In the last few years the Myanmar Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex and Queer community has become far more visible and vocal. The &PROUD Yangon LGBTIQ film festival, which is part of the Yangon Pride Festival, adds to this vibrant LGBTIQ cultural scene and each year celebrates the breadth and diversity of Asian Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex and Queer lives.

Focusing on films from Southeast Asia and other Asian countries, as well as supporting new productions from young Myanmar activists and film makers, our aim is to encourage discussion and debate around LGBTIQ identities and to showcase the role of film in encouraging social debate and movements for LGBTIQ rights.

In February 2020 the Festival celebrated its six edition and continues to be the major LGBTIQ cultural event in Myanmar. As well as the film event we also held a Pride type festival in one of the parks in Yangon and in total around 17000 people attended sports events, a Drag Olympics, film screenings, performances, debates, and parties.

The festival welcomes documentary and fictional films, long and short. All films with a principal LGBTIQ storyline, or which address the LGBTIQ community’s experience, are welcome. All films will be subtitled in Burmese, and directors, producers and actors of some selected films will be invited to discuss their work with the audience in open sessions or panel discussions between showings.

Like in 2020, over the summer the festival organisers will work with local Yangon organisations to run a series of workshops for members of the Myanmar LGBT+ community interested in making films. Participants in the workshops will be supported to develop their own films which will be showcased in the opening ceremony of the film festival programme.

Awards & Prizes

In 2021 the Yangon &PROUD LGBT+ Film Festival will have jury awards for best feature and best short.

Rules & Terms

[1] THE ORGANISATION
The &Proud Yangon Pride Film Festival is a non-profit organisation. The annual festival and its sections are coordinated by &PROUD, a community based non-profit company. The final selection of all films presented at the festival and their placement in the programme is the responsibility of the festival board.

[2] ELIGIBILITY
Participation is open to everyone. The festival is open to short and feature films of all production techniques, including animation, documentary, drama, experimental or artist film and hybrid work from low to high budgets. The festival's focus will be on Asian films, but there will be a limited selection of non-Asian films as well.

The festival does not require any premiere status. Films must have been completed after 2016. All films will be subtitled in Burmese language by the festival organisers.

[3] GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSION
Filmmakers are requested to submit films through the FilmFreeway website and submissions need to be sent before September 30, 2020. If you have questions regarding the film submission you can reach us through filmfestival@andproud.net or billy@andproud.net.

[4] NOTIFICATION & SELECTION
An independent selection committee is appointed by the festival to view all submissions for programming consideration. Decisions made by the selection committee are final. The committee will select films for the festival by October 31st 2020. After selection, notification letters will be sent electronically.

[5] SUBMISSION OF SCREENING COPIES
We request a digital file (MP4, MOV or other) for screening, so that we can add on Burmese subtitles: Video tape formats or film prints are not applicable. Screening copies must be submitted before 30 November 2020 following notification. The participant is responsible for the costs of sending the screening copy to the festival. The festival covers the costs of returning or forwarding screening copies.

For the sake of making the selected films accessible to the largest audience possible in Myanmar, and considering that English is not commonly spoken in Myanmar, the Yangon LGBT film festival wishes to subtitle the selected films in Myanmar language. To do so, an English time coded transcript must be submitted by all selected films.
a) by submitting their film, the participant accepts to have their film subtitled by the festival;
b) the festival will translate to Myanmar language from the English subtitle track and will create a separate Myanmar subtitle track;
d) the festival will cover the cost of translating and creating Myanmar language subtitles.

[6] LIABILITY
The sender of the submitted film is responsible for all copyrights. He/she is legally authorised to enter his/her short film in the festival and, if selected for the festival, authorised to give screening permission. The applicant has secured all necessary rights for both picture and sound, and exhibition will not violate or infringe upon any rights, including but not limited to music, images, and content.

The non-profit nature of the festival’s activities guarantees that the works submitted will be used only to advance the cultural objectives of the Yangon Pride LGBTIQ Film Festival. No charges are made for screenings or tickets, in order to allow the maximum possible access by the Myanmar LGBTIQ community.

2 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
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Networking
  • Joselito Altarejos


    Because we are born this shwe!
    Thank you, &PROUD Film Festival for having Tale of the Lost Boys! It was overwhelming to see how everyone has shown love and has worked so hard to make it a success. With the young audience in attendance, Yangon and Myanmar are having great strides in this journey towards equality for all!
    Thank you everyone, esp., Billy Stewart, the Festival Director, Dodi Fog and all the wonderful people I met there.

    February 2018
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  • Christopher McCombs

    Staff was very friendly and it was very easy to communicate. There were lots of pictures of the event put up so even though we were not able to attend we have a clear idea of how great the event was! Very happy to have been a part of this festival.

    February 2017
    Helpful