Capturing, Preserving, and Celebrating the Heritage of the Iris Prize
To celebrate the 20th year of the Iris Prize LGBTQ+ Film Festival, we’re embarking on a landmark project to record oral histories, safeguard archives, and celebrate two decades of Cardiff’s world‑renowned LGBTQ+ film festival and we’d like your help!
(Photo: 2007 Iris Prize Shortlisted Filmmakers in Cardiff)
Get Involved
If you’ve got memories from an Iris Prize LGBTQ+ Film Festival gone by, please share them with us! Please feel free to email photos, videos and memories to adleisiau@iris.org
If you’d like to volunteer as part of Adleisiau Iris, from cataloguing archive material to get involved with recording oral histories, then please email holly@irisprize.org
(Photo: 2009 International Jury with Iris Prize Winner Eldar Rapaport)
The Project
“Thanks to money raised by National Lottery players we’ll be able to ensure the LGBTQ+ stories shared through and inspired by the Iris Prize remain accessible to future generations.”
— Berwyn Rowlands, Chief Executive, Iris Prize Outreach
(Photo: Berwyn Interviewing 2023 Youth Jury Award Winner, Realness with a Twist)
We are delighted to have been awarded a £137,500 grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to preserve and celebrate the unique heritage of the Iris Prize LGBTQ+ Film Festival —the world’s largest LGBTQ+ short film prize, founded in Cardiff in 2006. This project ensures that films, oral histories, and community memories will remain accessible, offering future generations an invaluable record of LGBTQ+ culture and creativity.
We will be cataloguing an entire database of films which have been screened over the past two decades at Iris, recording and sharing oral histories with members of the Iris community and upskilling volunteers to celebrate and share our history.
2026 marks the 20th year of Iris and we will be creating and sharing activity all year long, including at a bumper edition of the Iris Prize LGBTQ+ Film Festival in October 2026!
Adleisiau Iris will ensure that the legacy of the Iris Prize LGBTQ+ Film Festival and LGBTQ+ stories told over the last 20 years are protected, shared, and celebrated through skills development, community engagement, and lasting resources, the project safeguards heritage while inspiring future generations.
