 3670 – a milestone in South Korean queer cinema portraying the hidden codes of Seoul’s gay scene
- A Useful Ghost (ผีใช้ได้ค่ะ) – a wildly camp debut feature from Thailand skewering the establishment and cultural hypocrisy
- Montreal, My Beautiful – screen icon Joan Chen heads this landmark queer Asian diaspora film
- Between Goodbyes – UK premiere of a poignant documentary about queer adoption and the legacy of Korea’s overseas adoption programme
- Cactus Pears (साबर बोंडं) – from the Beyond Strand, winner of the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at Sundance 2025
- A Good Child (好孩子) – UK premiere; a hilariously funny and profoundly moving drag comedy from Singapore
- Johanna d’Arc of Mongolia – the resplendent 1989 classic by lesbian cinema pioneer Ulrike Ottinger, screening with a curator introduction and artist discussion
More information is available on the Queer East website.
