

It’s good to start a film festival on a high and this sweet, sexy, lyrical and hopeful first feature by Faraz Shariat hit just the right note.
Continue reading

It’s good to start a film festival on a high and this sweet, sexy, lyrical and hopeful first feature by Faraz Shariat hit just the right note.
Continue reading
I’m not at all an expert on LGBTQI+ films and will be interested in what my more learned friends post. I nearly chose Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden (2016), which was a delight from start to finish, but Maya Newell’s Australian documentary about same-sex parents remains one of the best documentaries I have seen.
Continue reading
Image via miff.com.au
![]()
Suffused with golden light and a fug of cigarette smoke, this Georgian drama pulls you in to what feels like a very real story of queer love in an oppressively heterosexual culture. Continue reading

Image via screenworlds.co.uk
![]()
For anyone feeling that “this gender thing has gone too far”, this low-key, intense Belgian drama about a 15 year old girl, born with the body of a boy and trying to be herself, may go some way to help you understand. Continue reading

Image via miff.com.au
![]()
There is something to be said for a film that left me wanting to go home and make clothes. Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui’s documentary about fashion enfant terrible Lee (Alexander) McQueen is equal parts inspiring and devastating. Continue reading

Image via times.com
![]()
This thoroughly enjoyable biopic tells the story of celebrated and notorious French writer Colette and her struggle for recognition. Directed by Wash Westmoreland (Still Alice 2014), Colette has the feel of a lush, British period drama, with well-drawn characters, gorgeous costuming and a pace that never feels rushed. Continue reading

Image via miff.com.au
![]()
This is a strange film. It changes mood, pace and genre several times, beginning as a straightforward drama then veering into romance then horror then fantasy then fairytale, with the occasional musical number thrown in. Continue reading

Image by Digby Duncan via miff.com.au
![]()
I love MIFF for the chance to experience or revisit important pieces of filmmaking and Witches, Faggots, Dykes and Poofters is a great example of this. Continue reading

Image via miff.com.au
![]()
This exquisite and heartbreaking film by Christophe Honoré felt like a more whimsical but no less real partner to last year’s BPM. The Anglicised title doesn’t do it justice, and I prefer the original that loosely translates as “pleasure, love and run fast.” Continue reading

Image via cinemavine.com
![]()
I like a film that makes you feel a bit emotionally wrung out by the end. Directed by Chilean Sebastián Lelio (A Fantastic Woman) and his first English-language film, this is a rich and absorbing story about religion, family and independence. Continue reading