12th
Queer Short
Film Fund
OPEN FOR PROJECTS!
Deadline
08.05.2026
OPEN FOR PROJECTS!
12th
Queer Short
Film Fund
Deadline
08.05.2026
Facilitate Queer Film Projects
The Queer Short Film Fund was set up to facilitate annual development and production of Queer Film Projects that originate from Germany. Submissions are accepted for documentary, narrative, animated or experimental projects that are queer in content and or form. Projects should ideally challenge and question normative perspectives and simultaneously 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, the 30th of May 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.
Benefits
Cash Prize
The fund is awarded a cash prize of 1.500 €, donated by XPOSED.
Voucher
In addition, a voucher for filming equipment worth 2,000 €, provided by 25p and a voucher for color grading worth 3,000€, provided by Planemo.
Mentoring Program
The fund is also accompanied by a mentoring programme: an industry expert advises the winner in five sessions from script development to the production phase and post-production. Our mentor this year will be Paulina Lorenz.
(Producer, JÜNGLINGE FILM).
How to apply
Eligibility
- The Applicant must be the copyright holder of the project.
- The Applicant must have made at least 1 short film as a director to be eligible.
- The Applicant must live in Germany and be able to shoot in Germany.
- Student projects are eligible, as long as they retain the rights of the film.
- Projects must be no longer than 10 minutes / 15 pages in duration.
- Projects can be in any film/video/other format.
Required Materials
- To submit your project, please email through your submission with the following required materials to filmfund@xposedfilmfestival.com.
- All the elements should be gathered and delivered in one .pdf file
a one pager – that should include, title, synopsis, project length, contact details and short biography of the director and key creatives.
a script – created in final draft format
a visual document
a detailed budget
a page of links – to directors and or key creatives past work.
all materials must be provided or translated into English.
Deadlines & Dates
- Submissions – Deadline May 8th, 2026
- Announcement of the semi-finalists – May 25th, 2026
- Semi-finalists public pitch – May 30th, 2026
- Winner Announcement at Lolly Awards – May 31st, 2026
Semifinalists 2026
THE SAME SONG by Zhiwen Ding
Zhiwen DING (they/them) is a Berlin-based Chinese filmmaker and film curator. Their work explores queer and diasporic experiences, family relationships, and the silences between bodies, languages and intimate spaces. They recently worked with Queer Squad on “My Queer Migration Journey” and curated queer cinema for the Chinese Film Festival Hamburg.
BUILT BOYS IN CAMO
by Felix Hertneck
Felix Hertneck, born in Berlin in 1999, is a German filmmaker currently studying Directing for Fictional Film at the University of Television and Film Munich (HFF). He studied Film Studies at Freie Universität Berlin, where he wrote his bachelor’s thesis on the Gay Male Gaze and Fetishization. During his studies, he worked as an assistant director in theatre and film, including on several projects by Rosa von Praunheim. Rosa von Praunheim’s radical perspective on the world and film became an important influence on Felix.
Rough Gems
by Richard Kranzin
Richard Kranzin, born in Berlin in 1990, is a queer filmmaker and photographer. He graduated in 2017 with a degree in film from Beuth University of Applied Sciences. His graduation film In Pochenden Zellen received multiple “Best Short Film” awards at international festivals, including the Amsterdam Independent Film Festival (Student Competition), and screened in competition at Achtung Berlin, alongside his follow-up short Jannik. In 2025, he made his television directing debut with the coming-of-age series Echt Friends (Season 3, ZDF/KiKa). Alongside his filmmaking, Kranzin is a photography artist, focusing on analogue portraiture themed around masculinity and vulnerability. His photos are recognized in queer publications and exhibitions worldwide.
PLEASE DON’T STAND ON ME,
I WILL BREAK
by Elliott Louis McKee
Elliott Louis McKee is a queer New Zealand-born filmmaker based in Berlin since 2011. With a background in film, philosophy, music and performance, Elliott makes work about the forces that bind us from outside and within – systems, borders, desire, shame, love, fear, and the roles we are forced to perform. Elliott’s films move between tenderness, unease and absurdity, drawing audiences into emotional worlds that slowly reveal their instability. Elliott’s work has screened at over 60 international festivals, including Palm Springs ShortFest, Sheffield DocFest, New Zealand International Film Festival, FrightFest, New Orleans Film Festival and Dublin International Film Festival.
I AM A FAN
by Lotta Schwerk
Lotta Schwerk is a self-taught director and producer. Her feature film debut, Ninja Motherf*cking Destruction, premiered at the Max Ophüls Prize Film Festival and
will receive a (small) theatrical release later this year in collaboration with the distributor Edition Salzgeber. The film won the award for “Best Director” at the
Achtung Berlin Film Festival. Since 2018, she has been a curator for the YOUKI International Media Festival and has hosted for Berlinale Generation, KUKI (Interfilm), Schulkinowochen, and other film festivals. Since 2019, she has also been working as an assistant director on film and television productions.
Winner 2025
Seç Ka & Besire Paralik
They/Them
The 11th Queer Short Film Fund was received by Seç Ka & Besire Paralik for the project YOU DON’T KNOW ME
🏆Winner 2025
Matti Ullrich
He/They
The 11th Queer Short Film Fund was received by Seç Ka & Besire Paralik for the project YOU DON’T KNOW ME
Semifinalists 2025
Lamin Leroy Gibba
She/They
Simon(e) Jaikiriuma Paetau is a German-Colombian interdisciplinary artist whose work spans video art, installations, experimental cinema, and performance, with a focus on decolonial themes and queer cultures. In recent years, Simon(e) has focused on inventing myths and utopias inspired by rural and urban cultures in Latin America, challenging hegemonic discourses. In this way, they have created interdisciplinary works and collaborations with racialized artists and historically marginalized communities, especially Emberá & Wayúu, non-binary sexual dissident bodies (including themselves), and rebellious LatinX trans women.
Matti Ullrich
He/They
Ahmed Awadalla aka Madi is a writer, historian, and transdisciplinary artist. Their work centers marginality as a site of insight, resistance, and imagination. Moving across writing, performance, and visual storytelling, Awadalla draws on personal and collective memory, archival fragments, and embodied experience to explore how queerness and exile generate alternative ways of knowing and being. Alongside their artistic and research practice, they have worked extensively in community care, education, and training, particularly around issues of health, sexuality, and displacement. Their award-winning debut short documentary film, Queer Exile, has been showcased at esteemed film festivals worldwide.
Matti Ullrich
He/They
Grant Gulczynski is a filmmaker, whose work has screened internationally at festivals such as CPH:DOX, Molodist and the Singapore International Film Festival. Outside of filmmaking Grant was the Head of Festival for the Fringe! Queer Film & Arts Fest, and volunteers in the queer sexual health sector. Grant has been a recipient of the Leverhulme Trust’s Scholarship, as well as being selected for Berlin Talent Campus and MIDPOINT Intensive Queer among other development labs.
Najwa Ahmed
Seç Ka (they/them) Queer feminist activist, freelance journalist writes in different media platforms, sociologist, and social worker based in Berlin, creates content, produces videos and events motivated by queer and migration experience. They have produced a interview series for LGBTIQ+ news channel Lubunya Haber (the 10th anniversary of O-Platz, a serie about Jin Jiyan Azadi movement…). They were the second director and line producer of Berlin-based queer group Gazino Neukölln’s music video Koli Tutmaz. Their first short film debut No Matter What (2024) will be shown in 48 Stunden Neukölln Festival in June.
Misi Hoogvliets
Misi Hoogvliets is a 23-year-old performer, writer and filmmaker based in Berlin. A recent graduate of Bard College Berlin with a BA in Arts & Aesthetics, she was born and raised in the Netherlands and draws deeply from her Surinamese heritage, trans and queer identity.
Her work is grounded in care and extends into her role as community organizer in Berlin’s vibrant ballroom scene.
Previous
Recipients
- The 1st Queer Short Film Fund was received by: Doireann O’Malley for the project PROTOTYPES
- The 2nd Queer Short Film Fund was received by: Zara Zandieh for the project THE SEAS RUNS THROUGH MY VEINS
- The 3rd Queer Short Film Fund was received by: Pol Merchan for the project PIRATEBOYS
- The 4th Queer Short Film Fund was received by: Popo Fan for the project BEER! BEER!
- The 5th Queer Short Film Fund was received by: Tonina Matamalas for the project AMIGAS… MUY AMAIGAS
- The 6th Queer Short Film Fund was received by: Sarnt Utamachote for the project SONIC REVERBS
- The 7th Queer Short Film Fund was received by: João Carvalho for the project WAIT YOUR TURN
- The 8th Queer Short Film Fund was received by: Eric Bitencourt for the project UNCANNY HOME
- The 9th Queer Short Film Fund was received by: Katrina Singleton for the project CABIN FEVER
- The 10th Queer Short Film Fund was received by: Wellington Almeida for the project MASCQUERADE
- The 11th Queer Short Film Fund was received by: Seç Ka & Besire Paralik for the project YOU DON’T KNOW ME
