Tickets for the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) are on sale as of noon today, and it's time to plan your viewing schedule. The world’s largest documentary festival runs from 12 to 22 November, taking over cinemas across the city with 287 films and projects. While IDFA has organised its massive program into 14 thematic 'Pathways,' none are specifically dedicated to queer stories. So, we did the digging for you.
Here is qMeet’s guide to the essential LGBTQ+ films and projects at IDFA 2026. Each film screens multiple times, and all titles link to their qMeet page for the full schedule.
Films with queer protagonists or stories
We Had a Plan
This Dutch/Filipino production follows Paul and Dan, a couple who return to the Philippines after a decade of working as undocumented cleaners in the Netherlands. Their plan to build a future together hits a wall as their savings dwindle, revealing a story of migration, invisible labour, and above all, love. The film has its world premiere in the Luminous section.
A Secret Heart
When his wife passes away, 64-year-old Patrice begins to live as Lilou. This intimate French documentary is filmed by her son, Tom, over four years, capturing a family's journey as they learn to communicate again through the lens of a camera during a parent's transition.
A Song Without Home
A portrait of Adelina, a young trans woman from a Georgian village who was kept locked in her parents' house for eleven years. She escapes to Vienna, but her hopes for a glamorous new life clash with the reality of an indifferent and sometimes hostile society.
Baby Jackfruit Baby Guava
Filmmaker Quang, who lives an openly gay life in Hanoi, turns the camera on his traditional family when his neurodivergent sister becomes pregnant. The film charts a path from his mother's initial belief that the family is 'cursed' to her eventually joining him at a queer event.
Punkie
This black-and-white road movie follows Black lesbian comedian and SNL cast member Punkie Johnson on tour. At a career crossroads, she questions whether a major streaming special will force her to tone down her act, while recounting her story of growing up queer in the American Deep South.
Six Months in a Pink and Blue Building
A playful, hybrid film from Mexico that reconstructs the director's queer childhood in the 1990s. Using actors to re-enact memories, it explores a boy's early explorations with makeup and skirts, his first crush on a male friend, and learning of his father's HIV status against the backdrop of the AIDS panic.
Ãsheghetam
In this 21-minute short, two queer lovers in Tehran escape into a kaleidoscopic dream world after the morality police raid an underground rave. An exiled filmmaker weaves together computer animation, fiction, and documentary to create a punk 'I love you' to a forbidden love.
Films with a queer angle
Between Revolutions
Activists in Berlin, facing protest bans related to pro-Palestine demonstrations, rehearse a stage adaptation of the 1970s queer text 'The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions', connecting historical queer liberation with contemporary political struggle.
Two Mountains Weighing Down My Chest
A diary-like self-portrait of a filmmaker navigating her bicultural identity. The film contrasts the pressure from her family in Beijing about being single with the life she has built among her friends in Berlin's queer community.
Lyrical Vengeance
This film connects queer club nights in Tokyo, Yogyakarta, and Rotterdam. On the dance floor, ravers celebrate the work of three female authors from the 1930s-50s who challenged patriarchal and nationalist politics in their time.
Central Park
Frederick Wiseman's classic 1990 documentary captures a summer in New York's Central Park in 1988. The film is a vital time capsule, featuring footage of that year's Gay Pride Parade and the AIDS Memorial Quilt, poignantly displaying the names of countless victims of the epidemic.
Lost Hood
This free augmented-reality walk revives the counter-cultural histories of Amsterdam's Spuistraat, including its squatters, graffiti artists, and queer activists. You can download the app and start at the Lieverdje statue on Spui anytime, with free guided tours available daily from 14-18 November.
The DocLab exhibition at de Brakke Grond also features Body Count, a VR experience about desire and grief between two men (most slots are already booked), and Plum Road Tea Dream, a walking game about growing up as a queer person of colour in Belgium.
How to Get Your Tickets
You can buy tickets on the IDFA website, but you'll need to create a free MyIDFA account first. Popular screenings sell out quickly, so don't wait too long.
- Regular ticket: €13.50
- Students/CJP: €8
- Stadspas: First screening free, then €10
- Discount Pass: €52.50 for 5 screenings, €95 for 10, or €170 for 20
And if you want to dance after all that watching, the festival hub at Het Documentaire Paviljoen in Vondelpark hosts IDFA dance nights on Saturdays 14 and 21 November.
