The Red Umbrella Film Festival, Ireland’s sex worker festival, will take place from October 16 to 19 this year. The organisers, Red Umbrella Éireann, are a grassroots collective of current and former sex workers campaigning for decriminalisation.
Ireland’s sex worker festival first ran in 2023, focusing on media representations and challenging bias and stereotypes. The festival now returns for its second run, this time focusing on the urgent need for decriminalisation in Ireland.
The festival will take place throughout four venues in Dublin: Light House Cinema, Unite the Union, Unit 44, and DV8. With screenings, panel discussions, workshops, and more, there is an incredible lineup of events packed into the weekend.
The Irish premiere of the queer film FUCKTOYS (2025) will kick off the festival on Thursday, October 16, in Light House Cinema. This screening will be followed by a post-show Q&A with the film’s creator and star, Annapurna Sriram, as well as complementary tarot readings.
Across the four-day programme, there will be workshops on creative writing, graphic design, BDSM, stripper-style floorwork, and boxing for beginners. There will be panel discussions on care and resistance, descriminalisation, and a panel on organising and unionising with civil rights leader Bernadette McAliskey and other activists.
Some film screening highlights include A PLACE TO BELONG (2025), a short film exploring the experience of ageing for a trans woman in Myanmar. Clips from CROSSINGS, a documentary about the criminalisation of migrant sex workers across Europe, will also be shown.
With films from Mexico, South Africa, France, Uruguay, and more, the festival programme shines a light on the experiences of sex workers across the globe, channelling inspiration on effective ways to organise, build community, and fight against decriminalisation.
On Saturday, October 18, the festival will run stripper bingo followed by the HO’cial Club After Party, with drag performances, DJs, a sex worker fashion show, and pole dancing.
To see the full list of festival events, check out the programme here.
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