This weekend, Queer Screen’s Mardi Gras Film Festival returns to cinemas across Sydney to showcase some of the best and most boundary-pushing queer films around the world.
Here are ScreenHub’s top ten picks of the Mardi Gras Film Festival.
Top ten must-sees of Mardi Gras:
Read: Queen Screen Mardi Gras Film Festival 2024: we need to talk …
Housekeeping for Beginners
Synopsis: Dita, unprepared for motherhood, finds herself raising her girlfriend’s daughters, amidst clashes and bonding, exploring themes of privilege and identity.
Director: Goran Stolevski.
Cast: Anamaria Marinca, Alina Serban, Samson Selim
Country: MACEDONIA
Cora Bora
Synopsis: Fearing her relationship isn’t going well, Cora returns home to win her girlfriend back, but she realizes much more than her love life needs salvaging.
Director: Hannah Pearl Utt
Cast: Megan Stalter, Chelsea Peretti, Catlin Reilly
Country: USA
Sahela (Companion)
Synopsis: Vir Oza and Nitya Behl are a married couple living in the suburbs of Parramatta, Sydney. Vir struggles to come to terms with his identity and the pressures he faces from his family, which is representative through his sailing endeavors in struggling to tie the bowline knot.
Director: Raghuvir Joshi
Cast: Antonio Aakeel, Anula Navlekar, Harish Patel
Country: AUSTRALIA
Old Narcissus
Synopsis: Yamazaki, once handsome, now struggles with aging and the loss of his youthful appeal. The narrative delves into his agony and the challenges he faces due to his narcissism.
Director: Tsuyoshi Shôji
Cast: Atom Mizuishi, Kunio Murai, Kanji Tsuda
Country: JAPAN
Queendom
Synopsis: Documentary. Dressed in otherworldly costumes, a gay artist from a small town in Russia stages radical public performances that become a new form of art and activism.
Director: Agniia Galdanova
Cast: Gena Marvin
Country: RUSSIA
Femme
Synopsis: Jules, a drag queen, is targeted in a horrific homophobic attack, destroying his life and career. Some time after that, he encounters one of his attackers in a gay sauna and wants revenge.
Director: Sam H. Freeman, Ng Choon Ping
Cast: George MacKay, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Aaron Heffernan
Country: UK
Playland
Synopsis: A raucous work of queer fantasy and history, Playland conjures a time-bending night in Boston’s oldest and most notorious gay bar. Playland is a boundary-pushing, transdisciplinary, hybrid film centered around the raucous activity of a time-bending night in Boston’s oldest and most notorious gay bar, the Playland Café.
Director: Georden West
Cast: Danielle Cooper, Lady Bunny, Aidan Dick
Country: USA
The Queen of my Dreams
Synopsis: Pakistani Muslim Mariam and her Canadian-born daughter Azra come of age in two different eras against the backdrop of a shared obsession with Bollywood fantasy.
Director: Fawzia Mirza
Cast: Hamza Haq, Amrit Kaur, Nimra Bucha
Country: CANADA/PAKISTAN
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
Synopsis: Mexican-American teenagers Aristotle Mendoza and Dante Quintana explore their friendship while struggling with racial and ethnic identity, sexuality and family relationships in 1987 in El Paso, Texas.
Director: Aitch Alberto
Cast: Max Pelayo, Reese Gonzales, Eva Longoria
Country: USA
Kokomo City
Synopsis: Documentary. Four Black transgender sex workers tell their life stories in intimate and candid interviews.
Director: D. Smith.
Cast: Daniella Carter, Koko Da Doll
Country: USA
The Mardi Gras Film Festival, run by Queer Screen, runs from 15-29 February 2024. For tickets and more info, please head to the Queer Screen website.
