Luís Hindman’s Magid / Zafar Wins the 2026 Iris Prize

Luís Hindman won the 2026 Iris Prize for Magid / Zafar, organizers of the LGBTQ+ film festival announced October 18 at the BBC Cymru Wales studios in Cardiff. The £40,000 award, supported by the Michael Bishop Foundation, makes Hindman the third British filmmaker to receive the main prize, according to the festival’s winner announcement. The result came during the festival’s 20th-anniversary edition.

The competition brought together 35 shorts from 22 countries for screenings at Cineworld Cardiff during October 12–18, according to the 2026 program. The prize is structured as support for making another LGBTQ+ short, rather than recognition alone: the festival’s award rules specify £40,000 toward the winner’s next film and an invitation to join the following year’s international jury.

A story of competing expectations

Magid / Zafar unfolds inside a Pakistani British takeaway, where rising tensions expose competing expectations about identity, tradition and the future. The festival describes a protagonist facing the possibility of stepping away from the life laid out for him. Its account emphasizes music and costume as well as narrative, presenting the film’s cultural conflicts through cinematic choices rather than only through its premise.

Jury chair Sara Peacock praised that approach in the announcement. “This film burst onto the screen and swept the jury along with its dynamic and energetic story,” she said. The jury also highlighted dialogue, pace and tempo as means of drawing viewers into the characters’ emotions. Those comments are the jury’s assessment of the film, rather than an independent review or a claim about audience consensus.

Hindman is a writer-director of South Asian and Northern Irish descent, according to the festival. Organizers trace his early recognition to an Into Film One to Watch award in 2015, followed by work directing music videos, including the Permanent Damage project for musician Joesef. That background supplies context for the jury’s attention to rhythm, although the announcement does not establish that one particular job or medium determined the film’s style.

Recognition that funds another film

The festival says Magid / Zafar was backed by the BFI and Film4 through the inaugural Future Takes scheme, premiered in competition at the 2025 BFI London Film Festival, received a BAFTA nomination and won the BIFA for Best British Short. Hindman is also developing a debut feature with the BFI and Film4, according to the same announcement. The Iris award therefore adds a new production opportunity to an already recognized short-film project.

Three films received special mentions. Marcin Kluczykowski’s A Cappella follows an older couple who present themselves as single outside their apartment. Kamila Boichenko’s Black Shawl centers on two women reconnecting amid grief in a refugee camp. Leo Tabosa’s Seahorse concerns a widow approaching her 75th birthday on the eve of the Feast of St. John. These descriptions come from the festival’s published summaries, not from interviews with the filmmakers.

The jury’s explanations stressed different qualities in those films: the everyday reality of an established relationship in A Cappella, the combination of war, desire and sexuality in Black Shawl, and a movement toward love and acceptance in Seahorse. Taken together with the main award, the selections show the range of stories the jury chose to recognize. The next concrete step attached to Hindman’s win is the prize’s funded-short opportunity; no completed new film is being announced.