Queer Screen, the producer of the Mardi Gras Film Festival and Queer Screen Film Fest, is both the first LGBTIQIA+ and Australian organisation to be invited to present films to buyers as part of Marché du Film’s ‘Goes to Cannes’ program.
Within the line-up Queer Screen will take with it to France are five work-in-progress projects, four of which are Australian. They include Gabriel Carrubba’s Sunflower; which recently received $15,000 via Queer Screen’s completion fund, Timothy Despina Marshall’s Closing Night, Poppy Stockell’s Triple Oh!, starring Brooke Satchwell; Christopher Amos’ docos One Person Protest and, from Pakistan/Canada, Fawzia Mirza’s The Queen of My Dreams.
The Goes to Cannes program is invite-only, and open to only five festivals around the world. Marché du Film attendees can view an extract from the films and see pitches from the filmmakers, at an in-person event and online.
Queer Screen’s festival director Lisa Rose said the invitation was an honour and a testament to the organisation’s international standing.
“We are thrilled about being chosen,” she said. “To be the first ever Australian and the first ever LGBTQIA+ film festival involved is something we are very proud of and I can’t wait to champion these films.”
Queer Screen will be joined by Festival de Málaga, Hong Kong Industry’s Asia Film Financing Forum, Spanish Screenings and the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in the Goes to Cannes program this year.
Its selections will be shown on May 20 at 4:30pm at Palais K, with filmmakers pitching in person or via recorded video. The film extracts and pitches will also be available online for Marché du Film attendees to view the following day.
Film Details:
SUNFLOWER
A seventeen-year-old boy struggles to understand and embrace his sexuality as he comes of age in the working class suburbs on Melbourne’s edge.
Director: Gabriele Carrubba
Producers: Gabriel Carrubba, Zane Borg
Production Company: Pancake Originals
Country: Australia
CLOSING NIGHT
When his life falls apart, a young queer theatre actor, poised to play the lead in The Glass Menagerie, must reckon with his demons and fight for survival while trapped in a hotel room with a sinister presence.
Director: Timothy Despina Marshall
Producers: Bec Dakin, Timothy Despina Marshall
Production Companies: B&T Films, Orange Entertainment Co.
Country: Australia
TRIPLE OH!
A dark comedy-drama following the lives of two ambulance paramedics, as they save lives in absurd medical emergencies. Their personalities clash and are tested when street-smart Tayls introduces by-the-book Cate to her unconventional policy of having sex when a patient dies.
Director: Poppy Stockell
Writer: Erica Harrison
Producers: Poppy Stockell, Alexandra Galloway, Tamasin Simpkin
Production Company: Sirius Pictures
Country: Australia
ONE PERSON PROTEST
One Person Protest is an observational undercover documentary following 73-year-old human rights activist Peter Tatchell’s daring mission to protest at the 2018 FIFA World Cup to raise awareness of LGBTQ+ injustice in Russia and Chechnya.
Director: Christopher Amos
Producer: Christopher Amos
Production Company: Chrysaor
Countries: Australia, UK, Russia
THE QUEEN OF MY DREAMS
Azra, a queer Pakistani woman living in Toronto, is at odds with her conservative Muslim mother. The sudden death of her father in Pakistan sends Azra on a Bollywood-inspired journey through memories real and imagined, from her mother’s youth in Karachi to her own coming-of-age in rural Canada.
Director/Writer: Fawzia Mirza
Producers: Andria Wilson Mirza, Fawzia Mirza, Jason Levangie, Marc Tetreault
Production Companies: Baby Daal Productions & Shut Up & Colour Pictures
Countries: Canada, Pakistan