Festival · Prishtina
Prishtina Queer Festival
4 – 6 September 2026 · Kino Armata, Burnt Hall and Kafet e Rakisë
Three days of queer film, drag, workshops and street parties across the city, free almost throughout. The fourth edition runs 4 to 6 September.
Prishtina Queer Festival returns for a fourth edition, 4 to 6 September, run by the queer collective Dylberizm. Three days of film, music, drag and workshops across venues in the centre, and almost all of it is free. This year's programme asks how systems and social norms shape the way we live, love, express ourselves and inhabit our bodies.
The range is the point. A photographer turning the camera on the silences inside his own family, two Kosovar short films premiering to a free cinema, a workshop on painting a face that a recognition system cannot read, eight queer animated shorts out of Paris, and a drag wrestling collective flown in from New Orleans to settle Balkan disputes in a ring.
If you come for one thing, make it Sunday. Kafet e Rakisë is taken over by a flea market and a street party from 18:00, free for everyone, with Makadsi over from New York to close it. Saturday night at the Burnt Hall is the only ticket you need to buy all weekend.
2026 · Prishtina
The music
Club nights and live performances, after the credits roll.
Friday 4 September
Opening night · Grand Hotel terrace
- Soul Case20:00 – 00:00
Friday 4 September
Afterparty · e.dh.e
- Gemza23:59 – 04:00
- Josh Caffé23:59 – 04:00
Saturday 5 September
Balkan Beatdown · Burnt Hall
- Angelboy23:00 – 05:00
- Oldyungmayn23:00 – 05:00
- Rebiswan23:00 – 05:00
Sunday 6 September
Street Party · Kafet e Rakisë
- Lisa Kida18:00 – 00:00
- Rindaya18:00 – 00:00
- James Indigo18:00 – 00:00
- Makadsi18:00 – 00:00
The full programme
Every screening, talk and workshop, day by day. Open a day to see it hall by hall. Accent squares mark our picks.
Friday 4 September2 screenings & talks
Project Space Sekhmet
- Access Denied: Cybersecurity against anti-queer attacksWorkshop · facilitated by Erza16:00 – 18:00
Hajde Foundation
- From An Uncomfortable Distance, I RemainOpening night · exhibition and book by Besfort Syla20:00 – 00:00
Saturday 5 September6 screenings & talks
Juno's Social Hub
- Sorry, Face Not FoundWorkshop · facilitated by Vesë Bunjaku11:00 – 13:00
Kino Armata
- To The Boy I WasSpecial screening · Korab Jashari, Kosovo13:00 – 15:00
- Two People Exchanging SalivaSpecial screening · Natalie Musteata & Alexandre Singh, France13:00 – 15:00
- A Slap to the System: Gender, Intimacy and Agency Under State ControlPanel · Linda Gusia, Zhaklin Lekatari, Jovan Džoli Ulićević, Rina Braimi13:00 – 15:00
Burgu i Idealit Museum
- Nobody Can Change Your Identity, Not Even WarBook launch · Dan Sokoli, Kaltrina Kelmendi, Luca Tesei Li Bassi, Labinot Lutolli17:00 – 19:00
Burnt Hall
- Choke Hole: Balkan BeatdownDrag wrestling · New Orleans, halftime show by Gimi23:00 – 05:00
Sunday 6 September9 screenings & talks
Kino Armata
- Les lèvres gercéesInternational Film Programme · Gobelins Institute, Paris13:00 – 15:00
- Skin FlickInternational Film Programme · Gobelins Institute, Paris13:00 – 15:00
- Dare to be FabulousInternational Film Programme · Gobelins Institute, Paris13:00 – 15:00
- AcrobatsInternational Film Programme · Gobelins Institute, Paris13:00 – 15:00
- J'attends la nuitInternational Film Programme · Gobelins Institute, Paris13:00 – 15:00
- GauzeInternational Film Programme · Gobelins Institute, Paris13:00 – 15:00
- Riot DollInternational Film Programme · Gobelins Institute, Paris13:00 – 15:00
- The Ostrich PoliticInternational Film Programme · Gobelins Institute, Paris13:00 – 15:00
Kafet e Rakisë
- Street Party & Flea MarketFourth edition · vintage, art, books, jewellery, handmade, and four DJs on the street18:00 – 00:00
What we'd queue for
The handful we'd plan the weekend around, across the whole programme. Each of these happens once.
Opening night · exhibition and book by Besfort Syla
From An Uncomfortable Distance, I Remain
The festival opens on a photographer turning the camera on his own family. Secrecy, grief and masculinity, and growing up in Kosovo with things left unsaid. Curated with Rina Meta, with remarks from Besfort Syla, the British Ambassador Jonathan Hargreaves and journalist Zhaklin Lekatari. Free.
Fri 4 Sep · 20:00 – 00:00 · Hajde Foundation
Special screening · Korab Jashari, Kosovo
To The Boy I Was
Korab Jashari's first film premieres here, an address to his younger self about how memory keeps rewriting who you were.
Sat 5 Sep · 13:00 – 15:00 · Kino Armata
Special screening · Natalie Musteata & Alexandre Singh, France
Two People Exchanging Saliva
The Academy Award winning short, starring Luana Bajrami. Kissing is punishable by death and face slaps are currency; two women risk everything for one anyway.
Sat 5 Sep · 13:00 – 15:00 · Kino Armata
Book launch · Dan Sokoli, Kaltrina Kelmendi, Luca Tesei Li Bassi, Labinot Lutolli
Nobody Can Change Your Identity, Not Even War
Dylberizm spent years collecting queer testimony from the Kosovo War, with Pro Peace and the University of Prishtina. A discussion about what it means for who gets written into a war's history.
Sat 5 Sep · 17:00 – 19:00 · Burgu i Idealit Museum
Drag wrestling · New Orleans, halftime show by Gimi
Choke Hole: Balkan Beatdown
Choke Hole brings eight wrestlers and a ring: Visqueen, Jassy, Gorlëënyah, Jocelyn Change, Gieza Poke, Ivana Dickie, Aurah Jendafaaq and Loverboy Noel, with a halftime show by Gimi of Copenhagen. The only ticketed night of the weekend.
Sat 5 Sep · 23:00 – 05:00 · Burnt Hall
International Film Programme · Gobelins Institute, Paris
Gauze
A fourteen year old Palestinian swimming champion becomes his little brother’s only carer under war and famine, and swims out to the aid drops. The hardest thing in the animation block.
Sun 6 Sep · 13:00 – 15:00 · Kino Armata
International Film Programme · Gobelins Institute, Paris
Riot Doll
A delivery girl in Moscow, worn down by the hatred around her, finds a strange loophole for dealing with the people cheering the war on. It does not let her off easily.
Sun 6 Sep · 13:00 – 15:00 · Kino Armata