OPENING NIGHT 2025
Monday 13 October 2025 | 7pm | Vue Screen 4
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Iris Prize opening night is like Christmas, a birthday, wedding and holiday with your best friends all rolled into one (Ed: I think this is an exaggeration). Anghard Mair from Heno on S4C will guide us through an evening of celebration as we open the 19th edition of the Iris Prize LGBTQ+ Film Festival celebrating global LGBTQ+ stories and Cardiff charm. The programme is full to bursting and after the screenings we will be parting with our friends from the Co-op and dancing with Welsh Chicks – a DJ duo formed of Molly Palmer and Daniel Abrams.
Snapped Strings
Produced through Every Child A Filmmaker Project with IntoFilm and Willows High School. Wales, UK, 2025. 8 minutes.
Fifteen-year-old Tom and his father have been out of sync ever since his mother’s passing. As they confront their pain, they must learn to tune back into each other, proving that even broken strings can be mended.
Snapped Strings was developed and produced by a group of learners from Willows High School. The production benefited from a Culture Step investment from Arts & Business Cymru.
Jackie
Directed by: Emily Sargent. Scotland, UK, 2025. 20 minutes.
A short documentary about the life of Jackie Forster; a groundbreaking, outrageous — and largely unknown — LGBT+ rights campaigner whose underground donor sperm operation helped the first queer women to have children.
This is the third film to be made with the Iris Prize Documentary Film Finance Fund sponsored by OUTFlix.
Y Tolldy
Diredted by: Dan Thomas. Wales, UK, 2025. minutes.
A Welsh language horror comedy commissioned by S4C
Behind the Scenes: Pink Portraits @ Bad Wolf
Directed by: Harrison Williams. Wales, UK, 2025.
We take a look behind the scenes as photographer Siria Ferrer captures portraits of some of the LGBTQ+ individuals bringing some of the biggest television dramas to our screens with Cardiff-based production company Bad Wolf.
Never, Never, Never
Directed by: John Sheedy. UK/Australia, 2025. 18 minutes.
A poignant and heartwarming story set in a Welsh fishing village. Henrick (Ché) and Arwyn (Iwan) share a bond that transcends friendship, filled with unspoken longing and love. Henrick’s love for Shirley Bassey’s music is his way to overcome the conservative views of their community.
The film explores the struggles of Henrick and Arwyn as they navigate their feelings for each other in a society that may not fully accept them.
This is the thirteenth film made by a winner of the Iris Prize.
