Soura Film Festival is a Berlin-based queer film festival that sheds light on cinematic talents from the SWANA (South West Asia & North Africa) region.
Soura—which means ‘image’ in Arabic, is about sharing a vision of life that is poignant, defiant and unique.

The festival's mission is to create a safe and welcoming space for filmmakers whose creative vision has challenged heteronormativity and patriarchal environments, and have explored queerness and what it represents to them. Queerness, as seen by the festival, is not exclusive to efforts related to the LGBTQ+ community, but also tackles themes such as feminism, migration and human relationships that defy oppressive social constructs.

The annual program presents the current queer film scene from the SWANA region within various sections including feature films, short films, documentaries, animation, essay-films and newly discovered queer-classics.

Soura Film Festival aims to step across borders to help filmmakers advocate for queerness through powerful storytelling. The festival reserves the right to select artistic efforts that adhere to its political frameworks and support the notion of queerness that stands with the struggles of oppressed communities everywhere in their fight for their basic rights.

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Submissions for the 5th Edition of Soura Film Festival are now OPEN!

Rules & Regulations:

1. The film must be of LGBTQI+ interest or depict LGBTQI+ characters.

2. Films from other countries not included in the SWANA region (South West Asia & North Africa) can also participate as long as their stories resonate with the SWANA region (e.g. a film from the United States which is directed by an Arab filmmaker or its protagonist is from the SWANA region).

3. If the original language of the film is not English, the film must have English subtitles.

4. Submitted films must be from 2019 - 2023.

5. Submitted films must be accompanied by the entry form provided on FilmFreeway.

6. Filmmakers wishing to submit rough cuts for consideration must clearly note that the film is a rough cut, and must supply the completed film before acceptance is finalized.

7. We give preference to films that didn't have a commercial premiere in Germany.

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SWANA region includes:

Algeria
Afghanistan
Armenia
Bahrain
Djibouti
Egypt
Ethiopia
Georgia
Iran
Iraq
Israel
Jordan
Kuwait
Lebanon
Libya
Morocco
Oman
Palestine
Qatar
Saudi Arabia
Sudan
Syria
Tunisia
Turkey
United Arab Emirates
Yemen

Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • it was great to screening my film in the festival for the first time for the German audience , i was not there but the pictures from screening was awesome <3 , and im so happy about this selection <3

    October 2019