Celebrating 38 Years of Trendsetting Queer Film with 10 days of In-Cinema and Virtual Screenings in Québec and Across Canada
Also introducing La soirée étudiante, a spotlight on Indigiqueer Voices, and commemorating both the 25th anniversary of Queerment Québec and the 50th anniversary of the Groupe Intervention Vidéo (GIV)
Montreal, November 4, 2025 – Returning for its 38th edition, image+nation festival film LGBT2SQueer Montréal fills the city’s screens from November 20-30, 2025 with more than 125 films from Québec, Canada and internationally. This year’s stunning programming ranges from Queer comedies to family tragedies, sultry dramas to unforgettable shorts from the next generation of filmmakers representing LGBTQ+cinematic storytelling talent from thirty-eight countries.
“We are proud of the roster of films we offer our audiences in our 38th edition, providing opportunities to discover the best LGBTQ+ cinema from here and around the world. This year we look at the present and reflect upon the past with our 25th anniversary edition of Queerment Québec, celebrating with a special retro selection, our first Student Film event, as well as a program of films that speak to/of our history while also amplifying emerging voices from less represented countries in the queer cinema canon. Importantly, we are honoured to present our Spotlight on Indigenous Voices with films and events that put forward the myriad of Indigenous / indigiqueer stories, beginning with Blood Lines by Gail Maurice as our Opening film. Says image+nation Director, Charlie Boudreau. As we embark on a moment in history that does not favour difference, LGBTQ+ voices must be heard and seen, and shared. image+nation is here to make this happen.”
Presented in partnership with the Canada Media Fund, SODEC Québec, Telefilm Canada, Ville de Montréal, Indigenous Screen Office, Canada Council for the Arts, image+nation38 will also once again bring award-winning films both feature-length and short-form to audiences in cinemas across Montréal and via exclusive virtual screenings to Québec and the rest of Canada, sharing the gift of Queer cinema far and wide.
I+N38 FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS
I+N38 kicks off on Thursday, November 20, 2025 with Blood Lines, the latest full-length feature from Canadian filmmaker Gail Maurice (whose Rosie opened I+N35 in 2022). Set in a remote Métis village, Blood Lines tells an unflinching tale of Indigenous adoptees and community trauma that’s at turns courageous and humorous, told warmly from a woman-centric point of view. This year’s festival will also see the World Premiere of Crave’s new hockey romance series Heated Rivalry, created by Jacob Tierney and based on the best-selling book series Game Changers by Rachel Reid, with an exclusive red carpet screening of the first episode before its series premiere (Nov. 28 on Crave) with cast members in attendance on November 23, 2025. Wrapping up I+N38 10 days later on November 30, 2025, Australian director Sophie Hyde’s Jimpa stars Olivia Colman and John Lithgow as grown daughter and elderly father reconnecting in Amsterdam, with Colman’s non-binary teenager along for the ride in a moving portrait of intergenerational queer family.
I+N38 enhances its focus on Indigenous storytellers from Turtle Island and beyond via its Spotlight Voix Indigiqueer / Indigiqueer Voices, including Gail Maurice’s Blood Lines, Brett Hannam’s eerie and spooky At the Place of Ghosts (Sk+te’kmujue’katik), Corey Payette’s drag musical Starwalker, and Courtney Montour’s portrait of an Indigenous roller derby team Rising Through the Fray alongside an inspiring selection of short films. The series Le Québec en vues will spotlight Québec-based filmmakers including a special screening of Léa Pool’s On sera heureux, the story of an exiled Moroccan man and the Iranian refugee man he loves threatened with deportation, including screenwriter Michel Marc Bouchard and Pool in conversation on November 22.
Alongside image+nation’s annual focus streams Made au Canada (featuring online presentations of classic Canadian-made queer cinema and in-person shorts programming) and Focus France (featuring Enzo, the latest film from 120 BPM director Robin Campillo and Des preuves d’amour (Love Letters) starring Monia Chokri), other countries represented in this year’s programming include Belgium, Australia, Greece, the United Kingdom, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cyprus, Poland, Iran, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Sweden, the United States, Denmark, Netherlands, Brazil, India, China, Hong Kong, Lithuania, Slovenia, Malaysia and Germany. As always, films will be presented in their original language, with French or English subtitles.
Providing a rare platform for non-binary and trans filmmakers, the series Une question de genre / A Question of Gender also returns with films including Elena Oxman’s Outerlands, Farnoosh Samadi’s Between Dreams and Hope and Oriel Pe’er’s documentary portrait of RuPaul’s Drag Race legendary drag superstar Peppermint, Deeper Love: The Story of Miss Peppermint. Returning from I+N37, the Zeitgiest focus stream brings current queer talking points to the screen that truly capture the moment in which we live including Harry Lighton’s Pillion, Jun Li’s Queerpanorama, and Yihwen Chen’s Queer as Punk.
This year, image+nation also inaugurates La soirée étudiante at the Espace ONF on November 21. Featuring works by young queer filmmakers from cégeps and universities throughout Québec, La soirée étudiante is guaranteed to offer a spirited look at the next generation of cineastes in a lively evening of spectacle and networking. Fostering further interaction between cinematic creators, La soirée KINO on November 25 pulls together the KINO community with audiences for an evening of queer short films and celebration. And to further strengthen links with local queer elders and history, I+N38 is proud to present a selection of videos in collaboration with the Archives gaies du Québec from their currently running exhibition L’emergence du village gai / The Emergence of the Gay Village on November 22.
I+N38 continues the successful I+N CONNEXE series of live interactions between audiences and filmmakers from around the world. Panels include the I+N x FMC/CMF SERIES in partnership with the Canada Media Fund focusing on Canadian creators, the GIV50 : On n’est jamais mieux servi.e que par soi-même / We Are Never Better Served Than By Ourselves screening and panel discussion celebrating 50 years of Groupe Intervention Vidéo, and the Spotlight Voix Autochtones / Indigiqueer Voices discussions featuring Gail Maurice and the cast of Blood Lines, Corey Payette, Brett Hannam, Mary Galloway, as well as Courtney Montour, participants and the creative team behind Rising Through the Fray.
I+N38 SPECIAL PROGRAMMING & FESTIVAL ACTIVITIES
OPENING FILM | BLOOD LINES
(Gail Maurice – Canada – 2025 – 89 min)
Thursday, November 20 – 7 pm – Théâtre Outremont
Returning to image+nation following the Opening Night screening of her acclaimed Rosie in 2022, Gail Maurice’s evocative women-centric Blood Lines brings visibility to the lives of indigenous adoptees in a remote Métis village. Bravely nuanced, breathtakingly shot, and uniquely humorous, Blood Lines is moving proof of a filmmaker hitting their stride.
CLOSING FILM | JIMPA
(Sophie Hyde – Australia, Netherlands & Finland – 2025 – 123 min)
Saturday, November 29 – 7 pm – Sir George Williams Alumni Auditorium (H110) Concordia University
A touching tale of an intergenerational queer family, Sophie Hyde’s Jimpa brings together Oscar-winning Olivia Colman and John Lithgow as her gay father in the story of a visit to Amsterdam with Colman’s non-binary teenager. Examining the ties that bind—and the wisdom passed from grandparent to grandchild—Jimpa is one of the year’s most highly acclaimed LGBTQ+ films.
I+N38 FESTIVAL FOCUSES
VOIX AUTOCHTONES / INDIGIQUEE
Honouring the intersection between Indigenous and queer identities, I+N38’s Voix Indigiqueer / Indigiqueer Voices programming includes Gail Maurice’s festival-opening film Blood Lines, Brett Hannam’s crowd-pleasing ghost story At the Place of Ghosts (Sk+te’kmujue’katik), the fierce drag musical Starwalker directed by Corey Payette, and Courtney Montour’s Indigenous roller derby documentary Rising Through the Fray. Alongside a series of short films by 2Spirit and Indigiqueer filmmakers, the Voix Indigiqueer / Indigiqueer Voices focus continues to celebrate the power, resilience, and sacredness of these communities.
QUEERMENT QUÉBEC
This year, image+nation celebrates 25 years of QUEERMENT QUÉBEC, the festival’s cornerstone initiative focusing on local talent, both emerging and established. As one of North America’s most sparkling queer creativity hotspots, Montréal and Québec’s queer cultural perspectives make for a uniquely distinct cinematic presence. The series’ annual signature event at PHI—featuringa conversation with creators and special programming looking back on 25 years of QQ—is sure to be an unforgettable highlight of I+N38.
MADE AU CANADA
Canada’s LGBTQ+ filmmakers have long created some of the most loved and celebrated films in the queer cinema canon. Made au Canada foregrounds their stories both in-cinema and available virtually across the country. This year’s program includes a special retrospective showing of Aerlyn Weissman and Lynne Fernie’s 1992 film Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lives, a virtual exclusive screening of Noam Gonick’s Parade: Queer Acts of Love + Resistance, and unmissable short-film programming highlighting queer creativity coast to coast.
FOCUS FRANCE
Part of an ongoing collaboration with the Consulat general de France à Québec, Focus France brings extraordinary queer filmmaking from France to Montréal audiences. This year, I+N38 is proud to present Caroline Fournier’s Amantes, Alice Douard’s Des preuves d’amour (Love Letters), and Robin Campillo’s Enzo.
VOIX ÉMERGENTES / FIRST VOICES
Making up an important part of image+nation’s annual programming, VOIX ÉMERGENTES / FIRST VOICES puts perspectives rare in the queer cinema canon in centre-frame, claiming space for filmmakers with distinct points of view and cultural positionings. This year’s catalogue includes showings of Croatian-Montenegrin filmmaker Ivona Juka’s Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day (Lijepa večer, lijep dan), fellow Croatian director Čejen Černić Čanak’s Sandbag Dam (Zečji nasip), Indian filmmaker Onir’s We Are Faheem + Karum, and Iranian Farnoosh Samadi’s Between Dreams and Hope.
UNE QUESTION DE GENRE / A QUESTION OF GENDER
Showcasing some of the cinema’s boldest new voices, the Une question de genre / A Question of Gender focus places non-binary and trans cinematic storytellers at the forefront. I+N38 is proud to present works including Elena Oxman’s Outerlands, Farnoosh Samadi’s Between Dreams and Hope, and the documentary A Deeper Love: The Story of Miss Peppermint directed by Oriel Pe’er, alongside an undeniably powerful short film programme.
ZEITGEIST
Returning for its second year, the Zeitgeist focus brings contemporary queer voices and current cultural preoccupations to the cinema screen. Featuring some of I+N38’s boldest programming, this year’s Zeitgeist includes the narrative films Jimpa directed by Sophie Hyde, Jun Li’s Queerpanorama, Brett Hannam’s At the Place of Ghosts (Sk+te’kmujue’katik), and the documentary features Rising Through the Fray directed by Courtney Montour, Oriel Pe’er’s A Deeper Love: The Story of Miss Peppermint, and Malaysian filmmaker Yihwen Chen’s Queer as Punk.
