FilmPride was founded seven years ago by local queer filmmaker Deborah Espect and Latest TV, Brighton’s community TV channel. Born from a shared passion for cinema and a desire to champion the stories that often go unseen in mainstream spaces, our mission has always been to celebrate queer narratives in all their complexity and creativity.
As a volunteer-run festival, we are deeply rooted in our local community. Over the years, we have brought LGBTQIA+ cinema to every corner of the city – from intimate screenings at The Latest MusicBar, The Ledward Centre, The IronWorks, and The LightHouse, to our three-year residency in the heart of Preston Park during Pride weekend. We are proud to have partnered with iconic venues like Duke’s at Komedia and, most recently, St George’s Church in Kemptown, to create spaces where our stories can be heard.
Our Vision
We believe that queer cinema is only truly representative when it is inclusive of every lived experience and pushes the boundaries of how our stories are told. Our curated programmess are built on a commitment to intersectional storytelling, ensuring:
- Diverse Narratives & Global Perspectives: We showcase a wide range of narrative films, documentaries, experimental / music videos and animations from filmmakers in all corners of the globe, from heart-wrenching dramas to life-affirming comedies.
- Inclusion & Representation: We make it a priority to ensure that disabled and neurodivergent voices are always represented within our programmes, challenging stereotypes and reflecting the diverse ways our community navigates the world.
- Creative Boundaries: We hold space for experimental video and artistic projects that bridge the gap between intimate personal stories and broader collective histories.
By highlighting the intersections of sexuality, gender, disability, and heritage, FilmPride continues to provide a vital platform for the voices, struggles, and triumphs of the global LGBTQIA+ community.
Deborah Espect (she / her) – Festival Director
Deborah is an award-winning filmmaker, video editor and TV presenter based in Brighton, as well as the Director of Film for Latest TV. She always seeks to elevate her fellow indie filmmakers and thrives on promoting positive queer stories.
Katrina Holden (she / her) – Festival Producer
Katrina joined FilmPride in 2026 as Festival Producer, bringing a sharp eye, steady hand and a knack for making things actually happen. With a 25-year career across television production and senior corporate roles, she balances creative ambition with the practical reality of delivering a great event, on time, on budget, and without anyone melting into the floorboards.
Lucy Nordberg (she / they) – Marketing Support
Lucy is a writer and producer for theatre and film. She has a particular interest in epic work that mixes styles and formats to create something new, from using dramatic verse in modern theatre and film, to producing work in immersive 360. Brighton-based and a veteran Pride-goer, she’s excited to get behind the scenes and help out with FilmPride’s mission to bring a diverse, global offering of LGBTQ+ films to Brighton and beyond.
Toni (they / she) – Marketing Support
Toni is an arts facilitator and film enthusiast with a passion for storytelling. In a society where the scripts on who we should be or how we should live often fail us, she admires how queer films can empower us to write our own. She is therefore excited to join Filmpride in bringing more of the complexity and joy of queer lives to audiences in Brighton.
Karin Kupfer (she / her) – Festival Assistant
Karin is an ardent fan of LGBTQIA+ films and is thrilled to help bringing them to FilmPride audiences. She admires the passion and dedication involved in making queer shorts and the comfort they can give us. Karin produced the documentary ‘Pawesome!’, which explores the extraordinary bond between animals & people in the LGBTQIA+ community, and she is also a member of the queer London-based rollerskating group ‘We got this’.
PATRON: Aneesa Chaudhry
Aneesa is a trained barrister, a professional solo singer for nearly 30 years, and a conductor of community choirs for nearly 15 years. She works with businesses, the LGBTQ+ community, hospices, hospitals and charities. Her passion is giving a voice to the voiceless and helping others make a difference in this crazy, fragile world. She also works with people whose voices are changing for reasons including treatment, medication, health, and lifestyle.
Latest TV
Brighton’s community channel, serving over 400,000 households. The Latest TV studios hosted the very first FilmPride festival in 2019, with live events running for a week, and Latest TV is proud to offer one of the first TV film festivals in the country, with FilmPride on TV. Latest TV is available in Brighton and surround areas on Freeview 7 and Virgin Media 159, and can be livestreamed anywhere in the world on the channel’s website.
