#FIRSTLOOK: IMAGE+NATION FESTIVAL FJLM LGBT2SQUEER MONTRÉAL 2026 PROGRAMMING

Canada’s premiere and longest-running LGBTQ+ film festival image+nation festival film LGBT2SQueer Montréal is back November 19-29, 2026. With an extensive program featuring a blend of the latest and greatest films from the canon of queer cinema and premiere screenings, image+nation 2026 also features an adjacent series of unmissable special events and exclusive sneak peeks.

Following image+nation’s 2025 world premiere of the international smash hit Heated Rivalry, marking the festival as a launchpad for winner series, this year I+N presents an exclusive preview of four episodes of Crave’s queer skateboarding saga Dégage on November 21st, 3pm at SGW Alumni Auditorium, Concordia University, with creators, cast and team in attendance up close and personal. Taking place over a steamy Montréal summer, Dégage explores the heteronormativity of sporting spaces and first queer loves that blossom despite the setting. Starring Sam-Éloi Girard as Malik and Lennikim as Oli (and an unforgettable appearance by Christen Marlot as Moon), this Canada Media Fund supported drama may just be the next breakout Canadian sporting series with a queer twist.

Doing for sapphic softball what Heated Rivalry did for men’s hockey, the hilarious Canadian mockumentary series Slo Pitch, a Crave Original series produced by Shaftesbury in association with Crave, Boss & Co, and Elliot Page’s PAGEBOY Productions, funded by the Canada Media Fund and directed by J Stevens, explores the world of queer beer league sports. The Public Lass Brovaries are long-time league losers hoping for a change in their ranking in an action-packed season. Through a series of sexy carwash fundraisers, strikeouts, surprising sponsorships from conservative politicians and the appearance of her ex on the rival team, Coach Joanne Pico (Jess Salgueiro) has a lot to prove. On November 22nd, 3pm at Concordia’s J. A. De Sève cinema, image+nation screens episodes with live commentary from lead star Jess Salgueiro alongside director J Stevens and co-creators, showrunners, and co-stars Karen Knox and Gwenlyn Cumyn.

A first-ever I+N Virtual Reality experience
Dutch digital artist and filmmaker Iris van der Meule’s Lesbian Simulator VR experience, winner of the Innovation Hub Audience Award at TIFF 2026, joins image+nation’s programming—the festival’s first! Featuring actress Hanna van Vliet (Anne+) as the Lesbian Goddess and Sofie Hellemons as the Girlfriend in the English version, and Ariane Moffat and Anne-Sarah Charbonneau in the French, Lesbian Simulator is a film and game that features immersive moments in lesbian life including coming out, first dates, and even discrimination and verbal abuse all in the name of raising awareness in a playful way. As players proceed through levels, they collect Carabiners and friends, in what’s sure to become one of image+nation 2026’s most memorable activations.

Short films with a big impact
From its founding year, image+nation has also spotlighted the work of LGBTQ+ short filmmakers, and 2026 sees an expanded program of series coming to screens at Cinéma Public, PHI, and the NFB Alanis-Obomsawin Theatre. Indigiqueer Voices brings loud and proud 2Spirit voices to the screen, while Queerment Québec showcases the richness of Québécois queer cinema. As part of image+nation’s new horror series, the films of Frissons Queer: Shorts twists horror, genre cinema, and the darkest of comedy in partnership with Fantasia Film Festival. Made au Canada: Stories We Tell paints Canada coast-to-coast in rainbow colours, while Docuqueer: Queer Histories amplifies documentaries on distinct experiences deserving the big-screen treatment. Lesboqueer: Sapphic Stories and Between Men look at the myriad same-sex love and desire, Becoming programs bold non-binary and trans filmmakers, Queer Comedy en courts promises big laughs with small running times, and Short Takes: Brazil focuses on queer short films from South America’s biggest nation. All shorts programmes will also be available virtually across Quebec and Canada.

Back for more
Back for its second edition, La Soirée Étudiante brings together emerging queer and feminist artists from the next generation of filmmakers for a night of networking and exhibition, featuring work from six universities and cégeps from across Québec. Also returning is Soirée Kino Queer, showing off the creativity captured by the KINO movement founded here in Montréal in 1999. With works from France, Burkina Faso, Ukraine, Germany, and Québec in this year’s lineup, this diverse batch of films lives up to KINO’s mandate of, “make something good out of nothing, make something better with little, but make it now!”

Parallel with its packed schedule featuring full-length film premieres and queer classics back on the big screen, 2026’s edition festival continues image+nation’s proud history as Canada’s premiere LGBTQ+ film festival.