Queer film festivals in Switzerland 2026/27: dates, tickets and what to watch from Geneva to Frauenfeld

Six festivals, one calendar

If you love queer cinema, your Swiss diary is full from October to May. The season opened in Basel on 8 October with Lust*streifen, and Geneva took over straight away: Everybody’s Perfect runs until 18 October. November brings three festivals almost a week apart – Queersicht in Bern (5 to 11 November), PinkPanorama in Lucerne (18 to 21 November) and Porny Days in Zurich (27 to 29 November). The season closes in spring with Pink Apple, which celebrates its 30th edition in 2027: from 4 to 13 May in Zurich and from 14 to 16 May in Frauenfeld.

Each festival has its own character. Geneva offers ten days of international programming, cabaret and parties. Basel describes itself as a queer-feminist festival with bodies and desire at its heart. Bern calls itself the oldest queer film festival in the country and is run by volunteers. Lucerne turns 25, and Porny Days in Zurich screens films about sexuality, all of them for over-18s only. What they share: they show films that rarely make it into regular cinemas, and most screen only a handful of times.

How closely the festivals work together became clear in Lausanne in June. At the invitation of the Cinémathèque suisse, representatives of Everybody’s Perfect, Pink Apple and Queersicht discussed the history and the challenges of queer film festivals in Switzerland. All the information in this overview comes from the festivals’ official websites, as of 7 October 2026. Programmes are updated as they go, so check the festival’s page before you travel.

Geneva: Everybody’s Perfect until 18 October

The 13th edition of Everybody’s Perfect, the first queer film festival in French-speaking Switzerland (founded in 2010), runs from 9 to 18 October at the Maison des arts du Grütli, Rue du Général-Dufour 16. Films are shown on three screens: Salle Simon and Salle Langlois in the basement, and Fonction : Cinéma on the ground floor. Also on the ground floor is La Paillette, the festival bar, with light food, stalls and DJ sets every evening. It opens 30 minutes before the first screening and entry is free.

Prices follow a “multicoloured” system: you choose the rate that fits your situation. A cinema ticket costs 17 francs (orange, supporter rate), 15 francs (yellow, the equivalent of full price), 8 francs (magenta, concession) or 6 francs (lavender, with the 20ans20francs card). Magenta applies, among others, to under-26s, students, jobseekers, people on Swiss old-age or disability benefits and members of Asile LGBTIQ+.

If you plan to see a lot, get the pass perfect: 180, 140 or 95 francs depending on the rate, personal and non-transferable. It covers every screening, includes drinks vouchers for Le Phare bar and gives you the magenta rate at the parties. Important: even with a pass you must book a seat for every screening. Without a booking you will not get in, and seats not taken when the film starts are sold again. The transferable five-entry card costs 60 francs – handy if two of you go together. Talks after the films are included in the ticket. Many films are shown in the original version with French subtitles, some with English subtitles only; every film page says which.

What you can still see in Geneva from 14 October

The festival lists 55 items, from features and short-film programmes to events. Here is a selection of what is still showing from Wednesday 14 October and is of particular interest to gay and bi men.

“Maspalomas” (Spain, 2025): Vicente, 76, enjoys gay life in the Canary Islands resort until his daughter pushes him into a care home, where he slips back into a straight façade. At San Sebastián it won the Sebastiane Award, given during the festival by the LGBTI association Gehitu, and lead actor José Ramón Soroiz took the Silver Shell; he later won the Goya for best actor. Wednesday 14 October, 8pm, original Basque version with French subtitles, 16+.

“Downtown” (Netherlands, 2026): in the 1980s two friends are at the centre of an Amsterdam gay club; years later they meet again and go back over everything that was never said. Friday 16 October, 4pm, and Sunday 18 October, 3.15pm, English subtitles only.

“Mineshaft: The Cruising Murders” (USA, 2026): a documentary about disappearances and murders in the gay leather scene of the 1970s and the row over William Friedkin’s film “Cruising”. Sunday 18 October, 6.15pm, 18+.

“Molt lluny” (Spain, 2025): having travelled to the Netherlands with family and friends to support his football team, Sergio decides on impulse to stay and has to build a new life. Director Gerard Oms is a guest on 15 October. Thursday 15 October, 7.30pm, Friday 16 October, 6.15pm, and Saturday 17 October, 3pm.

“Six nuances de gays”: 80 minutes of gay short films, from a homoerotic music clip to the drama of a young man who finds his odd jobs through an app. Sunday 18 October, 7.15pm, 16+.

Also worth a look: “Hunky Jesus”, about the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, founded in San Francisco in 1979 (Wednesday 14 October, 8.45pm, and Saturday 17 October, 4.45pm); “Iván & Hadoum”, winner of the Teddy Award at the 2026 Berlinale (Wednesday 14 October, 4.30pm); “Blue Boy Trial”, about a 1960s trial in Japan that shaped the history of trans rights (15, 16 and 18 October); and the drag comedy “Stop! That! Train!”, with RuPaul as the US president (17 and 18 October).

Geneva after the film: country, cabaret and awards

Thursday 15 October belongs to queer country dancing. From 12.15 to 1.45pm there is a workshop on the third floor of the Grütli (17, 15, 8 or 6 francs), and in the evening, from 8.30pm to 12.30am, the country party takes place at Le Groove, Rue des Gazomètres 9 (18, 16, 12 or 11 francs). To get in the mood, the documentary “Last Dance at the Sundance Stompede” follows a queer country weekend in San Francisco: Wednesday 14 October, 6.45pm, and Thursday 15 October, 2.45pm, with a talk by the director Graham Clayton-Chance.

On Friday 16 and Saturday 17 October, Le Groove becomes a cabaret stage followed by DJ sets (50, 35, 26 or 23 francs). Saturday’s closing party starts at 9pm with the cabaret collective La Bouche. If you only want to dance, come later: DJ sets on Friday from midnight (from 11 francs) and on Saturday from 11pm (from 11 francs).

In the same building, at the Scènes du Grütli, Sara Selma Dolorès performs “Rire (pour en finir avec soi-même)” from 14 to 16 October at 7.30pm each night, a biting meta-cabaret somewhere between stand-up and song (105 minutes, in French, 16+). Tickets cost 5 to 25 francs, or 10 francs with the pass perfect.

The Perfect Awards are presented at the closing ceremony on Saturday 17 October at 6pm. The City of Geneva’s Prix Mémoires LGBTIQ+, worth 3,000 francs, goes to a feature that passes on the history of LGBTIQ+ people and movements; a jury of three decides. There is also an audience award – you drop your ballot in the box after each feature – and a prize from a youth jury of under-25s.

Basel: Lust*streifen opened the season

The season kicked off from 8 to 11 October with the Lust*streifen Film Festival Basel, in its 19th edition and under the theme “Bodies in Solidarity”. It opened at the Stadtkino Basel with the Filipino film “Dreamboi” by Rodina Singh, as a European premiere. Screenings took place at the neues kino, Klybeckstrasse 247, and at the Stadtkino, Klostergasse 5, while the side programme ran at Holzpark Klybeck in Gannet, Korsar and reUnion.

The festival began in 2007 as an initiative of habs queer basel and has been an independent association since 2018. Its focus is LGBTQIA+, feminism, gender and body politics. Among the films tagged “gay” in the programme were these three: “Jaripeo”, a tender documentary about hidden desire around rodeos in Mexico; “Test”, about a young bodybuilder and the pressure behind his body; and “To Dance is To Resist”, about a queer couple of dancers in Kyiv’s underground during the war. The last two were Swiss premieres.

A regular fixture is the “Heidilicious” block of Swiss short films in the national competition. The festival presents the Lust*awards in three categories: national, international and intimacy.

For next year, it helps to know the prices: a ticket cost 18 francs, or 12 francs reduced (under-25s or in education up to 30). The festival pass cost 100 francs as the standard price, 120 francs as the solidarity price – with 20 francs going to the Trans Safety Emergency Fund – and 80 francs reduced. People with an N or F permit could attend the film programme free of charge, and the side programme was free. The festival party, Lust*voll, ran on Saturday from 10pm to 4.30am at Gannet, with darkrooms and a chill-out area, for 20 to 30 francs.

Bern: Queersicht turns 30

Queersicht was founded in 1996 and has taken place every November since. The anniversary festival runs from 5 to 11 November 2026. The festival is organised by a volunteer committee of around 20 people and backed by the Queersicht association. For the anniversary, the team wants to celebrate the films, people and experiences of three decades. The full programme is available at queersicht.ch from 12 October, where you will also find ticket information.

Two dates are already set. On 5 November, a film chosen by the committee opens the festival as a thank-you to the community. On Saturday 7 November, from 10pm, the Queersicht party takes place at the Dachstock of the Reitschule, with Disco Shorley, a drag performance, knabber_hans, unnova & Popy Caste and 36birds.

Screenings are spread across Bern: CineABC (Moserstrasse 24), Kino REX 1 (Schwanengasse 9), Kellerkino (Kramgasse 26), Cinématte (Wasserwerkgasse 7), Kino in der Reitschule (Neubrückstrasse 8) and Lichtspiel (Sandrainstrasse 3). The bar, lounge and brunch are at the Queerfeministischer Raum, Schützenmattstrasse 9. According to the festival, REX 1, Cinématte and Lichtspiel are fully wheelchair accessible; films shown in the inaccessible Kellerkino are always screened in an accessible venue as well. Companions get in free.

Short films compete for the audience award “Die Rosa Brille”, worth 2,000 francs; second place receives 500 francs. And if you miss a film, there is a second chance: according to Queersicht, Filmpodium Biel/Bienne will show several films from the programme between 12 November and 22 December in its “Queer Cinema” series.

Lucerne, Zurich and Frauenfeld: PinkPanorama, Porny Days, Pink Apple

PinkPanorama turns 25 in 2026 and takes place from 18 to 21 November at the stattkino im Bourbaki, Löwenplatz 11, in Lucerne. At the time of writing, on 7 October, the programme had not yet been published. The organisers ask you to keep Sunday 15 November free as well, without yet revealing what will happen. To be the first to know, sign up to the newsletter at pinkpanorama.ch.

In Zurich, the 14th Porny Days follow from 27 to 29 November, a film and art festival about the body and sexuality. The organisers explicitly call 2026 a year of reorientation: after changes in the team, the programme will be smaller and focused on films. An anniversary edition is announced for 2027. All Porny Days screenings are for over-18s only. Venues and the 2026 programme had not been published at the time of writing.

In spring comes Pink Apple, which describes itself as the largest queer film festival in Switzerland. Every year in early May it presents the best and latest in queer filmmaking over twelve days, in Zurich and Frauenfeld. The dates of the 30th edition are set: Zurich from 4 to 13 May 2027, Frauenfeld from 14 to 16 May 2027. The three Frauenfeld days follow straight on from Zurich – if you live in eastern Switzerland, note the weekend of 14 to 16 May.

How to plan your festival season

Book early. In Geneva you need a booking for every screening, even with a pass, and seats not taken when the film starts go back on sale. In Basel, bookings were not possible because of the limited number of seats, and pass holders also had to get each ticket separately at the box office. Single tickets were, however, sold online in advance or at the box office.

Work out whether a pass is worth it. In Geneva, the pass perfect at the magenta rate becomes cheaper than 8-franc tickets from around a dozen films. At the yellow rate, the 140-franc pass pays off from ten films. If you are under 26 or in education, always ask for the reduced rate.

Check the language and the age rating. Every film page lists the original language, subtitles and minimum age. In Geneva some films have English subtitles only, “Mineshaft” is 18+, and at Porny Days that applies to every screening.

Ask if you need support. Queersicht answers accessibility questions at zugaenglichkeit@queersicht.ch and asks you to register in advance so a seat is guaranteed at sold-out screenings. In Basel, a ramp could be set up at the neues kino on request.

Combine films and nights out. In Geneva, our city guide points you to bars such as Le Phare, whose drinks vouchers come with the pass. In Bern, the Queersicht party at the Dachstock is the place to go after the last film on Saturday. You will also find every date in our listings.

Last checked: 7 October 2026