Why does django's prefetch_related() only work with all() and not filter()?

In Django 1.6 and earlier, it is not possible to avoid the extra queries. The prefetch_related call effectively caches the results of a.photoset.all() for every album in the queryset. However, a.photoset.filter(format=1) is a different queryset, so you will generate an extra query for every album.

This is explained in the prefetch_related docs. The filter(format=1) is equivalent to filter(spicy=True).

Note that you could reduce the number or queries by filtering the photos in python instead:

someAlbums = PhotoAlbum.objects.filter(author="Davey Jones").prefetch_related("photo_set")
for a in someAlbums:
    somePhotos = [p for p in a.photo_set.all() if p.format == 1]

In Django 1.7, there is a Prefetch() object that allows you to control the behaviour of prefetch_related.

from django.db.models import Prefetch

someAlbums = PhotoAlbum.objects.filter(author="Davey Jones").prefetch_related(
    Prefetch(
        "photo_set",
        queryset=Photo.objects.filter(format=1),
        to_attr="some_photos"
    )
)
for a in someAlbums:
    somePhotos = a.some_photos

For more examples of how to use the Prefetch object, see the prefetch_related docs.

From the docs:

...as always with QuerySets, any subsequent chained methods which imply a different database query will ignore previously cached results, and retrieve data using a fresh database query. So, if you write the following:

pizzas = Pizza.objects.prefetch_related('toppings') [list(pizza.toppings.filter(spicy=True)) for pizza in pizzas]

...then the fact that pizza.toppings.all() has been prefetched will not help you - in fact it hurts performance, since you have done a database query that you haven't used. So use this feature with caution!

In your case, "a.photo_set.filter(format=1)" is treated like a fresh query.

In addition, "photo_set" is a reverse lookup - implemented via a different manager altogether.