TQFF is organized by an ad-hoc collective of artists and arts professionals who came together in 2016 to launch the Toronto Queer Film Festival. They began this project out of an urgent need to provide screen space in Toronto for media by and about marginalized queer and trans people.

We have three primary mandates:

1) to exhibit queer independent and experimental film and video art;

2) to support the production of alternative queer film and video art through community-based arts education and professional development; and

3) to foster community engagement with the arts by welcoming all attendees to our accessible venues with “pay what you can” pricing for events, ASL interpretation, and closed captioning of all programs.

TQFF distinguishes itself from other Toronto cultural events that serve the LGBTQ+ community by focusing on experimental time-based media that challenges and expands social, political, and artistic conventions. Our curatorial mandate is to centre the programming of work by and about queer and trans people of colour, Indigenous people, and people with disabilities, as well as the work of local artists, low-income, DIY filmmakers, and emerging artists.

Our foremost goal as an organization is community building: creating space for queer and trans filmmakers and audiences to come together in the spirit of art and activism.

In addition to the annual festival, TQFF offers year round programming, including screenings and workshop intensives.