The short films competing for the 2025 LGBTQ+ Iris Prize revealed

The 35 films that have made the cut for the prestigious Iris Prize and will be screened next month at the Iris Prize LGBTQ+ Film Festival, have been revealed.

This year, the 19th edition of the festival runs for a full week from 13 – 19 October and the box office opens for general sales on 18 September, (general sales for members from 11 September) with Full Festival Passes, Industry Day Passes, Day Passes, and Weekend Passes already available.

The shortlist of international filmmakers competing for the coveted £40,000 Iris Prize Short Film Competition supported by The Michael Bishop Foundation is unveiled today. This year’s shortlist features films from 21 countries, including two from Turkey and one from Pakistan – two countries who have submitted films for the first time ever.

The Iris Prize has 20 international partner festivals who nominated 18 of the shortlisted films, with the remainder chosen by a pre-selection jury.  The shortlisted films tell stories ranging from recounting tales of past loves, reunions, rekindling romance, racism, family expectations and dynamics, and first loves.

Berwyn Rowlands, Iris Prize Film Festival Director, said: “Sharing LGBTQ+ stories, often ignored by the mainstream, is an important part of what Iris is all about. When we receive a film from a country for the first time, we get very excited. This year’s shortlist includes work from Pakistan and Turkey and although we’ve been active for 19 years this is the first nomination for both countries.

“Sharing these stories on the big screen is important, but welcoming the filmmakers to Wales to meet our audience is the secret ingredient that makes Iris a special festival.

“This year we are expecting more filmmakers to join us for the week. And if you can’t make it to Cardiff this year, you can see all the short films online and vote for your favourite film. The most popular film will win the Iris Prize Co-op Audience Award.”

Shortlist

The 35 films shortlisted for the 2025 Iris Prize are:

Birthdays. Dir. Adrian Jalily. Denmark, 2025. 19 mins.
Marlon is confronted with his son’s otherness as he doesn’t get an invite for any of the birthday parties in his class.

Buscando Alma. Dir: Melissa Fisher. USA, 2024. 15 mins.
A Honduran immigrant is given the chance to meet her mother after nearly two decades of separation. As she grapples with the uncertainty of their reunion, she is confronted by tumultuous memories of her past and the fact that she might not be what her mother is expecting.

Cats Can Teach You To Die Alone. Dir: Hanuš. Pakistan, 2025. 22 mins.
Ali receives a call from his ex-lover Zain after three years, sparking memories of the night they first met, moving between past intimacy and present solitude, love and regret.

Clementine. Dir: Sally Tran. USA, 2024. 15 mins.
A late-blooming trans woman struggles to confront and navigate a life-altering, assigned-male-at-birth trans specific dilemma.

Cousin. Dir: Alejandro Jato. Spain, 2025. 24 mins.
Antón travels to his grandparents’ village to receive his first communion. While celebrating this special day with family, a new way of seeing the world begins to take shape, leading to an experience that will forever mark the course of his life – as an individual, as a cousin, and as a child of God.

Damp. Dir:  Etsen Chen. Taiwan, 2025. 12 mins.
Yen, a young man with cerebral palsy, longs for both romance and a body like his caregiver Suriya’s, while his overprotective mother harbours complex feelings for Suriya. As tensions rise, Yen starts to believe his body is no longer the same.

Dandelion. Dir: Fiona Obertinca. USA, 2025. 20 mins.
In 1970s Los Angeles, rebellious queer teen Margaret gets thrown out of yet another foster placement and finds herself in the company of a mysterious social worker who’s tasked with finding her a new home before the break of dawn. At odds and forced to travel the city together, Margaret realizes that running may not be her only option.

Fr. Brennan is Having a Breakdown!  Dir: Luke Faulkner. Ireland, 2025. 12 mins.
Fr. Brennan has been acting rather strange lately, and who better than Man of the Year Richard Hennessy to whip the naïve parish priest into shape?

Game Rules. Dir: Christian Zetterberg. Sweden, 2024. 11 mins.
A youth handball team is about to participate in their first major tournament. As they aim for the top, facing professional players, talent scouts and sponsors, the game is suddenly interrupted by adults questioning who’s really allowed to play.

Hi Mom, It’s Me, Lou Lou.  Dir: Atakan Yilmaz. Turkey, 2024. 21 mins.
After the sudden death of his mother, Hakkı, a drag queen performer in Istanbul, returns to his hometown – a place he has kept at a distance for years. While coping with his grief, he must also confront the traditional expectations placed on him as the only son.

Hold Still. Dir: Emily Dynes. Australia, 2024. 12 mins.
An origami swan folded in secret. Close friends lying on their backs in the sun. A sanitary pad expanding in the grass. Second glances shared at dawn. A collection of the ‘in between’ moments after Logan, a lonely dancer in rural Victoria, meets a tradie at sunrise.

If I’m Here It Is By Mystery.  Dir: Clari Ribeiro. Brazil, 2024. 22 mins.
New Rio, 2054. The renowned witch Dahlia arrives at the port with a mission: to establish the most powerful Clan that has ever existed and, thus, defeat the Order of Truth. In the future, many people are trans – but only a few are witches.

I’m The Most Racist Person I Know.  Dir: Leela Varghese. Australia, 2025. 13 mins.
When Lali unexpectedly ends up on a date with another woman of colour for the first time, it unravels prejudices she has long ignored.

Jasmine That Blooms in Autumn.  Dir: Chandradeep Das. India, 2025. 15 mins.
Love blossoms secretly between two old women at an elderly care home while the spectre of patriarchy looms large overhead.

Krizalit.  Dir: Arantxa Ibarra and Naz Tokgöz. Turkey, 2025. 16 mins.
Krizalit follows Deniz, a young woman torn between love and alienation in modern Turkey, exploring identity, belonging, and transformation in a city bursting with beauty, contradiction, and quiet resistance.

Marleen.  Dir: Jop Leuven. Netherlands, 2024. 7 mins.
In group therapy, Lena talks about three incidents with others that have defined her self-image: with her father, her first boyfriend, and the unexpected date with her colleague Marleen. It’s the way Marleen looks at Lena that changes Lena’s perception of herself.

My Senses Are All I Have to Offer. Dir: Isadora Neves Marques. Portugal, 2024. 20 mins.
My Senses Are All I Have to Offer is a story about family and expectations, class difference and psychological isolation, in the tone of a subtle science fiction.

Nebenan / Next Door.  Dir: Lukas März. Germany, 2024. 20 mins.
When gay couple Tom and Marcel move into a new apartment, they find a door to the right that cannot be closed. Their relationship threatens to fail about the question, how to deal with the horror from next door.

One Day This Kid. Dir: Alexander Farah. Canada, 2024. 18 mins.
As told by filmmaker Alexander Farah through a deftly composed array of small yet pivotal moments, a first-generation Afghan Canadian man takes steps toward establishing an identity of his own while always conscious of his father’s shadow.

Organza’s Revenge. Dir: Walter Scott. Canada, 2024. 20 mins.
Organza, a broke artist in a distant galaxy, travels across the stars to seek revenge on her ex-lover in an attempt to cure her mysterious illness.

Rainbow Girls. Dir: Nana Duffuor. USA, 2025. 16 mins.
Three young black trans women pushed to the margins of their community decide to push back by staging a robbery targeting San Francisco’s most exclusive luxury brands.

Ripe! Dir: Tusk. USA, 2024. 18 mins.
Nothing says “it’s complicated” like breaking your crush’s arm.

Second Spring. Dir: Olexi Chubun. Czechia, 2025. 18 mins.
Is a coming-of-age drama about 16-year-old Sasha, a dreamy teenager from Ukraine who lives with his mother in the Czech Republic. When David, a charismatic rowing coach who flirts with his mother, enters their lives, Sasha unexpectedly experiences his first love and balances this love triangle.

Souvenir. Dir: Renée Marie Petropoulos. Australia, 2025. 15 mins.
While stuck on a family vacation, a young, closeted teen, Keira, must confront the unnerving hold her girlfriend has over her after she takes unwarranted photos of her during sex.

Sweetheart. Dir: Luke Wintour. UK, 2024. 18 mins.
In 1723 London, Thomas Neville is discovered cruising in the public toilets and forced to take refuge in a Molly house. There, he encounters a secret community as they prepare for a night of festivities.

The Dysphoria. Dir: Kylie Aoibheann. Australia, 2025. 13 mins.
A young transgender woman performs a Satanic ritual to get a vagina but unwittingly invites a demonic presence into her home which demands a terrible sacrifice.

The Hammer of Witches. Dir: Marin Håskjold. Norway, 2025. 15 mins.
A group of women are facing charges for witchery, and if sentenced, face execution. In their hunt for scapegoats the prosecuting authorities go beyond questioning – applying tests and torture methods to get the confessions needed to progress to trials. The accused know they won’t escape this alive, but can they somehow preserve their reputation?

The Passion According to Karim. Dir: Axel Würsten. France, 2024. 24 mins.
A Scout patrol arrives to give a performance of the Crucifixion of Christ in a remote village. Nothing can stop 17-year-old Karim, the Scout who has been assigned the role of Christ, from his obsessive goal: to find the ecstasy to perform the martyr on the cross.

Toad Song. Dir: Qin Qin. China, 2025. 15 mins.
Xu Letian was called in by his school after bringing tadpoles that scared a little girl. As the tadpoles begin to die and a family secret is accidentally revealed, Xu Letian must find a new home for himself and the tadpoles.

Touch Me With Your Eyes. Dir: Anaïs Kabore. Belgium, 2024. 27 mins.
An exploration of young love, challenging the viewer to reconsider the physical and sensory dimensions of film.

Two People Exchanging Saliva. Dir: Natalie Musteata and Alexandre Singh. France/USA, 2024. 36 mins.
In a farcical world where kissing is punishable by death, a personal shopper threatens the status quo.

While We Still Have Time. Dir: Ava Grimshaw-Hall. Australia, 2024. 15 mins.
A documentary filmmaker embarks on a poignant journey to connect with her sperm donor father John, as he battles an aggressive cancer. Together, they explore their unique bond, seeking understanding and closure amidst life’s uncertainties.

With Love, Lottie. Dir: Lily Drummond. Australia, 2024. 14 mins.
When a disabled teenager fears she will never find love, she enlists her friends to become her mentors in the unpredictable world of dating and discovers that love can come in unexpected ways and different forms.

Witness. Dir. Radha Mehta and Saif Jaan. USA, 2024. 14 mins.
A revered small-town imam faces a crisis of faith when he must choose between upholding the values of his mosque or protecting the safety and spiritual belonging of a trans man congregant.

Zari. Dir. Shruti Parekh. USA/India, 2024. 19 mins.
Amidst preparations for her sister’s wedding in India, young American Neelu forges an unexpected connection with Zeyb, a quiet sari store clerk with a secret.

The Iris Prize 2025 takes place from Monday 13 October – Sunday 19 October 2025.

Iris Online will be available across the UK from 14 October to 7 November 2025.

Passes for Industry Day – and the full festival – are now available, and include tickets to all in-person screenings for that day too (Iris Prize LGBTQ+ Film Festival 2025 | Iris Prize LGBTQ+ Film Festival 2025)

Full details about Iris can be found at www.irisprize.org