Since its foundation, in 1997, the Lisbon Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (LGLFF) has always conceived itself as an artistic and cultural event, open to everybody, far from any sense of ghetto, to where frequently events of this nature are thrown into. In a Gay and Lesbian Film Festival the compromise must be sealed, not only with its theme, but also with Film, given that this festival is made for cinema lovers, be them gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or not. The Festival program is conceived for all, regardless of identities or lifestyles.

Organized until its 4th edition by the Portuguese section of ILGA, the LGLFF is since then produced by a new non-profit association created for this specific purpose, the Lisbon Gay and Lesbian Film Festival Cultural Association, which, in 2006, is renamed Associação Cultural Janela Indiscreta (Rear Window Cultural Association). With this new juridical and associative framework, we intend to reinforce the independence and the responsibility of the LGLFF as an eminently cultural and artistic event, affirming itself as a central cinematic occurrence nationwide, and specifically in Lisbon.

Along its existence, this alternative film event has proven its capacity to reinvent itself by presenting each year a different theme, intent on promoting the Festival’s vitality and cinematographic diversity, whilst instigating the city of Lisbon to enhance such noble concepts as those of citizenship, respect, tolerance, and freedom. To do so – although some persistent obstacles along the way -, the Festival has, since the beginning, been supported and sponsored by renowned public and private institutions: the Lisbon City Hall, the Ministry of Culture (through the ICAM, its audiovisual department), the Lisbon City Videotheque (where the 1st Festival edition took place), the British Council, The Goethe-Institut, The Instituto Cervantes, the Institut Franco-Portugais, and the Lisbon Tourism Bureau.

Mainly due to the specificities of the festival program, other institutions became our sponsors, such as the Portuguese Cinematheque, the Foundation for Science and Development, the Ministry of Health, among others. In addition to new private and associative partners, so as media partners, which gave increased along these years.

Through film selection in other international film festivals, so as by direct request to film distributors and responses to our call for entries, the LGLFF is intent on screening films which otherwise would not be available to the Portuguese audiences. The Festival has also promoted commercial premieres, such as notably that of O Fantasma, directed by João Pedro Rodrigues (4th LGLFF - 2000)

Looking at its qualitative evolution and at the public response to the Festival, we believe this to be a project which has much more to offer in the future, and that renovation policies such as the creation of the Competition Section in its 9th edition, have proven to be highly rewarding, namely by the ever growing response of film professionals to the festival. For all this, the LGLFF, now renamed Queer Lisboa, will continue to promote Film – for this is a privileged artistic medium of offering us a plural overlook at Society -, as a central means intent on reducing and dissipating preconceptions and discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual and transgender people and issues.