About us

This is how it all started: in 1997 the Gay and Lesbian Film Festival Pink Apple was founded by a handful of film enthusiasts in Frauenfeld in the Canton of Thurgau. The Swiss ”Apple Canton“, also nicknamed ”Cider India“, was the reason for its naming. Initially its aim was to promote the emancipation and acceptance of homosexuality in the provinces on the basis of a cultural activity. The festival was first held in 1998, showing ten films to a large crowd in the tiny Cinema Luna in Frauenfeld.

Pink Apple landed in Zurich in the wake of the lesbian and gay Eurogames held there in the year 2000. A programme with seven performances of seven films in the Arthouse Movie Cinema was very successful right from the start. Since then the festival has been growing continuously and the main focus is now in the big city thanks to the great public encouragement and rising demand for an annual gay and lesbian film programme. The opening of Pink Apple took place in Zurich for the first time in 2003. 50 short and long films were shown in approximately 40 performances, mainly Swiss premieres.

In the meantime Pink Apple has become the largest lesbian and gay film festival in Switzerland. This year about 90 films are to be shown in 80 performances. The initial audience of 500 has increased tenfold. In 2007 – at Pink Apples tenth anniversary – the magic number of 5000 admissions in Zurich alone was exceeded. Nevertheless, the festival still takes place in its birthplace Frauenfeld as well, where a reduced programme is shown. In 2009 approximately 7300 people visited the film festival both in Zurich and in Frauenfeld.

In order to encourage film making with lesbian and gay topics, a short film competition was established in 2001. Ever since, the Pink Apple Award worth 2000 Swiss Francs has been presented every year by a jury consisting of film experts. Also since 2001, the audience itself determines the most popular feature or documentary film by vote, granting it the Pink Apple Audience Award. Since 2008 a separate prize each is given to the most popular feature and to the most popular documentary film. For the first time this year the audience in Frauenfeld is awarding their own film.

Pink Apple is based on a society and is an independent project. The members of the organizing committee (at present a dozen people) mainly work on a voluntary basis.