With awards season now in full swing, GALECA: the Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics has just announced the list of nominees for its 14th annual Dorian Film Awards. Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert's breathtaking Everything Everywhere All at Once, featuring a touching storyline between a mother (Michelle Yeoh) and her queer daughter (Stephanie Hsu), leads... Continue Reading →
Outfest reveals full lineup for 40th anniversary festival July 14-24th
The complete lineup for the 40th Anniversary Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ+ Film Festival, running July 14-24th 2022, has just been announced. The 11-day festival boasts over 200 titles, comprising feature narratives, documentaries, shorts, and episodics, with work from 29 countries. Among the 42 world premieres is the Opening Night Gala presentation of Billy Porter’s directorial... Continue Reading →
Sydney Film Festival 2022 Review: Please Baby Please ★★★★
UPDATE: Screens at the 40th Anniversary Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ+ Film Festival on Friday, July 15th at 9:30pm at Directors Guild of America, Theater 1. All hail Demi Moore! Kneel before Andrea Riseborough! Praise be to Harry Melling! Amanda Kramer’s Please Baby Please takes you on a campy, sexual thrill ride questioning gender, sexuality, and... Continue Reading →
Pioneers of Queer Cinema continues with free screenings of restored classics The Living End & Paris Is Burning Feb 26 & 27 in LA
The landmark Pioneers of Queer Cinema retrospective, with free in-person screenings presented by The UCLA Film & Television Archive, IndieCollect, and Outfest, continues in Los Angeles this weekend. The Living End (1992) directed by Gregg Araki. Courtesy of the UCLA Film & Television Archive, IndieCollect and Outfest. Saturday, February 26th at 7:30pm sees a triple... Continue Reading →
Mardi Gras Film Festival 2022 Review: Summertime ★★★★
The melting pot of L.A. simmers in the heat of the joyous spoken-word musical, Summertime, settling perfectly into the Sydney-summer mood of the Mardi Gras Film Festival. Reader, I tell you the truth when I say it made me love a city I never got along with, and appreciate my own sunny, seaside Sydney even... Continue Reading →
Sundance 2022 announces festival jury & Beyond Film lineup
Ahead of Sundance 2022, taking place on the festival's online platform at Festival.Sundance.org January 20-30th (and in person at seven Satellite Screens venues around the US during the festival’s second weekend), the nonprofit Sundance Institute has announced the members of the six prize-awarding juries and the Beyond Film lineup. Among the jurors are Weekend filmmaker... Continue Reading →
Exclusive Interview: Oscar-nominated filmmaker Arthur Dong on his Criterion Channel retrospective “it’s up to us to find a way to survive & to resist”
In 1984, trailblazing independent filmmaker Arthur Dong received an Oscar nomination for Sewing Woman, a touching documentary short about the life of a Chinese immigrant worker in San Francisco, his mother Zem Ping Dong. This recognition marked the director as an emerging artist to watch, while the film itself exemplified what would become hallmarks of... Continue Reading →
NewFest 2021 Closing Night Film Review: Flee ★★★★
Jonas Poher Rasmussen's remarkable Flee, which I first saw when it world premiered at Sundance 2021 where it took the festival's World Cinema Grand Jury Prize for Documentary, closes NewFest's 33rd New York LGBTQ+ Film Festival on Sunday October 24th at the SVA Theatre at 7pm. As the film opens a caption tells us that... Continue Reading →
Exclusive Interview: Joe Bell star Reid Miller “it’s an honor to tell the world about Jadin’s legacy, how kind he was & what a light he was”
One of the standout acting performances at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival came from 21-year-old Reid Miller who portrays gay teenager Jadin Bell opposite Mark Wahlberg in Joe Bell. Based on true events, with a screenplay by the Oscar-winning duo being Brokeback Mountain, Diana Ossana and the late Larry McMurtry, the film follows the... Continue Reading →
Exclusive Interview: “I wanted to break as many rules as possible” Isabel Sandoval on her early films Señorita & Apparition now playing on Criterion Channel
Filipina filmmaker and actress Isabel Sandoval caught the attention of international critics when her stunning third feature film—which she wrote, directed, produced, edited, and starred in—Lingua Franca premiered at Venice in 2019, making her the first publicly identifying trans woman of colour to screen work in competition at the festival. The acclaimed film, which immerses... Continue Reading →