VICTORIA ARTS COUNCIL
and
Queer Island Festival of the Arts
presents
Queer Island Film Festival
26 – 28 June 2026
CALL TO ARTISTS
We wanna see your shorts!
Victoria is the most gender-diverse urban centre in Canada but we prefer to call ourselves the centre of Queer Island… we even started a Festival to prove it.
The 2nd annual Queer Island Festival of the Arts is excited to present our 2026 program: Queer Island Film Festival!
Building on the outlandish success of last year’s inaugural program that covered the waterfront (wink), we’re aiming for a more intimate experience this year with a three day film festival in downtown Victoria.
This festival brings dynamic titles from queer film / video artists working across documentary, shorts, features, and more, and is being presented free of charge / by donation.
If you’re interested in having your short films / video included in this screening, please follow the guidelines below.
An honorarium will be paid to all artists whose work is included in this program… that’s right, artists you will be paid!
Taking place the evening of Saturday 27th of June, this free screening promises to be a raucous caucus of queer voices.
Queer Island Festival of the Arts is produced by Kegan McFadden, executive director of Victoria Arts Council and the 2026 Film Festival is being guest-curated by Zo Walde.
Queer Island and takes place on the traditional territories of the Lək̓ʷəŋən-speaking peoples, with respectful acknowledgement of the Songhees, Xwsepsum, and W̱SÁNEĆ First Nations whose historical relationships to this land and diverse cultural heritage continue to this day, and we raise our hands in gratitude to the Two Spirit warriors who continue to fight for equity.
APPLICATION GUIDELINES
The deadline to apply is 26 May 2026, midnight.
- Send us a link to your video (vimeo, youtube, icloud, whatever … just as long as we can view it)
- Provide any pertinent information you think we should know about you and your work (nothing longer than a page)
- Make sure we know how to get ahold of you (email preferred)
- We accept new, recent, old, antique, vintage, never before, and shamelessly viewed titles. We just want the good stuff!
- Remember, we’re looking for SHORTS … so nothing too long.
All applications must be emailed: info@queerisland.ca