Staying true to the festival’s dedication and support for queer film production, the Queer Short Film Fund will be awarded for the 12th time. The fund was set up to facilitate the development and production of queer short film projects in Germany. Submissions are accepted for documentary, narrative, animated or experimental projects that are queer in content and/or form, with a maximum length of 10 minutes. In addition, projects should broaden their vision to topics beyond traditional LGBTQIA+ representation of the mainstream-niche market.

Five projects will be pre-selected as our semi-finalists for 2026. The filmmakers of these projects will pitch their film on Saturday at 16:00 in a public session at Aquarium. The Lolly Award Jury will select one project which will receive the fund and be announced during the Lolly Awards Ceremony on Sunday evening.

The winner of the fund will receive: a cash prize of 1,500 €, donated by XPOSED, and a voucher for filming equipment worth 2,000 €, provided by 25p.
In addition, the fund is accompanied by a mentoring programme: An industry expert advises the winner in five sessions from script development to the production phase and post-production.
This year’s mentor is Paulina Lorenz, Producer (JÜNGLINGE FILM)