New Farm Queer Film Festival unveils big 2023 lineup

Jordan Hirst 21 July 2023

Images from the films on the lineup at the New Farm Queer Film Festival — Images: Supplied

The folks at New Farm Cinemas have unveiled the lineup of queer premieres and restored favourites at the upcoming New Farm Queer Film Festival.

For years, New Farm Cinemas have screened queer-interest movies and festivals for their Brisbane audiences.

Soon their New Farm Queer Film Festival will return for a second year, running for twelve days from September 21 to October 2 at the cinemas.

NFQFF will screen five Australian premieres and seven Queensland premieres as well as revisit restored queer classics and welcome special guests during the festival.

Watch all the trailers and book tickets to all NFQFF films at the New Farm Cinemas website.

Opening Night: Passages

In Paris, Tomas (Franz Rogowski, Great Freedom, Transit) embraces his sexuality through a torrid love affair with Agathe (Adèle Exarchopoulos, Blue is the Warmest Color), an impulse that blurs the lines defining his relationship with husband Martin (Ben Whishaw).

Closing Night: Pink Flamingos

NFQFF’s Black Carpet Closing Night Gala Screening of the outrageous John Waters classic. Notorious Baltimore criminal and underground figure Divine goes up against Connie and Raymond Marble, a sleazy married couple who make a passionate attempt to humiliate her and seize her tabloid-given title as “The Filthiest Person Alive”.

Afire

The new film from Germany’s Christian Petzold (Phoenix, Transit) continues his prize-winning streak at the Berlinale with a Silver Bear-winning film where a seaside vacation takes an unexpected turn when Leon and Felix show up at Felix’s family’s holiday home to discover Nadja, a mysterious woman, already there. As an ever-encroaching forest fire threatens their well-being, relationships are tested and romances are kindled.

Aristotle & Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

Based on the coming-of-age young adult novel by American author Benjamin Alire Sáenz. Set in El Paso, Texas in 1987, the film follows two Mexican-American teenagers, Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza and Dante Quintana. The film explores their friendship and struggles with racial and ethnic identity, sexuality, and family relationships.

Beau Travail

From France. Considered to be a staple of international cinema, Claire Denis’ spellbinding tale of lust and desire screens in restored 4k. Foreign Legion officer, Galoup, recalls his once glorious life, leading troops in the Gulf of Djibouti. His existence there was happy, strict and regimented, but the arrival of a promising young recruit, Sentain, plants the seeds of jealousy in Galoup’s mind.

Blue Jean

This searing British indie from first-time filmmaker Georgia Oakley is near universally acclaimed, winning four British Independent Film Awards including Best Lead Performance.

Jean, a PE teacher, is forced to live a double life. When a new student arrives and threatens to expose her sexuality, Jean is pushed to extreme lengths to keep her job and her integrity.

Bones and Names

From Germany. Bones and Names is actor Fabian Stumm’s directorial and screenplay feature-length debut. Unfolding in humorous and tender sequences that take place in demarcated, characteristic settings (bedroom, supermarket and rehearsal room), his film is an intelligent and entertaining reflection on relationships.

Funeral Parade of Roses

From Japan. Funeral Parade of Roses is a kaleidoscopic masterpiece and one of the most intoxicating films of the 60s. It’s a celebration of youth and subcultures, a condemnation of intolerance, and a one-of-a-kind cinematic experience.

Set in the underground gay culture of 1960s Tokyo, a loose adaptation of Oedipus Rex in which a gay son kills his mother and sleeps with his father.

Give Me Pity!

Sophie von Haselberg – the spitting image of her mother, Bette Midler – shines bright in this lurid picture of stardom undone directed by Amanda Kramer (Please Baby Please!).

Sissy St. Claire graces the small screen for her first-ever television special. It’s an evening full of music and laughter, glamour and entertainment!

But Sissy’s live event quickly begins to curdle into a psychedelic nightmare of vanity, insecurity and delusional ambition, provoked by the glowering presence of a mysterious masked man.

Drifter

From Germany. Moritz follows a boyfriend to Berlin and is soon abandoned by him. Alone in the big city, he embarks on a journey through a wide range of queer experiences. Only through a new circle of queer friends does he develop his own ideas of sexuality and masculinity, leading him to a clearer self-identity.

Captain Faggotron Saves the Universe

Channel your inner Faggotron for NFQFF’s dress-up screening. A young priest is intent on denying his homosexuality, and he’s not doing a very good job. Meanwhile, his alien ex-lover is plotting to turn the Earth into a homosexual planet during a cosmic event. Captain Faggotron is caught in the middle. Clashing ideologies culminate in an orgy of gay demons and a love that no longer has to hide.

Horseplay

Argentinean auteur Marco Berger (The Blonde One, Taekwondo) returns with an erotic and tense drama. In the heat of the summer, Andy leaves the city to spend some time at a luxury villa with friends. As they party and goof around, their initial consensual horseplay reveals that they each have different personal boundaries.

Since the Last Time We Met

From Argentina. Handsome and stylish Victor is reunited by chance with David, his first love. It’s fifteen years after the last time they saw each other. This reunion revives the clandestine love they had when they were younger.

Single, Out

When Adam has his first sexual experience his life is changed forever. He has to work and pursue his art, as well as come to terms with being out to his friends and family. He discovers growing up that fast is a balancing act of trying to keep everyone else happy as well as being true to himself. Being single was easy. Being out is hard.

That Kind of Summer

Three “hypersexual” women spend 26 days in a quiet rest home, enabling a frank exploration of different experiences, forms, and extremes of desire. Under the detached supervision of a therapist and a considerate social worker, the group attempts to maintain a delicate balance.

Québécois arthouse filmmaker and documentarian Denis Côté’s Berlin competition title is a smart and observational drama about the sexual conformity of a trio of women in French Canada.

The Winner Takes It All

Drag star Maxi Shield stars as Kiki, a wealthy socialite, who confides in her best friend Maxine. Her husband is cheating on her and is in danger of losing her rather large fortune. The two women make a deal to uncover the truth, but not all is as it seems. Throw in a gigolo, a pornstar and lashings of camp for the funniest, stupidest, campest ride of your life.