MONTREAL — Cannibalism, Middle East politics and immigration are among the many themes explored in Canada’s oldest and largest gay film festival.

Image+nation, which runs Nov. 15-25, will screen dozens of films from around the world, including its centerpiece feature, André Téchiné’s Les témoins, a drama set in 1984 Paris during the AIDS outbreak. Among the feature films in competition are France’s Avant que j’oublie (Jacques Nolot) and Germany’s Butterfly: A Grimm Love Story, based on a real-life case of consensual cannibalism, by director Martin Weisz.

On Thursday, The Bubble, the acclaimed new feature by Israel’s Eytan Fox, kicked off the 20th edition of the festival.

Festival programmer Katharine Setzer is particularly proud of this year’s special documentary series on artists who have contributed to contemporary queer culture. ‘These artists have given so much, so I’m really pleased we can honor them,’ Setzer told Playback Daily.

Setzer believes Image+nation is unique in North America because it has an international outlook. ‘Most other festivals are dominated by American films and American notions of what it is to be gay. We are more outward looking. I think it’s really important to look outside our relatively comfortable North American existence,’ says Setzer.