Packed full with Australian and Queensland premiere titles, including highly anticipated films out of the Cannes, Berlin and Toronto International Film Festivals, as well as two retrospective program stands, The New Farm Queer Film Festival returns with its biggest and best program yet, running from October 3rd to the 13th.
Programmed by Sean Tayler and presented by Five Star Cinemas in partnership with the Pride Business Network, this year’s festival highlights include The People’s Joker, which reimagines the origin story of the Joker into a trans coming of age story; the Australian drama Sahela, set in Sydney’s Indian community of Parramatta; Cannes competition title Caught by the Tides; and the special 4K presentation of Gregg Araki‘s “Teen Apocalypse Trilogy” – Totally F***ed Up (1993), a landmark of the New Queer movement, 1995’s The Doom Generation, a nihilistic road movie starring Rose McGowan, and Nowhere (1997), featuring an ensemble cast of then up-and-comers, such as Denise Richards, Ryan Phillippe and Mena Suvari.
The Opening Night Gala event on the black carpet will be Crossing, which tells the story of Lia (a mesmerising Mzia Arabuli), a retired teacher living in Georgia, and her neighbour Achi (Lucas Kankava), who set off to Turkey together in hopes of finding Lia’s long lost niece. Weaving their way through Istanbul’s backstreets, they discover trying to find someone who doesn’t want to be found is a tough ask, that is until they meet a lawyer fighting for trans rights.
The Closing Night screening is a bold, edgy, campy cinematic thrill ride starring Dylan O’Brien and Murray Bartlett, Ponyboi. Unfolding over the course of Valentine’s Day in New Jersey, this neon-drenched tale tells of a young intersex worker who’s on the run from the mob after a drug deal goes sideways, forcing him to confront his past.
Also featuring new restorations of such films as Water Drops on Burning Rocks, the perverted French thriller Criminal Lovers, Evan Rachel Wood‘s queer cheerleading drama Backspot, and Elliot Page‘s raw and personal Close To You, this year will be as inclusive as it is entertaining.
For more information about the festival, session times and tickets, head to the official New Farm Queer Film Festival site here.
