A Sneak Peek at MiX Festival. Queer Cinema, Culture, and LGBTQ+ Rights Activism in Milan

In an Italy that still struggles to guarantee full dignity and rights to the LGBTQ+ community , there are those who continue to raise their voices, to create spaces for visibility, discussion and concrete action. This is the case of the MiX International Festival of LGBTQ+ Cinema and Queer Culture, which tonight – Friday 16 May – gives a taste of the next edition at the Anteo Palazzo del Cinema in Milan with a free-entry evening event (book here ), on the eve of the International Day Against Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (which occurs tomorrow, 17 May).

At 9 pm we toast in the foyer of the Sala Astra with a welcome drink and at 9:30 pm we get into the heart of the matter with the screening of Problemista , a surreal and biting comedy by Julio Torres, with Tilda Swinton, RZA and Isabella Rossellini, which tackles the American dream from a queer, creative and deeply political perspective. But this is not just a screening. It is a cultural act, a moment of vindication, a powerful signal: rights are not asked for, they are asserted.

Behind the camera there is a clear vision: to use cinema not only to tell, but to change. And the claim of the 39th edition of the MiX Festival, scheduled from September 18 to 21, says it explicitly: ACTION! An invitation to "not remain spectators, but become bodies in motion, voices that rise, stories that assert themselves", as the new artistic directors Lara Vespari and Federico Manzionna declare.

Culture, in short, is not decorative entertainment, but a lever for transformation. And the MiX Festival has been demonstrating this for almost 40 years: a political and poetic laboratory that has made LGBTQ+ visibility a flag, a construction site of freedom that is renewed every year, in dialogue with the city and its struggles. The Councilor for Culture Tommaso Sacchi also remembers this well, who in a video message clearly states: "The MiX is an open invitation to everyone to be an active part of the change, in a city that believes in freedom, plurality and the dignity of every individual". Words that should be carved in stone, in an Italy where the debate on civil rights is often reduced to sterile polemics, if not to blatant obstructionism.

And instead, MiX builds. It builds alternative imaginaries, listening spaces, transversal alliances. It does so by involving realities such as CIG Arcigay Milano, Milano Pride and artists such as Protopapa, ilromantico Moschino and Italy Bares , on stage these days to fight the stigma on HIV/AIDS. And it does so by also calling upon symbolic figures such as Porpora Marcasciano, trans activist and candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize 2025, whose voice will be part of the official soundtrack of the festival.

It is right to say it clearly: the rights of LGBTQ+ people in Italy are still partial, fragile, exposed. It is not enough to light up buildings once a year, slogans are not enough. We need laws, protections, full recognition of homoparental families, an effective law against hatred, emotional education in schools. We need resources, listening, political will.

And as long as Parliament hesitates, postpones or ignores, events like this become fundamental: the MiX Festival is a cultural and political stronghold, an antidote to the rhetoric of intolerance, a concrete response to those who would like to silence non-standard identities and bodies. It is, in a word, resistance.

Tonight is just the beginning. In September, MiX will once again invade Milan with its energy, bringing queer cinema to the Piccolo Teatro Strehler, the Casa di Quartiere Garibaldi, and for the first time to the Cinema Arlecchino. But starting tonight, those who participate contribute to a collective gesture: affirming that existing is a right, and telling your story is an act of freedom. In the meantime, membership to the MiX Milano APS association is open: a small gesture of 20 euros that supports a great vision. Because culture does not change the world by itself, but it can show the way. And MiX, for almost forty years, has been walking ahead.

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