Queer Screen may be celebrating the 23rd Edition of MARDI GRAS FILM FESTIVAL in Sydney this year, but those lucky Australians have had queer film festivals in some sort of shape and form since 1978. The fact that it is a major part of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival, which is packed with the most fabulous events, makes the city THE place to be for every queer man and woman this month.

The Mardi Gras Film Festival has grown considerably since 1993. It is now one of Australia’s largest film festivals of any kind, and one of the top five queer film festivals in the world. It is highly regarded by filmmakers all over the world, and is the most important platform for promoting LGBTIQ titles to distributors and exhibitors in this territory. It’s also one of the favorites of the QUEERGURU Team, who as usual, have studied this years program to draw up our OWN TOP LIST OF MUST SEE MOVIES

It’s almost impossible not to fall in love with iconic New York City trans drag performer Peppermint in this very affectionate warts-and-all documentary A DEEPER LOVE from filmmaker Oriel Pe’er This is not just her life story but a brilliant snapshot of the struggles of trans visibility in the current moment.  Since she was the first trans drag queen on Drag Race, another 30 have since followed her.  After founding Black Queer Town Hall with Bob the Drag Queen, she was asked to join the national Board of Directors of GLAAD. She serves as ACLU first Ambassador for Trans Justice. She continues to challenge transphobia in the media and politics by speaking truth to power

Croatia is hardly known to be a prolific source of queer movies, but maybe that is about change. Of the 11 movies so far in its history, two of them have been released this year. This one BEAUTIFUL EVENING, BEAUTIFUL DAY probably the most memorable queer film we have reviewed this year.  It/s a sweeping epic shot in black and white that starts in WWII and spans the following decades. Lovers Lovro (Dado Ćosić) and Nenad (Đorđe Galić) and their lifelong friendship with Stevan (Slaven Došlo, Celts) and Ivan (Elmir Krivalić), a group of gay partisans, are highly decorated heroes for playing their part in the fight against both the Fascists and the Nazis. 

Despite the extreme bleakness of their sitution, underlying is a remarkable love store that resonates so deeply with  you.  Written and directed with such passion by Ivona Juka who cut her teeth on ‘Facing The CIty’  which she shot in Lepoglava, one of the most notorious penitentiaries in Europe.  She is all for realism and her insistence on explicit queer sex had some well known actors shaking their heads,  but it made sense with such a tight group of friends who valued this and lnsisting of iiving life in its  entirety 

Toxic relationships seem to be on the rise, whether romantic, friendship or employer relationships, or maybe we are just better at identifying toxicity these days. Departures, a fantastic new UK indie comedy-drama based in Manchester, takes a deep, brutal dive into the causes and effects of a toxic queer romantic relationship between charity worker Benji (Lloyd Eyre-Morgan) and personal trainer to footballers, Jake (David Tag – Hollyoaks).   After the filmed screened in London we got to talk with the filmmaker Lloyd Eyre-Morgan a successful, proud queer working-class actor/writer/director . He’s on a mission to make realistic, no-holds-barred gay movies about the community he lives and works in. His debut full-length feature ‘DEPARTURES’ which he also co-wrote and starred in, is about how toxic masculinity can hold you back from being yourself.

Fatherhood : A straight story about a queer family. : Kristopher, David and Sindre live in a multi-partner relationship, expecting their first child. Kristopher was born a woman and today identifies as a homosexual man. As the birth father he will be the first in Norway. The pregnancy is a small miracle, after enduring forced sterilisation at 18 in order to legally change gender. This beautifully sensitive doc charts their journey from pregnancy to the beginnings of a new family life.

Maspalomas, is an interesting character study about what happens when an older man goes back into the closet. Older gay men are rarely given such visibility on our screens and the directors dive in deep, with sex scenes, full frontal nudity and main character profiles. The result is refreshing and thought-provoking. The tough relationship between parent and child is well portrayed, and is very relatable. Soroiz is perfect at playing the contrasting sides of Vicente’s life, happily out of the closet and broken when concealing his sexuality. An important lesson in living your truest life.

Writer/directors Filipe Matzembacher and Marcio Reolon have created a deliciously erotic noir thriller with Night Stage. They successfully examine the often-conflicting roles people play in theirpublic lives and their private lives. How much of their careers are these guys prepared to risk to satisfy their carnal lust? There’s a self-destructive streak in them that many viewers will recognise and connect with. Success has different, conflicting meanings to them and the journey between different successful outcomes could end up being troubled. The film is beautifully shot with the athletic dance and performance scenes in the play’s day time rehearsals contrasting strongly with Matias and Rafael’s night time romantic shenanigans. The mix of romance, suspense and adrenaline is also just right. It’s so worth making an effort to see this Brazilian gem.

Marco Berger‘s new film  PERRO PERRO in a scale of greys has been filmed on location at Tigre, northwest of the city of Buenos Aires, on the Río de la Plata estuary, a place interlaced with numerous rivers and canals of the Paraná River. The spot is an attractive destination for water sports and has vacation homes on wooden stilts by its canals. This is a rare animalistic tale of longing and detachment, beautifully shot  in the tradition of Berger´s aesthetic of insinuation.  Starring German Flood (Juan), Juan Ramos (Max), Bianca Brandimarte, Matías Quiroga and Aldana Dante. 

Storytelling in British film-making is at its best when an underdog punches above their weight, romantically or otherwise. It’s always a subtle journey, no fairy-tale Hollywood gloss or high-action required, just humour, restraint and emotional, sometimes sad, honesty. The journey is internal rather than physical.  Perhaps it’s hard to believe a hot gay guy falling for someone much less attractive on screen, even though in real-life that’s possible. Pillion, probably the most talked-about queer film this year, explores these themes and others in a very entertaining feature debut by director Harry Lighton and starrung fhunky Alexander Skarsgard (True Blood) and Harry Melling (Dudley Dursley in Harry Potter) in an unusual, offbeat comedy drama romance about BDSM. 

Top of our list this year of highly anticipated movies was the feature film debut of writer/director Carmen Emmi. His PLAIN CLOTHES is a love story that turns into a thriller set in 1997 that reminds us of how our community was harassed and persecuted as some authorities still bore anger that homosexuality had been legalized.  The ‘love story’ part of Plain Clothes is both sad and sexy but it is impossible not to be totally captivated.  It stars queer Brit hottie Russell Tovey,  plus a breakthrough performance by young Brt actor Tom Blyth  The sad part is that although this is set in the dark part of queer history, in this present uncertain political, it could very easily rear its ugly head again   Queerguru caught up with the filmmaker after the films World Premiere at Sundance check out our interview HERE

Long-term romantic relationships elude many these days. Many of the reasons for this, financial and societal, are beyond our control. Other reasons we can, however, control, a main one being a lack of satisfaction with your present options for long-term love, and the wait for ‘the one’, the perfect person. Can we have it all? Multi-award-winning film director Allan Deberton (Pacarrete) examines this and other issues in true Brazilian style with The Best Friend, a flamboyant, colourful, sexy, romantic musical set in the beautiful beach resort of Canoa Quebrada, Brazil

Produced and directed by the multi-award-winning Onir, We are Faheem and Karun is the first Kashmiri queer film. Shot in the stunning alpine-like mountain border area between India and Pakistan, this gently-paced romantic drama is unpredictable and combines stunning cinematography with a handsome cast and a subtle yet powerful soundtrack. The mountains surround the village, both protecting and suffocating its inhabitants – a useful metaphor for queer rural life in many parts of the world. Themes of love, identity, repression, poverty and conflict shape this film, the visible and the invisible sharing equal billing. There’s a powerful underlying message about the invisibility of queer people and women in religious rural areas. Potent storytelling, highlighting marginalised voices. Highly recommended.

check out https://queerscreen.org.au/ for the full program

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