Out Takes

The 91st Academy Awards are just around the corner so we took the opportunity for this program to roll out the red carpet, put on our tuxedos (Gina went full Canadian) and got into the Oscars spirit. We looked at some of the controversy surrounding this years ceremony and nominees, reviewed a swag of nominated films, took a closer look at what was on offer for the queer community in this years nominees and casted our predictions for who will nab the top awards of the night.

Our guests were Kristian Connelly, the General Manger and Head of Programming at Cinema Nova, and Matthew Wade, the editor of Star Observer. We got Kristian and Matthew to cover off on their favourite Oscars contenders and their picks for which nominees are likely to take home an award.

Valentine’s Day has been and gone but the Out Takes team celebrated it early by spotlighting the latest and greatest in queer foreign language romance cinema: think Marco Berger’s steamy new flick ‘The Blonde One’ or the ground breaking festival darling ‘Rafiki’.

Our guest was Simon Chung, director of ‘I Miss You When I See You’, which screened at the Mardi Gras Film Festival. We spoke with Chung about his romantic new take on unrequited love, and his favourite Valentine’s Day flicks.

This week on Out Takes we celebrated the 2019 Mardi Gras Film Festival (MGFF) with a fantastic line up. Our guests were MGFF Director Lisa Rose and Ian Thomson, the director of homegrown doco Becoming Colleen. Becoming Colleen sensitively explores the challenges of transitioning late in life, and issues surrounding aged care for the LGBTIQ community.

Queer Screen’s 26th MGFF hits cinemas in NSW this month with an exciting array of diverse LGBT films.

For more details visit the MGFF website.

The Favourite and Mary Queen of Scots have both been critically lauded for their fresh perspective on royal history. And both films are remarkably queer. So this week, as The Favourite and Mary Queen of Scots continue their successful runs in mainstream cinemas, we review each film, and look at how each filters the lives of the respective monarchs that they depict through very queer lenses.

We also count down our favourite queens on the screen, from Cate Blanchett’s career defining portrayal of Elizabeth to Disney’s iconic Evil Queen.

This week on Out Takes, to coincide with International Holocaust Remembrance Day (27 January) we turned our attention to queer Holocaust films.

We’ve looked at Holocaust films that are explicitly gay on Out Takes before: think films like Cabaret, Bent and Paragraph 175. This year, we looked at films that challenge the traditional hetero-normative, linear ways that conventional cinema recalls the Holocaust, without depicting narratives that involve LGBT characters.

Our guests were Eddie Tamir, the owner and operator of Classic, Cameo and Lido cinemas, which have always sought to screen films in remembrance of the Holocaust, and Dr Gerd Bayer, editor of “Holocaust Cinema in the Twenty-First Century: Images, Memory, and the Ethics of Representation.”

Must see: Inglorious Bastards (2009, Dir. Quentin Tarentino)

Hungry for more: The Reader (2009, Dir. Stephen Daldry)

This week on Out Takes we turned our attention to Queer Refugee Cinema.

With the number of refugees around the world proliferating exponentially. Refugee Cinema has become a filmic genre in its own right so it seemed timely that we explore some of the more recent filmic releases that mediate the experiences of LGBT refugees and asylum seekers.

Our guests were Mikko Makela, director of A Moment in the Reeds, and Blerta Zeqiri, director of The Marriage. Both films chart illicit, some-sex love affairs against the backdrop of war torn societies and refugee trauma.

Must see: A Moment in the Reeds (2017, Dir. Mikko Makela)

Hungry for more: The Marriage (2017, Dir. Blerta Zeqiri)

This week on Out Takes, we ushered in the new year by looking at some of the most anticipated theatrical releases of 2019.

Our guests were Kristian Connelly, General Manager and Programmer at Cinema Nova, and Kirk Marcolina, the director of Australia Says Yes, which screens at the Yarraville Theater later this month. We spoke with both Kristian and Kirk about their most anticipated films of the year.

We also reflected on the winners and losers at this year’s Golden Globes and revisited some of the films and performances that were championed at the awards.

This week on Out Takes, we ushered in the new year by looking back at 2018 and the spate of queer films that it brought us. We also count down our favourite films and performances and look at some of the cinematic trends that marked the year that was in film. 

 

Here are some of the films that the Out Takes team chose as their favourites of the year. 

 

Daniel:

Best film of the year: Custody (Dir. Xavier Legrand) 

Best queer film of the year: A Kid Like Jake (Dir. Silas Howard)

Gina:

Best performance of the year: Victor Polster (Girl) 

Best queer film of the year: BPM (Robin Campillo) 

Alan: 

Best film of the year: A Star is Born (Bradley Cooper)

Best performance of the year: Glenn Close (The Wife)

For this annual special program, the Out Takes team made your Yuletide extra gay this festive season with our guide to the best, most off beat and queerest holigay classics.

 

This week on Out Takes, we turned the spotlight on COLETTE, the radiant new film from Wash Westmoreland starring Keira Knightly. COLETTE brings the

untold story of author and bisexual icon Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette and her famous Claudine novels to the big screen.

Our guest is COLETTE director, Wash Westmoreland (THE FLUFFER, STILL ALICE). We speak with Westmoreland about the message behind his powerful new film, and the importance of bringing diverse queer stories to the big screen.

We also revisiting THE WIFE starring Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce (pictured), which hit cinemas earlier this year. Like COLETTE, THE WIFE tells the story of the woman behind the man, and furnishes a powerful commentary on gender relations and the modern politics of gender relations.