The Irish Film Institute was alive and teeming this week with queer joy and unadulterated pride, with the most dazzling characters colouring in the lines. Tuesday, June 24th, saw the launch of GAZE International LGBTQIA Film Festival’s programme ahead of its seven day run, from July 29th to August 4th, 2025.
The launch was a barrage of tears and magical laughs, with a special screening of an array of short films ahead of the festival. Starting off the evening with a bundle of appreciative speeches, the tissues came straight out and remained so after the first short “Blood Like Water”, a powerful look into queer realities in Palestine, directed by Dima Hamdan. Just when you thought it was all laughs from here with Constanze Brodbeck’s “Time Capsule”, you’re right back in it with the tears again. An evening of exceptional film, cocktails, and Jenny Claffey grilling you for an Instagram Reel after, the launch was a superb precedent to the upcoming festival.
GAZE, which began as the Dublin Lesbian and Gay Film Festival in 1992, was founded by Yvonne O’Reilly and Kevin Sexton. Over the newly-extended course of seven days, 2025 marks the 33rd edition of the remarkable meeting of art, film, and identity. Audience members were shivering with anticipation at the launch of the festival programme in the IFI on June 24th, with festival chair Tom Creed thanking the theater “for a roof over our heads, and your air conditioning”. Set to take place across both the IFI and The Light House Cinema in Smithfield, the festival is propped by a loyal community to be a summer must-see.
This year’s GAZE brings about a slightly emotional streak for all involved. Greg Thorpe, festival director since 2022, is entering his fourth and final year of the post. Having been at the festival’s helm for even longer, he jokes “I feel like it will be hard to get rid of me”, adding that he will “definitely be back as an audience member”. Native to a multitude of artistic disciplines, Thorpe self-describes as a programmer, curator, and creative producer for the last fifteen years, also with a background in publishing. From creative directing Superbia, Manchester Pride’s arts and culture programme, to DJing, to working with David Hoyle – he is absolutely everywhere.
So why is it the right time to step down? “It’s good to change it up”, Thorpe reflects, “new faces, new eyes, new voices [ … ] it’s good to shake up that vision”. Though speeches at the programme launch indicated that Thorpe will be sorely missed in the position, it’s not all tears as the art produced and the community created is undeniable. When recalling his proudest moments in the position, he added “I feel really proud that the support from GAZE and sharing the platform and the resources has enabled Ireland, Dublin especially, to have two more queer film festivals [ … ] I’m really proud of that”.
In its first year without a principal sponsor, GAZE are keeping their foot on the gas with the stellar programme they have lined up. In the words of Thorpe himself, this year is a whole lot of “romance, sex, bloody breakups, you name it – then there are the films”.
Opening the festival on July 29th is the Carmen Emmi feature ‘Plainclothes’, a 1990s drama surrounding an undercover agent on a mission to seduce and arrest gay men for cruising. Another promising watch is the Canadian “Drive Back Home”, directed by Michael Clowater, an endearing road movie based on a true story starring Alan Cumming.
If your attention span isn’t quite so hopeful, there is a vast and fabulous selection of short films to be found in the 3*3 programme. Here, you can expect to find three special screenings of Three HIV Legacy Stories, Three Japanese Love Stories, and Three Queer Migration Stories. Described as films on subjects “close to GAZE’s heart”, there will be super special post-screening conversations for all three. There’s something for the Gaeilgeoirs too, with a host of subtitled shorts as Gaeilge as part of their Scannáin Aiteach programme.
The docu-heads definitely haven’t been left behind this year, with “Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror” taking viewers on a milestone journey for the cult classic – brought to us by none other than Linus O’Brien, son of original Rocky Horror creator and beloved character Richard O’Brien. Viewers are also spoiled with a screening and filmmaker Q&A of “A Body To Live In”, Angelo Madsen’s feature exploring the body modification movement that began with artist Fakir Musafar.
From lesbian sex dramas, to messy people and first timers, the programme this year is reaching far and wide to satisfy everyone in and outside the community, “We’re programming for us, by us, and about us – and everybody is welcome”, Thorpe comments.
But why an LGBTQIA+ film festival? An important piece of GAZE’s history is that it was founded in 1992 when it was still illegal to be gay, with Ireland only decriminalising homosexuality in 1993. This made just the existence of GAZE hugely profound, and lends to its enduring significance. Despite major wins in the queer community in the past three decades, Thorpe broaches that in the current climate GAZE “will always be needed”.
With equality, diversity, and inclusion rollbacks and trans people facing more hysterical backlash than ever, GAZE is the sort of thing that queer people need: community, art, and a space to come together and laugh or cry, or both. Commenting on this, Thorpe added “the other thing is our stories, queer people, fall in and out of favour, they fall in and out of fashion [ … ] sometimes if people aren’t obliged to support us, they won’t support us. So what we can’t do is stop telling those stories to each other.”
As GAZE enters its 33rd year and certainly not its last, we are reminded that behind all the fun there is a serious history to be considered and appreciated. Though the mindsets of others may periodically worsen, our communities only becomes stronger and more resilient together through our shared stories. GAZE aims to be one of such rare spaces for queer joy, resistance, and kinship, and it is palpably so. With such an impeccable lineup, emotional farewells, and a resolute commitment to visibility, all the hot-girls will be at GAZE this summer.
