Mission:

QFest is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the arts as a powerful tool for communication and cooperation among diverse communities by presenting programs by, about, or of interest to the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer community.

About QFest

The story of QFest begins in 1996, when a group of maverick arts organizations collaborated and created The First Annual Houston Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, better known as The HGLFF. Inaugurated by Loris Bradley of DiverseWorks, Liz Empleton of Rice Cinema, Sarah Gish of Landmark Theatres, and Marian Luntz of The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The HGLFF would soon grow to include Steve Buck of The Angelika Film Center and Andrea Grover of The Aurora Picture Show. In its early years as a multi-venue annual event, The Southwest Alternate Media Project (SWAMP) served as the festival's non-profit fiscal sponsor. The first co-presidents of the HGLFF were Gudrun Klein and Andrew Edmonson, followed by Margaret Zigman and Ernie Manouse. In 2005, Margaret Zigman became the festival's President.

In 2006, the festival's tenth anniversary, under then-Board President Sixto Wagan, Rob Arcos, formerly of Landmark Theatres, was named Festival Director and Kristian Salinas was named Program Director. Now charged with creating its own program, the festival condensed its previous two week run into a five-day weekend. In 2007, led by new Executive Director Kristian Salinas, The HGLFF's 11th year launched with its new name - QFest. With its new name, QFest sought to explore and showcase all creative expressions celebrating the Queer experience. Inspired by the spirit of its maverick founders, QFest aspires to be a vanguard for all things Queer: both an incomparable event for the community, and an inspiring experience to be shared by all.