September 15th, 2025

Festival Program 2025

You've waited long enough, and now the time has finally come: The complete festival program of the 29th Perlen - Queer Film Festival is published!

Soon, the program booklet will be available in many municipal institutions, queer organizations, and in Hanover's dining and nightlife scene. You can already pick it up at the Künstlerhaus. Secure your personal copy and enjoy reading! This year, after many requests, we have returned to our usual booklet format (A6) and chosen a strong, colorful cover design – already one of our favorite designs in recent years.

If you can't wait that long: The website has been updated, and the program booklet can also be downloaded as a PDF under the tab "Autumn '25".

August 13th, 2025

Goal achieved – and now?

Wow – we did it together! In just 36 hours, we reached our project goal of €4,500 – thank you, thank you, thank you! This makes it clear: the visibility of the festival is secured. We can invite filmmakers, conduct interviews after selected films, and expand our public relations – from social media to visual presence on trams and train stations in Hanover.

Why continue to support? Every euro over the target ensures more and longer visibility in Hannover: additional advertising days, intensified poster and digital advertising, and promotional items – everything that makes our festival more present in the urban landscape and reaches more people. This means: More impact and visibility for queer stories in Hannover.

Our crowdfunding campaign runs until September 1st, 2025. Every contribution beyond the original goal makes a tangible difference. We welcome everyone who wants to continue being a part of it. 

Here is the link to the project: enercity-herzensprojekte.de/perlenfilmfestival

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your support and trust. It means a lot to us.

August 11th, 2025

Crowdfunding 2025

From October 24 to November 1, 2025, the 29th edition of the Perlen – Queer Film Festival will take place at the Kino im Künstlerhaus Hannover. This year, as a festival association, we are taking full financial responsibility for the first time – venturing into new territory.

To execute the festival with the usual quality, we have launched our crowdfunding campaign today at Enercity HerzensProjekt: 

www.enercity-herzensprojekte.de/perlenfilmfestival

What makes this special: Every donation will be doubled by Enercity. The money will only be disbursed if our funding goal is fully reached (the "All-or-Nothing Principle"). The funds will directly go towards inviting filmmakers (travel and hotel costs) as well as enhancing our public relations efforts.

You can help with any contribution – whether through a free donation or by purchasing one of our three rewards. As a non-profit association, we can issue donation receipts upon request (excluding reward purchases).



Let's make queer perspectives visible on the cinema screen in Hannover together – every contribution counts!

May 13th, 2025

CSD und Summer Pearls 2025

As in previous years, we would like to shorten the wait for the autumn festival: Right after the CSD Hannover, our little film series "Summer Pearls" will take place again at KoKi! On June 9 and 10, 2025, we will show a total of 4 screenings featuring notable feature films, documentaries, and short films revolving around LGBTIQ* topics.

Speaking of CSD: If you would like to discuss the festival with us in person or just get to know the festival organization team, you are warmly invited to visit us at our information booth at the CSD Hannover on June 8, 2025, from 1:00 PM at the Opernplatz! You can pick up information materials about the festival and win prizes in our raffle.

Summer can come!

March 26th, 2025

Festival Dates and

Submission Platform 2025

The winter sleep is over! Our festival team is already curating outstanding queer films again. In February, we were at the BERLINALE and watched 30 films in nine days. But we won't reveal yet which ones are suitable for the autumn festival. 😉

To make planning for the upcoming year easier for you, we are now announcing the dates for our two festival editions: The SUMMER PEARLS (Sommerperlen) will take place on June 9 and 10, 2025, while the 29th Autumn Festival will happen from October 24 to November 1, 2025, featuring a wide range of first-class queer films.

Additionally, we have now launched our submission platform for filmmakers on the website. Do you know someone who has directed or produced a queer film? Have you directed or produced a queer film? Then submit it to us! Or do you know queer filmmakers? Let them know! With a bit of luck, this film might be screened at the festival this fall!

And what’s up with the Alpine snow hare on the right side of the image? Quite simply: According to the German Wildlife Foundation, it is the Wild Animal of the Year 2025. It is the chameleon among rabbits. In winter, it wears a white winter coat, and in summer, it blends in with a gray-brown disguise.

November 7th, 2024

Review of the Perlen 2024

We look back on the PERLEN - Queer Film Festival 2024 with great satisfaction, a little nostalgia and quite a bit of exhaustion. We had a great time with you and are delighted with all the positive feedback and constructive criticism we received from you during the 9 days of the festival. We are particularly pleased about the increase in attendance by more than 200 visitors compared to the previous year.

Over the last two days, we have been collecting donations for Jay Mulucha's Safe House in Kampala (Uganda). Jay Mulucha is a trans* activist involved in various international organizations, manager of a queer basketball team in Uganda and organizes the Safe House, where around 30 queer people have found refuge and many receive psychological and medical care (including HIV-related care). You donated a total of € 1,238.65 - wow!!! Thank you so much! That's a great sum and valuable support for the project. 

And then there was the vote for our “Goldene Perle” (“Golden Pearl 2024”) audience award. Your favorite films in the three different categories:

Best Feature Film: We Have Never Been Modern

Best Documentary: Queendom

Best Short Film: My Old Gals

We wish you a wonderful fall and a relaxing Advent season! 

October 23rd, 2024

Festival start, guests & costumes

Here are some new information about the festival: At our opening event (October 25th at 4 p.m.) you can expect greetings and speeches as well as music. We are delighted that Jendrik will be presenting some of his new songs. Admission to the opening event is free!

Things will also get lively on Saturday (October 26th) at 10 p.m. at the screening of The Bearded Mermaid. The director and cast have spontaneously announced themselves as guests for this film about drag artists in a French cabaret - Fantastique!
In keeping with Halloween, we will be showing the horror film Cuckoo in a German dubbed version on Thursday (October 31st) at 10 p.m. ATTENTION: We are launching a special costume promotion for this film: The first 15 guests who turn up to the screening of Cuckoo dressed up in Halloween outfits will win a free ticket to our closing party at Schwules Sau on November 2nd.
We look forward to seeing your spooky outfits!

October 5th, 2024 & October 10th, 2024

Program booklet is ONLINE - Update!

It took a while, but now our program is available online!
Under Program 2024 -> Autumn Festival 2024 you can download the complete program in german (!). There is also the possibility to view each film including a film description (also in german).
The haptic program booklet is not yet available due to a delivery delay. We will update this post and inform you via newsletter and social media as soon as the booklets are available at KoKi and the usual distribution points.

Update from 10.10.24: The program booklets are now available at KoKi and in various institutions in Hanover.

Keep your eyes open.

September 25th, 2024

Special event: Cooperation with ÜSTRA

ÜSTRA has launched a series of events for democracy, diversity and tolerance under the motto “Colorful drives better”. As part of this series, we will be showing the German short film “Feed your Head” by Bernhard Strobel on September 30th, 2024 at 6:15 pm in the foyer of the ÜSTRA headquarters (Am Hohen Ufer 6, 30159 Hanover), followed by a discussion in a protected setting on the topic of “Violence against queer people”.

You can find more information in the tab
Program 2024 -> Special event: ÜSTRA

May 19th, 2024

SUMMERPEARLS and CSD

As every year, the PEARLEN team will be at its information stand on Whitsunday at the CSD street festival on Opernplatz, handing out flyers, raffling off prizes amd promoting the SUMMERPEARLS from June 3-5, 2024!

Further information about the summer festival is now available on the German-language page under "Programm 2024" -> "Sommerperlen 2024".

May 1st, 2024

Submit your film

Our submission platform for filmmakers and distributors is now open. You can find the form at the top of the tab under “Film Submission”.

We look forward to your films!

May 1st, 2024

Our own website

For the first time since the queer film festival in Hanover began, the PERLEN finally have their own website. We hope you like the site as much as we do, even if we can't offer all pages in English.  

The archive and the actual film screenings for the SUMMERPEARLS and the AUTUMN FESTIVAL will only be available in German until further notice.