A queer guide to this year’s Melbourne International Film Festival

The Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) is back for another year of stellar cinema, with 357 films slated to be screened over 18 days across the city.

As usual, many selections were cherry picked from some of the most renowned film festivals around the world such as Cannes, Sundance, and Toronto, alongside many homegrown filmmakers, and cinephiles will delight in what’s on offer.

The appetites of LGBTI moviegoers will also certainly be satiated with a number of queer films scheduled to screen during the popular festival.

Below are some highlights for queer Victorians hoping to indulge in LGBTI cinema at this year’s MIFF, which runs from August 3 – 20.

For the full program click here.

God’s Own Country

Described as a British Brokeback Mountain, this film follows Yorkshire farm boy Johnny who spends his nights drinking and cruising for anonymous sex until he meets the handsome Gheorghe, a Romanian worker hired to help his family during the lambing season.

The film features stunning captured countryside landscapes, heated sex scenes, and forbidden romance.

Call Me By Your Name

Adapted from the renowned novel of the same name, Call Me By Your Name follows teenager Elio in the early ’80s who intends to spend the summer at his family’s stunning villa in northern Italy soaking up the sun. What he doesn’t expect is to become smitten by the aloof Oliver, who joins his family as a research assistant.

BPM

Taking home the Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, BPM chronicles the protests and politics of ’90s AIDS activism.

Set at a time when governments and pharmaceutical companies were eager to ignore the AIDS crisis, the film follows a group of activists in the famous advocacy group Act Up in Paris. It’s a raw and intimate drama that demands to be seen by all gay men and their allies.

Beach Rats

In Brooklyn, 17-year-old Frankie is being socially pressured into an adult life of toxic masculinity and heterosexuality. Sex is on his mind, and he spends much of his time organising secret hook-ups with older men that both shame and thrill him.

Beach Rats is a captivating antidote to the modern myth that coming out is a right afforded to all of us.

My Friend Dahmer

If you’re familiar with notorious serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer you’ll know this film isn’t for everyone. However, it does shine a light on Dahmer’s adolescence as an outcast, obsessed with the morbidity of death and not very good at making friends.

The film is based on a graphic novel by one of Dahmer’s actual classmates and depicts the true story of the origins of one of the 20th century’s most gruesome monsters, who also happened to be gay and target gay men.

The Death and Life of Marsha P Johnson

Marsha P Johnson was the heart and soul of the Greenwich Village LGBT scene. A bubbly and gregarious trans woman who dedicated her life to helping those like her to emerge from the shadows, Johnson’s 1992 suicide was a shock and a tragedy to the entire community. However, for many the suicide story never added up.

This documentary is an urgent testament to the shared pain, oppression, and resilience of the trans community.

I Am Not Your Negro

When he died in 1987, James Baldwin left behind an unfinished manuscript reminiscing about his friendships with black political leaders Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and Medgar Evers, all of whom were assassinated in the turbulent 1960s.

Thirty years later, this film brings that text to life with a ruminative, essayistic documentary about the famous gay writer.

Bastardy

Jack Charles is Bastardy: a 73-year-old homosexual Aboriginal elder, award-winning actor, professional cat burglar and junkie. This 2008 documentary is screening at MIFF as part of a retrospective and chronicles the life of Charles, a child of the stolen generation.