OUT film Festival is back this Pride Month with its 15th edition – 17 – 20 June!
Following the landmark 2026 Court of Appeal rulings in Kenya regarding artistic freedom, the space for queer storytelling is expanding, yet remains fragile. This year’s installment stands under the powerful theme ‘Tumekuwepo” (We’ve Been Here). It centres the queer elder, thus bridging the intergenerational gap among the queer community.
With this focus, the festival emphasizes that the queer presence is not a trend, but a heritage. The community and friends will immerse themselves in a curated selection of vital queer cinema, archival storytelling, and panel dialogues on archiving queer history through the lens. More than just gaining access to incredible films, they step into a vital, safe, and affirming space dedicated to celebrating and preserving queer stories.
The festival is an annual commemoration of the LQBTQIA+ community in Kenya. Co-founded by Kenyan writer, journalist, podcaster and queer activist, Kevin Mwachiro with support from Johannes Hossfeld, Goethe-Institut Kenya’s director at the time, the film festival has steadily gained traction throughout the 14 years it has been running.
To demonstrate diversity, the festival has collated films from different geographical locations over the years that depict granular experiences of members of the community around the globe and cut across family, faith, race and cultural pressure.
“OUT Film Festival has not only progressed in representation of films particularly from the Global South but also in the size of crowd it attracts. Films in Kinyarwanda, Sesotho, Kiswahili, and Otjiherero are among those that made the cut in 2025”, Mwachiro shares proudly. He continues, “The event now pulls a wider demographic outside of Nairobi – participants from different educational backgrounds who enrich discussions on how to advance and safeguard the community; an older age group that shares their stories from an earlier, more unforgiving era; while others open up about their experiences and challenges of queer parenting, fostering meaningful intergenerational conversations.”
The festival has grown and diversified in terms of its offerings. Panel discussions that offer insights from major queer actors have been a consistent point of information and advocacy in the past few years. This year’s panel will explore how film can preserve the oral histories of our elders before they are lost. It will host Nguru Karugu, veteran queer activist and author of the essay “Not yet Uhuru: Growing up Gay in Kenya, before the Digital Age,” that discussed the realities of growing up gay in Kenya before online queer communities existed. Nice Githinji, filmmaker and producer will also present.
Additionally, the festival will entail a 2-day film masterclass led by Jim Chuchu that delves into practical strategies for directors working with straight actors on queer scripts. This immersive workshop moves beyond standard technicalities to explore the inner world of the filmmaker, tackling the personal anxieties, legal realities, and communal responsibilities of creating queer cinema in Kenya. Alongside these vital contextual discussions, the masterclass will offer practical strategies for working with actors and crew, finding the “human truth” in queer roles without falling into stereotypes, and establishing safe, respectful environments for sensitive scenes.
Current curator Mathendu Muchoki views cinema as an essential act of historical preservation:
Storytelling is the ultimate archive of our existence as queer Africans, but the stories matter little if they stay hidden. Having a dedicated platform like OUT Film Festival to share them is what transforms individual truth into a collective legacy.”
The OUT Film Festival has continually nourished a community that yearns for connection amid the stigma and homophobia. It has provided a haven that consistently celebrates queer joy.
Check out the OUT Film Festival Programme.
Those who wish to attend this year’s festival can grab their festival passes HERE.
About the Goethe-Institut
The Goethe-Institut is the Federal Republic of Germany’s cultural institute, active worldwide. It contributes widely to the promotion of artists, ideas and works. In Nairobi, the Goethe-Institut connects with partners across the country to foster Kenyan-German cultural and educational exchange through cultural projects and trainings, co-productions, school collaborations, information and knowledge platforms as well as German language teaching.