Out Takes

With Melbourne’s premiere queer arts and culture festival a.k.a. Midsumma 2026, kicking off on January 18, we dedicated this program to celebrating two fantastic LGBTQIA+ film related events that are coming your way that will leave you entertained and engaged. First up, we always know that the Melbourne Queer Film Festival brings a great selection of films for Midsumma and 2026 is no exception. One of our favourite returning guests, MQFF’s Program Director Ro Bright, joined us to take us through the great line up of films on offer for their 2026 MQFF Midsumma series. Then we turned our attention to a workshop that will help to nurture and inspire the next generation of local queer filmmakers forward with their own projects. Lead by Melbourne based Kiwi born independent filmmaker Lousie Lever, ‘There’s a story in you: a Queer filmmaking workshop’ is on January 24 – 25 with a goal to empower participants to connect with likeminded creatives and learn more about the process of filmmaking. Show your support for these fantastic events and have a very safe, happy, and queer Midsumma! The post Midsumma 2026 – MQFF with Ro Bright, and There’s a story in you: a Queer filmmaking workshop with Louise Lever appeared first on Out Takes.

Even though we are at the start of a new year, we wanted to take the time to spotlight a TV series that came out at the end of 2025 that has literally taken over social media (and our lives) plus made us all into big fans of ice hockey. ‘Heated Rivalry’ came out in late November and took the internet by storm with its good-looking cast, romantic storylines, and steamy gay sex scenes. As the first season rolled out over six episodes, the fandom grew and it was easy to see why this Canadian-made show set in the world of professional ice hockey was winning hearts all over the world at a time when representation of LGBTQIA characters in television and film are under threat. With the final episode still playing on repeat in our hearts and minds, we took this opportunity to take a look at the ‘Heated Rivalry’ phenomenon and explore its history starting out as a series of novels through to its development as a television show along with its cultural impact broadly and from a gay perspective. We also took a look at some of the films we’re looking forward to seeing and reviewing in 2026 including ‘Pillion’, ‘Supergirl’, ‘Heartstopper Forever’ and more. Happy New Year! The post ‘Heated Rivalry’ plus films we’re looking forward to in 2026 appeared first on Out Takes.

With 2025 coming to a close, we thought it would be a good time to revisit some of our favourite interviews from the past 12 months. We’ve been fortunate to speak to so many great filmmakers, actors and industry creatives over the year and quite honestly, we could do another 5 of these interview highlight shows and still have more leftover. For this special, we revisited our interviews with Tracie Laymon, Karan Soni, Roshan Sethi, Andrew Ahn and Kate Woods to discuss their respective projects, careers and more. If you enjoy these interviews and want more then you’re in luck – check out more from the past 10 years of the show on our podcast feed and also find us on social media to see what’s coming up on the show too. Happy New Year, we’re looking forward to bringing you more of the best in queer film and television in 2026! The post Out Takes 2025 Interview Highlights appeared first on Out Takes.

We know that ‘Best of’ lists can be problematic but with the end of the year fast approaching we wanted to share with you some of our favourite queer films and television shows for 2025. In no particular order, we offered up three picks each that reflected some of the best shows and movies this year that showcased representation from a LGBTQIA+ perspective on our big and small screens or was just something that brought us some joy and that we loved watching in a very challenging year. Let us know if you liked our selections, think we made a mistake or missed one of your faves by dropping us an email or messaging us on our socials. Happy holidays and here’s to a very queer 2026 for us all! The post Out Takes Best of 2025 appeared first on Out Takes.

The year was 2016 and two weeks out from Christmas, a new show started on JOY that promised to bring you the best in queer film and television every week… and on Monday December 15, Out Takes celebrated 10 years on air and on podcast and everyone was invited! For this very special live show from the JOY studios at the Victorian Pride Centre, we were joined by some very special guests, including Cinema Nova CEO and friend of the show Kristian Connelly, along with a shout out from our London-based international correspondent Dion. We also had some great giveaways courtesy of Eclipse Cinema and Cinema Nova plus we reminisced on some of the many highlights and memorable moments from our last decade bringing you the best in queer film and television. Thank you for your support and for listening! The post Out Takes celebrates 10 years on air! appeared first on Out Takes.