Thirty Years of Burning Gazes
The FIRE!! Festival celebrates three decades of life by opening screens to queer cinema.
A long-standing gay film festival is celebrating in style. The 30th edition of the FIRE!! Film Festival opens on Thursday, June 5, at 8 PM, with a live musical performance and the screening of Tesis sobre una domesticación, an adaptation of the novel by trans actress and writer Camila Sosa Villada. From there, a cascade of films will light up the eyes of audiences with fresh flames through June 15.
It all began thirty years ago, in 1995, when the event launched as Mostra Lambda, organized by Casal Lambda. Renamed Mostra FIRE!! in 2008, the festival has since brought over 1,300 LGTBI+ themed films to audiences in Barcelona and across Catalonia. This year’s activities will take place across multiple venues, including the Institut Français, the LGTBI Center, and Espacio Movimiento Factory BCN.
This year's visual identity (pictured in the official poster) was created by artist and art director Verónica Carracedo, offering a "vibrant, sensorial, and deeply queer" design where color, body, desire, and cinema merge—just like in the many stories featured on FIRE!!’s screens over the years.
In addition to the opening film starring Camila Sosa Villada, the festival showcases gems such as Pablo Berger’s Los amantes astronautas, exploring love beyond labels; Linda, an Argentinian drama by Mariana Wainstein; the raw and sensual Baby by Marcelo Caetano; and a documentary by Cristina Costantini about Tam O’Shaughnessy, partner of late astronaut Sally Ride, the first American (and missing) woman in space.
These films, like the rest of the program, are about freedom, desire, vulnerability, the body, and community, expanding the limits of both cinema and life.
Besides screenings—of which there are many, so a deep dive into the schedule is recommended—FIRE!! also celebrates its anniversary with a host of events: a performance by singer Juana!, roundtable discussions, exhibitions, a queer tango session, and Bingo Bollo Musical.
To view the full FIRE!! 2025 program, visit the festival website and choose the films and events you don’t want to miss.