About Us
ChromaQueer Film + Arts Festival will hold its second edition November 6 to 8, 2026, at Arts Court in Ottawa.
The weekend festival will bring together local filmmakers, artists, and organizations from 2SLGBTQIA+ communities to showcase Ottawa-based histories, traditions, and movements. We’re building on local efforts to improve queer wellbeing by continuing the momentum of arts programming and development in our city.
ChromaQueer combines documentary and narrative screenings with creative workshops, dynamic live performances, contemporary dance, curated lectures, guest artist Q&A’s, and even a poetry karaoke event.
We welcome Ottawa audiences and all curious creatives to Arts Court as we celebrate some of Canada’s trailblazing writers + performers, the legacy of queer storytelling, creative voices, experimental filmmaking, and historical depictions of sexuality in media art.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
ChromaQueer is a for-the-community, by-the-community arts festival taking place on the unceded, unsurrendered land cared for by the Algonquin-Anishinaabe people. The festival shares intersectional perspectives and supports community health and wellness through artistic expression. We aim to platform underrepresented and marginalized voices within art and performance spaces, providing local artists with more opportunities to access compensation and funding for their creative projects. Our goal is to curate a festival that is inclusive of all and welcomes and supports people regardless of age, race, ability, gender identity, sexual orientation, language, class, or any other systemic barriers to artistic engagement as artists and patrons. We are fostering a community of queer people committed to hearing and affirming diverse experiences, needs, and stories, with the goal of reducing isolation, strengthening connections, and improving our collective well-being.
We recognize that we, as organizers, cannot speak to all experiences and perspectives, and we welcome respectful discussion on how we can best meet the needs of all community members before, during, and after this first iteration of the festival.
We also recognize that language is ever-changing and imperfect. The language ChromaQueer uses is flexible and tailored to our audience, which includes people with specific lived experiences, ways of self-identifying, and needs. We use a variety of terms and acronyms as convenient, though imperfect, shorthand, including the word queer as inclusive of the broad spectrum of 2SLGBTQIA+ identities. As part of our mission, we love and hold space for you. Language and values change from person to person, and so you may find a range of terms used in the festival programming.
ChromaQueer Film and Arts Society is a registered non-profit organization.
The Festival is co-produced with the Digital Arts Resource Centre (DARC) and
Qu’ART (Ottawa Queer Arts Collective), in partnership with several
Ottawa community programming partner organizations.
ChromaQueer gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the City of Ottawa.
Who is ChromaQueer?
Qu’ART is an arts collective of Ottawa-based arts professionals. Our goal is to heighten LGBTQ2S+/ queer artistic activity and broaden intersectional discourse in Ottawa through increased visibility and programming opportunities for under-represented queer-identified artists, within allied arts organizations and festivals.
Digital Arts Resource Centre (formerly SAW Video) is a not-for-profit, artist-run media art centre that fosters the growth and development of artists through access to equipment, training, mentorship, and programming. Our mission is to support a diverse community of media artists empowered by technology, programming and the exchange of ideas.