Fringe! Queer Film & Arts Fest has been run entirely by volunteers since 2011. The festival is part of London’s queer creative scene. Every autumn and throughout the year, they present a wide range of films, arts, and events that celebrate LGBTIQA+ stories from around the world, welcoming everyone. During Fringe! films are screened alongside workshops, panel talks, exhibitions, and performances.
On Friday 11 September, Fringe! starts its program at the Rio with the world premiere of Body/Land, an experimental documentary that uses care-focused approaches to remixing audiovisual archives, interviews, and collaborative performances. The film gently reimagines rare queer home movies by Oscar-nominated animator Paul Berry, kept by the North West Film Archive, along with regional archival footage and five artist portraits that explore trans and queer identities in connection with landscape. After the screening, there will be a Q&A with director Siân A. Williams.
On Saturday 12 September, the festival continues at the Rio with the UK premiere of the Iranian film The Crowd. In this film, a group of friends plans a farewell celebration for one of their own while dealing with a tragic loss. The story offers an honest and vulnerable look at queer life and quiet acts of resistance in Tehran as they try to organise this secret gathering.
On Sunday 13 September, the weekend wraps up with Fringe’s eighth collaboration with The Love Tank and Cutting Ties, at Genesis Cinema. They will screen Out Laws, a film that asks: how do we create the worlds we want to live in, where we can be fully ourselves without shame, stigma, or fear? Sometimes, the only way forward is to cut ties with homelands, past versions of ourselves, and painful histories.
The 16th edition of Fringe! will run from 11 to 20 September 2026 at venues across East and South London, including Chats Palace, The Garden Cinema, The Arzner Cinema, The Cinema Museum, Genesis Cinema, The Nickel Cinema, Rio Cinema, Museum of the Home, and UCL East.
All images supplied.
