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Vancouver Queer Film Festival is pulling up a chair for its 38th edition, bringing 87 films from around the world to Vancouver screens this September.

Running from September 10 to 20 in theatres, followed by a streaming programme from September 21 to 27, the 2026 festival takes “A Seat at the Table” as its theme. Inspired by festival artwork from local Black queer artists Odera Igbokwe and Tolu Ayoka, the idea centres belonging, community, and who gets to participate in shaping queer stories and spaces.

There will be plenty of new work at that table. This year’s lineup includes nine world premieres, five international premieres, eight North American premieres and 25 Canadian premieres, spanning features and shorts from 2SLGBTQIA+ filmmakers. Beyond the screenings, VQFF will host filmmaker Q&As, workshops, parties, and other community events throughout its run.

The festival opens with Ecosystems, Not Empires, a collection of seven shorts looking towards queer futures built around care, kinship, and collective liberation. Among them is Kiloran Bay, starring Alan Cumming as a gay man returning to Scotland with his partner for a wedding, where memories of his difficult coming out resurface.

Brazilian documentary Apolo takes the festival’s centrepiece slot, following trans couple Ísis Broken and Lourenzo Gabriel as they navigate an unexpected pregnancy. The screening will be followed by a Q&A.

Closing out VQFF is Gugu’s World, a Brazilian film about a young queer boy living with his grandmother in northeastern Brazil. As she begins showing signs of Alzheimer’s, he quietly tries to care for her while holding onto his own dreams.

Familiar faces pop up elsewhere in the programme. Michaela Jaé Rodriguez stars in Beba From 5 to 9, while Matthew Morrison and Brock Yurich appear in Test. Again Again, starring House of the Dragon actor Abigail Thorn and executive produced by Lilly Wachowski, follows a woman trapped in a decade-long time loop with her girlfriend as her one constant.

The lineup also extends well beyond conventional coming-out narratives. Four Girls follows four Black women plotting their escape from enslavement in 1880s Brazil; 10s Across the Borders documents Ballroom community leaders across the Philippines, Singapore, and Germany; and Understanding Myself as an Amphibian draws connections between queer ecology, gender, and sexuality in nature.

Meanwhile, Gays Against Guns documents the direct-action group that emerged following the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting, while The Fruit Machine: A Space Opera takes a decidedly different approach to Canadian queer history, using a young alien arriving on Earth to revisit the federal government’s Cold War-era campaign targeting queer people.

Closer to home, The Coast Is Queer returns for its 26th year with another showcase of BC filmmakers. The shorts programme includes Jess McLeod’s She’s Nonbinary, about a nonbinary person finally getting off the waitlist for top surgery, as well as world premieres Mascott, Mirth Control AKA “Faking It” and I Do.

“As Out On Screen enters this next chapter, we’re proud that this year’s Festival reflects not only the stories we want to share, but also the way we want to work together,” Out On Screen’s shared leadership team of Eli Morris, fanny kearse and Piper Fawkes said in a release. “Our shared leadership model is rooted in collaboration, care and accountability, and A Seat at the Table embodies those same values. We believe queer storytelling flourishes when leadership is shared, when many perspectives shape the conversation, and when communities are invited not just to watch, but to belong.”

When: September 10 to 27

Where: Various venues

Tickets: $7+, available here