Oh, be nice! The New Farm Queer Film Festival is back. Australians and queer film are a match made in heaven – think Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Number 96 and The Gay Olympics sketch in Big Girl’s Blouse.
When it comes to queer media, Australia is a trailblazer. Not only are we good at making queer media, we enjoy watching it, too. Several queer film festivals are hosted across the country year round and, in just a few days, it will be Brisbane’s turn.
The 5th annual New Farm Queer Film Festival will run at Five Star Cinemas New Farm from July 30 to August 8. A total of 21 films will be shown, 15 of which will be Queensland premieres.
The mastermind behind the line-up is film programmer and former 4ZZZ radio host Sean Tayler. He founded the festival in 2022, the year after the end of the Brisbane Queer Film Festival, and has directed all five editions of the NFQFF so far.
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“I think it is imperative that Brisbane’s LGBT audiences have the opportunity to attend a festival that represents them and the best queer-themed films of the year,” says Tayler.
Some of these films include Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, starring Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson, and Erupcja, starring 365 party girl Charli xcx as a British tourist.
There’s also former vampire Kristen Stewart’s directorial debut with The Chronology of Water, and World of Wonder Production Stop! That! Train!, which is promising to be a star-studded drag extravaganza.
If modern queer cinema won’t quite scratch your itch, a few retrospective films will be available too: 2013’s Stranger by the Lake, 1980’s Taxi zum Klo and the controversial 2004 film, Anatomy of Hell.
When asked for a specific recommendation, Tayler says: “It’s a hard call, but I think you would be sad to miss our closing night film, La Bola Negra. It won Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival and I predict it will have a very good night at next year’s Academy Awards. Imagine being able to say you saw it all the way back in August 2026.”
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Another Tayler recommendation is Body Blow, which he describes as a “banger”. In the film, a cop must go undercover in Sydney’s neon-lit gay nightlife, but his mission gets complicated when he falls for a bartender who answers to a drag queen drug lord.
Tayler would love to see a similar film set in Brisbane.
“A neo-noir set in the mean streets of Fortitude Valley would be an equally wild ride,” he says. ” You’d have to shoot on location, but you would be overwhelmed by choice!”
Body Blow is the only Australian film in this year’s line-up, but Tayler doesn’t believe that this means our country’s queer film industry is getting weaker.
“I believe that queer Aussie cinema is alive and strong,” he says. “Recent release Leviticus is one of our theatre’s highest-grossing films of 2026, beating films released by some major studios. Also keep an eye out for Sweet Milk Lake and Big Girls Don’t Cry, films that I would have loved to have programmed if the festival dates would allow.
“Previous years of our festival have premiered Australian LGBT-themed dramas and documentaries, including a retrospective of Alice Maio Mackay, an emerging young Aussie director.
“There’s more mainstream queer representation in cinema, than ever. My hope is that queer cinema can grow in popularity without losing the edge and specificity that makes this sub-genre of cinema so powerful and relevant.”
The New Farm Queer Film Festival runs at Five Star Cinemas, New Farm, July 30 to August 8.
fivestarcinemas.com.au/new-farm/new-farm-queer-film-festival
This article was written as part of The Critical Writing Program, run in partnership with Queensland Writers Centre and InReview Queensland, supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland, part of the Department of Education.
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