Having cemented its place in the island’s cultural and cinematic landscape, Queer Wave returns to Nicosia for its 6th edition. Taking place at NiMAC from 12 to 21 September 2025, the festival once again promises to exhilarate audiences with its unique blend of over 20 screenings, 4 workshops, and many parallel events highlighting the breadth of queer talent on the island - from DJ sets, to live concerts, audiovisual performances and drag shows.

This year’s edition will see over 50 Cyprus premieres being presented - an international selection of shorts, mid-lengths and features that include documentary, animation and titles from the archive. A tribute to the late David Lynch (1946-2025) will also form part of this year’s Queer Wave fabric, in an edition very much influenced by the stark contrasts between light and darkness in today’s world.

Here’s what you can expect to experience at the festival - day by day:

Queer Wave 2025 kicks off at 21:00 with a live audiovisual performance by x.ypno, whose track TTAVANI will also accompany this year’s festival trailer. The opening film, Little Trouble Girls by Urška Djukić, is a bold and masterfully crafted coming-of-age story - the film having just been selected as Slovenia’s entry for the upcoming Oscars race. After 23:00 the night will unravel with a DJ set by Yakovlev.

The day kicks off with a participatory workshop at 15:00 by Dr. Nelly Ben Hayoun-Stepánian, followed by a screening at 17:00 of her latest feature documentary, Doppelgängers³, exploring diasporic ecofeminist futures and queering space travel. The winner of the 2024 Teddy Award for best queer feature film at the Berlinale, All Shall Be Well by Ray Yeung, will screen at 19:00, accompanied by a discussion with Rainbow Families Cy, which will focus on the rights and lived experiences of (un)married lesbian and queer couples in Cyprus. The programme at 21:00, Shorts I: The Discreet Charm of the Bizarre, brings together a unique selection that blurs the line between reality and imagination. DJ sets by Acid Reflex and delladelladella will keep us dancing from 23:00 till the early hours.

A round table at 15:00 will offer audiences a chance to meet the filmmakers attending the first weekend of the festival and discuss with them informally about their films and creative process. At 17:00 a screening of the short film that won both the Teddy Award and the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlinale, Lloyd Wong, Unfinished by Lesley Loksi Chan, will take place, followed by a 1-hour discussion in the company of the AIDS Solidarity Movement and the Cyprus Family Planning Association. At 19:00 the programme continues with Shorts II: Shapes of Masculinity. A screening of the 21st-century masterpiece Mulholland Drive by David Lynch will follow at 21:00 - those attending it may also experience a little Mystery Act at the end.

Shorts III: Sapphic Delight at 19:00 is a must for viewers interested in stories centered on queer femininities. The 21:00 Cyprus premiere of Four Mothers by Irish filmmaker Darren Thornton will offer audiences something humorous and touching to start the week with.

The programme Shorts IV: Tales of Land and Sea brings trans stories to the forefront, through lyrical shorts that journey across borders and waters. The documentary screening at 21:00, If I Die, It’ll Be of Joy by Alexis Taillant, is truly unique in its kind for its tender and assured exploration of elderly queer lives and desires, sexual or other, reclaimed by the film’s captivating subjects and activists.

Shorts V: Woman, Life, Freedom for Palestine at 19:00 highlights the struggle of decolonisation as a collective one: the programme is bookended by two films from Iran, and dedicated to the Palestinian fight for freedom. The award-winning Outerlands by Elena Oxman screens at 21:00 and takes us on a journey of reconnecting to one’s inner child, through the lens of its non-binary protagonist - featuring Asia Kate Dillon and Lea DeLaria from Orange is the New Black.

Shorts VI: Positively Different will be presented at 19:00 in collaboration with the Positively Different Film Festival in Athens, and will shed light on the often overlooked aspects of queer experiences. At 21:00, a deeply touching and well-rounded portrait of a person navigating their transness and autism unfolds effortlessly throughout Sylvia Robyn, observed with great sensitivity by award-winning documentary filmmaker Panagiotis Evangelidis, joining Queer Wave for the second time in the festival’s history.

The first of two readings by fisherwomxn on Learning Palestine will take place at 18:00. Cypriot filmmaker Besire Paralik’s latest documentary, One Homeland Two Homes, focusing on six queer Cypriots of the diaspora in Berlin will be screening at 19:00. The programme Shorts VII: Kings, Queens & In-Betweens at 21:00 will aptly set the tone for what’s to follow. At 23:00, Drag Kings - Karagöza, Melis and Elfis - join their moustaches for the first time in a show that promises to be blazing hot! From midnight until the early hours, the festival will once again team up with Trash Your Gender - a political laboratory to experiment with gender expression.

The day will start at 15:00 with a tailored masterclass and in-depth conversation with Panagiotis Evangelidis, who last year received an honorary Golden Alexander at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival for his overall contribution to cinema and culture. At 17:00 a second round table with participating filmmakers will offer a chance to audiences to have an open dialogue with friends in film. A queer cult classic chronicling pre-AIDS gay life in Berlin, Taxi zum Klo by Frank Ripploh, will be showing at 19:00 with an introduction note by Andreas Karayan. The programme at 21:00 is Shorts VIII: Focus on La Fémis, which Queer Wave is honoured to present in collaboration with the very prestigious film school in Paris. After 23:00 the night will lead to a live concert imbued with mysticism and performed by Stranger in the Body - a closing ceremony for Queer Wave 2025. A DJ set by Pezina will see us dancing to her flammable tunes till late.

The day will start with a lunchtime event organised with the Filipino community in Nicosia, returning to Queer Wave for a second year. From 12:00, visitors can enjoy great company and delicious treats from Luzy’s Kitchen. Traditional dances and talented performers will light up the stage from 13:30. In the afternoon, stay at 15:00 for Filipino-Canadian filmmaker Seán Devlin’s Asog – a screwball tragicomedy featuring real-life survivors of Super Typhoon Yolanda. The second and final reading by fisherwomxn on Learning Palestine will take place at 18:00. The programme continues at 19:00 with Marie Luise Lehner’s winner of the Berlinale Teddy Jury Award 2025: If You Are Afraid You Put Your Hand Into Your Mouth and Smile - a heartwarming story tackling disability and bodily autonomy, while exploring family, friendship, and finding one’s voice. A lyrical send-off to the festival and the great David Lynch himself, Queer Wave 2025 will conclude with one of the filmmaker’s earliest and certainly most touching and accessible films: The Elephant Man - screening at 21:00. A second and final Mystery Act after the film will close the festival for good.

We Wandered Through the Fog and Into a Clearing, a photography showcase by Loukia Hadjiyianni, curated by Pierre Mohamed-Petit, will be available to visit at NiMAC throughout the 10 days of Queer Wave, 12-21 September 2025.

The full festival programme and digital catalogue can be found on queerwave.com and at @queerwavecyprus

Watch the Queer Wave 2025 festival trailer: https://youtu.be/4793sNxCifc

Tickets: https://www.more.com/cy-en/tickets/happenings/6th-queer-wave-cyprus-lgbtqia-film-festival 

Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1267115737735866 

Queer Wave 2025 is organised by the non-profit company Queer Wave LTD and is funded by the Deputy Ministry of Culture – Department of Contemporary Culture.

NiMAC [Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre, Associated with the Pierides Foundation / Old Powerhouse]

Youth Board of Cyprus

Goethe-Institut Cyprus

French Institute of Cyprus

British High Commission in Cyprus

Embassy of Finland

Embassy of Spain

Instituto Cervantes 

Embassy of Ireland

RESET Center

Cyprus Family Planning Association

AIDS Solidarity Movement

Center for Social Innovation (CSI) 

SY Stage

La Fémis (Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Métiers de l’Image et du Son)

Limassol Cinema Club

Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI)

Queer Cinema for Palestine (QCP)

Rainbow Families CY

Queer Cyprus Association 

Accept LGBTI Cyprus

Queer Collective