As part of this month's 30th anniversary Mardi Gras Film Festival, coinciding with Sydney WorldPride, Queer Screen will be hosting a retrospective of gay Australian filmmaker and Queer Screen co-founder, Stephen Cummins. Cummins was a leading light in the Australian queer cinema scene of the 1980s and 90s, with his work shown in festivals around... Continue Reading →
A gigolo, a drag queen, and a porn star scheme their way to a motherload of cash in fashion photographer James Demitri’s feature debut as writer-director, The Winner Takes It All. This film is utter trash. That’s not a read, it’s the aesthetic. This is a deliberately, deliciously trashy comedy caper that won’t come anywhere... Continue Reading →
In the 1970s, while the rest of the world was struggling to show LGBTQ+ characters as anything other than jokes or morality tales, one country led the way with fully-fledged gay characters front and centre. Australia’s Number 96 was a sexy soap opera about the lives of people sharing an apartment building, putting sympathetic gay... Continue Reading →
New Zealand filmmaker Welby Ings’ debut feature, Punch, lives up to its title with some powerful drama, stunning visuals, and a sexy subject. Jim (Jordan Oosterhof) is a rising boxer on the eve of his first professional fight, trained by his father (Tim Roth). Their lives are lived in service to Jim’s boxing career with... Continue Reading →
Danish lesbian romantic drama, The Venus Effect (Venuseffekten), closes out Queer Screen's 30th Mardi Gras Film Festival with subtle charm. This gentle story is a sexy and sweet treat to round off an excellent 2023 festival. Liv is a young woman on the cusp of change. Living in rural Denmark, she is surrounded by orchards... Continue Reading →
How To Tell A Secret is a documentary. How To Tell A Secret is a documentary about the filming of a documentary. How To Tell A Secret is a documentary about the filming of a documentary about the staging of a play. How To Tell A Secret is a documentary about the filming of a... Continue Reading →
GLAAD- nominated graphic novel, Galaxy: The Prettiest Star by writer Jadzia Axelrod, artist Jess Taylor, and letterer Ariana Maher, uses the world of superheroes and science fiction as a trans allegory that is bright and full of hope. Taylor Barzelay isn’t like the other kids in school. He feels trapped in a body that’s alien... Continue Reading →
Two mid-length documentaries about Australian trans women will receive their world premieres at Queer Screen’s 30th Mardi Gras Film Festival under the banner of Trans Women Champions: Trans Glamoré and The Accidental Archivist. Filmmaker Lachlan Bradbury's Trans Glamoré (a recipient of the Queer Screen Completion Fund), is a look at Sydney's eponymous trans cabaret night.... Continue Reading →
Writer-director Maryam Touzani’s Queer Palm-nominated and Cannes Un Certain Regard FIPRESCI Prize-winning The Blue Caftan revels in the intricacy of love and tradition. What at first glance seems to be the story of a closeted man cheating on his wife, becomes a more complex tale of the multiplicity of loves in our lives and how... Continue Reading →
Lewis Treston’s new comedy, Hubris & Humiliation, takes Jane Austen and gives her a very Australian injection of camp, just in time for Mardi Gras season. The boys are sexy, the jokes are gloriously stupid, and the story is outrageous. Is it too much to call it “WorldPride & SocioeconomicPrejudice”? Elliot Delany (Roman Delo) is... Continue Reading →
