Must-Watch LGBT Films At Sydney Film Festival
Image: Sunflower
The Sydney Film Festival has returned for a monumental 70th year, celebrating courageous, audacious, and cutting-edge films this June.
Here’s our pick of must-watch LGBTQI films.
Sunflower
A personal film for Australian actor-turned-filmmaker Gabriel Carrubba, this semi-autobiographical coming-of-age drama chronicles the life of 17-year-old boy Leo as he deals with school, family, and burgeoning sexuality in the working-class suburbs of Melbourne. A classic queer tale filled with heartfelt authenticity and tender performances, this looks to be an unmissable world premiere.
Passages
Directed by multi-award-winning American writer, producer, and director Ira Sachs, this thoughtful drama is dedicated to the heartbreaks and aches of queer romance. Presenting an “honest portrait of a toxic relationship,” it follows gay filmmaker Tomas and the fallout that arises after he cheats on his long-time partner with a woman. Delving into the depths of entitlement, power, and celebrity.
Blue Jean
This BAFTA-nominated, award-winning film is a reflective historical drama that brings up a mirror to society, showing us how far we’ve come and how much further we’ve yet to go. Directed by British filmmaker Georgia Oakley, it follows closeted PE Teacher Jean as she struggles with being outed in 1988 Britain. Confronting themes of prejudice, homophobia, and the struggles of the LGBTQ+ community during a period of great social change.
The Devil Queen
Newly restored for its 50th anniversary, Antonio Carlos de Fontoura’s 1973 classic graces the Sydney Film Festival for a revival. Known as the ‘Grandmother of Brazilian queer cinema’, the absurdist comedy-drama mixes gangster grit, colourful camp, and LGBTQ+ pride to create a stunningly wild romp through the streets of Rio de Janeiro.
20,000 Species of Bees
In this fiction film debut by Basque filmmaker Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren, trans childhood and acceptance are put to the forefront with genuine care and attention. Set in a world where everyone knows everyone by their first name, a dilemma is created when a child prefers to be called otherwise. A contemplative family drama, this lovingly crafted film encapsulates the trans experience quite unlike anything else.
Unidentified
A sci-fi addition to the Sydney Film Festival LGBTQ+ roster, this directorial debut by filmmaker Jude Chun explores UFO phenomena, aliens, and the people at the centre of it all. When UFOs descend to Earth in 1993, but remain dormant for over 29 years, they become part of everyday life – but when rumours of an alien mind control syndrome begin to spread, things become a bit strange.
Transition
A through-provoking documentary from BAFTA-nominated Australian filmmaker Jordan Byron and freelance reporter Monica Villamizar, it invites viewers to follow Byron as they navigate gender transition while covering life in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. A genderqueer, global activist creator, Byron strives to document issues such as women’s rights, mental health, homelessness and LGBTQIA+ stories.
Marungka Talatjunu (Dipped in Black)
Recording tradition, spirituality, and history, this documentary from Australian filmmaker Matthew follows co-director Derik Lynch, an Adelaide-based Yankunytjatjara Man, as he journeys back to his remote Anangu community for spiritual healing away from white city life. It captures Lynch’s return home to perform on sacred Inma land, where ‘Inma’ is a “traditional form of storytelling using the visual, verbal, and physical” that is passed down from generation to generation.
Queendom
Putting a spotlight on the dangerous reality of LGBTQ+ people in Putin-controlled Russia – where laws actively prohibit “non-traditional sexual relations,” this documentary from Russian filmmaker Agniia Galdanova aims to resist. Queendom follows 21-year-old Gena Marvin, a Queer artist from a small town in Russia who crafts mystical ensembles from scrap and tape and takes to the streets of Moscow to perform
