Presented in partnership with the Inside Out Toronto 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival, the annual Queer Your Stories: Short Film Competition is open to ACTRA Toronto members who are part of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community interested in producing a short film. Winners receive financial and in-kind production support and a screening at the Inside Out Toronto 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival.

Table of Contents

SPONSORS

QYS7 is made by the generosity of our sponsors. outACTRAto invites cash and in-kind sponsorship from queers and queer-friendly individuals, organizations, and businesses. If you would like to learn more about sponsoring queer filmmaking, please reach out to us at lgbtq@actratoronto.com, subject: QYS Sponsorship.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

outACTRAto is pleased to partner again with the Inside Out Toronto 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival on our 7th annual short film competition. ACTRA Toronto members who are part of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community interested in producing a short film are encouraged to apply.

The winning submission will receive cash and in-kind sponsorships from AFBS, Grandé Camera, ACTRA Toronto, Sunbelt Rentals, Alter Ego Post, and TA2 Sound+Music (details below), a World Premiere screening of the selected short film at the 2026 Inside Out Toronto 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival, and a festival Industry Pass.

All in-kind equipment rentals and sponsored funds will go toward creating the winning short film. The short film will be produced under one of ACTRA’s low-budget production guidelines. The winning film will acknowledge outACTRAto, ACTRA Toronto and all sponsors in the film’s credits.

SELECTION CRITERIA AND TIMELINE

• Submissions will be reviewed by a jury made up of representatives from outACTRAto, past QYS winners, and senior staff at Inside Out Toronto 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival.
• The jury will consider artistic merit and feasibility when reviewing submissions. As time and resources for this project will be limited, the jury will pay special attention to proposed budgets and other logistical considerations. In addition to a bold artistic vision, submissions should include at least one senior team member with low-budget production experience, a detailed budget, and specifics on any other funding sources or in-kind donations the team has already secured.
• Though QYS jurors will follow the rubric shown below, the selection process is a collaborative one that considers past editions of QYS, as well as relying on the guidance of Inside Out senior staff, to ensure equitable representation and festival-audience enjoyment.
• Preference will be given to submissions that explore queerness through an intersectional lens.
• Preference will be given to projects that prominently feature a diverse cast and crew of queer and/or trans/non-binary people in all roles – outACTRAto is committed to supporting projects that feature queer performers in queer roles.
• The successful applicant will be notified no later than December 1, 2025.
• The successful applicant’s team will receive an orientation session with ACTRA Toronto staff in December 2025 or January 2026.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

• Submissions must be made by a 2SLGBTQIA+ ACTRA Toronto member (Full, Apprentice, and AABP) in good standing.
• Members who submit must take on at least one of the following three roles: Writer, Director, and/or Producer.
• The winning selection will be produced under one of ACTRA’s low-budget production guidelines (or a guideline exclusively available to members of ACTRA Toronto in good standing*) and exclusively feature union performers.
• The winning team must follow festival guidelines and commit to a World Premiere screening at the 2026 Inside Out Toronto 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival.
• The final script should be no more than 10 pages.
• The final edit of the film must run no longer than 10 minutes, including credits.
• Production will take place between January and March 2026.
• The completed film is due by 11:59 p.m. ET on Monday, April 14, 2026.
• Applicants are responsible for all costs beyond the in-kind and cash sponsorships outlined below (i.e. mandatory equipment insurance).
• Deadline for submissions is Tuesday, October 14, 2025, at 11:59 pm ET. (Early submissions encouraged).

ADJUDICATION RUBRIC

SUBMISSION MATERIALS

Submit all of the below as one PDF:

• For your pitch, consider the following: What is your film about? Why do you want to tell this story? Who might benefit from seeing a film like this? What do you want it to look, sound and feel like? How are you going to do that? Who are you making it with? Why this team? (1,000 words max, please include logline and synopsis).
• Short bio of the Key Applicant(s) named in the project (500 words max).
• Proposed budget: please include any projected donations (cash and in-kind) as a dollar amount in both expenses and revenue (including fundraising/crowdfunding). Here is a budget template to get you started.
• A proposed list of the key creative and key cast members (please indicate whether the artists have confirmed).
• Optional: URL to personal website, IMDB page, and/or any online resource that will help the jury get to know you and your work.
• Most recent draft of your short film screenplay (10 pages max).

THE WINNING TEAM WILL RECEIVE

• $4,500 cash sponsorship, courtesy of AFBS.
• Up to $2,500 in-kind camera equipment rentals** sponsored by Grandé Camera.
• Up to $5,000 towards in-kind lighting, grip, and electric equipment rental** plus access to a reduced rental rate on a fully operational studio space (pending availability) sponsored by Sunbelt Rentals Film and TV.
• An in-kind colour package sponsored by leading post production house, Alter Ego.
• An in-kind Post Audio package sponsored by TA2 Sound+Music. Including, Sound Design/Dialogue Cleanup/ADR/Foley/Original Music/Music Supervision for Licensed. This does not include the cost of licensed music. SOCAN rights retained by TA2 should any original music be produced by TA2.
• ACTRA Toronto admin fees waived for Low Budget Guideline (or lesser agreement)
• Feature spread in ACTRA Toronto’s Performer’s Magazine
• A World Premiere screening at the 2026 Inside Out Toronto 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival.
• An Industry Pass to the 2026 Inside Out Toronto 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival.

For questions and application assistance, please contact qys@actratoronto.com with the subject line: “Application Assistance Request.”

HOW TO APPLY

• Please complete the Application Form.
• Questions? You can reach outACTRAto at qys@actratoronto.com.

INFO SESSION

• outACTRAto will be holding an info session to answer all your QYS questions on Monday, September 29, 2025 from 6:00 PM-7:00 PM EST.

*To apply for the exclusive ACTRA guideline, all but one (1) member of the submitting team must be members in good standing of ACTRA Toronto. For more information about this agreement, please contact membership@actratoronto.com.
**Equipment rental subject is to availability. Costs above in-kind amounts may need to be covered by the winning team, pending availability of in-house equipment. In-kind support does not include insurance, which is a requirement for use of equipment.

PAST WINNERS

QYS 6 Winners:

Last Call

by Monica Garrido Huerta, directed by Tricia Hagoriles, and co-produced by Garrido Huerta, Hagoriles, and Heath V Salazar.

Cast: Monica Garrido Huerta and Heath V Salazar.

In Last Call, a lesbian couple must rely on a jaded bartender to work through their recent breakup and get out of their own bubble to survive a sudden zombie attack inside a dying queer bar.

Last Call is a romantic comedy/horror film. Imagine Me and You meets Shaun of the Dead (but with more horror). Comedy is a central tenet of Queerness. However, we don’t just want to make audiences laugh, we want to give them Queer heroes—to become the heroes of our own stories!

QYS 5 Winners:

Something’s Phishy 

by Chase Lo and Bessie Cheng, directed by Chase Lo and co-produced by Lo, Cheng, and Alice Wang. 

Cast: Bessie Cheng, Kristoffer Bradley Cruz, Chase Lo, Oscar Moreno, Darcy McLenaghen, MJ Fausta.

Something’s Phishy is a romantic comedy about friendship and the desire to be accepted and loved for who you are. It is a lighthearted story that features the specific experiences of Queer/Trans/Nonbinary Asians navigating romantic/intimate encounters. Something’s Phishy asks: What are we willing to do to attract the person we want? What parts of ourselves do we intentionally show or hide?

Something’s Phishy reminds us that Queer/Trans/Nonbinary Asians can be funny, messy, romantic, quirky, charming, and badass!

QYS 4 Winners:

Plant Daddy

By Izad Etemadi and Lauren Holfeuer’s, directed by James Cooper and co-produced by him alongside Yoni Collins, Etemadi, Holfeuer, Katherine Fogler, Lisbet Maclean, and Iain Stewart. 

Cast: Izad Etemadi, Katherine Fogler, Iain Stewart, Parmida Vand, Basel Daoud.

Plant Daddy follows a quirky, down-on-his-luck gay man who can’t bring himself to visit his father on his deathbed and begins to care for an abandoned potted plant in order to cope with his guilt. 

QYS 3 Winners:

Save the Date

Directed by Bria McLaughlin, written & co-produced by Andrew Di Rosa

Cast: Andrew Di Rosa, Khadijah Roberts-Abdullah, Aldrin Bundoc, John Wamsley, Izad Etemadi, Sofonda Cox, Helly Chester and Neta J. Rose.

Save the Date tells the story of a gay millennial who is forced to confront his complicated feelings about his (sort of) ex when he, quite reluctantly, finds himself invited to celebrate the engagement of the man he, accidentally, possibly, kind of, maybe, pushed out of his life.

Set in the heart of downtown Toronto’s Queer neighbourhood, Save the Date focuses on the intersection of body image and self worth, of Hallmark endings and the realities of queer relationships, of sexual expectations and life after love (after love after love…)

* InsideOut Festival Ottawa — Official Selection​, Award Winner: Best Short

* Image+Nation Festival — Official Selection

QYS 2 Winners:

Red String of Fate

Written by Onna Chan, co-directed by Lovina Yavari and Lance Fernandes. 

Cast: Onna Chan, Lovina Yavari, Melinda Shankar, Patrick Brown, Camellia Yavari, Michael Gordin Shore, Steve Kasan.

Set during a civil war between androids and humans in the year 2090, Red String of Fate tracks a robotics engineer who tries to bring her fallen lover back to life.

QYS 1 Winners:

Body So Fluorescent

by Amanda Cordner and David di Giovanni.

Cast: Jo Vannicola, Amanda Cordner, Khadijah Roberts-Abdullah, Ucal Shillingford, James Gibson-Bray, Eric Rich.

Body So Fluorescent is described as a film that “cracks open conversations surrounding the appropriation of black femaleness, racism within the white gay community and the boundaries of friendship.” The film tells the story of two friends, Desiree and Shenice, go out for a fun night of dancing. However, when Shenice takes things a step too far, Desiree is confronted with who Shenice really is and how Desiree may be the one responsible for her insidious transformation.

* Body So Fluorescent won the award for Best Canadian Short Film at #InsideOut30