image+nation festival film LGBT2SQueer Montréal returns this November

William Friedkin’s cult classic Cruising screens at the 2026 image+nation festival film LGBT2SQueer Montréal,

image+nation festival film LGBT2SQueer Montréal returns to Montreal screens November 19-29.

Showcasing the best of LGBTQ+ cinema from Canada and across the globe, the 39th edition of the long-running festival features showings of buzzy new releases alongside retrospective screenings of vintage titles ripe for rediscovery.

Lukas Dhont’s acclaimed World War I love story Les Braves (Coward) opens this year’s festival, which also includes a robust lineup of feature films, documentary screenings, and a short film program.

New this year is a strong emphasis on queer genre films via the FRISSONS QUEER : Fantasia x image+nation collaborative program. 

Highlights include Paul Etheredge’s 2004 gay slasher thriller Hellbent (which screened at image+nation upon its initial release), Gloria Mercer’s A Safe Distance, a survival thriller set in the Canadian wilderness, and a screening of William Friedkin’s cult classic Cruising.

The Cruising retrospective screening pairs with Jeffrey Schwarz’s new documentary, Mineshaft: The Cruising Murders, which examines the real-life killings that inspired Friedkin’s controversial 1980 film.

Other highlights include A Long Winter (featuring Fred Hechinger of The White Lotus and Ebon Moss-Bachrach of The Bear), Justin Ducharme’s Indigiqueer Vancouver Downtown Eastside drama Seventeen, and Colette Johnson-Vosberg’s Don’t Fence Me In: Queer Country, a documentary highlighting Canadian LGBTQ+ country music performers. 

image+nation festival film LGBT2SQueer Montréal runs from November 19-29 at various theatres in downtown Montreal. The full schedule and tickets are available now at the official image+nation site.