Melbourne Queer Film Festival hits 35 years with over 130 films screening across 11 days this November.
Melbourne Queer Film Festival runs from 13 to 23 November, presenting 100 sessions across multiple venues with Cinema Nova in Carlton as its main hub.
Australia’s flagship queer film festival marks three and a half decades with a program featuring 35 Australian premieres and 15 Victorian premieres. Films arrive fresh from Venice, Cannes, Berlinale, Sundance and other major festivals, spanning features, documentaries and shorts that centre First Nations artists, emerging Australian talent and international releases.
“The theme is ‘Searching for Queer Utopia’s’, a no doubt prescient idea that is, as mentioned by MQFF CEO David Martin Hariss, informed by many classic texts of queer theory, from Sara Ahmed’s theories of affect, to Jose Esteban Munoz’s beautiful Cruising Utopia: The Then and Now of Queer Futurity.
“Although theory informs this year’s theme, it is not beholden to the idea of simply laying out our potential utopia’s, but rather exploring how belonging and place inform our practices of love and relation.
“This years selection promises to deliver a unique range of films from the satirical to the bittersweet to the feverishly horny, all exploring the idea of what our utopic visions reveal about ourselves, and how queer and trans life is formulated by ability to create utopia wherever we are, despite everything.”
Opening night at Collins Place on 13 November screens Queens of the Dead, a queer apocalyptic zombie comedy with an ensemble cast including Margaret Cho and Dominique Jackson. Jackson travels from New York to accept MQFF’s first-ever Tribute Award, recognising her work on FX series Pose and her broader impact on LGBTQIA+ representation. An Audience with Dominique Jackson follows the next day, with the actor in conversation with Lillian Ahenkan.
Melbourne Queer Film Festival
- When: 13-23 November
- Cinema Nova, Carlton (festival hub)
- Collins Place (opening night, 13 November)
- Melbourne Town Hall (closing night, 23 November)
- The Capitol Theatre (21 November)
- More information here
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Australian director Sophie Hyde presents a keynote on 15 November ahead of the Victorian premiere of Jimpa, starring Olivia Colman and John Lithgow. An industry day on 16 November includes a masterclass with Hyde and an emerging filmmakers pitch supported by RMIT University.
First Nations programming takes centre stage on 21 November at The Capitol Theatre with Indigiqueer Voices and The Ramon Te Wake Collection, featuring shorts from Australia, Canada and Aotearoa. Australian Shorts & Awards on 22 November showcases local filmmakers, with the City of Melbourne Award winner qualifying for the Iris Prize, the world’s largest LGBTIQ+ short film prize.
Closing night on 23 November moves to Melbourne Town Hall for Plainclothes, a 1990s-set romantic thriller starring Russell Tovey and Tom Blyth that won the Special Jury Award for Ensemble Cast at Sundance.
All venues are wheelchair accessible, with concession tickets, Blaktix, free Companion Card entry and an online platform MQFF+ offering closed captions, subtitles and audio description. Tickets and passes are available now.
Supported by City of Melbourne, VicScreen and the Victorian government.
For more information, head here.
