BFI Flare: London LGBT Film Festival unveiled its 31st edition’s full programme last night. BFI Flare opens on the 16th March with the World Premiere of Fergus O’Brien’s BBC Production Against the Law at BFI Southbank.

The Festival closes with the International Premiere of Jennifer Reeder’s Signature Move at BFI Southbank.

One of the most significant and long standing film events in the world’s LGBT calendar, BFI Flare will present over 50 features, more than 100 shorts and a wide range of special events, guest appearances, discussions, workshops, club nights and much more.

The Centrepiece Screening of the 2017 Festival is the European Premiere of Torrey Pines, a psychedelic stop-motion animation about a child grappling with gender identity and a schizophrenic mother. The film will be accompanied by a live score from director Clyde Petersen’s Queercore band, Your Heart Breaks.

The year’s Special Presentations are both World Premieres: the new UK web series, Different for Girls, a smart, sassy, sexy multi-layered lesbian drama, directed by award-winning Festival alumni Campbell X and After Louie in which Alan Cumming plays a New York artist whose life is turned upside down by an encounter with a much younger man.

2017 sees the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act which decriminalised private homosexual acts in England and Wales. The Festival marks this anniversary in a number of ways:

Fifty Years of Queer History through the Moving Image and Beyond a unique afternoon of illustrated talks, screenings and storytelling with a wide range of historians, archivists and individuals who lived through the period.

The aforementioned Against the Law is the profoundly moving true story of Peter Wildeblood and the events that led to the creation of the Wolfenden Committee on sexual law reform.

BFI Flare will host the World Premiere of the politically charged Pride? (dir. Ashley Joiner), a provocative and intelligent documentary which details the history of the Pride celebrations.

As previously announced, the BFI is also marking the 50th anniversary with a new season of screenings and events in July and August. Gross Indecency will explore the pioneering – and sometimes problematic – depictions of LGBT life in British film and TV in the 50s, 60s and 70s.

In a global climate which sees many LGBT people struggle for basic human rights, BFI Flare also presents a selection of films and events which explore LGBT culture around the world. Highlights:

Out of Iraq (dirs. Eva Orner and Chris McKim) is an outstanding documentary about the forbidden relationship of two Iraqi young soldiers at the height of the Iraq war.

The Pearl of Africa (dir. Jonny von Wallström) follows the story of Cleopatra Kambugu, the first out transgender woman in Uganda.

Sridhar Rangayan, the Director of Kashish Mumbai International Queer Film Festival will attend BFI Flare and take part in an event exploring LGBT film and television culture in India, as part of UK/India 2017.

BFI FLARE: LONDON LGBT FILM FESTIVAL, 2017 FULL PROGRAMME

From 16-26th March at BFI Southbank, the Festival will showcase the best in contemporary global LGBT features and short films, talks, events and archive screenings.

The Festival opens with the World Premiere of Against the Law (directed by Fergus O’Brien and starring Daniel Mays, Mark Gatiss and Charlie Creed-Miles), a sensitive adaptation of Peter Wildeblood’s bestselling memoir, telling the story of his affair with a handsome serviceman and the subsequent court case which led to his imprisonment.

The Festival’s Closing Gala on Sunday 26th March is Signature Move, directed by BFI London Film Festival alumni Jennifer Reeder. The comedy drama stars Pakistani-Canadian actress, Fawzia Mirza, Bollywood star Shabana Azmi and Mexican-American Sari Sanchez, and is a cross-cultural romance about a lesbian living in Chicago with her recently widowed mother.

Special Presentations include Clyde Petersen’s return to the festival for the third time with a captivating semi-autobiographical animated musical Torrey Pines, which will feature a live score on the night. Alan Cumming gives a stand-out performance as a troubled survivor of the AIDS epidemic in Vincent Gagliostro’s passionate and inspirational After Louie.

BFI Flare also screens the World Premiere of Different for Girls (dir. Campbell X), a sassy, sexy lesbian web series set in West London, starring Rachel Shelley (The L Word) and Guinevere Turner (American Psycho, Go Fish).

The Festival is further divided into sections: HEARTS, BODIES and MINDS. Highlights in the programme include:

HEARTS includes films about love, romance and friendship. Handsome Devil, directed by John Butler and starring Andrew Scott, is a witty Irish charmer which charts the unlikely friendship between an isolated gay teen and his hunky rugby playing roommate. Maura Anderson’s elegant and assured debut Heartland is a powerful examination of love and loss and tells the tale of Lauren, who is forced to return to live in rural Oklahoma following the death of her girlfriend.

Dear Dad (dir. Tanuj Bhramar) is an India-set bittersweet father and son road movie. André Techine’s powerful and affecting Being 17 is the story two young boys in their last year of high school, co-written by Celine Sciamma (Tomboy, Girlhood). The pain and heartache of young love is laid bare in Monja Art’s hugely accomplished second feature Seventeen.

BODIES features stories of sex, identity and transformation. The diverse selection of films includes the Interbank LGBT Forum Special Screening of Nathan Adloff’s winning gay teen movie Miles. Park Chan Wook’s ravishing The Handmaiden, inspired by Sarah Waters’ Fingersmith, sees a woman hired as a handmaiden to a Japanese heiress, secretly involved in a plot to defraud her. Marcelo Caetano’s Body Electric follows a handsome young man enjoying casual encounters in contemporary Brazil.

Created by an entirely female crew, Below Her Mouth (dir. April Mullen) is a no holds-barred depiction of what happens in the first few days of two women falling in love. Dante Alencastre’s documentary Raising Zoey follows a strong family who demonstrate how open mindedness and love can pave the way for a joyful transition for their 13-year-old Zoey.

In FTWTF: Female to What the Fuck (dirs. Katharina Lampert, Cordula Thym), several trans-identified people openly discuss the intricacies of transitioning. Timothy Greenfield Sanders returns to BFI Flare with The Trans List, in which some of the world’s most prominent transpeople, including Caitlin Jenner and Laverne Cox, tell their stories.

MINDS features reflections on art, politics and community. Morgan White chronicles the world’s most recognisable pair of shoes with The Slippers, a documentary about Dorothy’s iconic ruby footwear in The Wizard of Oz, which features appearances from the late Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher.

Waiting for B (dir. Paulo Cesar Toldeo) is a kitschy, light-hearted and thoroughly camp portrayal of pop culture, mega fandom and the adoration of Beyoncé. Mark Kenneth Woods’ Two Soft Things, Two Hard Things sensitively observes the complexities of LGBT life in Canada’s remote Arctic Inuit population. Last Man Standing (dir. Erin Brethauer) is a beautifully made documentary charting the life of eight long-term survivors who live with AIDS. Led by Laverne Cox, Jaqueline Gares’ Free Cece documents the case of Cece McDonald, a transwoman imprisoned in a male facility.

BFI Flare also includes a wide range of events, talks and debates. For full details check out the BFI website.

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● Tickets for BFI Flare go on sale via bfi.org.uk/flare to BFI Patrons, Champions and Members from Monday 20 Feb and General Public on Monday 27 February.