Lil Nas X's Toronto film premiere delayed after homophobic bomb threat

The Toronto International Film Festival premiere of Lil Nas X's documentary film was delayed after a homophobic bomb threat was made towards the artist.

The world premiere of Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero was scheduled for a 10 p.m. start at the Roy Thomson Hall venue on Saturday, and its co-directors Carlos López Estrada and Zac Manuel arrived as normal on the red carpet.

However, as the Old Town Road rapper arrived, organisers were informed that a bomb threat had been called in and the artist was told to wait, according to Variety. The publication reports that the threat specifically targeted the rapper for being a Black queer artist.

As a result, Lil Nas X's arrival was delayed 20 minutes while security conducted a sweep of the venue. After the threat proved empty, he appeared on the red carpet and the screening went ahead half an hour behind schedule.

The scare comes five years after Toronto chiefs introduced bomb-sniffing dogs and bag checks at screenings in response to local terror incidents unrelated to the film event.

In an exclusive interview with Variety ahead of the documentary's premiere, Nas spoke about about his hopes for LGBTQ+ equality.

"I know in my lifetime, while I'm here, I'm going to do my best to make the ceiling unreachable to where we can go as Black queer people," he said. "And I mean unreachable as, like, it can go above and beyond.

"I feel like we live in a generation where Black queer people really control culture, and they're helping really take the world to the next level. And I think that's going to have an effect on our youth watching us."