This panel invites a shared reflection on queerness as a creative force that has long shaped cinema from the margins. Rather than framing it as opposition, the discussion explores how queer perspectives open up alternative ways of imagining, making and experiencing film.
Together, the speakers will consider how contemporary film markets influence artistic choices, and how cinema can continue to make space for risk, complexity and critical thinking. What happens when experimentation gives way to convention, and how might filmmakers, programmers and audiences respond with renewed openness and curiosity?
Queerness here is understood not only as a subject on screen, but as an approach to form and collaboration. From editing and sound to modes of production and collective creation, it offers a lens through which new possibilities can emerge. The panel looks to queerness as an invitation to rethink visibility, authorship and shared futures in cinema, with generosity, imagination and care.
Producer and filmmaker Jürgen Brüning will moderate the panel featuring filmmakers Malga Kubiak (FETISH, IFFR 2026), Gustavo Vinagre (The Passion According to GHB,Bowels of Hell, IFFR 2026), director and production designer Whammy Alcazaren (Water Sports, 2024) and Amir Ovadia Steklov (The New Jews, IFFR 2025).
