Venezuelan LGBT+ cinema

In 2015, a report by the Associated Press showed that, per the National Cinematography Law accounting the state to encourage national filmmakers, many LGBT+ films received state funding. Though it suggested the support bore irony, the Arizona State University Latin American film scholar David William Foster noted that the government is aware of how poorly national films perform at the local box office and would rather fund LGBT+ films than let other countries produce them, to ensure fewer Venezuelans watch them.[1] In review of a film released in 2019, the discussions are ongoing, one reviewer bringing up its societal context of "policy concerns regarding gay and queer rights that have yet to be addressed".[9]

The wave's beginnings post-Chávez's death have been compared to the rise of Pedro Almodóvar following the death of Franco.[1]

José González Vargas wrote on the growth of LGBT+ Venezuelan films, including personal appreciation that "around 2010, something changed"; as he grew up, gay characters in film were either comic, tragic, or upper-class white Americans. The first two are seen as negative representations, and young Venezuelans could not see themselves in the latter. The new wave meant that he and others could see the Venezuelan LGBT+ community and reality onscreen for the first time. This is also why he criticises the film Azul y no tan rosa, because it shows a middle class and easily accepted gay man, which he still deems alien and unrealistic; for the opposite reasons, Pelo malo resonated with him.[4]

José Manuel Simons, a Venezuelan LGBT+ rights lawyer, suggested that the film coverage of the topic is a sign that the people of the country are more accepting and want to watch them.[10]