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- calendar_today November 11, 2026
Montreal’s image+nation Festival Celebrates 39 Years of Queer Cinema
The image+nation festival, recognized as Canada’s first and longest-running LGBTQ+ film festival, is set to return for its 39th edition from November 19 to 29. The festival will take place at nine cinemas and art spaces across Montreal, bringing together a diverse lineup of queer films, TV premieres, and unique events.
Festival Opening: Les Braves (Coward)
The festival opens with the screening of Lukas Dhont’s World War I love story Les Braves (Coward). Starring Cannes’s joint Best Actor winners Emmanuel Macchia and Valentin Campagne, the film tells a poignant story of queer love amidst the backdrop of war-torn Belgium. With a blend of romance, drama, and female impersonation, the film draws comparisons to Cabaret set on the Western Front.
Tracing Queer Film History: Re:Vision Retro Queer Series
This year’s Re:Vision Retro Queer series will feature Greta Schiller’s Paris Was a Woman, a documentary that focuses on creative queer women who shaped pre-World War II Paris. The film includes rare interviews and home-video footage of notable figures such as Alice B. Toklas, Djuna Barnes, Natalie Barney, Sylvia Beach, and Adrienne Monnier. Paris Was a Woman was image+nation’s opening film in 1996, and its return pays tribute to the festival’s longstanding relationship with queer cinema history.
Queer TV Highlights: Slo Pitch and Dégage
After hosting the premiere of Heated Rivalry last year, image+nation is set to screen early episodes of the lesbian softball series Slo Pitch. Based on the web series and now produced as a Crave show by Elliot Page, Slo Pitch stars Emily Hampshire and Jess Salgueiro and follows the Public Lass Brovaries, six-time beer-league losers. The festival will also preview four episodes of Dégage, a Québécois Crave series centered on the themes of first love and queer identity amidst skatepark parties and the world of heteronormative sports during a Montreal summer. A Q&A session with the creators and stars will accompany the screening.
Exploring Queer Horror and Sports
The new Frissons Queer: Fantasia x image+nation program features a curated selection of queer horror films, including Paul Etheredge’s Hellbent (2004), William Friedkin’s controversial Cruising (1980) starring Al Pacino, Jeffrey Schwarz’s documentary Mineshaft: The Cruising Murders, Jane Schoenbrun’s Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, and a showcase of short films. In addition, the Game On: Queer Sports section brings the 1982 lesbian track-and-field film Personal Best to the festival’s schedule.
Spotlighting Canadian and International Queer Films
The festival continues its tradition of supporting international queer filmmakers with the Nouvelle Voix / First Films series, presenting works such as Sandulela Asanda’s Black Burns Fast (South Africa), Victoria Linares Villegas’s Don’t Come Out (Dominican Republic), Kai Stänicke’s Trial of Hein (Germany), Sam McConnell’s Test (USA), and a special screening of Cheryl Dunye’s The Watermelon Woman (1996).
Canadian queer cinema takes center stage with selections like Justin Ducharme’s Seventeen, a drama set in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside; Rodrigue Jean’s Labrador – Autopsy of Silence; Andrew Haigh’s A Long Winter, starring Fred Hechinger and Ebon Moss-Bachrach; Glen Wood’s I Come Home; and Nick Butler’s comedy Lunar Sway. The Queerment Québec program continues to support Quebec filmmakers, culminating in an evening of conversations at PHI on November 23, 2026.
Special Screenings and Events
Other festival highlights include The Education of Jane Cumming, based on a real 19th-century Edinburgh scandal; Iris van der Meule’s VR experience Lesbian Simulator—with its French version featuring Ariane Moffatt; Barbara Hammer tribute documentary Barbara Forever; and the acclaimed Mexican thriller On the Road, exploring themes of masculinity and queer identity.
image+nation runs from November 19 to 29. For tickets and a complete schedule, visit the official festival website.
Source: cultmtl.com.
