Festival

Where Queer Cinema Meets Community

A diverse audience sits in rows of theater seats, attentively watching and applauding an unseen event or presentation on stage. The lighting is dim, focusing on the spectators’ engaged expressions.

Get ready for Inside Out 2025!

Discover emerging queer filmmakers and connect with a vibrant local community at Canada’s largest 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival. Inside Out shines a spotlight on the diverse spectrum of queer storytelling through bold features, powerful documentaries, crowd-pleasing shorts, and unmissable retrospectives. Held every May in Toronto, Inside Out is a celebration of queer creativity, connection, and community — drawing over 10,000 attendees to experience boundary-pushing film and unforgettable in-person events at TIFF Lightbox.

Founded in 1991, Inside Out is one of the longest-running queer film festivals in North America, and a cornerstone of Canada’s cultural calendar. In 2024, the Festival showcased over 100 films from 23 countries, including 4 World Premieres and more than 10 Canadian and International Premieres. This year, we expect another standout lineup of bold, inspiring, and unforgettable queer cinema when Inside Out returns May 23–June 1, 2025.

A crowd of people stand in line along an indoor balcony at the TIFF Lightbox venue. On the wall, a large projected sign reads "Inside Out," with people visible on an upper level socializing and mingling in line for the film.
Photo by Yi Shi

Inside Out’s curated programs reflect our commitment to equity and representation, with audience-favourite spotlights like THRIVE, our trans shorts program curated by trans programmers, and BOLD, a shorts program celebrating Black queer stories, curated by Black programmers. Our year-round retrospective series, Run It Back, highlights influential queer classics and hidden gems, while our fundraising initiative Play It Forward connects the past and future of queer cinema.

Supporting filmmakers is at the heart of Inside Out. Our International Finance Forum (IFF) is the only 2SLGBTQ+ film financing forum of its kind, connecting queer creators with global industry leaders to support the development of new projects and talent.

A panel of five people sits on stage discussing in front of an audience. Behind them, a screen displays the text, “Keep It Short: Unpacking Queer Films.” The room is dimly lit with a casual, attentive atmosphere.
Photo by Yi Shi

A proudly local festival with a global reach, Inside Out is deeply rooted in Toronto’s creative community. Our Local Heroes shorts program highlights the city’s rising 2SLGBTQ+ filmmakers — offering an essential platform for emerging talent to showcase their work, connect with peers, and collaborate across disciplines. 

Join us this summer and kick off Pride season at the cinema! Ticket packages are on sale now and our program launch is happening May 2.

Get ahead of the line.

Buy a ticket package

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