class Date(models.Model):
    date = models.DateTimeField(u'Дата', unique=True)
class Event(models.Model):
    user = models.ForeignKey(User, verbose_name=u'Пользователь')
    name = models.CharField(u'Название', max_length=100)
    
    dates = models.ManyToManyField(Date, verbose_name=u'Даты')
    #остальные поля

def events(request, category=None):
    now = datetime.datetime.now()
    events = Event.objects
    if category:
        category = get_object_or_404(Category, uid=category)
        events = events.filter(category=category)
    # собственно вопрос здесь:
    # т.к у меня many-to-many мне нужно убрать повторяющиеся события,
    # и оставить события которые уже проходят или только начнуться
    # я сделал так:
    events_list = []
    for event in events.filter(dates__date__gte=now):
        if event not in events_list: events_list.append(event)
    events = events_list

events.filter(dates__date__gte=now).distinct()

events = Event.objects.prefetch_related()

now = datetime.date.today()
events.filter(dates__date__gte=now).distinct()

def events(request, category=None):
    now = datetime.datetime.now()
    events = Event.objects.prefetch_related()
    if category:
        category = get_object_or_404(Category, uid=category)
        events = events.filter(category=category)
    events = events.filter(
        dates__date__range=(now, now + datetime.timedelta(days=365))
    ).order_by().distinct()

events = events.distinct().filter(
        dates__date__range=(now, now + datetime.timedelta(days=365))
    ).order_by('XXXXX')

events = events.distinct().filter(
        dates__date__range=(now, now + datetime.timedelta(days=365))
    ).order_by('dates__date')