Manchester’s SCENE LGBTQ+ Film and TV Festival Puts Queer Stories Centre Stage

Manchester is celebrating queer storytelling across the big and small screen as SCENE, the city’s LGBTQ+ Film and TV Festival, returns for its third year. Running from 20 to 27 August, the eight day festival brings together screenings, television events, panels, live entertainment, premieres and LGBTQ+ culture at venues across the city.

SCENE has quickly developed into more than a traditional film festival. Its programme places new LGBTQ+ work alongside established queer favourites, giving audiences the chance to discover emerging filmmakers while also celebrating television and cinema that have helped shape LGBTQ+ representation.

The 2026 festival opened with two major film previews at HOME. Pedro Almodóvar’s Bitter Christmas was joined by Jane Schoenbrun’s Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, starring Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson, which arrived in Manchester after winning the Queer Palm at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.

British queer filmmaking has also featured prominently. Campbell X’s Low Rider received an exclusive preview at SCENE, following the filmmaker’s acclaimed 2012 feature Stud Life and once again placing Black queer experiences at the centre of the story.

Television is given just as much space as film throughout the festival. Kiss & Tell: The I Kissed A Boy/Girl Story brought contestants from both BBC queer dating shows together for a conversation about their experiences, relationships, friendships and what happened behind the scenes.

SCENE has also looked back at the LGBTQ+ television that helped change what audiences saw on screen. Broadcaster and television critic Scott Bryan appeared for Out Now: Talking Queer TV from 90s to Now, exploring programmes including Queer as Folk and Heartstopper and the impact queer television can have on the people watching it.

The programme reaches beyond individual screenings and television events. Manchester’s LGBTQ+ history is being explored through guided walking tours covering stories ranging from Victorian drag balls and the Campaign for Homosexual Equality to Canal Street and the city’s Pride history.

There is still plenty ahead before SCENE closes on 27 August. One of the final major screenings will be Chatlines, the new feature from Manchester filmmaking duo Lloyd Eyre Morgan and Neil Ely, which follows an extraordinary queer connection between two men who appear to be communicating from different years.

Set partly in 2027 and 2005, the film stars Nico Mirallegro, Lloyd Eyre Morgan and Siobhan Finneran and will be followed by a panel with the filmmakers. It provides an appropriately Manchester focused finale for a festival built around putting LGBTQ+ stories, talent and creativity in front of audiences.

Perhaps SCENE’s biggest strength is the breadth of what it considers queer screen culture. Horror, romance, reality television, documentaries, shorts, classics, new British filmmaking and LGBTQ+ history can all sit within the same festival because queer storytelling has never belonged to just one genre or one type of audience.

Three years into the festival, SCENE is giving those stories a dedicated space while connecting Manchester’s long LGBTQ+ cultural history with the filmmakers, performers and television creators shaping what comes next.

For the full 2026 programme, tickets and festival information, visit the SCENE official website. You can also follow SCENE on Instagram @scene_festival and Facebook.

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