With its home at Lighthouse, Poole Pride is a joyful celebration of queer culture and our beautiful LGBTQ+ community with a fun-filled family-friendly day of performances and activities followed by the very special Poole Pride After Party.
In the run up, we’re delighted to be able to announce the Poole Pride Film Festival 2025 featuring a choice of classic movies as well as a very special series of screenings that showcase the ground breaking work of the Iris Prize, Cardiff’s International LGBTQ+ short film prize.
The full programme is:
THE ADVENTURES OF PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT (15)
Wednesday 4 June, 5pm, Cinema
Stephan Elliott’s landmark 1994 film with Hugo Weaving, Terence Stamp and Guy Pearce as drag queens Anthony, Adam and Bernadette on the road. In their colourful bus, named Priscilla, the three entertainers travel across the Australian desert performing for enthusiastic crowds and homophobic locals. But when Adam and Bernadette learn the truth about why Anthony took the job, it threatens their act and their friendship.
BEST OF IRIS (15)
Thursday 5 June, 5pm, Cinema
A showcase of the stand out films from Iris 2024, featuring award-winning stories that explore love, identity, and the human experience. Sister Wives (15) follows two sister wives married to the same man who develop feelings for each other and won the Best British Iris and the Co-op Audience Award. JIA (12A), the Youth Jury Award winner, finds a grieving Chinese mother embarking on an Australian road trip with her late son’s lover Eric. Blood Like Water (15), the 2024 Iris Prize winner, is a Palestinian film in which a man accidentally forces his family to make an impossible choice.
PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE (15)
Friday 6 June, 5pm, Cinema
Directed by Céline Sciamma, this heart-breaking period piece is set in late 18th century France where painter Marianne is commissioned to capture the likeness of Héloïse in the hope the portrait will secure her a suitable marriage, but as the two women grow closer so a star-crossed romance is kindled. Told with a distinctly modern feminist energy, Portrait of a Lady on Fire is the first female-directed film to win the Queer Palm at the Cannes Film Festival and cements Sciamma’s reputation as a world-class filmmaker.
IRIS PRIZE: HEROES, HEARTBEATS, AND SHORELINES (15)
Saturday 7 June, 2pm, 4pm, Cinema
Showing as part of Poole Pride’s daytime programme and accessed with a pay-what-you-feel ticket bookable in advance or on the day at Ticket Office, these four titles explore issues of identity, transformation and the unexpected connections that shape us, from superheroes to shorelines. Teth (15) finds a father and son adjusting to their new relationship post-surgery. We Are All the Gay Superheroes (15) combines sci-fi, comedy and drama and finds out what happens when superheroes Sterling and Meridian find themselves in a rare moment alone unencumbered by their suits. Façade (12A) follows a transgender woman contemplating what it means to be alive using the words of Shakespeare’s most famous speech. Boys in the Water (15) is about two trans boys who meet on the Breton coast at the end of summer and turn everything upside down.
For more information about Poole Pride please visit Poole Pride 2025 – Lighthouse
