NewFest Steps In After Arizona Queer Film Festival Canceled
The New York festival created a special initiative to ensure Arizona audiences can still see queer stories on screen this fall.
Featured image: Manoli Figetakis/Getty Images
LGBTQ+ Arizonans were dealt a blow this summer when the long-running Desperado Film Festival in Phoenix announced it could not move forward with its 17th annual program. Now, New York’s NewFest, the country’s largest LGBTQ+ film festival, is stepping in to help fill the gap.
The cancellation came after Paradise Valley Community College, which had hosted Desperado for 16 years, determined it could no longer support the event. The school cited new executive orders from President Donald Trump that direct public colleges and universities to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives or risk losing federal funding. Because Desperado was organized by a student group at PVCC, it was directly affected.
Festival organizers explained their decision in a public statement: “As a publicly funded institution, we must comply with these orders. Failure to do so would jeopardize the district’s federal funding, including student financial aid and grants that support over 300 positions across our campuses. The loss of such funding would create a ripple effect, significantly affecting students, faculty, staff, the community, and the educational services we provide.”
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For Arizona audiences, the cancellation leaves a cultural gap. Desperado had been one of the few platforms in the region dedicated to LGBTQ+ stories on screen. It was a space where students and community members came together to watch independent films, take part in discussions, and celebrate queer visibility. Organizers acknowledged the loss in their announcement, calling the decision heartbreaking but unavoidable.
NewFest’s leadership said they wanted to act quickly when they learned about the shutdown. David Hatkoff, the festival’s executive director, told NBC the news was “a gut punch.”
“It felt scary, it felt enraging, and I felt sad for the folks in Arizona who were anticipating being able to engage with this festival and being able to experience these queer stories,” Hatkoff said. “We know firsthand how impactful these stories are, and have been, and, in some ways, now more than ever, as these efforts are in place to try to silence queer voices.”
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In response, NewFest worked with Desperado’s organizers to create the Arizona Queer Film Access Initiative. The program will give Arizona residents free virtual access to part of NewFest’s lineup during its run from October 9 to 21. The selection includes all of the festival’s short films — about 100 in total — covering animation, horror, comedy, documentary, and drama.
“It felt like a calling, in some ways, to step up,” Hatkoff said, describing the initiative as both a gesture of solidarity and a practical way to keep queer cinema visible in Arizona.
The full selection of films for this year’s festival is expected to be finalized in mid-September, with the Arizona access initiative opening in October.
