OPENING NIGHT
Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story (2024)

Dir: Michael Mabbott, Lucah Rosenberg-Lee | Canada

Thu 14 Nov – 6:30 PM
Thu 14 Nov – 9:15 PM

Chances are you’ve never heard of singer Jackie Shane, a rising star in 1950s Nashville who became a sensation in ‘60s Toronto, with a huge hit single in Any Other Way (“Tell her that I’m happy / Tell her that I’m gay / Tell her I wouldn’t have it / Any other way”). However, Shane was to disappear mysteriously from public view for nigh-on 40 years. From the producers of the Emmy Award-winning Hip-Hop Evolution (2016) and Executive Producer Elliot Page comes this stirring, Frameline “Out in the Silence Award”-winning documentary which shares the extraordinary story of a pioneering Black trans performer of exceptional talent and stage presence, who in no way hid her queerness and refused to be anyone but her authentic self. Sandra Caldwell – who recently shared her own remarkable, previously invisible trans herstory in Disclosure (2020) – and Makayla Couture give testimony to Shane’s inspirational significance and, beneath beautiful, painterly rotoscoping, embody her too, as we hear from Shane herself in never-before-heard phone conversations. We’re also treated to live recordings which leave no doubt that Jackie Shane was one of the greatest soul performers of the 20th century – period.

Sound of Music Shorts

Fri 15 Nov – 6:15 PM

Can you feel the beat deep down in your bones? Then get up and boogie to this swinging collection of shorts that have music and dance thrumming in their soul.

Queens of Drama (2024)

Dir: Alexis Langlois | France, Belgium

Fri 15 Nov – 6:30 PM

French music video director Alexis Langlois makes his feature film debut with Queens of Drama, a hyperkinetic musical comedy set during the timeless 2000s with a cutesy and camp pop star plot. Follow the hottest new fresh pop diva in the French music world, Mimi Madamour (Louiza Aura) as her reality TV rise to fame places strain upon her hectic and heated relationship with punk idol Billie Kolher (Gio Ventura). The music world may appear to be all glitz and glam, but for these two musicians (and one obsessive fan, played by singer and YouTuber Bilal Hassani), it’s a rollercoaster ride, and frequently a full-blown psychodrama! With performances from Drag Race Belgium season 1’s Drag Couenne, Thomas Poitevin, Alma Jodorowsky and Asia Argento, this Cannes Critics’ Week selection is one you won’t want to miss.

The Astronaut Lovers (2024)

Dir: Marco Berger | Argentina, Spain

Fri 15 Nov – 8:45 PM

Teddy Award-winning director Marco Berger (Horseplay, MQFF 2022) returns to the queer film festival circuit to continue his focus on masculinity and lust between men with his latest feature, The Astronaut Lovers. Pedro (Javier Orán) travels to the Argentinian coast to spend time with old friends, including recently single Maxi (Lautaro Bettoni). While Maxi is vehemently straight, he is fascinated by Pedro’s queerness – and there surely is quite some chemistry between them. This playfulness between the two men soon shifts as Maxi sets out to make his ex-girlfriend jealous. Can Pedro keep track of what’s real between Maxi and him, and what’s just a bit of fun – is theirs a romance, a bromance or faux-mance? Be sure not just to catch The Astronaut Lovers, but also a provocative new Marco Berger short, The Exchange, in our “Out There” shorts package!

City of Lost Souls (1983)

Dir: Rosa von Praunheim | West Germany

Fri 15 Nov – 9:00 PM

This riotous and massively ahead-of-its-time, intersectional queer-New Wave musical went on to greatly influence trans politics. Centred around a squalid Berlin burger joint and the ragtag group of multiracial Americans, of a range of gender identities and sexual persuasions, who work there, prodigious activist-filmmaker Rosa von Praunheim’s underground classic is equal parts Paul Morrissey-Andy Warhol, John Waters and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, with lashings of satirical Cold War intrigue, searing political commentary and regular demolitions of the fourth wall. Also to be seen and heard in Jubilee, punk rock icon Jayne County – in a gloriously unrestrained performance for the ages – and legendary drag performer Angie Stardust lead the cast, with many of them playing themselves, after a fashion…

High Tide (2024)

Dir: Marco Calvani | USA

Sat 16 Nov – 3:45 PM

Dashingly handsome and multi-talented Italian playwright, director and actor Marco Calvani casts his real-life lover, Brazilian star Marco Pigossi (Gen V), as the lead in his debut directorial feature. Lourenço is running out of time on his visa but doesn’t want to go home, having fallen in love with the sea-spray-misted charms of Provincetown, the fishing enclave and artists’ haven that has long harboured gay men seeking the quieter life. With his recent ex not returning his calls, he’s a lost soul who finds solace in the melancholy poetry of Oswald de Andrade and begins to fall for visiting New Yorker Maurice (James Bland). Deep waters run through this luminous SXSW-debuting movie that also features Mya Taylor, the breakout star from Sean Baker’s Tangerine, Todd Flaherty of Chrissy Judy fame and none other than Love is Strange and Spider-Man star Marisa Tomei.

Strange Creatures (2024)

Dir: Henry Boffin | Australia

Sat 16 Nov – 4:00 PM

Nate (Metro Sexual star Riley Nottingham) is a proud pansexual man who used to be really tight with his big brother Ged (Wellmania’s Johnny Carr), but something bad went down and the siblings haven’t spoken in years. Summoned to suburban Melbourne to celebrate their mum’s birthday, she promptly dies overnight and they’re forced to work things out while on a road trip back to the remote northern NSW town where they grew up, so they can scatter her ashes. Good job Nate’s boyfriend Blake (Declan Clifford, who you might have spotted in the stage adaptation of Holding the Man) is a funeral director who can lend them a hearse. Written and directed by Metro Sexual co-creator Henry Boffin, it’s a trip!

Lesvia (2024)

Dir: Tzeli Hadjidimitriou | Greece

Sat 16 Nov – 6:15 PM

The Greek island of Lesbos gifted its name to the international term for women who love women, going all the way back to its famous daughter, Sappho, who penned countless poems to them and also lent her name to the cause. Flash forward a few thousand years, and it remains a cultural outpost for the free of spirit, as this beautifully drawn, lyrical documentary by local filmmaker and photographer Tzeli Hadjidimitriou outlines. Featuring a wealth of talking heads who have called the idyllic farming village of Eressos home, it details how lesbians of all stripes and every corner of the globe have flocked to this place since the ‘70s, transforming it in their wake, even if some of the locals have been less than impressed. You’ll feel the sand on your feet and the warm waters’ tender caress.

Dalton’s Dream (2023)

Dir: Kim Longinotto, Franky Murray Brown | UK

Sat 16 Nov – 6:30 PM

“Fame puts you there where things are hollow … it’s just the flame that burns your change to keep you insane”, Bowie sang on the second single from his 1975 album Young Americans. Countless stars have relayed their love/hate relationship with the music industry and celebrity game. Pansexual artist Dalton Harris had a front-row seat, winning the UK version of The X Factor in 2018. An already tenuous route to lasting stardom, with its execs demonstrating scant care for the cogs in its machine, it was brutal on the Jamaican-born singer who struggled with the harsh realities whilst coming to terms with childhood abuse and the homophobic pushback his triumph unleashed. Remaining hopeful despite his trials, Dalton’s Dream is the gift of a passionate, tenacious young man.

Crossing (2024)

Dir: Levan Akin | Sweden, Denmark, Turkey, France, Georgia

Sat 16 Nov – 8:45 PM

Cat lovers, assemble!! Our feline friends are delightfully distracting co-stars in this luminous Istanbul-set voyage of discovery from And Then We Danced director Levan Akin, who also helmed several episodes of the new and much queerer Interview with the Vampire show. Georgian stalwart Mzia Arabuli stars as Lia, a grieving older woman who sets off for the continents-spanning city in the hopes of reuniting with her estranged trans niece, with barely any leads. Grudgingly accepting the support of goofy younger lad Achi (newcomer Lucas Kankava), they eventually team up with staunch trans woman and community lawyer Evrim (Deniz Dumanli) in this mesmerising movie that secured the Teddy Jury Award at this year’s Berlinale. Surrender to a meandering adventure that’s as much about discovering our true selves as it is that which we have lost.

All Shall Be Well (2024)

Dir: Ray Yeung | Hong Kong, China

Sat 16 Nov – 9:00 PM

All too often, goodwill evaporates when someone dies without leaving clear instructions for their last wishes. For queer couples who choose not to marry, or are forbidden to do so, the risk of relatives swooping in and brushing them aside is even greater. So it is in Suk Suk director Ray Yeung’s latest emotional rollercoaster. Once again working with Hong Kong actress Patra Au Ga-man, alongside Maggie Li Lin-lin, they depict sixty-something couple Angie and Pat. But when tragedy strikes quietly, family drama erupts over the prime real estate home they share. Drawing on all-too-familiar truths, this beautifully judged portrait of resilience and resistance is both feminist, reminiscent of A Fantastic Woman’s mission, and proudly anti-ageist too. Picking up the Teddy Award for Best Feature Film at the Berlinale (with Program Director Cerise Howard on the jury) and the Audience Award at Frameline, it’s a winner.

Close to You (2023)

Dir: Dominic Savage | Canada

Sun 17 Nov – 3:45 PM

Sensory friendly screening

Close To You is a heartfelt exploration of identity and belonging, following Sam, a trans man who returns to his hometown for his father’s birthday after years of distance. Confronting family dynamics, lost love and the emotional impact of his transition, the film goes beyond personal transformation, redefining the meaning of love and acceptance. Written and directed by Dominic Savage and starring Elliot Page in his first leading role as a trans man, Close To You draws from Page’s lived experience. As Sam reconnects with his family and an old flame, the film tenderly examines the complexities of coming home and embracing one’s true self. With themes of resilience, hope and understanding, Close To You courageously captures the unending journey of self-acceptance and love.

Lady Like (2024)

Dir: Luke Willis | USA, UK

Sun 17 Nov – 4:00 PM

The many-headed behemoth that is RuPaul’s Drag Race has launched a thousand careers (slight exaggeration) but thrown just as many folks overboard. British-born, US-based Lady Camden – AKA Rex Wheeler – a veteran of season 14, is one of the survivors. This intimate documentary, the feature debut of director Luke Willis, follows his journey from the Royal Ballet in London to embracing drag, getting drafted then dealing with the hullabaloo that followed his time on the show, tackling head-on the emotional aftermath of the notorious ‘villain edit’ and a profoundly personal tragedy. But above all it’s a curtain-pull back on what it truly takes to become an indomitable performer.

Baby (2024)

Dir: Marcelo Caetano | Brazil, France, Netherlands

Sun 17 Nov – 6:15 PM

When Wellington (João Pedro Mariano) gets out of two years’ juvenile detention to discover his no-good parents have skipped town, the São Paulo teenager refuses to collapse. Falling in with old mates, a chance encounter with forty-something Ronaldo (Ricardo Teodoro) outside a porn cinema leads to a surreal relationship somewhere between lover, father and sex work business. Reborn as Baby, a reclaimed insult, he soon thrives in the role in this deeply humanistic new movie from Body Electric director Marcelo Caetano in which a found family, including Ronaldo’s ex Priscilla (Ana Flavia Cavalcanti) and her girlfriend (Bruna Linzmeyer), recalibrates what it means to belong. Nominated for the Queer Palm at the Cannes Film Festival, far from Ken Loach-like miserabilism, it radiates optimisim set to a sparkling pop score.

Strange Creatures (2024)

Dir: Molly Reynolds | Australia

Sun 17 Nov – 6:15 PM

When Archibald Prize-winning artist Craig Ruddy was cruelly taken way too soon due to complications from COVID-19, his long-term partner in love and business, actor Roberto Meza Mont (Candy), was devastated. Padding around their Byron Bay hinterlands home surrounded by his lover’s viscerally tactile portraits – including Cathy Freeman, Warwick Thornton, Bruce Pascoe and the late, impossibly great David Gulpilil – he was a lost soul looking for some way to commemorate their incredible love for one another. Along came friend and filmmaker Molly Reynolds (My Name is Gulpilil), who hit upon crafting this moving tribute to a creative force that burned so bright using only Mont’s smartphone footage and his poetic elegy as narratorial connective tissue. You’ll need plenty of tissues at the ready.

Eat the Night (2024)

Dir: Caroline Poggi, Jonathan Vinel | France

Sun 17 Nov – 8:45 PM

Dynamic French filmmaking due Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Vinel return to the dark, dystopian themes of their 2018 breakout hit Jessica Forever as Pablo (Théo Cholbi), a drug dealer, and his younger sister Apolline (Lila Gueneau) escape their tenuous lives by throwing themselves into a fantastical virtual reality computer game, “Darknoon”. But even here, a doomsday clock is set as the programmers announce the server will soon shut down. Thrown back into the real, Pablo’s saved from a scary situation by the handsome Night (Erwan Kepoa Falé). Igniting incendiary passions, the lads can’t keep their hands off one another. As they’re burning up, Apolline’s left alone in the game. All the while, war rumbles with rival dealers in this Cannes Queer Palm-nominated blaze of our too-online days.

The Queen of My Dreams (2023)

Dir: Fawzia Mirza | Canada

Sun 17 Nov – 9:00 PM

The Queen of My Dreams is a vibrant exploration of identity, love and cultural connection infused with the lively spirit of a Bollywood musical. This semi-autobiographical film from debut writer-director Fawzia Mirza follows Azra, a queer Muslim graduate student living in Canada in 1999 with her non-Muslim girlfriend, Miriam. When family tragedy hits, Azra must return to her motherland of Pakistan where she’s confronted with childhood memories and the friction of growing up with a conservative mother – but perhaps they’re not so different, after all. Through the dual performances of Amrit Kaur, the narrative weaves between 1969 Karachi and 1999 Toronto, revealing the intricate bonds between mothers and daughters desperately seeking to define their own identity and decide their own path.

Young Hearts (2024)

Dir: Anthony Schatteman | Belgium, Netherlands

Mon 18 Nov – 3:00 PM

Sensory friendly screening

For families frustrated by the Australian federal government’s backflipping on protecting queer kids from being removed from schools on the basis of their sexual or gender identity, seek solace in the sweet-hearted debut feature from Belgian filmmaker Anthony Schatteman. It follows the tentative first steps out of the closet of 14-year-old Elias (Lou Goossens) as he falls head over heels for handsome new neighbour Alexander (Marius De Saeger) despite technically still dating girlfriend Valerie (Sara Rogiers). Garnering a special mention in the Berlinale’s youth-focused Generation Kplus competition and nominated for a Teddy Award, this gently unfurling romance was co-written by Close director Lukas Dhont but won’t leave you emotionally ruined. Instead, it offers a metaphorical hug for the soul with a hint of Heartstopper.

In the Room Where He Waits (2024)

Dir: Timothy Despina Marshall | Australia

Mon 18 Nov – 6:00 PM

Star of stage and screen Daniel Monks (Pulse, MQFF 2017, Kaos, National Theatre Live’s The Seagull) embraced the horror genre with maniacal glee thanks to a memorably mean supporting role in queer Instagram-influenced slasher Sissy. But the spotlight’s squarely on his towering talent in Timothy Despina Marshall’s goosebump-inducingly spooky debut feature. Set during lockdowns, this psychological chiller casts Monks as Tobi, an Aussie actor cast in a US production of Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie. But when the death of his estranged father summons him home for the funeral, he’s plagued by a disturbing presence while languishing in hotel quarantine. Is Tobi truly alone, or is something much more sinister lurking within these four walls? Listen out for a cameo from Gold star Susie Porter.

Fragments of a Life Loved (2023)

Dir: Chloé Barreau | Italy

Mon 18 Nov – 6:00 PM

Three decades of videos, photographs and letters are patchworked together, telling the story of French filmmaker Chloé Barreau’s own love life in an honest yet narcissistic style (it could be no other way). The ex-lovers – and there are many – speak openly on camera about their falling for, being in love and falling out of love with Barreau. The director herself is a mere flash of a reflection in the camera. The story being built is as much about those she loved as it is about her. Possibly one of the most blatantly honest of ‘tell-alls’, this visual history’s a chronological countdown of lovers sharing what drew them to her and the experience of loving a woman who would not let herself be labelled. At times a libidinous cad but also a romantic, she affected change in others to embrace being loved and being loving. As one old flame says, “It’s like landing in a new country and saying, ‘Wow, it’s beautiful. Has this been here all the time?’ Love her or not, Barreau’s story will reel you in hook, line and sinker.

All Shall Be Well (2024)

Dir: Ray Yeung | Hong Kong, China

Mon 18 Nov – 8:30 PM

All too often, goodwill evaporates when someone dies without leaving clear instructions for their last wishes. For queer couples who choose not to marry, or are forbidden to do so, the risk of relatives swooping in and brushing them aside is even greater. So it is in Suk Suk director Ray Yeung’s latest emotional rollercoaster. Once again working with Hong Kong actress Patra Au Ga-man, alongside Maggie Li Lin-lin, they depict sixty-something couple Angie and Pat. But when tragedy strikes quietly, family drama erupts over the prime real estate home they share. Drawing on all-too-familiar truths, this beautifully judged portrait of resilience and resistance is both feminist, reminiscent of A Fantastic Woman’s mission, and proudly anti-ageist too. Picking up the Teddy Award for Best Feature Film at the Berlinale (with Program Director Cerise Howard on the jury) and the Audience Award at Frameline, it’s a winner.

Gender Journey Shorts

Mon 18 Nov – 8:45 PM

Gender splendour abounds in this exciting collection compiling exhilarating short stories that take great joy in celebrating resilience and upending the hoary old binary.

Queens of Drama (2024)

Dir: Alexis Langlois | France

Tue 19 Nov – 3:00 PM

French music video director Alexis Langlois makes his feature film debut with Queens of Drama, a hyperkinetic musical comedy set during the timeless 2000s with a cutesy and camp pop star plot. Follow the hottest new fresh pop diva in the French music world, Mimi Madamour (Louiza Aura) as her reality TV rise to fame places strain upon her hectic and heated relationship with punk idol Billie Kolher (Gio Ventura). The music world may appear to be all glitz and glam, but for these two musicians (and one obsessive fan, played by singer and YouTuber Bilal Hassani), it’s a rollercoaster ride, and frequently a full-blown psychodrama! With performances from Drag Race Belgium season 1’s Drag Couenne, Thomas Poitevin, Alma Jodorowsky and Asia Argento, this Cannes Critics’ Week selection is one you won’t want to miss.

Marcello Mio (2024)

Dir: Christophe Honoré | France, Italy

Tue 19 Nov – 6:00 PM

Prepare to enter the multiverse of French and Italian cinema as some of these nations’ brightest stars play alter-images in this metatextual musing from Sorry Angel director Christophe Honoré. Led by mother and daughter duo Chiara Mastroianni and the legendary Catherine Deneuve, the latter gives some dubious advice to the former on auditioning for actor-turned-director Nicole Garcia (From the Land of the Moon). When the try-out goes awry, Chiara’s wigged out by a note to play it more like her late, great father, La Dolce Vita lead Marcello Mastroianni. Taking it to heart, Chiara borrows a suit from her ex-husband Benjamin Biolay, losing herself in the role of a lifetime. Uncannily adopting Marcello’s mannerisms, an encounter with a soldier (Fleabag‘s Hugh Skinner, one of the few performers not playing a version of themselves) goes to fascinating places in this genderqueer musing on what it takes to step out of the shadows of those who made us.

Backspot (2023)

Dir: D. W. Waterson | Canada

Tue 19 Nov – 6:15 PM

After hearing the news that the esteemed high school cheer squad Thunder Hawks have new spots opening, the mid-level ranked Riley (Devery Jacobs) and her girlfriend Amanda (Kudakwashe Rutendo), apply ,making the elite team. The high level perfectionism dictated by their coach Eileen (Evan Rachel Wood) impact the newcomers and Riley’s interior world begins to crumble like a cheer squad pyramid gone wrong. The days of blanket forts and queer bliss for Riley and Amanda is tested by the rigours of gruelling practice and dopamine highs. With a high energy soundtrack by Casey MQ along with amusing singalongs from Legally Blonde: The Musical, Backspot backflips the formulaic cheerful cheerleader genre tropes of Bring It On, landing a blister-making, compulsive narrative by non-binary, first time feature helmer, and electronic music producer, D. W. Waterson. Jacobs (Waterson’s partner in life) also acts as one of the producers along with Elliot Page (Executive Producer). It’s also worth a mention of the wonderful Shannyn Sossamon as Riley’s mum. Anchored, literally, by Jacobs’ driven performance as the squad’s backspot, Backspot will cartwheel into your heart with a physicality and rawness so rarely observed in queer sport cinema.

Out There Shorts

Tue 19 Nov – 8:30 PM

Are you impossible to shock? Challenge accepted! This weird and wonderful collection of the surreal, silly and sexy is designed to push your buttons.

Can’t Stop the Music (1980)

Dir: Nancy Walker | USA

Tue 19 Nov – 8:45 PM

Presented in partnership with Cinemaniacs.

By the summer of 1979, there were loud proclamations that disco was dead, with thousands turning up to a Disco Demolition Night protest, burning boogie-pressed vinyl and chanting “Disco Sucks”. The various kink-attired lads of the Village People did not get the memo, releasing their Y.M.C.A.-powered big screen adventure Can’t Stop The Music the very next year. We reckon they had the last laugh, with this denim hot pants and cropped T-shirt-sporting ripple of muscular male bodies musical – directed by Girl Crazy star Nancy Walker – the gloriously bonkers result. Sure, Valerie Perrine (Superman) and Steve Guttenberg (destined for Police Academy) hog the limelight a little as an aspiring heterosexual couple with their sights set on stardom who just so happen to hang out with the Go West heroes. But try as the studio bosses might, there’s no airbrushing out the camp fantabulousness.

Carnage for Christmas (2024)

Dir: Alice Maio Mackay | Australia

Wed 20 Nov – 6:15 PM

Australian filmmaker and extraordinary trans woman Alice Maio Mackay is an unstoppably anarchic punk powerhouse, pumping fiercely queer horror movies out at a rate that would make even the late, great Rainer Werner Fassbinder look a little lazy tbh. She had a double bill in last year’s MQFF program – Satranic Panic and T-Blockers – and has another wild ride ready for us in Carnage for Christmas, edited by none other than Vera Drew (The People’s Joker). Hallmark could never, as true-crime podcaster Lola (Jeremy Moineau) returns to her country town for the first time since transitioning only to Miss Marple that shit when a sick Santa-costumed serial killer lets loose on the local LGBTQIA+ community. Only the murderer picked the wrong folks to mess with, in a sass-packed slasher where the final girl and her gang fight back like it’s brat summer.

Jubilee (1978)

Dir: Derek Jarman | UK

Wed 20 Nov – 7:00 PM

Presented in Partnership with Melbourne Cinémathèque

In this film, satirically named for the 25th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation, crime, revolution and disorder are cast against a stiflingly conservative nation. Filmed on location, Jarman’s portrait of a crumbling monarchy includes vivid images of London’s grand icons alongside rubble-strewn areas of the city, markers of the Blitz over three decades earlier. Influenced by the aesthetics and anti-establishment stance of punk, yet scorning its partial fascination with fascism, this messy, thrilling satire is the movement’s perfect incarnation and includes appearances and music by Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Slits, Jayne County (also to be seen and heard in City of Lost Souls at MQFF this year), Toyah Wilcox, Adam Ant and Brian Eno.

Freak Out! Shorts

Wed 20 Nov – 8:45 PM

Booooo! This frightfully queer dungeon’s worth of spooky stories unleashes the scariest stuff, from sentient lampposts attacking possessed spirits to the end of the world.

Blue (1993)

Dir: Derek Jarman | UK, Japan

Wed 20 Nov – 9:15 PM

Presented in Partnership with Melbourne Cinémathèque

Dedicated to his partner Keith Collins (aka “H.B.”) “and all true lovers”, Jarman’s last feature stands as one of the great final films and as a singularly poetic and affecting account of living and dying with AIDS. Famously, in acknowledgment of, and in meditation upon, his failing eyesight, the image consists wholly, unflinchingly, of a hue as close to Yves Klein’s patented “International Klein Blue” as could be captured on film. John Quentin, Nigel Terry, Tilda Swinton and Jarman himself read excerpts from the director’s hospital diaries and recite his poetry, atop an immersive soundscape created by Simon Fisher Turner and several of Jarman’s other musical collaborators.

Where in the Hell (2024)

Dir: Laramie Dennis | USA

Thu 21 Nov – 6:00 PM

Lesbian prop-master Casey (Cam Killion) is abandoned by her girlfriend after a fight at a run-down motel, at the height of COVID-19 lockdowns in California. What’s worse, her girlfriend has taken not only her car, but her dog as well. She teams up with unemployed actor Alan (Joohun Lee) on a road trip to an audition in Canada. Casey is bitterly cynical while Alan is blindingly optimistic, which makes for a hilarious odd-couple road movie. Featuring beautifully shot landscapes, Laramie Dennis’s laidback debut feature film draws on, and queers, the work of Sam Shepard, and will delight fans of offbeat indie comedies à la the ‘90s works of Hal Hartley and Alison Anders.

Scarecrow in a Garden of Cucumbers (1972)

Dir: Robert J. Kaplan | USA

Thu 21 Nov – 8:30 PM

Rivalling City of Lost Souls for the mantle of campiest, most unhinged musical in this year’s festival, Scarecrow in a Garden of Cucumbers was restored by the Academy Film Archive in 2022 after scarcely being seen since premiering 50 years prior. Presumed lost for much of that time, it now rates as one of the greatest queer film rediscoveries in many a long year. How on Earth did something so brilliantly, ceaselessly bonkers as this, and so much fun to watch with a crowd, ever retreat into obscurity? In one of the earliest lead roles granted to a trans performer, Warhol Superstar Holly Woodlawn (seen in Paul Morrissey’s Trash and Women in Revolt!) puts in a riotous turn as small-town girl Eve Harrington, who quickly finds life in New York City circa 1972 sure ain’t like being in Kansas anymore. And how! Across a series of loopy, cartoonish, gag-filled episodes and madcap musical numbers – that’s how.

Woodlawn’s ferocious fellow Warhol Superstar Tally Brown chews no small amount of scenery as Mary Poppins, and the mayhem is only enhanced by voice cameos from none other than Bette Midler and Lily Tomlin!

The Summer with Carmen (2023)

Dir: Zacharias Mavroeidis | Greece

Fri 22 Nov – 6:15 PM

While enjoying a slow, hot oceanside day on the edge of a cliff near a queer spot in Athens, two thirty-something besties recall the events of a previous summer with a dog named Carmen. They brainstorm a script that aspiring filmmaker Nikitas has promised to turn in imminently. The endearing Demosthenes offers to help but as they knuckle out the details, a funny, sexy, kind-hearted feat ensues. Zacharias Mavroeidis’ charmingly meta comedy is lovingly shot on location with a fantastically cute pooch performance, and the two charming leads, Yorgos Tsiantoulas and Andreas Lampropoulos, are wholly convincing as long-time mates.

Black Pride Shorts

Fri 22 Nov – 6:30 PM

From a dance work told entirely in Aboriginal language – Yankunytjatjara – to a thriller set in Lagos or a jazz bar in the US, these staunch stories shine a light on Black voices.

The Beautiful Summer (2023)

Dir: Laura Luchetti | Italy

Fri 22 Nov – 8:45 PM

If the sun has felt like it’s been a long time coming lately, warm your weary bones with director Laura Luchetti’s effervescently loose adaptation of the proud (and persecuted) antifascist author Cesare Pavese’s novel of the same name. Set in Turin in 1938, with the spectre of war not far off, it follows country girl Ginia (excellent newcomer Yile Yara Vianello) as she lands in the big city and, sharing an apartment with her big brother Severino (Nudes actors Nicolas Maupas). scores a gig as a seamstress at a fashion house. But life’s turned upside-down the moment she first spies the vibrant Amelia (Deva Cassel, daughter of Monica Bellucci and Vincent Cassel), following her into a bohemian world of artists where anything and anyone is fair game, in this audience favourite from the Locarno Film Festival.

Young Soul Rebels (1991)

Dir: Isaac Julien | UK, France, Germany, Spain

Fri 22 Nov – 9:00 PM

It’s London in 1977, in the days leading up to Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee celebrations. Soul boys Chris (Valentine Nonyela) and Caz (Mo Sesay) run a makeshift pirate radio station, “Soul Patrol”, from an East End garage, when not running the gauntlet of the neighbourhood bovver boys. Their lives are upturned when a close friend is murdered while cruising in the local park.

This riveting, Cannes Critics’ Week prize-winning, coming-of-age whodunnit was the debut feature from now-knighted Black British installation artist, filmmaker, and UCSC Distinguished Professor of the Arts, Isaac Julien, who said at the time of its release that “we were interested in 1977 as the moment in Black British culture when you witnessed Black style becoming a social force”. Already a period piece when made, it remains, moreover, a powerful landmark moment in Black British queer cinema, alongside Julien’s earlier featurette Looking for Langston. And of course, the soundtrack is fantastic, and features Funkadelic, X-Ray Spex, Parliament, Sylvester and many more.

Out There Shorts

Sat 23 Nov – 3:30 PM

Are you impossible to shock? Challenge accepted! This weird and wonderful collection of the surreal, silly and sexy is designed to push your buttons.

Zero Patience (1993)

Dir: John Greyson | UK, Canada

Sat 23 Nov – 4:00 PM

Session proudly sponsored by Thorne Harbour Health

Canadian New Queer Cinema luminary John Greyson’s audacious, toe-tapping 1993 musical about the AIDS pandemic imagines an encounter between Victorian-era explorer and sexologist Sir Richard Burton (John Robinson) and the hot ghost of “Patient Zero” (Normand Fauteux), in order to debunk a widely propagated myth that a French Canadian flight attendant wilfully introduced the virus’s contagion to North America.

Greyson queers all norms of tone and genre, fusing experimental cinema montage, documentary sequences involving ACT UP activists relating their lived experiences of AIDS, and high-camp musical numbers, inclusive of a little Busby Berkeley-esque synchronised swimming. Glenn Schellenberg’s songs are wonderful, whether delivered in a soaring falsetto by performer and AIDS activist Michael Callen (who also appeared in Philadelphia, and died, that same year) as Miss HIV, or when delivered, ostensibly, by singing anuses. In Zero Patience, the ridiculous and the sublime, the hilarious and the deadly serious, all coexist in perfect harmony!

Australian Shorts & Awards

Sat 23 Nov – 6:00 PM

MQFF’s Australian Shorts & Awards highlight the richness of storytelling and the breadth of original talent working in Australia today. MQFF are proud to present this selection of short films. Following the screening, we will announce the winners of our jury awards. The winner of the City of Melbourne Award for Best Australian Short will also qualify as MQFF’s official selection for the Iris Prize — the largest prize for queer short films worldwide.

Power Alley (2023)

Dir: Lillah Hall | Brazil, France, Uruguay

Sat 23 Nov – 6:30 PM

Menarca filmmaker Lillah Halla returned to the Cannes Film Festival with this electro dance music-driven story about a promising young volleyball player facing down the patriarchy in São Paulo. Sofia (Ayomi Domenica Dias) is on the cusp of making it big, with the Youth Volleyball Contest on the horizon and scouts checking her out. Things are going well with girlfriend and fellow teammate Bel (Loro Bardot), too, when she discovers, much to her shock, that she’s pregnant in a conservative country where women do not have the choice of a legal abortion. Everything spirals from there in this bracing drama that was nominated for Cannes’ Queer Palm, Caméra d’Or, Critics’ Week Grand Prize and won the FIPRESCI Parallel Sections Award.

Misericordia (2024)

Dir: Alain Guiraudie | France

Sat 23 Nov – 9:00 PM

Described by 3MBS FM’s Film Scores presenter Richard Leathem as “Tom at the Farm with more penises”, Miséricorde – the original French name means mercy – isn’t the latest from Xavier Dolan. Sadly, there may never be another. No, it’s the return to form of Stranger by the Lake writer/director Alain Guiraudie, who casts Félix Kysyl as Jérémie. He’s returned to the village of his youth to pay his respects to the baker who once employed him, and with whom he was perhaps in love. Sometime best friend Vincent (Jean-Baptiste Durand) isn’t so pleased to see him, acting standoffish when Jérémie asks to stay with his grieving mother (the magnificent Catherine Frot) and shows no signs of leaving. All the while, the village’s various men begin to jostle for the outsider’s attention in an unnervingly erotic tale that leads to skullduggery. If you go down in the woods today, you’re sure of a big surprise.

Life Is Not a Competition, But I’m Winning (2023)

Dir: Julia Fuhr Mann | Germany

Sat 23 Nov – 9:00 PM

With prismatic filtered light and stunning widescreen shots, Julia Fuhr Mann’s experimental essay on the “marginalised bodies” of sport, in this case track, compels the viewer to pay attention to these bodies in motion and to look back with them into the fraught history of gender in athletics. As Mann’s queer athlete travellers move from stadiums like the ‘original’ at Athens to the enigmatic and controversial 1936 Berlin Olympic Stadium, the hidden histories of “divergent and ambiguous bodies” is revealed. The time travelling queer athletes are inserted into newsreel and archival footage, reclaiming sporting heroes who’d as good as been erased, their accomplishments wiped from history: people like Lina Radke and Stella Walsh, and contemporary athletes like Annet Negesa, who was forced to have surgery, and trans marathon runner Amanda Reiter, with her experiences of discrimination and manipulations endured from officials and athletics administrators. The message is timely after the incidents of gender-diverse phobia at this year’s Summer Olympics in Paris. Gender-positive and affirming, Mann’s cinematic discourse looks to a progressive and inclusive future for competitive athletics.

We Forgot to Break Up (2024)

Dir: Karen Knox | Canada

Sun 24 Nov – 1:15 PM

We’re gonna party like it’s 1999 in this musically charged Canadian feature that spans the turn of the millennium. Trans man Angus (Jordan Dawson) navigates a day job and his transition while rehearsing late nights in the teeny Canadian town of Emmett Lake alongside his indie bandmates, including girlfriend Isis (June Laporte). But when they move to Toronto and gain momentum as The New Normals, temptation awaits in the form of new guitarist Lugh (Daniel Gravelle). Can Angus balance being true to himself with the pressures of fame, or is the band headed for a bad breakup? This bracingly authentic feature from actor-turned-director Karen Knox, expanding on the short of the same name, is adapted from Kayt Burgess’ award-winning book Heidegger Stairwell.

This is Ballroom (2024)

Dir: Juru, Vitã | Brazil

Sun 24 Nov – 3:45 PM

The performance art of Ballroom and the art of shade are alive and kicking in this sonically sensational and visually stunning treat from queer Brazilian filmmaker duo Juru and Vitã. This is an insiders’ gaze into unique blends of voguing culture, from Batekoo Dance and Favela Funk Ball styles, integrating indigenous styles of dance into the local Ballroom spaces to give it a trans-American flavour. Identity is everything in this intimate and glorious record of the diverse bodies of the Houses of Alafia, Bushidö, Blyndex and more. It’s an immersive vision of the Kiki houses of Rio de Janeiro, as members challenge each other on the floor in dance, beauty and performance categories, blended with discussions on race and gender in a celebration of Black and Brown queer community. Rio is definitely on fire here, pulsating with the portraits of the lives of queer Brazil.

Foreign Language (2024)

Dir: Claire Burger | France, Germany, Belgium

Sun 24 Nov – 4:00 PM

Set in those heady teenage days when our collective hearts are a mess of brave and bewildering new ideas and the overwhelming thrum of emerging sexuality, 17-year-old Fanny (on-the-up French actor Lilith Grasmug) is lost at sea. Or, more specifically, on an ad hoc foreign exchange with the family of her German pen-friend Lena (Josefa Heinsius). Only the welcome isn’t exactly friendly, at first, for a young woman who’s already feeling isolated thanks to relentless bullying at school. But things get complicated quickly when nascent longings emerge between the pair, who also throw themselves into activist awakenings. All the while, Lena’s on-the-edge divorcée mum (Tár star Nina Hoss) bristles as she opens another bottle in a host family that’s kind of all over the place. Claire Burger’s profoundly generous third feature was nominated for both the Golden Bear and the Teddy Best Feature Award at the Berlinale. With Chiara Mastroianni.

CLOSING NIGHT
Duino (2024)

Dir: Juan Pablo Di Pace, Andrés P. Estrada | USA, Argentina, Italy

Sun 24 Nov – 6:30 PM

Hunky Argentinian actor Juan Pablo Di Pace (MQFF 2023 highlight The Mattachine Family plus the so-camp-it’s-practically-gay movie musical Mamma Mia!) stars in this deeply affecting, semi-autobiographical film that also marks his directorial feature debut, alongside co-writer/director Andrés Pepe Estrada. Di Pace plays Matías, a filmmaker yearning for the unrequited love of Alexander (Oscar Morgan), the blazingly beautiful teen he fell head over heels for many years ago while studying at an international school on Italy’s luscious Adriatic Coast. Hoping to recapture Alexander’s spirit in his movies, Matías’ sunlit memories take us back to the past, with remarkable newcomer Santiago Madrussan memorably depicting him as a younger man. Can the secrets of the past unlock love in this dreamy dalliance that won a bunch of awards at Turin’s queer-focused Lovers Film Festival?