The must-watch films at Queer East: London’s East Asian LGBTQ+ film festival
A Good Child, Cactus Pears and The Outsiders are screening at Queer East. (Queer East)
Queer East, London’s East Asian LGBTQ+ film festival, is back for 2026, and we’ve got a rundown of all the highlights.
The festival’s seventh edition will run from 1 May to 6 June, and the programme includes features, shorts, fiction, documentary, UK premieres, restorations and two rare 35mm print screenings.
The five-week celebration explores East and Southeast Asia’s evolving queer landscape. Ahead of the festival, Yi Wang, Queer East Festival and Programme Director, shared: “To look back is a crucial step in understanding how to move forward.
“While sometimes overlooked, these films hold the collective memory of our communities, and by bringing them to the big screen again, we want to create a space for dialogues between our queer past and today’s audiences.”
Here are some great Queer East events you don’t want to miss:
The Outsiders
Queer East’s opening night event is a screening of The Outsiders, a Taiwanese queer classic. The screening will be a 4k restoration of the film, in line with the 40th anniversary of the Yu Kan-Ping film. Set in the gay cruising ground of Taipei New Park, The Outsiders follows a young man finding refuge with a group of fellow queer outcasts.
Johanna d’Arc of Mongolia
Lesbian cinema pioneer Ulrike Ottinger’s 1989 Johanna d’Arc of Mongolia is having a rare screening that you don’t want to miss. The film chronicles four women who are travelling solo when they are kidnapped by a Mongolian princess and her mounted army.
The screening will be preceded by an introduction from the event’s curator, Russian-Korean film worker Misha Zakharov, and a discussion with the London-based Buryat artist Margarita Galandina on the Mongolian Indigenous rituals and culture presented in the film.
Cactus Pears
Winner of the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, Cactus Pears is a gem. Rohan Kanawade’s film is a touching queer romance set in the rural countryside of western India. Anand (Bhushaan Manoj) is in a 10-day mourning period for his father when he meets a local farmer. Their bond quickly deepens, and their quiet connection blossoms. However, when Anand is called back to the city, he must decide on what life he wants to live.
A Good Child
Ong Kuo Sin’s A Good Child will have its UK premiere at Queer East. The camp comedy from Singapore follows a drag queen reluctantly returning home to look after their mother with dementia. Balancing playful humour and tender family dynamics, A Good Child is helmed by rising Singaporean star Richie Koh.
Between Goodbyes
Between Goodbyes is another film set to have its UK premiere at Queer East. Jota Mun’s documentary that explores queer adoption and Korea’s overseas adoption programme. The film follows Mieke, a queer Korean adoptee who was raised in the Netherlands, and her birth mother, who lives in South Korea. Jota Mun, a Korean adoptee themself, offers a window into the lives of those trying to reconcile with their painful pasts.
Molly
As well as feature films, there are plenty of short films that are worth watching: one such film is Molly. The film’s logline reads: “A chance meeting at a launderette draws two men into an intense emotional intimacy. As closeness blurs into desire, their relationship forces them to confront what love demands before it fractures everything they have built.” Molly offers a portrayal of asexuality, which remains rare in cinema.
Pixelated Lesbian Mixtape: Azian Nurudin’s Wicked Times
Made between 1986 and 1999, Pixelated Lesbian Mixtape: Azian Nurudin’s Wicked Times is an excavation from the queer cinema archives. The collection features nine films of unabashed, defiant queer passion centred on Malaysian-American artist Azian Nurudin.
The event’s description details: “This retrospective is a rare opportunity to spotlight, re-contextualise, and experience an almost-forgotten voice from a monumental moment in queer history. The screening will be followed by an online Q&A with Azian.”
BodyHacking
The contemporary film strand ‘BodyHacking’ will see five short films explore the malleable and imaginative nature of queer bodies. From animation to documentary to experimental modes of storytelling, these films raise questions about ethics, politics, hormones and sharing wombs.
The film strand includes: Immature, How to Get Your Man Pregnant, Part 1. Camera and Toe, In Petri Dish We Sing and Womb Mates.
Find out more and purchase tickets for the 2026 Queer East festival here.
