Hamilton Queer Film Festival: Hamilton Queer Film Festival

We are an LGBTQ+ film festival in Hamilton, Ontario - about an hour west of Toronto and just over an hour's drive from Buffalo, New York. Our film festival happens the same weekend as Hamilton Pride at Hamilton's arts incubator, The Staircase Theatre.

We are interested in short films of all genres provided that the subject matter and/or filmmaker is LGBTQ+.

Join us on June 19, 2021 for our inaugural festival of LGBTQ+ short films! More info coming soon!

Casper Lynn, Guest Judge

Casper Lynn is a small town kid from Florida, but they're Canadian at heart. From Japan to Korea, Casper’s been around the world and found a home in Toronto. They spend their time volunteering at every possible event for queer, BIPOC, or female-driven media with their trusty support dog, Rose. A fan of science fiction, fantasy, and horror, they’ve been developing their writing style and voice for 10 years. They hope to bring a queer Black Native voice to the genre with lesbian werewolves and various other queer supernatural creatures, like a Spooky Gay Shondaland. They recently graduated from Toronto Film School and are a seven time award-winning producer (Her Little Rose, 2019). A winner of the Al Magee Diverse Screenwriters Award in 2020, they are currently attending the BIPOC Kids TV Writing Bootcamp. You can follow them @wolfgirl2525 on Twitter and Instagram.

Darren Stewart-Jones, Festival Co-Director

Darren is a queer, Hamilton-based, award-winning theatre producer and a member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada. Darren has directed and produced plays across Ontario and on Theatre Row in New York City. He is the screenwriter of three short films - Digging Up Dorothy, Ramblings of a Middle-Aged Drag Queen and Stroke of Fate (CBC Gem). Darren is also co-producer of the Canadian comedy series, Pink Is In, which is now streaming on Bell Fibe TV1 in Canada and Tubi in the US. Darren has been nominated three times for the City of Hamilton Arts Awards for his work in arts management.

Lisa Crawford, Festival Co-Director

Lisa is a Hamilton-based transgender filmmaker. Her short films, What If and Death Game, have appeared at film festivals across the globe. Other projects she has produced include RU Curious, Digging Up Dorothy and the short drama, Stroke of Fate, which stars award-winning Canadian actress Sheila McCarthy. Lisa is the creator and producer of the Canadian comedy series, Pink Is In, which is currently streaming on Bell Fibe TV1 in Canada and Tubi in the US. She is also the author of Becoming Lisa: A Transgender Journey. Lisa was a finalist for the 2023 Cayle Chernin Awards.