News & Reviews

Wednesday 14 October 2026 – Melbourne Queer Film Festival (MQFF), Australia’s flagship celebration of queer film, returns for its 36th edition from Friday 13 to Sunday 22 November 2026 with the theme Into the Light, following last night’s program launch. 

Into the Light celebrates the diversity of queer stories that uplift and enrich our lives, which is woven throughout this year’s program.  

Major events will be held at The Capitol, with sessions at ACMI, Cinema Nova and the festival’s new venue partner, Chinatown Cinema. 

The program presents 53 sessions of features, documentaries and short films, including one World Premiere and three Australian Premieres.  

The festival opens on Friday 13 November with KICK, directed by Julia Schwalb at The Capitol followed with an after party. America’s fastest 1500m runner, Nikki Hiltz, races toward an Olympic berth while confronting the pressures of public scrutiny and expectations as a trans nonbinary athlete. Following Hiltz and their partner Emma through a season of elite competition, the film finds Olympic dreams colliding with struggles around love, identity and belonging. 

“We are incredibly honoured and grateful to open the festival and share this film with your community. Above all, we hope audiences leave the film inspired by the queer joy, love, and pride that Nikki and Emma embody,” says KICK director Julia Schwalb. 

The Centrepiece presentation at Cinema Nova is Time Warp (dir. Allison Berg), winner of the Special Jury Mention for Best Documentary Feature at its 2026 Tribeca world premiere. Fifty years after The Rocky Horror Picture Show electrified audiences, a drag theatre company in a Wyoming town stages a shadow cast of the cult classic. Led by 25-year-old performer Kenny Starling, the determined troupe spotlights the ongoing fight for queer visibility and acceptance in their community. A delightful crowd-pleaser, it arrives in an era of growing hostility towards the LGBTQIA+ community.

The MQFF Australian Shorts & Awards returns, presenting boundary-pushing storytelling and the remarkable vision of both emerging and established filmmakers who are redefining Australia’s cinematic landscape.  

The festival closes on Sunday 22 November with Big Girls Don’t Cry(dir. (dir. Paloma Schneideman) . Set in rural New Zealand in the summer of 2006, the film follows 14-year-old Sid Bookman, who is caught between childhood and adolescence as she navigates a burgeoning sexual curiosity and a desperate desire for acceptance. When her sister returns from university with Freya, a magnetic friend from America, Sid must confront the painful gap between who she is and who she’s pretending to be. It is a tender, unflinching portrait of queer adolescence, class shame and identity, seen through the lens of New Zealand girlhood. 

MQFF Festival Director Louise Lever says: “It was an absolute joy to release MQFF’s Edition 36 program last night. Thank you to everyone who attended, our special guests, and the excellent hosts of the evening, Mitch Brown and Lazy Susan. I’m thrilled with the lineup this year, and can’t wait for Opening Night to begin, and to share with the community the heart and spirit that keeps this festival alive. The theme this year, ‘Into the Light’, truly embodies the layers of filmmaking, physics, and a hopeful queer joy. It’s now time to celebrate our stories, Australian stories, and embark on this new journey together.” 

Tickets go on sale to MQFF members at 9am on Monday 19 October, and to the general public at 9am on Wednesday 21 October. 

Melbourne Queer Film Festival is proudly supported by the City of Melbourne and the Victorian Government. 

Media contact 

Olym Li, Marketing and Fundraising Manager · olym@mqff.com.au · 0472845911