Love Queer Film Week in Beijing Cancelled
Organisers have cancelled Love Queer Film Week, the programme run by the Beijing Queer Film Festival, which was due to begin on Friday in Beijing. The organisers announced the cancellation in a statement posted on Instagram late on Thursday, 29 October.
Police had increased pressure on the festival in recent weeks, calling its organisers repeatedly by phone, according to The Guardian.
The festival was founded in 2001 by a group of Peking University students. The Guardian describes it as the only film festival in mainland China that offers a public forum for films and discussions exploring LGBTQ+ issues, a term that covers lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people.
The festival has faced restrictions before. In June 2026, screenings of films with LGBTQ+ themes that were scheduled at the Institut Français, the French cultural institute in Beijing, during Pride month were cancelled because of police harassment. The Guardian reported that the festival had received 200 volunteer applications last year, four times the number it received in 2024. Several international film-makers whose work had been selected for this year's programme had travelled to China to take part.
Films shown publicly in China generally need what is known as "dragon seal" approval, the official sign-off from state officials that a film must receive before it can be released. The Guardian has reported on how this requirement affects independent cinema. Earlier cases show how gatherings of this kind have been halted. In 2014, the Beijing Independent Film Festival was closed down after authorities detained its founders and shut off electricity to the venue. In 2013, the second edition of the Beijing Queer Film Festival had to move its screenings from Beijing University to the 798 arts district, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
