| Mardi Gras Film Festival | |
|---|---|
| Status | Active |
| Genre | LGBTQ+ film festival |
| Begins | September 2, 2026 (2026-09-02) |
| Ends | September 8, 2026 (2026-09-08) |
| Frequency | Annually |
| Locations | Sydney, New South Wales |
| Country | Australia |
| Inaugurated | February 1978 (1978-02) |
| Founder | Queer Screen |
Festival Director | Lisa Rose |
| Organised by | Queer Screen Limited |
| Website | queerscreen |
| 12 | |
The Mardi Gras Film Festival is an Australian LGBTQ+ film festival held in Sydney, New South Wales annually as part of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras celebrations. It is organised by Queer Screen Limited, a non-profit organization, and is one of the world's largest platforms for queer cinema.
History
Australia had the world's first gay film festival, entitled A Festival of Gay Films at the Sydney Filmmakers Co-op in June 1976, part of a larger commemoration of the Stonewall Riots in New York City of 1969.34
Inaugurated in 1978 as the Gay and Lesbian film festival by the Australian Film Institute, the film festival joined the Mardi Gras in 1986 to present an annual Sydney Gay Film Week in conjunction with the parade. Queer Screen took control of the festival in 1993.5 In addition to the Mardi Gras Film Festival, Queer Screen organises the Queer Screen Film Fest, My Queer Career and queerDOC as part of its aim to celebrate and promote Australian and international queer screen culture in all its diversity and richness.6 It 2021 it moved to hybrid online and in person festival, to adapt to a Covid landscape.
Featured films
Below is a list of some of the films featured in each festival edition.
- 1994: And the Band Played On, The East Is Red, Naked Killer
- 1995: Strawberry and Chocolate, Libera, Coming Out Under Fire
- 1996: Jeffrey, The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love, Catwalk
- 1997: An Actor's Revenge, BloodSisters, Bound
- 1998: It's in the Water, Leather Jacket Love Story, Bent
- 1999: Relax...It's Just Sex, Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss, Blind Faith
- 2000: Trick, But I'm a Cheerleader, Edge of Seventeen
- 2001: If These Walls Could Talk 2, Chutney Popcorn, The Boys in the Band
- 2002: The Fluffer, By Hook or by Crook, Urbania
- 2003: The Trip, Swimming Upstream, Under One Roof
- 2004: Camp, Goldfish Memory, Mango Kiss
- 2005: The Raspberry Reich, The Aggressives, Butterfly
- 2006: Transamerica, Loggerheads, Kinky Boots
- 2007: Coming Out, Loving Annabelle, The Gymnast
- 2008: The World Unseen, The 2 Sides of the Bed, Bam Bam and Celeste
- 2009: Were the World Mine, Drifting Flowers, I Can't Think Straight
- 2010: An Englishman in New York, And Then Came Lola, Prayers for Bobby
- 2011: Kaboom, I Love You Phillip Morris, Elena Undone
- 2012: Dirty Girl, Romeos, Weekend
- 2013: A Liar's Autobiography: The Untrue Story of Monty Python's Graham Chapman, Call Me Kuchu, Head On
- 2014: Reaching for the Moon, Any Day Now, C.O.G.
- 2015: Brokeback Mountain, The Way He Looks, Stories of Our Lives
- 2016: Starting From ... Now!, Out to Win, How to Win at Checkers (Every Time)
- 2017: Handsome Devil, A Date for Mad Mary, Angry Indian Goddesses
- 2018: Ideal Home, Love, Simon, BPM (Beats per Minute)
- 2019: Giant Little Ones, Rafiki, Un Rubio
- 2020: Ellie & Abbie (& Ellie's Dead Aunt), An Almost Ordinary Summer, And Then We Danced
- 2021: Dating Amber, Rūrangi, Supernova
- 2022: Wildhood, B-Boy Blues, Firebird
- 2023: Of an Age, Tár, Lonesome
- 2024: Femme, All of Us Strangers, Housekeeping for Beginners
- 2025: Young Hearts, Carnage for Christmas, Duino
References
References
- Busby, Cec (19 August 2014). "St George Bank announces partnership with Queer Screen". Gay New Network. Australia. Retrieved 21 January 2015.
- "St George Bank and Queer Screen to make movie magic". Star Observer. Sydney. 25 August 2014. Retrieved 21 January 2015.
- Peach, Ricardo (March 2005). Queer cinema as a fifth cinema in South Africa and Australia (PDF) (Thesis). University of Technology, Sydney. p. 17. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 January 2015. Retrieved 21 January 2015.
- Smith, Martin (June 1976). "Aussie Gay Pics". Campaign. No. 10. p. 33.
- "History". Queer Screen Limited. Retrieved 21 January 2015.
- "Queer Screen Mardi Gras Film Festival". Pink Media Group. 2015. Archived from the original on 21 January 2015. Retrieved 21 January 2015.