The LGBTQA+ Community in Australia have always celebrated queer cinema in such style with a whole stream of well-curated Festivals.  Today they kick off with QUEER SCREEN in Sydney, which has a long history of transforming and engaging individuals and communities through its queer storytelling on screen.  They may seem a long distance from everyone reading this from the Northern Hemisphere, but they share the fine sense of commonality that links us all so beautifully with the wealth of movies that are shown these days globally.   

This year is no exception, and the Queer Screen peeps have put together a remarkably fine program that has made our task of putting together our usual list of TOP PICKS OF MUST SEE MOVIES tougher than usual, BUT here they are: 

Not every indie queer movie is destined for an Academy Award or even a prestigious Queer Palm, but if anybody had a category for Campiest Film of the year, Queerguru knows several we could very happily nominate, especially BODY BLOW. We were drawn in by the one-line synopsis of ‘DUTY, DESIRE AND A TWINK THAT WON’T QUIT’, the latest movie from Australian filmmaker Dean Francis (whose last film was DROWN …. with an unforgettable cast of hunky lifeguards … check out QG review HERE).

When queer Belgian filmmaker Lukas Dhont‘s first two films won major awards at Cannes, we knew to expect big things from him.  Coward is just his 4th feature, and he really has fulfilled his early promise. It’s a gay love story starring Emmanuel Macchia (in his acting debut) and Valentin Campagne  and set in the trenches on World War 1: let’s say, you may need a box of tissues for this one.

San Francisco is en route to Sydney as the juggernauts that are the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence hit town. They’re there for Hunky Jesus, a heart-warming new documentary by director Jennifer M Kroot 

For the uninitiated, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are a large group of drag/trans performance activists, and the Hunky Jesus competition, held each Easter in San Francisco’s Delore is one of their biggest and best fundraising events. The Sisters are one of the very best things that heve ever happened to our global queer community.  Queerguru managed to talk with Jennifer Kroot after the World Premiere in London (see HERE)  and reunite with our friend Sister Roma, who is the  world’s most photographed nun (see HERE)

La Bola Negra (The Black Ball) is a narrative triptych about the lives of three different Spanish men at various times: a meditation derived from Lorca about the secret history of gay men’s sexuality, which has been erased, excluded or denied – sexuality transfigured into a mysterious, restorative poetry of the soul. In Lorca’s words, “only mystery keeps us alive” and in fact the small regret I have about this superlatively acted and beautifully shot film is that once the connection between the three narrative strands is explained, some of the mystery and poetry is lost.  Winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes 

Some movies get on our must-see list purely because of the cast.   In the case of Montreal My Beautiful, it’s because of Joan Chen, who gives yet another of her impeccable heat-stirring performances. In this romantic drama about a woman exploring her queer desire later in life, Chen plays a dedicated mother, wife, and anchor in her community of Chinese ex-pats, who seems to have built the perfect life.  That all changes when she meets Camille, a free-spirited, younger Québécoise woman played by a charming Charlotte Aubin.  Chen is totally unmissable, as is the rest of the film.

Few movies set the scene with such succinct clarity as ‘Test’ from writer (and lead) Brock Yurich and director Sam McConnell. Here, we watch as a handsome and very muscled man, wearing nothing but a cock sock, is rolled in fake tan by an older woman while singing a hymn and giggling. Eddie (Brock Yurich) is an amateur competitive bodybuilder who lives with his mother, Joanne (Tammy Blanchard), in a state of codependency. He divides his time between the gym, work and church, but neither Eddie nor his mother are doing particularly well; she’s a functioning alcoholic selling make-up to her friends, and he works in a restaurant to pay the bills with a more profitable side hustle as a cam model.

‘Test’ is independent filmmaking at its finest, succeeding where many mainstream movies may fail in giving time for the characters to develop, to allow us to understand and connect with them on a human level. I’m thinking of ‘Lean on Pete’ in terms of pacing and exploration of character, but I think ‘Test’ can comfortably sit alongside ‘Pillion’ and ‘All of Us Strangers’ in the wider conversation about the queer experience.  PS You can see Queerguru interview the filmmakers HEREl

For the full program: check 13th Queer Screen Film Fest: 2 – 8 September 2026.  https://queerscreen.org.au/queer-screen-film-fest/

for full reviews on over 2000 queer films, check out www.queerguru.com and whilst you are there, be sure to subscribe to get all the latest raves and rants on queer cinema …                                         best of all its FREE