Ljubljana LGBT Film Festival
The Ljubljana LGBT Film Festival is an annual international LGBT film festival held in Ljubljana, Slovenia. It is the oldest film festival of its sort in Europe and also the oldest international film festival in Slovenia. It showcases LGBT-themed films, i.e. films with nonheterosexual and non-cisgender topics or motifs. The festival was launched in 1984 in the capital of the Socialist Republic of Slovenia, one of the six republics forming the country of Yugoslavia. Screenings take place around 1 December – World AIDS Day, and the festival takes about a week. History. When Slovenia was  still part of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Ljubljana's Student Cultural Centre (ŠKUC) founded its gay section, called Magnus. The section organized the first edition of the festival as part of a wider festival on gay culture. It took place at several locations around Ljubljana: the ŠKUC Gallery, KinoŠkuc, The Ljubljana Faculty of Arts and Disko FV. From then on, the festival has been held annually, with the exception of the year 1987. The fourth edition of the festival was, namely, cancelled after pressures from the state authorities due to an alleged fear of the AIDS epidemic . The festival got limited financial resources from state and city authorities for years, so not all screenings in the history of the festival were translated into the Slovenian language. In 1996 the Slovenian Ministry of Culture banned screenings without translation into the Slovenian language, so the films of the 12th edition were translated simultaneously. Since 1994, the main festival location has been either the Kinodvor (in years 2004 to 2008) or the Slovenska kinoteka (Slovenian Cinematheque). Since 2004, the Ljubljana LGBT Film Festival has had at least one screening location outside Ljubljana. Since 2013, the best films of the festival  are awarded prizes by the jury and by the audience. As dragon is the symbol of Ljubljana, the name of the Ljubljana LGBT Film Festival award is the Pink Dragon. In 2018, the festival was mainly supported by the Slovenian Film Centre for the first time in its history. The 2020 edition of the festival was held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It could not include festival guests, but in recent years the festival attracted several well-known Slovenian and foreign filmmakers, who participated in festival talks and round tables. Among them were Barbara Hammer, Maja Weiss, Ljerka Belak , Marcel Gisler, Sibylle Brunner and Fan Popo. Awards. 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013