Festival Director Greg Thorpe introduces this year's edition of GAZE, showcasing the best in queer Irish and international cinema, which takes place this July and August at Dublin's IFI and Light House cinemas.
GAZE 2025 will be my fourth and final outing as Festival Director. There'll be popcorn and tears before bedtime! Life for the queer community is fraught and unpredictable as when I took over, but one thing we can depend on is the power of queer cinema to sustain and astound us.
Here are 10 tips to make your GAZE 2025 a good one, whether you're a first timer or seasoned pro. See you at the cinema:
Plainclothes
It's the 1990s. A handsome undercover cop, tasked with entrapping gay men, encounters a married guy who forces him to face up to his own closeted nature. Tom Blyth and Russell Tovey give some career turns as we open 2025 with an explosive hot 'n’ heavy gay drama.
Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror
For 50 years the stage/film juggernaut that is The Rocky Horror Show has brought queer culture to the mainstream through the proverbial back door. Ahem. Celebrate the old queen Rocky with us in an eye-opening doc that takes you well beyond the Timewarp.
Girls & Boys
Queer Irish features are still something of a rarity, especially ones with quality lead roles for trans women, so I can’t wait for people to catch this new Irish gem. It’s Dublin-made too, with dreamy scenes of the city by night and great central performances. Very GAZE.
Café au GAZE
It ain’t just movies! We open on Saturday, Sunday and Monday with creative conversations from visiting film guests at Café au GAZE. Plus we support the launch of a queer crew database, created by Alba Fernadez, and supported by National Talent Academy.
New Queer Animation
Animation is a hot-bed of queer talent right now and 2025 is one bumper year. We've aselection of the best animated LGBTQIA shorts from around the world, topped off with an hilarious full-length feature from Australia, the impeccably titled Lesbian Space Princess.
I’m Your Venus
Venus Xtravaganza was one of the legendary stars of Paris Is Burning who met a violent untimely end. This follow-up doc revives the hunt for her killer and brings together her biological and chosen families in a truly emotional union. Bring your hankies.
Oslo Stories Trilogy: Dreams
Arguably the finest of filmmaker Dag Johan Haugerud's multi-award-winning Oslo Stories Trilogy, this is some rollercoaster high art. Teenager Johanne has an intense same-sex crush on her teacher that ripples into the emotional lives of everyone around her. Genuinely compelling cinema.
Short films As Gaeilge
Tá an teanga í fhéin Aiteach (the language is queer). We screen a selection of queer Gaeilge tales in proud partnership with Bród na Gaeltachta, Ireland's first Gaeltacht Pride, followed by a conversation centring Gaeilge as a language for queer art. The unmissable selection will also tour to Donegal, where Bród na Gaeltachta is nurturing a new wave of queer Irish-language filmmaking — including a brand-new weekend film challenge running 3rd – 6th July, with the clock starting at 6 pm on Thursday the 3rd July.
Queer Migration Stories
LGBTQIA people seeking refuge and asylum experience disproportionate threat and mistreatment. In its Irish premiere, breakout director Joy Gharoro–Akpojotor humanises the experience of women asylum seekers in her candid drama Dreamers, a film that teems with laughter, resistance and desire. A programme of accompanying shorts brings focus to queer migration on a deeper international scale, plus a crucial post-screening conversation.
Dreams In Nightmares
2025 wraps with a high note and an antidote to tough times. Dreams In Nightmares is a road movie with a difference. Three queer Black women set off across America in search of a missing friend, with plenty of food, friendship, and f*cking in restrooms along the way. The inevitable speed bumps and a wry takedown of Trump’s America make for an irresistible journey towards fun and freedom. Join us for the ride!
GAZE International LGBTQIA Film Festival 2025 runs at the IFI and Light House cinema, and online from 29th July – 4rd Aug – find out more here, and enjoy some Irish language picks from this year's festival here.
