This month’s Iris Prize in Cardiff – toasting 20 years since the organisation began – will welcome regulars and newbies alike over seven days. Dafydd Llyr is part of the latter group, and it’s a hat he wears enthusiastically as he looks ahead for us.
I have a confession to make. It’s a slightly embarrassing one. I’m Welsh. I love cinema. I work in the world of art and culture. I’m gay. Yet, somehow, I’ve never been to the Iris Prize LGBTQ+ Film Festival.
For 20 years, Iris has been bringing LGBTQ+ stories and filmmakers from across the world to Cardiff. So, with Iris therefore celebrating a big anniversary this month, I’ve decided it’s about time to find out what I’ve been missing.
Opening the 2026 programme for the first time is, frankly, a little overwhelming. Running throughout the second week of October, this year’s festival features 35 international shorts from 22 countries, all competing for the £40,000 Iris Prize. There are 15 films shortlisted for Best British Short and a record 16 features. Then there are the talks, Q&As, special events and celebrations. Seven days suddenly doesn’t seem like a lot of time.
So, where does an Iris novice begin? My eyes immediately went to Black Church Bay. Receiving its Welsh premier on closing night (Sun 18 Oct, 8pm), Rhys Marc Jones’ mystery-thriller starts Tom Cullen and Heartstopper’s Joe Locke. Set within a remote Welsh coastal community, it follows a deputy head teacher whose life begins to unravel after the disappearance of an openly gay sixth-form student.
A dark mystery, a Welsh landscape and Joe Locke? Consider my seat booked. There’s something particularly exciting about seeing Wales used as the setting for an LGBTQ+ story that appears altogether darker and more unsettling than the coming-of-age narratives with which queer screen stories can sometimes be associated. A Q&A with both actors following the screening makes this one of my immediate Iris must-sees.
But the programme also offers the chance to fill in the gaps in my LGBTQ+ cinema education. Desert Hearts, Donna Deitch’s landmark 1986 lesbian romance, is having a special screening (Sat 17 Oct, 3pm). Then there’s Andrew Haigh’s breakout queer romance Weekend, screened at Iris back in 2011 and now returning to the festival (Mon 12 Oct, 12pm). Haigh’s directorial credits in the last decade and a half include 45 Years and the beautiful All Of Us Strangers; the opportunity to hear him revisit an earlier queer work immediately earned a place on my must-see list.
Yet, at the heart of Iris are the shorts. This year’s 35 international contenders have been divided into nine themed programmes, exploring everything from cultural identity to companionship. Unmasking Masculinity (Thurs 15 Oct, 7pm), a programme which brings together four films examining masculinity, repression and male identity, immediately jumped out at me.
But the more I browse, the more I realise that arriving at Iris knowing relatively little might be an advantage. I can circle Joe Locke’s name in the programme, or recognise Andrew Haigh and his work, but another filmmaker I’ve never encountered before could be responsible for the film I’ll still be thinking about weeks after the end of the festival.
Film festivals can appear intimidating from the outside. There are premieres and juries, industry experts and people who can probably discuss cinematography far more eloquently than I can. Iris, however, seems to have something rather more welcoming at its heart: curiosity.
There’s something wonderful about discovering Iris during its 20th year. While the festival can claim to have championed LGBTQ+ filmmaking this whole time, I get to experience the whole thing for the first time. So I intend to make up for lost time and lose myself in the cinematic world on offer.
Iris Prize LGBTQ+ Film Festival, various venues, Cardiff, Mon 12-Sun 18 Oct
Tickets: £160 full pass; £100 weekend; £25-£45 per day; £7-£9 per screening. Info: here
words DAFYDD LLYR
