Queer Screen is calling on cinema lovers to come together at the 32nd Mardi Gras Film Festival in Sydney from 13 to 27 February.
“Come for the love of cinema, the love of queer films, and the love of community,” said Festival Director Lisa Rose. “The film industry has changed dramatically throughout my time with Queer Screen. The volume of LGBTQIA+ content we see, as well as how and where we see it, continues to evolve,” she said. “Yet the sense of belonging that comes when the lights dim and a room full of queer people experience a queer story together remains a constant. Even when a film has the audience divided, the feeling of community that envelops us is unifying.”

This year’s festival includes almost 150 of the world’s best LGBTQI+ films, presented across 72 sessions at Event Cinemas (George Street and Hurstville), Dendy Cinemas Newtown, and Ritz Cinemas Randwick. Special events at the State Library of NSW and additional screenings at The Rocks Laneway Cinema and Bank Hotel complete the program.
The Festival opens with YOUNG HEARTS, an adorable, crowd-pleasing, coming of age tale set in rural Belgium, where 14-year-old Elias is navigating his burgeoning feelings for new neighbour, Alexander, with the support of his loving family.
To close the Festival, charming French comedy-drama SOMEWHERE IN LOVE also sees the world open up for its main character, fifty-something single mother Nicole, whose unexpected romance with the beguiling Nora offers some respite from her fractured relationship with teenage son, Serge.

Elsewhere, I’M YOUR VENUS is a cathartic ode to Venus Xtravaganza, murdered trans star of 1990 ballroom documentary Paris Is Burning. Overflowing with love for its subject, it focuses on her two families (biological and ballroom) as they honour her legacy. Another stunning documentary, 1800-ON-HER-OWN profiles singer/songwriter Ani De Franco.
A total of twenty MGFF25 feature films are Australian Premières, but there are also encore screenings of some beloved classics.

Following the success of last year’s The Sound of Music sing-a-long, the festival is reprising the fun-filled event with nun other than Whoopi Goldberg’s SISTER ACT on the screen, accompanied by sinful shenanigans from the Sisters and Brothers of The Order of Perpetual Indulgence, Sydney.

Don’t miss the camp classic THE BIRDCAGE, in which a gay couple (Robin Williams and Nathan Lane) try to convince their son’s ultra-conservative future in-laws they’re not gay.

The festival will also bring CABARET back to the big screen. Winner of eight Oscars, the film remains as timely now as ever.
The film is included in addition to perhaps the biggest score on the bill – the Australian premiere screening of Bruce David Klein’s new documentary LIZA: A TRULY TERRIFIC ABSOLUTELY TRUE STORY – a dazzling profile of an enduring gay icon and Hollywood survivor, Liza Minnelli.

Highlights from the program will be available to stream, on demand, around the nation from 28 February to 10 March.
Tickets are on sale now at www.queerscreen.org.au