Vienna’s QueerTactics festival brings queer-feminist cinema to the big screen, with films exploring trans solidarity, Brazilian lives and playful, camp excess. Now in its seventh edition, the programme offers more than representation: it invites audiences to question familiar social rules, discover striking film histories and share the energy of queer culture.
Essential Takeaways
- A varied programme: QueerTactics presents international queer-feminist cinema in Vienna, including a focus on Brazil and trans-feminist solidarity.
- A camp centrepiece: Lady Champagne is a drag-led genre parody featuring more than 80 queer and trans performers.
- A film-history strand: Barbara Forever, a documentary about experimental filmmaker Barbara Hammer, is paired with a 16mm short-film programme.
- A notable opener: Brazilian film London connects queerness and disability; co-director and lead actor Victor Di Marco is due to attend in Vienna.
- More than screenings: The festival also plans a Friday party and a Sunday short-film award focused on activism.
QueerTactics brings a lively mix to Vienna
A drag icon, a restored buddy film and a Brazilian story linking queerness with disability: the QueerTactics programme has range. The Vienna festival’s seventh edition puts queer-feminist cinema in the spotlight, moving between mischievous camp, intimate documentaries and stories that challenge social conventions. (QueerTactics)
That variety is part of the appeal. Rather than treating queer cinema as a narrow category, the festival places different lives and film-making traditions side by side, giving audiences plenty to talk about after the credits roll. (QueerTactics)
Trans solidarity takes centre stage
Several films turn their attention to trans lives and communities. Ballate Femmenella looks at Naples’ long-standing trans community, while Cuidadoras follows three trans care workers in Argentina. The programme also includes By Hook and by Crook, a restored film about two gender-bending petty criminals, Shy and Valentine. (QueerTactics)
These stories widen the frame beyond familiar coming-out narratives. They put friendship, care, history and everyday life on screen, making the festival’s focus on trans-feminist solidarity feel grounded rather than abstract. (QueerTactics)
Camp cinema is ready to turn up the volume
For sheer theatricality, Lady Champagne sounds like a standout. Drag artist D’Arcy Drollinger’s film is a queer genre parody built around slapstick, broad humour and an exuberant cast of more than 80 queer and trans performers. Subtle it isn’t, and that’s rather the point. (QueerTactics)
Camp has long made a game of exaggeration and artifice, and the festival pairs that spirit with a programme about queer histories and possibilities. Here, the gleam, the big gestures and the laughs aren’t just decoration; they’re part of how the films push against expectations. (QueerTactics)
Brazilian films connect different experiences
Brazil is another focus, including the trans relationship story Eu Vou Ter Saudades de Você. The opening film, London, also comes from Brazil and follows a young protagonist whose life brings queerness and disability into the same frame. Its co-director and lead actor, Victor Di Marco, is expected to attend in Vienna. (QueerTactics)
The film’s festival profile notes its recognition with the Queer Lion at the Venice Film Festival. That makes London a useful introduction to the programme’s wider interests: not simply who gets represented, but how different experiences meet on screen. (QueerTactics)
Barbara Hammer’s legacy gets a fresh look
The documentary Barbara Forever brings audiences closer to the work of US experimental filmmaker Barbara Hammer. It premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, and QueerTactics pairs it with a programme of short films screened on 16mm. (Sundance Film Festival; Seattle International Film Festival)
That pairing offers a welcome reminder that queer cinema has a history worth revisiting, not just a present-day moment. For viewers curious about experimental film, the combination of a documentary and shorts could be an inviting way in. (Sundance Film Festival; Seattle International Film Festival)
Plan for screenings, a party and a final award
The festival extends beyond the cinema, with a Friday-night party at Flucc featuring four DJs and a live performance by Phaedra. On Sunday, the closing programme at Breitenseer Lichtspiele includes the Golden Medusa award for a short film addressing activism and dissent. (QueerTactics)
If you’re choosing what to see, start with the themes that interest you most: trans histories, Brazilian cinema, camp or experimental film. Then leave room for a surprise. Festivals are often at their best when one unfamiliar title turns into the film you keep thinking about on the way home. (QueerTactics)
It’s a programme that invites you to watch boldly, and leave with new ideas.
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