PRIDE PICTURES Queer Film Festival Karlsruhe
18.10. – 26.10.2025

DE | PRIDE PICTURES Queer Film Festival Karlsruhe präsentiert 7 Tage queeres Kino mit ausgewählten Spiel- und Kurzfilmen sowie Dokumentationen. Wir bieten Themen und Genres, die so vielfältig sind wie die Länder, aus denen die Werke stammen. Bunt, berührend, sehenswert!

EN | PRIDE PICTURES Queer Film Festival Karlsruhe proudly presents 7 days of queer cinema: Features, shorts and documentaries with topics and genres as diverse as their countries of origin.

FR | PRIDE PICTURES Queer Film Festival Karlsruhe présente cinéma queer 7 jours de thèmes et de genres queer aussi divers que leurs pays d'origine.

The festival

Films expand our perception of the world and thus contribute to social change!

The PRIDE PICTURES Queer Film Festival Karlsruhe developed from the
Lesbian-Gay Film Days, which were founded in 1994. Since 2015, the
film festival has been organised by the non-profit association PRIDE PICTURES.
Now one of the largest queer film festivals in Germany, the week-long festival traditionally the end of October shows current international feature films, documentaries and legendary short film programmes. The accompanying festival programme consists of film discussions with filmmakers, the festival party and a high-calibre panel discussion. The films come to us in many different ways. Some of them are submitted by filmmakers or film distributors, sometimes festival members find the films at other festivals such as the Berlinale. The festival offers a forum for a socially committed film culture that is worthy of discussion and sophisticated film culture. The venue is the Kinemathek and Schauburg Karlsruhe, whose staff provide us with logistical, technical and conceptual support. The association also organises special screenings in collaboration with other queer associations.

www.pridepictures.de
Member of queerscope.de

PRIDE PICTURES proudly presents:
PRIDE PICTURES PRISM – The City of Media Arts Queer Short Film Award

The Queer Short Film Award is sponsored by UNESCO City of Media Arts Karlsruhe.
This prize is endowed with 1000 euros to reward the best short film within our festival, selected by an independent jury.

We are looking forward to your submissions!

The PRIDE PICTURES Queer Film Festival Karlsruhe is an International Film Festival and is organised by the PRIDE PICTURES e.V.
PRIDE PICTURES is a major public cultural event in Karlsruhe and region and a unique place for interaction with a film-loving queer public.
The Official Programme of the PRIDE PICTURES comprises the feature films, shorts and documentarys. It is supplemented by the Podium.

Selection Screeners
For selection screenings all films have to be submitted in their original version with English subtitles unless the original version of the film is English.

For PRIDE PICTURES Shorts or films in German language can be submitted in their original versions without subtitles. In case of selection for the festival German or English subtitles will be required.

By submitting the submitter agrees that, for organisational purposes, the festival retains submitted selection screeners until the end of the festival’s current edition (effective date: october 31, 2025). The submitter also agrees that selection screeners (except DCPs) will be made available online in encrypted form to selected festival employees for the purpose of film selection.

If an invitation is extended, the PRIDE PICTURES will also use the corresponding selection screener(s) fand stills or internal festival preparations.

The PRIDE PICTURES will only accept the submission of a film if the submitter is the holder of all usage rights to the film necessary for the submission and use of the film within the context of participation in the PRIDE PICTURES and if the submitter can also effectively grant the PRIDE PICTURES these rights. The PRIDE PICTURES reserves the right to demand appropriate proof of these rights and to reject the submission upon failure to provide it.

General Regulations

Only officially selected films can participate in the PRIDE PICTURES. The invitation to participate is issued by the Artistic Directors of the festival or the section heads, respectively.

Programming of the selected films is likewise made by the Artistic Directors of the festival or the heads of each section, respectively, and is final. Each film can be screened up to three times during the festival. In addition, participants can authorise additional screenings of the selected film during the festival.

To participate in the PRIDE PICTURES, the submitter must accept the invitation in writing, submit the final festival version of the film by the deadline and provide the festival with the supplementary documents, media and information.

In the case of official film selection, PRIDE PICTURES is expressly permitted to create a festival trailer with excerpts from the film and, if necessary, German subtitles for the film. In addition to the film, it is necessary to provide stills in high-resolution format, which may also be used on the festival website.

Official Laurel and Advertising

The participant must ensure that the official festival laurel is clearly visible on all advertising and promotional measures for the participating films.

Participation and submission to the PRIDE PICTURES PRISM - The City of Media Arts Queer Short Film Award

§ 1 The Award
PRIDE PICTURES organises the competition for the PRIDE PICTURES PRISM - The City of Media Arts Queer Short Film Award. The best film in the category queer short film will be awarded. The award is endowed with 1000,- € which go to the director of the film. An independent jury chooses the winning film.

§ 2 Participation and submission
All current international queer short films with a maximum length of 20 minutes can be submitted. Films that are submitted for the competition must have been releases in the year of the award ceremony or the year before. In addition, the film must clearly incorporate a queer cultural imprint.
Films that have already been in the selection process for the PRIDE PICTURES PRISM - The City of Media Arts Queer Short Film Award may not be submitted again in the following year.

§ 3 Subtitles
All films, whose original language is not German, must be subtitled in German in order to participate in the competition. When submitting a film for the competition, at least English subtitles or a written version of the dialogue in English have to be included in the submission.
PRIDE PICTURES may organize the production of German for the festival screenings at its own expense. For this purpose, PRIDE PICTURES is entitled to make a copy of the film and to produce subtitles. An unencrypted copy of the film (DKDM) is included in the submission and the submitting persons grant the right to edit subtitles to PRIDE PICTURES. The submitting persons may not raise a claim to receive a subtitled copy of the film. The delivery of subtitles may be negotiated.

§ 4 Selection of films
The organiser appoints a committee that curates the short film programmes for the festival of the PRIDE PICTURES and thus nominates the films for participation in the competition for the PRIDE PICTURES PRISM - The City of Media Arts Queer Short Film Award.

§ 5 Absence of film rental fee
There will be no film rental fee paid for short films that are selected to take part in the competition. All costs for hosting the competition for the PRIDE PICTURES PRISM - The City of Media Arts Queer Short Film Award will be paid by the organiser.

§ 6 Screening
All films participating in the competition for the PRIDE PICTURES PRISM - The City of Media Arts Queer Short Film Award
will be screened at least once as part of the PRIDE PICTURES film festival. The film festival reserves the right to screen the winning film again at the end of the festival. Subsequent screenings of the winning film outside the festival are permitted.

§ 7 Determination of the winning film
All films nominated to participate in the competition for the PRIDE PICTURES PRISM - The City of Media Arts Queer Short Film Award (see §4) may be shown or be provided in digital form to the jury for the purpose of determining the winning film.
The jury will decide on the winning film of the competition. It will be nominated by PRIDE PICTURES. It shall consist of three persons with a background of media art, film making or other fields related to the cinema.

§ 8 Award ceremony
The director and, if applicable, the actors of the winning film will be invited by PRIDE PICTURES to join the award ceremony at Karlsruhe. The organiser will bear the expenses of travel within Germany and accommodation for the guests on site in Karlsruhe. This includes an overnight stay in a hotel as well as travelling to and from the event. There is no entitlement to invite more than three guests.

§9 Public relations
All submitted films may be presented in excerpts and film stills on the PRIDE PICTURES website, in the festival trailer and in the association's social media presence.

Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • We're big fans of this festival as they put on a great show each edition and focus on a thriving programme each year! We had three clients screen in 2024:

    🏳️‍🌈 Best Before
    🏳️‍🌈 Just A Weekend
    🏳️‍🌈 Seahorse Parents

    November 2024
  • Cailleah Scott-Grimes

    Great festival! Was not able to attend in person, but communication and publicity materials were excellent. Would love to join again.

    November 2022
  • Aleksei Borovikov

    It was an honor to be a part of this event. The programmers did a great job putting together a beautiful slate of films. Communication was clear and welcoming. I will definitely consider the fest for my upcoming films.

    November 2020
  • Sander Houwen

    Thank you Christian, Andreas, Martin and all other people at Pride Pictures for a great festival experience! We totally agree with Sierra: well selected movies, a nice party (at Alte Hackerei, an old slaughter house) and a tasty Pride Brunch (Prunch). A great festival to be part of! Auf wiedersehen! Sander & Sjoerd (The Task)

    November 2019
  • Sierra Schepmann

    The staff and attendees at Pride Pictures were phenomenal! They were so welcoming and sweet, every event I attended I was greeted with smiles and excitement. They screened a bunch of very well selected movies in a classy, beautiful theater in the heart of Karlsruhe. Spending the weekend there, I saw posters all over town for the festival. We had screenings, parties, and brunch throughout the festival. Definitely an amazing community and wonderful festival to be included in!

    November 2019