Out Takes

For this Out Takes, we put the spotlight on three queer filmmakers whose films are featured in this year’s Sydney Film Festival which is on now until June 14. First up, we spoke with Gregg Araki, the legendary gay filmmaker whose latest film ‘I Want Your Sex’ is a queer highlight in this year’s Sydney Film Festival program. Noted for his involvement with the New Queer Cinema movement, his filmography includes the Teenage Apocalypse film trilogy from the 90’s and his 2010 film Kaboom was also the inaugural winner of the Queer Palm at the Cannes Film Festival. His latest film stars Olivia Wilde, Cooper Hoffman and Charli XCX in what has been described as an enjoyably outrageous, risqué sex-comedy, set in the Los Angeles contemporary art scene. We jumped at the chance to speak with him and in this interview, we discussed his motivation for telling this story, his influence on the lead characters and how he feels now about being labelled one of the pioneers of New Queer Cinema. Next up, we took a look at ‘Joy Boy: A Tribute To Julius Eastman’ which is described as a prismatic, polyphonic tribute by six artists to the prolific visionary queer African American composer and noted as one of the unsung pioneers of 20th century minimalism. Created by a collective of Belgian-Congolese artists, this spell-binding film channels the radical energy of Julius Eastman, a Black, gay iconoclast who challenged the conventions of minimalism, fusing avant-garde techniques with pop and free jazz in 1970s and ’80s New York. Structured in four chapters, the film honours Eastman’s key works through incredible visuals, archival recordings and exuberant choreography. Two of the people involved in the project are curator, researcher, and artist Mawena Yehouessi who positions herself as a “collisionist,” stating she explores the frictions and assemblages between disciplines, formats, and narratives; and composer, artist, and performer Fallon Manyanja who in her work mobilizes different relationships with our environment and social, inter-relational, and self-reflexive ideas. W caught up with the real-life couple online from their Paris apartment to discuss the project in the lead up to it screening at this year’s Sydney Film Festival and we discussed how they first came to know about Julius Eastman and his work, their process in bringing these stories together to explore his prolific career and more.

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With his latest film ‘I Want Your Sex’ about to have its Australian Premiere at the Sydney Film Festival, we jumped at the opportunity to speak with Gregg Araki about the film, its incredible cast and more. Noted for his involvement with the New Queer Cinema movement, Gregg Araki’s filmography includes the Teenage Apocalypse film trilogy from the 90’s, consisting of Totally F***ed Up, The Doom Generation and Nowhere, all which have been heralded as cult classics. His 2010 film Kaboom was also the inaugural winner of the Queer Palm at the Cannes Film Festival. His latest film stars Olivia Wilde, Cooper Hoffman and Charli XCX in what has been described as an enjoyably outrageous, risqué sex-comedy, set in the Los Angeles contemporary art scene. For this Out Takes Extra, we discussed his motivation for telling this story, his influence on the lead characters and how he feels now about being labelled one of the pioneers of New Queer Cinema. As expected, he is full of great stories and insights, so we highly recommend you listen to this then book your tickets immediately for ‘I Want Your Sex’ at the Sydney Film Festival before they sell-out!

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For this Out Takes, we had a bumper crop of reviews and interviews as we took a look at some of the best queer films and television on offer this winter in Melbourne and via streaming too. First up was the St Kilda Film Festival, Australia’s largest and longest-running short film festival which is back on from June 4 – 14. One of the highlights in the program each year is the Pride Without Prejudice LGBTQIA+ showcase on Saturday June 13 at the Victorian Pride Centre which features a stellar lineup including laugh-out-loud comedy, moving romance, fearless sexuality and deeply personal documentary. We reviewed a selection of films on offer and also caught up again with AP Pobjoy who joined us in March to discuss their fantastic series ‘Homebodies’ and was back on Out Takes to discuss their beautiful and engaging film ‘Billie and Jesse’ which is on at this year’s St Kilda Film Festival. We then moved onto our review of ‘The Four Seasons’ whose second season is streaming now on Netflix and promises more from the long-term relationships in a group of middle-aged friends that takes them to fresh locations while continuing to explore the highs, lows, and humour of enduring friendships, and love. We finished up the program by looking at the fantastic new initiative from FOMO Cinemas that that brings a great selection of queer films chosen by queer staff for queer audiences to Melbourne’s northside. Cleverly titled ‘Queer All Year’, these monthly screenings kick off June 5 and run on the first Friday of each month and our special guest Kaley from the FOMO team gave us the lowdown on the program and more.

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For this Out Takes, we put the spotlight on two queer filmmakers whose films are featured in this year’s Sydney Film Festival. The 73rd edition of the festival will showcase the very best in contemporary cinema from June 3 to 14 and features an incredible selection of films from around the world,

Our first guest was L.A. based filmmaker, writer, and multimedia artist William D. Caballero who is known for blending documentary, animation, and miniature world-building into visually inventive, emotionally grounded storytelling. ‘TheyDream’ is his debut feature film in which William returns home to be with his mother as they navigate the loss of their family members. Together, they draw on family audio and video, and step into the roles of their relatives – reimagined through vivid animation. We spoke with him in the lead up to his visit to Australia to present his film at the Sydney Film Festival and we discussed his career, his storytelling process, how his bisexuality was a key part of shaping this story and much more.

We were then joined from Sydney by Dean Francis whose latest film ‘Body Blow’ is described as a neon-noir exploring sex, power, and queer identity starring Tim Pocock, Tom Rodgers, Paul Capsis and Sacha Horler in a genre defining Aussie film that is unashamedly queer and chaotic. We caught up with the writer, producer and director in the lead up to the highly anticipated screenings of his film at the Sydney Film Festival and we got to discuss his career as an all-rounder in the industry, his inspirations for this bold slick erotic thriller, how he landed on this incredible cast plus we discuss the films brilliant marketing campaign that includes collector cards, t-shirts and limited edition cock cages!

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We went around the world for this Out Takes, featuring some of the latest queer films on offer this May from Chile, Germany and the UK . With the 2026 HSBC German Film Festival back on in Melbourne until May 28, we had the opportunity to speak with director Faraz Shariat about their film ‘Prosecution’ which is one of the featured Australian Premieres in this year’s festival. Winner of the Audience Award at the 2026 Berlinale, ‘Prosecution’ is described an engrossing tale of good versus evil that cleverly combines legal drama and thriller for a powerful and urgent story about the realities of Germany’s judicial system. Our exclusive interview with Faraz Shariat saw us cover a wide range of topics related to the film and its exploration of queerness for the main character.

We also reviewed ‘The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo‘, an intense and at times fantastical drama written and directed by Diego Céspedes that is streaming now on Mubi. The film unfolds in the early 1980’s in Chile in a dusty mining town nestled in the Atacama Desert, where eleven-year-old Lidia is the only child raised in a household of queer performers working at a local cantina. With his widely acclaimed feature debut, Céspedes emerges as a distinctive cinematic voice, crafting a poetic vision of love and resilience that also reflects the marginalisation and violence faced by queer communities today. Our final review for this program was ‘Mother Mary’, directed by David Lowery and featuring an incredible all female ensemble cast including Michaela Coel, Anne Hathaway, Hunter Schafer, Kaia Gerber and FKA Twigs, the film explores the complicated professional and personal relationship between iconic pop star Mother Mary (Anne Hathaway) who reunites with her estranged best friend and former costume designer Sam Anselm (Michaela Coel) on the eve of her comeback performance. ‘Mother Mary’ is in cinemas now and features original music written and produced by Charli XCX, FKA Twigs and Jack Antonoff and sang by Anne Hathaway.

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