A Guide to SCENE 2026

WELCOME TO MANCHESTER! 

We’re all over the news at the moment for lots of reasons - and really one of them should be the absolutely amazing lineup of queer film and TV we have at SCENE this year. I expect Andy Burnham to be at the podium talking about our Traitors opening event any day now…

My name is Gary James Williams and I have been programming queer film and TV events in this glorious city for over 10 years and I am thrilled to head-up the team who put SCENE together every year.

The festival is a celebration of queer stories for everyone, on the big and small screen, old classics and your future new favourites. It’s unique in that it showcases new work alongside the canon, champions screen culture of all shape and sizes - from Shorts to Features, TV to Docs - and tees the city up for annual Pride festivities with parties, events, conversations and moments of reflection.  

I couldn’t be more passionate about this festival and the gorgeous programme put together for this year. We are only in our 3rd year and have an enviable line-up of exclusive events and screenings, many of which are previews, UK Premieres or won’t ever be seen again at another festival.

We keep prices low so you can go and see as much as you can, have the best week, and there’s even hotel offers so you can travel in, enjoy SCENE and stick around for Manchester Village Pride (or if you drink too much or cop off at one of the screenings!).

SCENE 2026 opens with a bumper night - with not one but two opening night films - and both previews ahead of release. The new film from legendary international queer film maker Pedro Almodóvar Bitter Christmas and the Cannes 2026 Queer Palm winner Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma. You can watch them as a double bill if you like - one is a metafiction melodrama, one a blood soaked sapphic slasher.  

Across town at New Century Hall, we have the UK Premiere of NOFX’s new documentary with queer frontperson Fat Mike in attendance and at Aviva Studios we kick off the TV side of the festival in a turret, huddled in a cloak as we celebrate The Traitors. A murderer’s row of favourite players will reunite for a panel and party. Mine’s a fizzy rose!  

TV fans can dive into the worlds of Jilly Cooper’s Rivals as cast and producers spill the backstage drama, as well as Netflix’s hit teen romance Heartstopper with the original creator Alice Oseman talking about the creation of the graphic novel, it’s adaptation to the screen and the new finale movie Heartstopper Forever.

The LGBTQ+ show of the year has to be Channel 4’s Tip Toe and we’re once again joined by writer Russell T Davies and Executive Producer Nicola Shindler to talk about the impact of this hard-hitting drama alongside cast and crew. They will be on double-duty, as Russell’s award winning It’s A Sin will be shown in it’s entirety for the first time ever - ahead of the show being turned into a dance show by Rambert at Aviva Studios. 

As the second series of queer dating show I Kissed A Girl comes to an end, we reunite the girls from the series and the boys from I Kissed A Boy with Charley Marlowe herself to get the full story on the world’s first LGBT dating reality show. And to think Love Island thought it was “logistically difficult”! 

Comedy fans are in for a treat as we close the festival with a live comedy night from Channel 4, but before that they can remember the legendary Caroline Aherne and spend a night watching back-to-back episodes of Ab Fab (with Drag Queens). These special events celebrate creatives and shows who were taken to the LGBTQ+ communities hearts. 

One of the best things for me is to see all of the upcoming storytelling talent, whether it is filmmakers creating shorts or first time features. John Early’s debut film Maddie’s Secret is a festival highlight for me - as ernest as Showgirls, but with the melodrama plot of an afternoon TV special. John Early is in drag as a food infleuncer battling an eating disorder. Utterly bizarre, utterly wonderful.

There is also the animated documentary Bouchra which tells the familiar queer story of being yourself with your parents - but it’s animated like a noir version of Bojack Horseman with every character played by a frog or fox or inner city animal. Brilliant! 

Elliot Tuttle’s Blue Film is another debut that sees Manchester actor and superstar in the making Kieron Moore (Netflix’s Boots) star as a camboy who reconnects with a shadowy figure from his school days. Kieron joins us for a chat about the film on Monday night of the festival at HOME. 

Check out the queer Northern filmmaking talent on show at our SCENE Northern Shorts Showcase at the festival daily and for free - and vote for your favourite. They will win the SCENE Audience Award and one of the films from the selection will be nominated for the prestigious Iris Prize Best British category which will be announced at the festival for the first time ever.  

We have so much new talent at the festival that we’ve brought back The Pink Screening Room. This is the place to go to see new work for super cheap or often free, to explore and delve into the underground and experimental. Bi drama Satisfaction, trans 2000’s inspired comedy She’s The He and magical realist QTIPOC coming of age fantasy Black Burns Fast are all must-watches.  

Dublin’s TITE (Trans Image/Trans Experience Festival) join us for a takeover of The Pink Screening Room on Saturday 22nd with a day of trans and non-binary brilliance from shorts, to gonzo comedies, and the new stand alone chapter of the epic Castration Movie series. You could just sit in CULTPLEX all day and see 10 hours of trans brilliance - what a dream way to spend a Saturday. 

We love working with programmers from other festivals and film nights from Manchester and across the world. GASP! return for a night of queer horror with the brilliant The Serpent’s Skin and Aks International Minorities Festival join us from Pakistan with a programme of South Asian Trans shorts and a screening of Bollywood classic loved by the queer Desi community Devdas on our outdoor screen on First Street, complete with live dance performances. 

The First Street Outdoor Screen sees a selection of camp and queer High School movies this year, all for free. So grab a deck chair and enjoy. Of course our annual outdoor screening of The Wizard of Oz is back - but this year with more significance as the Manchester Village Pride Parade theme this year is “There’s No Place Like Home” as Pride is reclaimed by the community. Because of this we’ll be screening the UK premiere of documentary It’s Dorothy at Cruz 101 in The Village celebrating all things Dorothy Gale from Frank L Baum’s Oz stories and how she has become an icon for the LGBTQ+ community. 

Community is at the heart of our festival. Not only do we donate all ticket profits to local LGBTQ+ charities, we like to support Mancunian stories being told at the festival. Last year Joshua Martin filmed part of his short film about the impact of Section 28 laws on gay young people at the festival. If you were in it, you can come back and see the finished product as we premier the film at HOME on Wednesday 26th August.  

But it isn’t just new works we’re excited about, the festival gives everyone a chance to interact with older works. This can be films that came out 10 years ago like the Oscar winning Moonlight or sex club romance Theo and Hugo (which is presented at the festival in partnership with SCRUFF) - or works that have a longer legacy.

One of my favourite films of all time, John Cameron Mitchell’s gender non-confirming rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch turns 25 this year and we simply had to screen it with added in-screen performances and special guests. 

It’s gorgeous to see legendary filmmakers like Gregg Araki bring new work to the screen and I Want Your Sex is a blistering new comedy exploring the different generations and their relationship with sex, with his famous piercing satire and lurid visuals. Campbell X’s sophomore feature, lesbian road-trip Low Rider joins the programme too - a must for those who enjoyed Stud Life.  

Parties are a must at the festival with interactive screenings of St Trinian’s with RuPaul’s Drag Race’s Banksie in full tearaway school girl drag (it’s her favourite film of all time, apparently) - as well as an all drag screening of RuPaul’s disaster movie spoof Stop! That! Train! 

Our Documentaries this year have a theme of peaking behind the scenes of artists lives. Queer As Punk sees a Malaysian punk back hide from draconian laws under green screen body con outfits and Barbara Forever explores the life and times of legendary lesbian filmmaker Barbara Hammer. 

Wolf features musician Patrick Wolf telling his life story to Tilda Swinton (I can’t imagine a better therapist) and the controversy behind the making of William Freidkin’s leather bar drama Cruising is explored in Mineshaft: The Cruising Murders.

The festival’s closing documentary is all about queer nuns putting on an annual contest to find San Franscisco’s sexiest Jesus look-a-like. If that’s not enough to sell it to you, Manchester coven: the “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence” will be there in person to explain all after the screening.

And our final narrative film of the festival simply had to be the new feature, Chatlines, from Manchester’s own Lloyd Eyre-Morgan and Neil Ely. If you saw their dazzling debut Departures at the festival last year or in cinemas, you might be surprised to hear they are already back with their second feature. The film was made in Manchester on a shoestring and it is brilliant. Brimming with ideas and heart, it can only really be described as a chat-roulette, sci-fi time travel romantic comedy weepy.

There’s so much great stuff to see I’ll have to chat to you at the Campfield Closing Party, the Drag-on-Film Exhibition we’ve curated in Kampus gardens, and all the other Pride Fringe events taking place. From walking tours, to vogue pageants, there’s so much happening in the week running up to Bank Holiday.

It isn’t all talk and slogans, Manchester really is the place to be!* 

*for queer Telly, Film and Pride events during late August.   

SEE YOU AT SCENE.

Gary James Williams

Head of Events for CityCo, Lead Programmer for SCENE and curator of Make A Scene Film Club.