Melbourne Queer Film Festival Extra

Overview

Twelve months is a long time to wait between film festivals. Don't worry — the folks behind Melbourne's annual queer cinema showcase feel your pain. While the Melbourne Queer Film Festival usually only runs in March, this year it's giving LGBTQIA movie buffs a little something extra, thanks to a three-day feast of flicks between Friday, October 4 and Sunday, October 6.

Called Melbourne Queer Film Festival Extra, and designed to become an annual end-of-year highlight, this bonus mini-festival will serve up ten features and two shorts programs for its inaugural run. And, while it's definitely a bite-sized affair, it's all about quality rather than quantity.

Screening at Cinema Nova, MQFF Extra kicks off with Pedro Almodovar's sublime Pain and Glory, starring Antonio Banderas in his Cannes Film Festival Best Actor-winning role. You can also swoon over Celine Sciamma's glorious Portrait of a Lady on Fire, see comedian Simon Amstell turn filmmaker with Benjamin, and explore the story of a British transgender man's quest to deliver his own child in Seahorse. Or, step back into the past via two movies with high-profile stars: Vita and Virginia, featuring Elizabeth Debicki as Virginia Woolf and Gemma Arterton as Vita Sackville-West; and Lizzie, with Chloë Sevigny playing accused murderer Lizzie Borden opposite Kristen Stewart.