2023 brings The 30th Reel Affirmation Film Festival: Washington DC’s International LGBTQ Film Festival!. We are EXTREMELY EXCITED to celebrate our 30th anniversary (we were dark for 2 years)
Founded 1991, Reel Affirmations Film Festival was ranked one of the top 3 LGBTQ film festival in the country. Over the years Reel Affirmations has been a vigorous champion of ground breaking LGBTQIA2S+ cinema introducing exemplary filmmakers and presenting Academy Award Winning/Nominated films such as Gods and Monsters and Boys Dont Cry and locally co-presenting timely films such as The Happy Prince, Moonlight, Tangerine, The Danish Girl, A Fantastic Woman and Love is Strange.
As we came out of the deep impact of the pandemic In 2022, 100’s of films were submitted to consideration and all of them took us on a mind expanding, soul searching, WTF are we doing & WTF is happening journey.
We were determined to continue with our pivot and our amazing programming team chose 45+ diverse, compelling, vital, dramatic & hilarious films created by filmmakers who hail from 5 continents and 22 different countries with topics ranging from our challenging social/political landscape to societal/personal acceptance to affairs of the heart to multicultural interests.
Reaching our 30th year is an extraordinary milestone and direct testament to our commitment to supporting our LGBTQIA2S+ Creatives through providing a ever-evolving venue to present the best in modern day cinematic creativity which in turn offers insight as to how to cultivate the future we want to see-one that is full of hope, equality, imagination, uplifted voices, determination, humor and vulnerability.
While, Reel Affirmations Film Festival presents several days of NEW AND EXCITING international, documentary, short and feature films from all over the world to Washington as well as panel discussions, filmmaker Q&A and filmmaker receptions and celebrations we also have our Monthly Film Series: Reel Affirmations XTRA which keeps LGBTQIA2S+ images and lifestories on the foreground of the Arts and Culture scene in Washington DC.
We believe that powerful, poignant, humorous and life altering films can change lives and we invite you to submit your film!
Our incredible programming team looks forward to reviewing your film for our film festival and/or our monthly film series.
GRAND JURY AWARDS
Grand Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature
Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature
Grand Jury Award for Best DMV (DC, Maryland Virginia) Film
AUDIENCE AWARDS
Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature
Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature
Audience Award for Best Documentary Short
Audience Award for Best Narrative Short