Regulations

1. The Lisbon Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (LGLFF) is organized by the Associação Cultural Janela Indiscreta, a non-profit association. The LGLFF is sponsored exclusively by
public and private institutions, through annually renewable protocols.
2. The purpose of the LGLFF is the promotion of high quality cinematography of gay, lesbian, queer, bisexual, transsexual and transgender themes, and any other theme associated
with ethnic, sexual, racial or social minorities, having the enhancement of education and citizenship issues as its primary goal.
3. The LGLFF seeks to complement the film screenings with a series of events – debates, conferences, lectures, theatre plays, art exhibits, and others – related to the aforementioned themes.
4. The LGLFF is an annual event, held every September in Lisbon. Festival extensions to other cities in Portugal may occur, in partnership with other public or private institutions.
5. The LGLFF is open to the public in general, national and foreign press, film and television distributors and producers.
6. Media, television and film professionals may request an Accreditation to the Festival Office in order to participate in the LGLFF.
• Accreditation holders are given free access to all screenings of the LGLFF, subject to ticket availability. A ticket must always be obtained at the Box Office prior to each screening.
• Press accreditation holders are granted free access to all Festival activities and priority in booking interviews with Festival guests.
7. The LGLFF has a Competition Section and a non-Competition section.
8. The LGLFF includes three competitive categories: Best Feature Film, Best Documentary, and Best Short Film. All selected feature-films, short-films or documentaries, national and
international, with an LGBT or related theme, produced in the preceding year or in the same year of each Festival, that have not been commercially distributed in Portugal before
the Festival, are eligible for competition in one of the three categories. The LGLFF programmers are responsible for short-listing the films for the Competition Sections. This selection
is of the sole responsibility of the Festival Programmers, who are under no obligation to provide explanations in any form of the criteria used in the selection.
9. Prize winners will be announced during the Closing Ceremony of the Festival.
10. The monetary value or nature of the prizes is determined by the sponsorship of a private institution, to be renegotiated annually, and will revert to the film director.
11. In the eventuality that a screening fee has been paid for the exhibition of the awarded film (in any category), the value of the fee will be discounted from the global prize value.
12. The International Jury is composed by renowned programmers of fellow Film Festivals, directors, actors or other professionals. Three jury members are responsible for selecting
the Best Feature Film, and other three jury members are responsible for selecting the Best Documentary.
13. If, for any reason, a jury member fails to attend the Festival, no substitution will take place, and the number of jury members will be reduced.
14. The Best Short Film is an Audience Award, for which each audience member is given a token at the beginning of each screening, on which s/he may cast a vote on each film in
competition on a scale of 1 to 10.
15. The invitation of Festival Guests is contingent on the sponsorship of private and public institutions.
16. It is LGLFF policy to practice low-cost ticket prices, lower than those practiced by commercial Theatres, unless this is not possible due to contractual agreements with the company
or institution running the Theatre where the Festival is held.
17. Members of Portuguese LGBT Associations are given a ticket discount, unless this is not possible due to contractual agreements with the company or institution running the
Theatre where the Festival is held. This discount is only applied upon presentation of a valid means of identification on purchasing the ticket. The percentage of this discount is
determined each year.
18. It is LGLFF programming policy to exhibit recent films, produced in the same year or the preceding year of the Festival edition, irrespective of their country of origin, participation
in other fellow International Festivals and of any prizes they may have won. These films must be unreleased commercially in Portugal, unless our programmers consider them of
high importance for the current program.
19. The LGLFF selects films of all geographical origins, regardless of political or social issues that might be somehow relevant at that time in history.
20. It is LGLFF policy to give high priority to national cinematographic production, whenever our programmers find that a new Portuguese production justifies its inclusion in the
Festival program. This policy extends to Portuguese language cinematographic production of all origins.
21. Each year the LGLFF will make it a priority to program films in national avant-première, immediately before their theatrical release in Portugal.
22. The LGLFF programmes documentaries, fiction, experimental and animated films, be they feature films or short subjects. Acceptable formats are: 35mm, BETA SP PAL and
DVD. If a selected film is only available in a different format, the LGLFF will try to negotiate the best solution, in order to exhibit the film with the rights holder of the film in question.
Whenever the LGLFF has to pay for a transfer copy of the film, compatible with our screening formats, the Festival will be considered the legal owner of this copy, while any and all
legal representation, distribution or exhibition rights over the copy remain with the original holders.
23. Ideally, all films should be subtitled in Portuguese. Whenever this is not possible, and if the film is spoken in a language other than Portuguese, Spanish or English, the film copy
must be subtitled in English. The LGLFF accepts English and Spanish language films without any subtitling.
24. The LGLFF accepts preview copies in the following formats: VHS (PAL or NTSC) and DVD (any region). If the film is selected for programming, its preview copy will not be
returned, and will be added to the LGLFF archive. If the film is not selected for programming, its preview copy will also be retained by the LGLFF, unless its return is required by the
rights holder. In this case, the all return costs are to be paid by the rights holder.
25. The LGLFF selects films by direct invitation to the rights holder. The film’s exhibition is subject to screening fee negotiation and copy availability for the period in which the
Festival takes place. The maximum screening fee paid by the LGLFF per film is 500€ (five hundred Euros). It is LGLFF policy to negotiate the lowest screening fee possible up to this
value. The aforementioned fee may be exceptionally exceeded whenever a Festival sponsor, public or private, takes direct responsibility for payment of the screening fee of the film.
26. The import and export of print copies of the films programmed by direct invitation of the LGLFF is to be paid in full by the Festival, unless the print is in circulation between
Festivals, in which case the LGLFF will only pay for either the import or the export of the print, but never both.
27. The LGLFF accepts Film Submissions to the Festival program every year.
• Participants have to fill in a Submission Form for each film submitted to the Festival program, signed by its rights holder and sent to the LGLFF by post or fax. Submission Forms
sent by e-mail will not be accepted.
• Films submitted after the deadline set every year by the LGLFF for film submission (postage date) may not be accepted for selection to that year’s program. Exceptionally, by
request to the Festival Director, submitted films may be accepted after this deadline.
• The decision of the programmer on each submission will be notified by e-mail before the deadline set by the LGLFF to do so.
• It is LGLFF policy not to provide explanations in any form of the criteria used in the exclusion of a submitted film from the Festival program.
• The LGLFF does not pay any screening fee for the screening of films entered by submission.
• The LGLFF may screen each of these films a maximum of two times, whenever possible.
• Prior theatrical or television screenings, or video or DVD release in Portugal disqualifies films from entry.
• If the film is selected, it is the responsibility of its rights holder to guarantee its availability for the LGLFF.
• The screening copy must be sent to the Festival by its rights holder (at his/her charge) up to one week before the Festival opens. The Festival will take charge of its return.
• If the screening copy is in transit between Festivals, the LGLFF will only pay for either the import or export duties of the copy, never both.
• The Festival holds the right to use stills and up to 60’’ of film images for promotional purposes.
28. No cuts or changes in any film will be made for its public screening, for any reason. Each film will be screened in the best technical conditions available.
29. It is LGLFF policy to integrate certain selected films into film cycles or film programmes. Any film may share the bill with other films in one single session, namely if it is a short subject.