TILDE: Trans and Gender Diverse Film Festival 2026 expands across six Melbourne venues for two weekends in May
Melbourne’s trans and gender diverse film festival TILDE returns for its 12th year across two weekends in May.
Running from 1 to 9 May under the theme Young Blood, TILDE 2026 features eight sessions spread across six days at venues from Footscray to Coburg North. The festival is widening its footprint this year, shifting away from a single hub to partner with community spaces, cinemas and cultural venues across Narrm. Filmmaker Lilly Wachowski, co-creator of The Matrix, returns as the festival’s patron for a second consecutive year.
TILDE: Trans and Gender Diverse Film Festival 2026
- 1 May — Footscray Community Arts, 45 Moreland St, Footscray
- 2 May — The Edge, Fed Square (Influx international shorts, 5pm)
- 2 May — The Edge, Fed Square (Our Future shorts program, 7pm — free)
- 3 May — Eclipse Cinema, 32 Wellington St, Collingwood
- 3 May — Pony Club Gym, 69 Chifley Dr, Preston (free)
- 6 May — Eclipse Cinema, 32 Wellington St, Collingwood
- 8 May — Village Cinemas Coburg Drive-In, 155 Newlands Rd, Coburg North
- 9 May — Footscray Drill Hall, 395 Barkly St, Footscray
- Tickets: $10–15 (some sessions free)
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Opening night at Footscray Community Arts launches in partnership with Sapphic Flicks, centring a conversation between Sistergirls, Brotherboys and trans and gender expansive First Nations creatives. The following evening at Fed Square, the third edition of Our Future spotlights emerging trans and gender diverse filmmakers from across Australia and Aotearoa, featuring world premieres and a filmmaker Q&A. That session is free.
On 3 May, the festival presents the world premiere of Canadian filmmaker May Matchim’s documentary Understanding Myself as an Amphibian at Eclipse Cinema in Collingwood, preceded by a birdwatching outing with Melbourne Queer Birders Collective. Later that evening, TILDE moves to queer-owned Pony Club Gym in Preston for a free screening of Siobhan McCarthy’s teen comedy She’s the He, complete with DJs and a world premiere short from local filmmaker Josie Buden.
A midweek session on 6 May brings Brazilian documentary Desire to Live to Eclipse Cinema, before the festival hits the road for its second weekend. On 8 May, GAY24 Film Club and the Brunswick Underground Film Festival take over the Coburg Drive-In for the Australian premiere of the M. Sisters’ debut feature Divine Hammer, a horror that plunges into the murky world of online gore culture.
The closing event on 9 May is a first-ever retrospective of Alice Maio Mackay’s work at Footscray Drill Hall. The Adelaide filmmaker made her first feature at 16 and has since built a string of defiant, scrappy trans horror films. Attendees can catch a single screening or go the full marathon, with free food and DJs rounding out the festival.
For more information, head here.
