Queer East London Festival is back for its seventh edition, showcasing film and performing arts at venues across the British capital From May 1 to June 6.
The annual exploration of the ever-evolving exotic landscapes of East and Southeast Asia will begin at the Barbican with the UK premiere of the historic 4K restoration of the 1986 Taiwanese film Strangersthe first screen adaptation of Pai Hsien Yeung’s groundbreaking novel Crystal BoysWhich was directed by Yu Kan Ping. The restored version includes previously censored material, with Queer East Festival pledging to present it “in all its hallucinatory glory.”
Other highlights of the seventh edition include the likes of Park Joon Ho 3670which the festival described as “a milestone in South Korean cinema, depicting the hidden codes of Seoul’s gay scene”, Ratchapum Boonponchachuk’s feature debut and Thailand’s submission for an international Oscar. Useful ghosta Thai film that slanders “the establishment and cultural hypocrisy,” says Xiaodan He Montreal, my beautifulstarring screen icon Joan Chen on a cinematic journey of self-discovery, by Jutta Moon Between goodbyesas a documentary about gay adoption and the legacy of South Korea’s overseas adoption program, and Tracy Choi’s coming-of-age drama Girlfriends.
Also part of Queer East 2026 are the likes of Kuo-Sin Ong’s Singaporean drag comedy Good kidNigel Santos Open endingsa drama about four strange women navigating love, sex, and chosen families, Yihwen Chen’s Strange as a villaina documentary about a punk band, led by a trans man, in Malaysia where being LGBTQ+ is criminalized, the 1989 classic by lesbian cinema pioneer Ulrike Oettinger Joanna Dark from Mongoliaand Cactus pearRohan Kanawade’s debut feature film and winner of the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at Sundance 2025.
Alongside the film programme, Queer East offers talks, workshops, live performances and a late-night concert on May 16. Also, the second edition of Queer East Industry Day at BFI Southbank on 24 May will bring together film professionals from diverse backgrounds to discuss “current challenges in the production and exhibition of independent and Asian films”.
Of this year’s mix of feature and short films from across Asia and diaspora communities and its mix of newer and older films, Queer East Festival Program Director Yi Wang said: “Looking back is a crucial step in understanding how to move forward. This year’s program places a strong focus on the legacy of queer cinema, featuring a series of screenings on 35mm prints, stunning 4K restorations, and rare archival materials spanning six decades of queer filmmaking across Asia. Overlooked, these films hold the collective memory of our communities, and by showing them on the big screen again, we want to create a space for dialogue between our queer past and today’s audiences.
THR I spoke with the festival programmer about the Queer East 2026 lineup, how the festival came about and how it has evolved since then.
Why and how did you decide to establish the Queer Orient Festival? How far do you feel you have come?
The idea of creating Queer East was entirely personal. I was actually working in the performing arts, like theater productions and dance, and I didn’t have any direct connection to cinema. But as someone who immigrated to London [from Taiwan] In 2014 for my master’s degree and I’m someone who’s always been very keen on gay cinema, I haven’t really seen a lot of gay cinema in East and Southeast Asia. We see a lot of classics, like Wong Kar-wai Happy together And Ang Lee Wedding feast. But it’s rare to see more contemporary Asian cinema. I had the idea of doing it if no one else did.
I just don’t want to do it myself. I reached out to people, talked to different cinema curators, and then put together the idea for Queer East which was originally scheduled to be made in April 2020. Obviously, the pandemic was there. So, we couldn’t really do the festival as we originally intended, but we had online screenings and we were still able to do some in-person screenings and we had a lot of interest. And I really liked the idea of bringing Eastern and Southeast Asian cinema together. It started as an idea for a small weekend show, but now that we’re one of the biggest gay Asian festivals in the UK, it’s been an amazing journey for me.
How did the number of films shown at the festival increase?
This year we have 130 films, including [more than 90] panties. I think the first year it was about 15 films. Now, we work with 14 venues in London, including BFI Southbank, Barbican and ICA.
Your festival has a really diverse program covering films from different genres and countries. Have you noticed any obstacles or so to queer Asian cinema in Asia or elsewhere?
In Asian countries, including heavily censored Thailand, the Philippines and even Vietnam, queer cinema is being produced every year. I think it has more to do with expectations in the West. Sometimes people still think that Asian cinema is only supposed to focus on art films, high culture, or serious political films.
My idea of queer is that there should be films that talk about social, societal and political issues, but also comedies and romances. So it has a broader base. Part of the reason I created Queer East is because I feel it’s very important to look at queer cinema in a three-dimensional way. There is such a great variety. That’s why we have so many films from different countries that talk about different perspectives on queerness.
Revealing this year’s lineup, it highlighted how cinema’s past can help inform the future…
Yes, cinematic heritage and film archives have been a key focus of my organisation. We show films that would never have had the opportunity to gain an international presence, and every year we try to introduce rarely seen and under-the-radar Asian cinema to UK audiences. This year, the festival opens with Strangersa cinematic adaptation of one of the most important gay novels in the Mandarin-speaking world and a film that has had great significance in the history of queer Asian films. Because the film was made during censorship under martial law in Taiwan, the film was heavily cut. I think there were 21 pieces. This is the first time they’ve reintroduced that censored material to film in this 4K restoration.
You also show films in 35mm prints. What can you tell me about these?
We have two 35mm versions from Japan. One was made in 1959, the other in the 1960s, and both are really important in Japanese queer film history.[TheyareKeisukeKinoshita[TheyareKeisukeKinoshita’sGoodbye spring And Masahiro Shinoda With beauty and sadness.]These are movies that people may know, but don’t get a chance to see on the big screen.
We have a lot of young audiences, people who are under 30 or in their early 20s, who have never had the opportunity to see these films on the big screen. Every year, I meet all these young audiences who come up to me and say, “Oh my God, I’ve heard about this movie but I’ve never had a chance to see it on the big screen.” So, it’s really inspiring for them to see how queer films were made and how queer life was depicted in the past.
We touched on how political cinema can be. Do you think Queer East is an event that encourages or can encourage political debate?
Even our idea of queer comes from a slightly political way of challenging the white male-centered queer cinematic landscape in the UK and throughout Europe. And every year, we have films that address current social issues, for example, films about trans communities Sexually soft in various Asian countries. Our festival also showcases powerful films either made by lesbian filmmakers or about queer women, which, again, is something you don’t usually see very often.
Is there anything else you’d like to highlight about Queer East and its festival audience?
In fact, people always say it’s like a community, where people come together. And I really want to keep it as a festival that brings people together.
