Tampa Bay's longest-running queer film festival is back for its 37th year, spreading seven days of screenings across two weekends in September at two independent theaters on opposite sides of the bay. TIGLFF splits its lineup between Green Light Cinema in St. Petersburg and Sun-Ray Cinema in Tampa, with tickets running $10 to $15 and still available for most of the schedule.
The festival, now branded simply as TIGLFF, was previously known by its full historic name, the Tampa Bay International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, before the March 2026 rebrand meant to reflect a more inclusive mission and broader year-round programming, according to WUSF. As Creative Loafing Tampa reports, this year's slate runs across two weekends, opening with Taste of TIGLFF on September 10 at Green Light Cinema in St. Petersburg.
A Weekend of Shorts, Drag and Manok in St. Pete
The first weekend belongs to Green Light Cinema, which hosts the bulk of the festival's opening slate. Taste of TIGLFF kicks off September 10 at 7 p.m. for $12, followed by the feature film Manok on September 11 at 7 p.m. Manok, a 108-minute drama set in South Korea, follows a protagonist who returns to her conservative rural hometown, encounters an ex-husband, and decides to change the rules in her village — a storyline that unfolds alongside the closure of a bar called Lainbow, run by a middle-aged lesbian character in the film, per the same outlet's reporting.
September 12 brings a full day of programming at the St. Petersburg venue: Hunky Jesus, a documentary centered on the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, screens at 1:30 p.m., followed by the Drama, Drama, Drama shorts program at 4 p.m. and the Rocky Horror Picture Show with Hell on Heels at 9 p.m. The first weekend closes September 13 with Bookends at 5 p.m., the politically charged documentary First They Came for My College at 2:30 p.m., and the Festival Director's Choice shorts at 7:30 p.m. — all priced at $12 per screening.
New College Documentary Brings Political Weight to the Lineup
First They Came for My College is a documentary about New College of Florida, and its inclusion gives the festival a direct line to one of the state's most closely watched education fights. The film, directed by Patrick Bresnan, chronicles Governor Ron DeSantis's conservative board takeover of the Sarasota school and the resistance it drew from students and faculty, according to FOX 35 Orlando. Its slot in TIGLFF's lineup ties the festival's queer storytelling directly to ongoing Florida political news beyond the movie screen.
Sun-Ray Cinema Hosts the Festival's Closing Weekend in Tampa
The second weekend shifts to Sun-Ray Cinema in Tampa, which hosts three days of TIGLFF programming beginning September 18 with the Laugh Out Loud comedy shorts at 7 p.m. for $10. September 19 offers a packed slate: Test screens at 5 p.m., Ephemera at 2:30 p.m., and the Queer Macabre shorts program at 7:30 p.m. The festival wraps September 20 with Meeting Marsha at 5 p.m. and the Crying Out Loud bittersweet shorts closing night program at 7:30 p.m., each priced at $10.
Sun-Ray Cinema itself carries its own history into this role as a newly established Tampa venue. The theater relocated to Tampa's University Mall in December 2024 after ending a 13-year run at its original Jacksonville location, a move Hoodline previously reported stemmed from building lease changes. That original Jacksonville home sat inside the 1927 Five Points Theater building, recognized as the first movie theater in Florida equipped to screen sound motion pictures.
Green Light Cinema's Growing Footprint in St. Petersburg
Green Light Cinema, the St. Petersburg host venue, opened in October 2020 at 221 2nd Avenue North inside a converted title insurance office, giving the city an intimate 80-seat independent art-house theater founded by cinephile Mike Hazlett, per the Tampa Bay Times. The theater expanded its footprint in November 2025 with the Green Light Lounge & Kitchen next door at 225 2nd Ave N, giving festivalgoers a space for community gatherings and dining alongside screenings. Green Light also began a nonprofit transition in July 2024 with the creation of The Friends of Green Light Cinema to help sustain its independent art-house operations.
A 37-Year Evolution From Pride Weekend to Regional Institution
TIGLFF traces its roots back to 1990, when it launched as a three-day extension of Tampa's Pride celebrations through a joint effort by the Tampa Bay Business Guild, the Bay Area Human Rights Coalition, and the Tampa Bay Gay Men's Chorus, according to TIGLFF's own historical materials. For more than three decades, the festival centered its major screenings at the historic 1926 Tampa Theatre, a restored 1,400-seat movie palace in downtown Tampa, before expanding into the multi-venue, dual-city format now split between Green Light Cinema and Sun-Ray Cinema.
The organization's reach has also grown well beyond its September centerpiece. TIGLFF established the Tampa Bay Transgender Film Festival in 2020 as a virtual event, which by 2026 had evolved into an annual Trans Pride weekend held every March, featuring films, art markets and community gatherings curated by a committee of trans and nonbinary leaders. With tickets still available across most of this month's schedule, organizers are positioning the 37th annual festival as both a celebration of queer storytelling and a continuation of that decades-long community-building mission.
