For the first time in 30 years, there will be no Seattle Queer Film Festival. Despite a strong recent run screening a variety of acclaimed films such as “All of Us Strangers” and the Lily Gladstone-starring “Fancy Dance,” it’s now an open question of when the festival will return.
The news follows Seattle arts organization Three Dollar Bill Cinema merging the festival dedicated to queer cinema, which began in 1996, with the transgender-focused film festival TRANSlations, which began in 2006, into one singular festival in 2025. The indefinite pausing of both festivals this year was confirmed by Lindy Boustedt, board president of Three Dollar Bill Cinema, the volunteer-run organizer of the yearly event. In an email sent Wednesday, Boustedt said “instead of one large festival, we’re focusing on smaller, more frequent experiences that allow us to stay active, responsive, and truly connected throughout the year.”
In an interview with The Seattle Times, Boustedt pointed to 2023 as being part of what led to the organization taking on more than $70,000 in debt.
“We definitely accrued a lot of debt through a lot of decisions that were made by staff at that time. Then the board had to make a lot of decisions on how to get us out of that debt,” Boustedt said. “Then we found even more debt that was hidden in 2024. So the board in 2024 and into 2025, with the help of our supporters, was able to dig out of that and come back into the black.”
Boustedt said that the board doesn’t want to fall back into the red, hence the pause of the festivals, and that she isn’t sure when they’d be able to return.
For Sophie Amity Debs, a former volunteer for Three Dollar Bill Cinema who recently started the Seattle Trans Underground Film Festival, which will be holding another edition in October at Northwest Film Forum, the pausing of the festivals was both a major loss and part of a broader trend.
“I find it devastating. Three Dollar Bill has been such a long-term and consistent platform for queer voices in film and for queer people in Seattle,” Amity Debs said. “Film in Seattle has been getting much more difficult with the closure of several cinemas year over year over year. ”
Three Dollar Bill Cinema is offering a fellowship this year, which will provide a queer filmmaker living in Washington with $7,500 to make a short film to be completed by July 31, 2027. Whether that film would then be able to show at a future queer film festival remains to be seen, but Boustedt said she is open to feedback and volunteers to come out to support them.
“Like a lot of film festival organizations right now, we’re trying to figure out, what do film festivals need to look like in this day and age?” Boustedt said. “We’re trying to really take some time and not rush in to spend money where we don’t have money to spend and be mindful about being fiscally responsible, so we make sure we can keep this organization going for another 30 years.”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yakimaherald.com ’
