International filmmakers had already travelled to China for the Beijing Queer Film Festival. Volunteers had helped sustain an event with a history stretching back to 2001. Audiences were preparing for a gathering centred on queer stories.
Then, on the evening before it was due to begin, it announced its cancellation.
The independent festival was scheduled to open on October 30. According to reporting by The Guardian’s senior China correspondent Amy Hawkins, the decision followed sustained harassment from authorities, including repeated police phone calls in recent weeks.
A cancellation announced the night before
In an Instagram statement posted late on October 29, organizers confirmed that the event, named in their announcement as Love Queer Film Week, had been cancelled.
They apologized to people who had planned to participate or had been looking forward to the programme.
The Guardian’s account of police pressure is separate from that public cancellation statement. The newspaper reported that Beijing’s public security bureau could not be reached for comment.
There is no announced replacement date in the report.
A space built around queer lives
Founded by a group of Peking University students in 2001, the festival became one of China’s oldest independent film events.
The Guardian describes it as the only film festival in mainland China offering a public forum for films and discussions exploring LGBTQ+ issues.
That role gives the cancellation significance beyond a lost programme of screenings. A festival also offers opportunities to meet other viewers, exchange experiences and encounter stories that may have little space elsewhere.
Hongwei Bao, a professor of Chinese studies at the University of St Andrews who focuses on LGBTQ+ issues, described the festival to the newspaper as “a beacon for LGBT resilience” in China.
He warned that its shutdown would have a chilling effect on the Chinese queer community.
Pressure on places to gather
Maya Wang, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, placed the cancellation in the context of tightening social and ideological control under Xi Jinping.
Speaking to The Guardian, she described overlapping pressures on civil society, LGBTQ+ communities and independent filmmakers — all of which meet at a queer film festival.
The newspaper also reported that LGBTQ+-themed screenings planned at Beijing’s Institut Français during Pride month in June had been cancelled because of police harassment.
These are separate events, but together they illustrate the shrinking opportunities for public screenings and discussion described in the report.
The willingness to participate remained
Despite those pressures, interest in the festival had continued.
Several international filmmakers whose work had been selected had travelled to China to take part. Last year, the festival received 200 volunteer applications, four times the number received in 2024.
Those details speak to the people behind the programme: filmmakers willing to travel and community members willing to give their time.
The cancellation stops this year’s gathering. It also leaves a visible reminder of the audience, enthusiasm and commitment that were waiting for it.
📷 AI / collage
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