The FIRE!! exhibition becomes a festival

BarcelonaThis year's edition of FIRE!! will take place from June 4 to 14, with its main venue at the Institut français de Barcelona. The quintessential LGBTIQ+ cinema event in the Catalan capital is no longer a showcase and is now recognized as a festival: the two thousand euro economic endowment provided by the new Ventura Pons award for best feature film is the element that elevates the status of FIRE!!, an initiative launched in 1995 by Casal Lambda of Barcelona. "The percentage of LGBTIQ+ films worldwide is still lower than the ratio of non-strictly heterosexual people," assured the festival director, Antoine Leonetti, at the presentation of the 31st edition to the press.

The screening of films (documentary and fiction, features and shorts; 56 in total) will be divided into thematic sections. "A Thousand and One Queer Stories" is this year's slogan: a tribute to Arab and Persian cultures that continue to nourish the FIRE!! program year after year, despite the repression faced by the LGBTIQ+ community in most countries in this region. The graphic image has been created by one of its star guests, the French-Lebanese film director and fashion photographer Hadi Moussally, who will perform the I am love performance at the opening. Moussally will also dedicate a special session to his creative universe, which explores Arab queer identity through cinema – up to four of his films will be screened – and a drag alter ego

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The country contributing the most productions (15) to this year's main theme is Lebanon. Lebanese cultural curator Amar Sokhn has been responsible for selecting the titles. The gastronomy of this country will also be present, with the participation of Beryti Bistro Libanais, the restaurant that hosted the presentation of the new edition, which will offer catering services at various events integrated into the FIRE!! program. Iran will also have a prominent presence, "a very active country in the cinematographic field," as Leonetti explained. The crowd (2025), by Iranian filmmaker Shand Kabiri, is one of the major draws of this year's program; but also On sera heureux

(2025) by Léa Pool, which explores the escape of a young man from the Ayatollah regime. The festival opening will feature the screening of Bouchra (2025), an animated film by Moroccan filmmakers Orian Barki and Meriem Bennani.

The other sections that make up the festival are Pantalla Trans, with thirteen films focused on transgender realities, such as the Irish production Girls & Boys (2025) or the Australian Jimpa (2025), based on the life of the director, Sophie Hyde, and starring Olivia Colman and John Lithgow; and East of Eden, a program dedicated to LGBTIQ+ cinema from East Asian countries, which highlights Montréal, ma belle (2025), by Xiaodan He, the story of a Chinese immigrant, married with children, who falls in love with a young Canadian woman. The festival also includes other parallel activities that will address the production of LGBTIQ+ cinema in regimes where the expression of identity and sexual dissidences is subjected to severe moral and political persecution. The revolution of Arab and Persian queer cinema is the title given to one of the round tables that will discuss the context and narratives that run through this year's edition.