Queer Screen Film Fest Unveils Bold 2025 Program Celebrating LGBTQ+ Resistance & Joy

The Queer Screen Film Fest is back this August with a rich, rebellious and emotionally expansive program.

Running 27–31 August 2025 at Event Cinemas George Street, the 12th edition of the festival introduces a new leadership team, a juried competition spotlighting emerging feature filmmakers, and a lineup that moves across continents, communities and identities — all while leaning into the radical power of queer storytelling on screen.

Opening night sets the tone with Plainclothes, a romantic thriller following a closeted NYPD officer in 1990s New York, starring Russell Tovey (Looking) and Tom Blyth (The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes). It’s a visually striking, emotionally charged exploration of shame, longing and resistance, directed by Carmen Emmi — who’s also in the running for this year’s inaugural Emerging Narrative Feature prize.

Bookending the festival is Really Happy Someday, a Canadian drama about a transmasculine musical theatre performer reckoning with identity, voice and ambition after starting testosterone. Written by and starring Breton Lalama, the film centres trans voices both behind and in front of the camera — and was awarded Best Canadian Feature at this year’s Inside Out Toronto Festival.

The new Emerging Narrative Feature Competition will award $2,500 AUD to one of six first- or second-time feature filmmakers, reaffirming the festival’s dedication to uplifting fresh talent. The beloved Queer Screen Pitch Off also returns, with a combined prize pool of $20,000 AUD, in partnership with Screen Australia’s Gender Matters Taskforce.

“It is an exciting new chapter for Queer Screen,” said Queer Screen CEO Benson Wu. “This new team has worked tirelessly to bring this festival to life in a short timeframe, and we are proud of the strength, diversity and heart that this year’s program delivers. We look forward to welcoming audiences back into cinemas to share in the joy of queer storytelling.”

The 2025 festival features 14 Australian premieres, a return of the much-loved Mixed Shorts program, and a strong focus on intimate, community-centred experiences that reflect the complexity and vibrancy of LGBTQIA+ life.

Highlights from the 2025 Queer Screen Film Festival program

Here are five major highlights from this year’s program:

1. Cactus Pears (India/UK/Canada)

Winner of the World Cinema Dramatic Jury Prize at Sundance, this slow-burn rural romance follows a call-centre worker returning to his village for mourning, where he rekindles a childhood connection with a goat herder. A tender, meditative debut from Rohan Parashuram Kanawade (U for Usha), it’s in competition for the Emerging Feature prize.

2. Love Letters (France)

Inspired by the director’s own run-ins with French adoption laws, this Cannes-premiered drama follows a lesbian couple navigating a bureaucratic nightmare in order to become parents. Raw, smart, and political in the personal, it stars Ella Rumpf (Raw) and Monia Chokri (Heartbeats).

3. Niñxs (Mexico/Germany)

This free Wear It Purple Day screening for under-25s is a joyful, revolutionary coming-of-age doc told through the eyes of a trans child. Brimming with humour and heart, it’s a vital and affirming film that doesn’t flinch from the realities of growing up trans.

4. From All Sides (Australia)

Marking a bold local feature debut for Bina Bhattacharya (Here Out West), this Western Sydney-set drama centres a married multiracial bisexual couple navigating parenthood, sex and secrets. The cast includes Monique Kalmar, Max Brown and Rebekah Elmaloglou.

5. Holding the Man — 10th Anniversary Screening

Presented in partnership with ACON and the Sydney Opera House, this special event commemorates the 40th anniversary of ACON and 30 years since Timothy Conigrave’s memoir was published. It’s an emotional homage to one of Australia’s most enduring queer love stories, followed by a Q&A with special guests.

“Queer Screen continues to offer a vital opportunity to come together and support each other,” said Programming & Industry Manager Andrew Wilkie. “Every film is a chance to not only see ourselves onscreen, but step into someone else’s shoes and gain new perspectives.”

Tickets — including Flexi 3 and Flexi 6 Passes — are on sale now at queerscreen.org.au.