Film gay australia

film gay australia

Gay Love Against the Odds Film ‘Paradise’ to Be Produced by Australia’s Aquarius (EXCLUSIVE)

Aquarius Films has optioned the film development and production rights to Abdul Karim Hekmat’s acclaimed article “True Love in Nauru,” and aims to manufacture it as feature motion picture “Paradise.”

“Paradise” is the powerful genuine story of two men who meet and collapse in love in an Australian offshore detention center. Their relationship becomes a life-affirming source of power as they take on institutional indifference and overcome hopelessness, finally making their way to freedom.

Hekmat’s first article was published in The Monthly, an Australian political and society magazine. Hekmat, who resides in Australia, arrived as a refugee from Afghanistan and spent five months in detention will co-write the screenplay with Roger Monk (“Walking on Water,” “Nowhere Boys,” “The Unusual Suspects”).

“Paradise” will be co-directed by Rhys Graham and Phoenix Raei, an Australian actor-director of Persian descent. Rae, who will be making his feature directorial debut, has rece

Stephen Cummins’s moving films about gay Australian life have been restored to their glory, 30 years after his death

Two men kiss passionately, the camera so close it's almost a third party eager to connect. We pan to their profiles, two men in suits, the words "Taste The Difference" appearing overlaid while they keep at it. Effectively banned from airing on television in 1989, maybe this mock ad proved a small too tempting: Now, three decades later, you can detect out for yourself.

Taste The Difference is one of nine short films by late Australian director Stephen Cummins that have been recently restored by the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA).

The kiss between performers Chris Ryan and Herb Robertson was commissioned as part of a series of Australian artists making 30-second films for late-night Perth television. Given that, in 1989, Western Australia was amid its fifth (ultimately successful) attempt to decriminalise homosexual acts, Cummins and his friend and collaborator Simon Hunt (better known by queenly persona Pauline Pantsdown) decided to build a mock ad selling homosexuality.

"We were laughing about it," says Hunt. "It [was] all ver

The 12th Queer Screen Motion picture Fest (QSFF) will get place at Event Cinemas George Street from 27 to 31 August 2025, presenting a bold and dynamic program that highlights emerging voices, international excellence and community celebration.

The festival opens with the acclaimed, hotly anticipated Plainclothes, a tense romantic thriller about a closeted undercover cop torn between duty and living his truth, starring Russell Tovey (Looking) and Tom Blyth (The Appetite Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes).

Closing the festival is Really Pleased Someday, an intimate and empowering drama about a transmasculine musical theatre musician who loses vocal governance after starting testosterone, which received the Best Canadian Feature award at the 2025 Inside Out Toronto 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival.

Marking both the 40th anniversary of ACON and 30th anniversary of Timothy Conigrave's cult-classic Australian memoir, connect us for a particular 10th anniversary screening of Holding the Man, presented with ACON and the Sydney Opera House.

This year, QSFF introduces the inaugural Emerging Narrative Feature Competition, a juried competition awarding a $2,500 (AUD) cash prize to one of

Australian Gay Romantic Drama Of An Age Available To Stream

The Australian gay affectionate drama, Of An Age, is now available to stream.

Written and directed by Melbourne filmmaker Goran Stolevski (Housekeeping For Beginners), Of An Age was released in theatres in early 2023.  As of October 24, the film is now available to stream on Prime Video.

Set in Melbourne, the official logline reads, “In the summer of 1999, a 17-year-old Serbian-born Australian amateur ballroom dancer experiences an unexpected and intense 24-hour romance with a friend’s older brother.”

Of An Age stars Elias Anton (Barracuda), Thom Lush (Dance Academy), Hattie Hook (Ten Pound Poms), Jack Kenny (Preacher), Toby Derrick (Neighbors), Verity Higgins (Night Shift), Grace Graznak (Serial Thriller), and Milijana Cancar (Blue Heelers). 

‘A Rare Gem’

According to a record by ScreenHub, “Of An Age is a rare gem: a uniquely Australian dramatic feature that doesn’t succumb to tired soap-opera cliché or cringe humour.” 

In an interview with ScreenHub, Stolevski explained that the movie was originally a writing exercise during the Covid-19 lockdown.

10 great Australian gay films

While same-sex marriage was only made legal in Australia in 2017, the nation has a fairly sturdy record on LGBTQIA+ rights, and Sydney is one of the most gay-friendly cities in the world.

Australian cinema has had a rather strange relationship with male homosexuality. Before the 1970s, the sexuality of probable gay characters was not made explicit, for example the effeminate sales assistant in Dad and Dave Come to Town (1938). The Set (1970) is the first Australian film with homosexuality as a core theme, while gay men appeared in sexploitation favourites such as Australia after Dark (1975) and The ABCs of Love and Sex: Australia Style (1978), in which H was for homosexuality.

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Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981) featured a gay villain (the leather-clad Wez, enraged by the slaying of his lover), while more sympathetic gay characters appeared in prison drama Stir (1980) and family melodrama Mull (1988). The 1990s were a golden era for