Columbus is getting another round of the HUMP! Film Festival, the touring amateur short film showcase founded by sex columnist Dan Savage, when it returns to the Gateway Film Center on Saturday, December 5. The screening runs from 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. at the University District theater, located at 1550 North High Street, and features an entirely new collection of short films assembled for the festival's Fall Season.
According to Columbus Underground, HUMP! has served as a platform for independent filmmakers to explore intimacy, identity, and connection for over two decades, with Savage credited as its founder. The festival began in Seattle in 2005, when Savage and staff at the alt-weekly The Stranger launched it as a local amateur erotica showcase, according to Wikipedia. It has since grown into an international tour screening across more than 50 markets.
Submissions remain limited to short films under five minutes made by amateur or independent filmmakers, and live theater admission is restricted to attendees 18 and older, per the festival's official site. Participating filmmakers compete for a share of $10,000 in annual prize money, decided through a mix of audience voting and jury evaluations in categories like best kink, best humor, and best sex, according to Bold Type Tickets.
Why Columbus Gets Two Visits a Year Now
The Columbus stop is branded as part of HUMP!'s Fall Season lineup, a designation that emerged after a surge in global submissions pushed the festival to expand from a single annual tour into two distinct touring programs each year, per the festival's official site. Gateway Film Center has become a regular host for both seasons, previously screening HUMP! in April 2022, April 2023, 2024, 2025, and again in March 2026, according to Gateway Film Center.
Organizers describe HUMP! as a global showcase of boundary-pushing cinema, and the numbers back up that framing. The festival draws over 70,000 in-person attendees annually across its North American and European theater stops and maintains a subscriber email list topping 110,000 people, per the festival's official site.
From Destroyed Master Tapes to a Streaming Archive
In HUMP!'s early years, Savage physically destroyed master recordings after each tour to protect the privacy of amateur performers who appeared on screen, a practice detailed by Wikipedia. The festival adapted in 2023, creating an official online streaming library so past entries could live on without compromising the anonymity protections built into the event's original model.
A Familiar Stage in the University District
Gateway Film Center, the nonprofit venue hosting the December screening, is operated by the Gateway Film Foundation and functions as an independent art-house cinema serving the adjacent Ohio State University campus community, according to The Lantern. Hoodline has previously covered other programming at the venue, including its month-long 90s series finale.
Attendees this December will see the new short films projected through state-of-the-art laser projection systems installed at Gateway in April 2026, funded through a Greater Columbus Arts Council capital grant, according to Gateway Film Center. The festival itself is produced through a network of independent media outlets and ticketing platforms, including The Stranger, Portland Mercury, Chicago Reader, and Bold Type Tickets, per the festival's official site.
