NewFest Unveils Lineup for 38th Annual New York LGBTQ+ Film Festival Featuring 144 Projects Across 23 Countries

The 38th edition of NewFest, New York’s premier LGBTQ+ film festival, has officially announced its extensive slate, featuring 144 cinematic projects hailing from 23 countries. Running from October 15 to October 25, the festival will occupy prominent independent cinemas and cultural spaces across Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. Screenings and high-profile premieres are scheduled at prestigious venues including the SVA Theatre, the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), the Museum of the Moving Image (MoMI), Nitehawk Prospect Park, and the NYC LGBT Community Center. To ensure accessibility for broader audiences, a curated selection of films will also be streamed virtually through NewFest’s on-demand digital platform from October 15 through October 30.

This year’s programming heavily highlights critically acclaimed queer cinema fresh off the international circuit, including major titles from the Cannes Film Festival, the Berlinale, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), and Telluride. By blending high-profile studio acquisitions with daring, independent underground features, NewFest continues to cement its status as a vital institutional pillar for global queer storytelling.

A Global Showcase of Prestige and Independent Cinema

The sheer scale of the 38th annual festival reflects the growing international appetite and artistic ambition within LGBTQ+ filmmaking. Lesli Klainberg, the interim executive director of NewFest, emphasized the cultural significance of this year’s lineup, noting that queer narratives are no longer confined to the cultural margins. Instead, they represent some of the most anticipated and critically vital works in contemporary cinema.

"This year’s edition underscores the festival’s unique role as a vital platform for the best in queer cinema—bringing together acclaimed work from leading studios and distributors with bold discoveries and emerging voices that define the medium’s future," Klainberg stated. "We are proud to offer New York audiences the opportunity to experience these prestige titles alongside a rich program of daring independent work."

Adding to this sentiment, Director of Programming Nick McCarthy highlighted the geographic and thematic diversity of the selected projects. Spanning creative hubs from the United States and Mexico to Nigeria, Nepal, and Australia, the program captures the vastness of the global queer community.

"From the USA to Mexico to Nigeria to Nepal to Australia, NewFest38 honors the best in LGBTQIA+ film from around the world," McCarthy said. "We’re excited to amplify a selection of standouts from Cannes, highly anticipated titles fresh out of Telluride and TIFF, and brilliant work from emerging artists premiering their films for the first time."

Opening and Closing Night Highlights

The festival will kick off on October 15 with the New York City premiere of "La Bola Negra," a sweeping historical tapestry directed, co-written, and produced by the acclaimed Spanish filmmaking duo Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi. Fresh off receiving a major accolade at Cannes and generating substantial buzz at TIFF, the film explores nearly a century of Spanish history through three generations of men connected by desire, pain, and love. The opening night screening will be followed by an official launch party.

The festival will draw to a close on October 25 with a special screening and gala celebrating Ira Sachs’s 1980s-set romantic triangle drama, "The Man I Love." Starring Rami Malek, Tom Sturridge, and Luther Ford, the music-driven drama offers a poignant exploration of an artist navigating a fragile window of life where beauty and love remain attainable despite impending mortality.

Centerpiece Presentations and Special Tributes

In addition to its bookend features, NewFest38 has curated a robust selection of centerpiece screenings representing diverse genres and international perspectives:

• U.S. Centerpiece: Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson’s "Mouse," a tender and deeply human coming-of-age drama featuring a standout performance by Sophie Okonedo, arriving fresh from its Berlinale premiere.
• Spotlight Centerpiece: Simon Stone’s "Elsinore," a biographical feature detailing the inspirational and emotional life of gifted actor Ian Charleson.
• International Centerpiece: Arie Esiri and Chuko Esiri’s "Clarissa," a Nigeria-set reimagining of Virginia Woolf’s "Mrs. Dalloway" that examines contemporary wealth and the lingering weight of trauma.
• New York Centerpiece: Jordan Firstman’s A24 festival hit "Club Kid," which follows a chaotic New York City club promoter whose lifestyle is upended by the sudden arrival of his estranged 10-year-old son.
• Documentary Centerpiece: Lexie Bean and Logan Rozos’s "What Will I Become?," exploring trans boyhood and community healing.

A major highlight of the festival will be an evening dedicated to Emmy-, Grammy-, and Tony-winner and political activist Cynthia Nixon. NewFest will present Nixon with its 2026 Voice and Visibility Award, followed by an in-depth conversation concerning her work on HBO’s period drama "The Gilded Age."

Retrospectives, Legacy Screenings, and Episodic Showcases

Honoring cinematic history alongside contemporary breakthroughs, NewFest38 features a series of legacy screenings and retrospective events. The festival will host a "Dolly Double" tribute featuring 35mm screenings of Colin Higgins’s office satire "9 to 5" and Herbert Ross’s "Steel Magnolias" to honor the enduring cultural impact of the late Dolly Parton. Additionally, the festival will mark the 60th anniversary of Ingmar Bergman’s psychological masterpiece "Persona."

Television and episodic storytelling will also take center stage. The festival will host an exclusive screening for the third and final season of Starz’s Southern Gothic melodrama "P-Valley," followed by an on-stage conversation with series creator and showrunner Katori Hall alongside star Nicco Annan.

Furthermore, NewFest is partnering with Aubin Pictures to celebrate the production company’s 30th anniversary through retrospective short films and a suite of virtual exclusives available on-demand, including landmark documentary works such as Catherine Gund’s "Chavela" and historical tapes from the media activist collective DIVA TV.

Ticketing and Festival Access

As NewFest continues to scale its physical footprint across the New York metropolitan area while maintaining a robust virtual component, organizers anticipate high attendance across all 144 projects. Complete ticketing information, venue schedules, and passes are available directly through the official festival website at www.newfest.org.