Next month marks the return of the Iris Prize, the world’s largest LGBT short film festival, and it’s already packed with movies we want to see.
The festival, which takes place in Cardiff, Wales, is celebrating its tenth anniversary next month and will give $39,560 to the winning filmmakers to help fund their future projects.
35 films are competing for the top prize this year, with 15 UK films competing for a separate Best of British prize, including one of our favorites, the cleverly-named Sauna The Dead.

The filmmakers describe the story as “a fable in the vein of A Christmas Carol, set in a gay sauna, with zombies.” Naturally.
“Jacob is a jaded narcissist who stalks the bathhouse halls looking for his next hookup,” reads the description for the trailer. “When he finds himself in the midst of a zombie outbreak, his survival may depend on the one thing he didn’t come there for: a human connection.”
Check out the trailer for the gay zombie flick below.
Festival organizers have created a montage of the trailers from all the nominees for your review leading up to the event, and you can watch the 35 competing for the Iris Prize below.
And here is a montage of the 15 movies competing for the Best of British prize.
The festival starts on October 12, with winners announced at a ceremony on Sunday, October 16.