10 Top Picks for MGFF23!

Here are Festival Director Lisa Rose’s 10 Top Picks for MGFF23.

The eagerly awaited full program for MGFF23 is officially live. Stop the presses, get excited, shout it from the rooftops – do all the things!

This year’s festival is packed to the brim with queer excellence. To be more specific, it’s our largest festival in over a decade – with 167 films across 100+ sessions in cinema, outdoors and on demand at home.

See the full Mardi Gras Film Festival 2023 program right here.

Read on for the 10 Top Picks for MGFF23.

Opening Night Gala: Of an Age

Wed Feb 15 7:00 pm
Event Cinemas, George St

We open the festival with this phenomenal Australian romance Of an Age, a beautiful coming of age love story where every touch feels seismic. This award-winning film is destined to sit in the modern queer film canon.

Summer, 1999. A closeted Serbian-Australian teenager goes on an impromptu road trip with attractive, worldly Adam, as the pair form an intense and intimate bond simmering with unspoken tension.

Presented with Optus.

Closing Night Gala: The Venus Effect

Thu Mar 2 7:00 pm
Event Cinemas, George St

The Venus Effect is a feel good, award-winning Danish rom-com follows Liv, a young woman with a sweet but unexciting boyfriend, whose world is rocked by the arrival of a pink-haired, vulva dress-wearing, Sapphic goddess.

Narrative Centrepiece: My Emptiness and I

Wed Feb 22 7:30 pm
Event Cinemas, George St

Raphäelle Perez delivers a star-making performance as a young, sassy woman at the start of her transition journey searching for love, community and her place in the world, from acclaimed filmmaker Adrián Silvestre.

Documentary Centrepiece: All the Beauty and the Bloodshed

Sat Feb 18 7:30 pm
Event Cinemas, George St

Winner of the Venice Golden Lion, don’t miss this electrifying portrait of the life and career of bisexual artist and artist Nan Goldin – and her fight against the billionaire Sackler family.

Australian Showcase: The Giants

Wed Feb 22 6:30 pm
Event Cinemas, George St

This exhilarating and unforgettable documentary chronicles the extraordinary life of Dr Bob Brown, Australia’s first openly gay member of parliament, and over 50 years of environmental and human rights activism.

Australian Showcase: The Winner Takes It All

Sat Feb 18 6:30 pm
Event Cinemas, George St

Sydney drag icon and RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under alum Maxi Shield stars in a farcical comedy that brings to mind the works of John Waters.

Heartbeast

Tue Feb 28 4:00 pm and Wed Mar 1 7:00 pm
Event Cinemas, George St

Seventeen year-old wannabe rapper Elina is immediately infatuated with her not-so-innocent ballerina roommate Sofia, whilst her attempts to ensnare Sofia’s heart become increasingly reckless she crosses a line that’s impossible to take back.

Finding Her Beat

Tue Feb 21 7:00 pm
Event Cinemas, George St
+ On Demand

BLACK AS UR

Sat Feb 25 2:00 pm
Dendy Cinemas Newtown
+ On Demand

El Houb – The Love

Thu Feb 16 7:00 pm
Event Cinemas, Hurstville
and
Thu Feb 23 6:20 pm
Ritz Cinemas, Randwick