Around Melbourne
Various
The Melbourne Queer Film Festival (MQFF) returns to shine the spotlight on LGBTQIA+ people throughout history with a line-up full of hysterical comedy, campy horror and deliciously juicy drama.
The largest queer film festival in the Southern Hemisphere is back for its 35th outing, and this year's theme is 'Searching for Queer Utopias'. Captured through film’s immortalising lens, MQFF's 2025 program is a celebration of queer joy, connection and liberation, while also showcasing spaces where the LGBTQIA+ community and allies can be themselves.
Running from November 13-23, audiences can expect more than 130 feature films, documentaries and short films (including 35 Australian premieres) to be shown at iconic city venues like Collins Place, Melbourne Town Hall and the Capitol Theatre.
“There’s an incredible line-up of award-winning and premiere cinema for the audience for our milestone 35th season,” says MQFF Chief Executive Officer, David Martin Harris. “We’re bringing back premium events for our opening and closing night in what is a purely contemporary program that looks at the current and future for LGBTQIA+ communities in Australia and globally.”
MQFF will kick off with an opening night screening of Queens of the Dead, a queer apocalyptic survival comedy with a stacked ensemble cast that's been directed by Tina Romero. The festival will close with Plainclothes, a 1990s romantic thriller directed by Carmen Emmi.
In between, you can catch everything from in-conversation events, keynote speeches, a showcase of the best emerging queer talent, an industry day supported by RMIT University and much more. The centrepiece of MQFF will be The Crowd, a guerilla-style film shot in Tehran that captures the realities of queer youth resisting the patriarchal norms.
Other film highlights include Jimpa, which explores intergenerational queer family
dynamics; Hot Milk, starring Emma Mackey and Fiona Shaw; The Serpent's Skin, by rising Aussie talent Alice Maio Mackay; and Bearcave, which has come direct from the Venice Film Festival.
You can buy tickets and discover more by visiting the MQFF website here.
