Out Takes

Midsumma Festival is back in 2025 with an explosion of queer events that centre around hidden and mainstream queer culture, involving local, interstate, and international artists including a fantastic range of film events across the Midsumma season. We caught up with returning guest and friend of the show, Melbourne Queer Film Festival’s Program Director Cerise Howard, about many the fantastic films on offer in this year’s MQFF Midsumma program and we also review a few of them too. We also spoke to Jas Brooks, Tammy Burnstock and Brimbank Youth Services Youth Support and Inclusion Officer Jacob Tiauli about Scented Cinema, two interactive and sensory experience films screenings that are presented by Brimbank City Council in collaboration with Snivure and Scented Storytelling that will leave your noses and eyes having the time of your life! We moved on from Midsumma and finished up this show by speaking with multi-award-winning Irish film and theatre director John Crowley whose latest film ‘We Live In Time’, starring Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield, is in Australian cinemas now.

The post Spotlight on the 2025 Midsumma Movie Program appeared first on Out Takes.

Now that award season has officially kicked off with the Golden Globes, we thought it was a good time to take a look at how it all went down; from the surprises (yay for Demi Moore!) and the major wins (looks like ‘The Brutalist’ is one to watch) to the films that are likely to be in the running for more nominations in the upcoming awards in the lead up to the 2025 Oscars. That includes Emilia Perez, Sing Sing, The Room Next Door and Anora; all films generating buzz and in some cases, a lot of controversy too, particularly around the stories they tell and who is telling them as well. So come for the glitz and glamour of the Globes and stick around for the Out Takes reviews of this years potential award winners!

The post Out Takes Guide to Award Season 2025 – part 1 appeared first on Out Takes.

Happy New Year! With our first show for 2025, we took a look at ‘Teaches of Peaches’ which is streaming now on DocPlay. This frenetic and audacious film celebrates the world of gender-punk icon Peaches in this Teddy Award–winning documentary that screened at MIFF and MQFF in 2024. Following the 20th anniversary tour of her album ‘The Teaches of Peaches’, this film features stunning live performances from that tour and delves into her beginnings with archive footage plus interviews from Feist, Chilly Gonzales and Shirley Manson, which celebrate Peaches’ impact in music and pop culture. Co-directed by Judy Landkammer and Phillip Fussenegger, we had a chance to speak with Philipp during his skiing holiday in Austria to find out more about how they worked their way into Peaches world and got her to tell her incredible story in her own words plus we give our full review on this wild and wonderful music documentary too.

We also celebrated the incredible BRAT year that Charli XCX had in 2024 by revisiting an interview from May 2022 with Bradley Bell and Pablo Jones-Soler a.k.a. Bradley & Pablo, who co-directed the ‘Charli XCX: Alone Together’ documentary. The film chronicles the recording of Charli’s album ‘How I’m Feeling Now’, which she decided to record during lockdown in 40 days. Described as a “love letter between Charli and her fans’ (many of whom are LGBTQIA+), it’s an insight into her world, her creative process and a time capsule on what went on during the COVID pandemic lockdown in 2020.

The post ‘Teaches of Peaches’ with special guest Philipp Fussenegger appeared first on Out Takes.

Following from last week where we got together to look back at the year and state our picks for the best and worst films and TV shows of the year, we thought it would also be a great time to check in with some of our favourite guests and queer cinematic colleagues to hear what they enjoyed this year too. Sp for part 2 of the Out Takes 2024 Year in Review Best we welcomed Kristian Connelly from Cinema Nova, Cerise Howard and David Martin Harris from MQFF, Paul Tonta from Madman, Dean Arcuri from QNews plus queer filmmaker Timothy Despina Marshall to give us their choices for what they loved and loathed on their big and small screens in 2024. As expected, they picked a fantastic selection of films and television to check out and a few to avoid plus there was some crossover with titles that we also selected as some of our best and worst picks too – we think that’s called great queer minds think alike! Happy holidays, keep listening to Out Takes in 2025 for more reviews, interviews and discussions about queer film and television, only on JOY.

The post Out Takes 2024 Year in Review: Part 2 appeared first on Out Takes.

With 2024 coming to a close, we took this opportunity to bring the entire team together to discuss the best and worst films and television shows of the year plus our favourite queer pop culture moment from the past 12 months. From some obvious inclusions (hello to Wicked and The Substance) to a few surprises (we love that Demetra chose live tennis as her TV highlight for the year), we covered a diverse range of programs and movies from a year that once again provided some wonderful and truly terrible moments (looking at you MAFS!) on our big and small screens in 2024.

The post Out Takes 2024 Year in Review: Part 1 appeared first on Out Takes.

We managed to get the whole team together for this show so we decided it was the perfect time to serve up another batch of recommendations and reviews to get you through the holidays and what is looking like a very hot summer down under.  From Aussie comedic gems like Fisk and Bump through to Queer Eye and Queer (the one with Daniel Craig), we literally had something for everyone to binge or look forward to over the holidays and well in to the new year. We also took a look at the first round of nomination announcements for the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards and celebrated the LGBTIQA+ films, television shows and perfromances who were recognised, along with a few snubs and surprises too. Tis’ the season so sit back, relax and let us help you get through the holidays with the help of some quality film and television!

The post Out Takes Recommendations for Xmas/NY plus Awards Season review appeared first on Out Takes.

For this Out Takes, we welcomed back Dion Blackler to the show in his official capacity as our London Film Correspondent to discuss some of the highlights and lowlights from this year’s BFI London Film Festival plus some recommendations for films to check out in 2025. As one of the co-hosts of the podcast ‘In the Mood for Film’ and a lifelong lover of cinema, he knows his stuff and always brings us some great reviews and recommendations for films to look out for in the year ahead.  We also took this opportunity to look at some of the many holiday season themed films from over the years that we’ve loved and loathed and we also turned our attention to some of the new ones on offer. Alaisdair officially stated that this year saw the rise of the horny Christmas movie, and with films focusing on male strippers and a snowman with abs of steel coming to life, it is fair to say that he nailed it. Happy Horny Holidays!

The post 2024 BFI London Film Festival review plus Queer Holiday Season Film recommendations appeared first on Out Takes.

For this program, we spoke in depth with local Aussie queer filmmaker Timothy Despina Marshall, the writer & director of ‘In the Room Where He Waits’, about navigating a career as an independent filmmaker. Timothy shares his insights about how to make the most of winning awards and his concurrent and fulfilling career as an educator. We also had an encore presentation of our review of his film plus we reviewed a Canadian Pakistani lesbian film ‘The Queen of My Dreams’, the second feature film by writer/director Fawzia Mirza. This gorgeous comedy drama explores a conservative mother and her lesbian daughter and how they learn to reconnect their relationship through a story that travels between the late sixties to the late nineties and is told with the joy and fervour of a Bollywood film.

The post Industry insights with Timothy Despina Marshall and ‘The Queen of My Dreams’ appeared first on Out Takes.

The press run for this film has been epic and with Wicked finally in cinemas we took the opportunity to celebrate part one’s release with a look at all of the elements of this much loved book and musical that has led to it finally being delivered as the movie musical that many queer people will tell you they’ve been waiting for their whole lives that will have you singing, dancing and defying gravity this November and beyond. We explore the history of the story from its connection to the Wizard of Oz book and 1939 film through to its triumphant arrival on Broadway in 2003 through to the development and delivery of the highly anticipated film version. We also discuss the importance of its casting, performances, and representation along with the incredible attention to detail provided through the sets, cinematography and of course, the music.

The post The Out Takes guide to Wicked (Part 1) appeared first on Out Takes.

With MQFF 2024 in full swing, we took the opportunity to do our final round of reviews and recommendations including spotlighting a great new local film that is screening now around Australia. ‘Strange Creatures’ tells the story of Nate, a proud pansexual man who used to be close with his big brother Ged but something bad went down and the siblings haven’t spoken in years. Summoned to suburban Melbourne to celebrate their mum’s birthday, she promptly dies overnight, and they’re forced to work things out while on a road trip back to the remote northern NSW town where they grew up, so they can scatter her ashes. Our first special guest for this show was Riley Nottingham, one of the leads in the film, who discussed his career and involvement in the project including the importance of carpooling in getting to know your co-stars. We also were joined by Janet Anderson, an up and coming trans actress and creative who the Casting Guild of Australia recently crowned as one of Australia’s top emerging talents of 2024.  We discussed her road from singing to studying to being a working actor, the impact of social media on performers and how this accolade could potentially impact her career.

The post ‘Strange Creatures’ with Riley Nottingham and 2024 CGA Rising Star Janet Anderson appeared first on Out Takes.