Iris Prize
The Iris Prize is an annual international LGBTQ film prize and festival held in Cardiff. It is open to films by, for, about, or of interest to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or intersex communities, and films must be completed within two years of the prize deadline. Launched in 2006 by Berwyn Rowlands, it welcomes filmmakers from around the world and is judged by an international panel of filmmakers and artists. Since 2025, the winner receives a prize package valued at £40,000 to help make their next film.
The festival in Cardiff shows the competing films and other features, with panel sessions from visiting filmmakers and a closing night award ceremony. The Iris Prize has built an international network of partner LGBTQ+ film festivals, so that each partner festival selects one film to participate. Partners include festivals in Toronto, Los Angeles, New York, Sydney, Dublin, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Hong Kong, and Rochester.
Andrew Pierce was the first chair of the Iris Prize in 2013. Tom Abell, managing director of Peccadillo Pictures, became chair in 2021.
Iris Prize Outreach, a charity to challenge discrimination against LGBTQ+ people, has received National Lottery funding. In 2015 it began a Wales-wide engagement program for three years; another project received funding in 2020 to help make ten new short films. At the end of 2024, Iris Prize Outreach was awarded £137,500 to preserve and celebrate Iris Prize heritage through the Adleisiau Iris project, which will record oral histories and digitize the Iris archive.
Each partner festival automatically shortlists one film for the Iris Prize.
This page was last edited on 1 February 2026, at 23:42 (CET).