PrideFEST Film Fest 2021

PRIDEFEST FILM FEST 2021

Growing from the success of last year’s Inaugural PrideFest Film Festival, the 2021 edition is back in a huge new way, with a number of first time cinema screenings, West Australian film premieres, cult-classics as well as our signature Immersive Gala nights!

Running from the 17-26^th November at Palace Cinemas Raine Square, the festival showcases the stories, battles, achievements and diversity of the whole LGBTIQ+ community focussing on the theme of R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

Join us for three special events across the festival, with the Gala Opening night and WA Premiere screening of the feel good SWAN SONG on the 17^th November – inclusive of live entertainment, canapes and drinks.

A rare cinematic special event screening of TOM OF FINLAND follows on November 24 with a glass of wine or beer included with your ticket.

To conclude the festival, we invite guests to indulge in a cinema spectacular on November 26^th for the festival’s closing night with; PRISCILLA: QUEEN OF THE DESERT. Enjoy pre-film entertainment, audience giveaways, best dressed competitions and a complimentary drink, before an immersive presentation of the classic film led by the star of the Priscilla stage show, Cougar Morrison – complete with live actors in cinema singing, dancing and performing key moments of the film. This is an event not to be missed!

In addition, we are thrilled to present the first cinema screenings and WA premieres of STRAIGHT UP a story of love, gender and sexual fluidity, STAGE MOTHER (Starring Lucy Liu and Jacki Weaver), and THE SCARY OF SIXTY FIRST the directorial debut by podcast icon Dasha Nekrasova.

Rounding out the festival is the acclaimed new French film MISS that tells the story of a boy who dreams of entering the Miss France beauty pageant and TANGERINE the film that took Sundance by storm, a comedy about a trans street worker looking for her Pimp’s girlfriend on Christmas Eve.

Tickets are now on sale, with part proceeds supporting PrideWA!

PS. Want another bonus? Thanks to Connections Nightclub, Just show your Pride Film Festival ticket at the door for FREE entry on the same night as your session!

Don’t forget to tag us and share your memories – @palacecinemasperth @rainesquare @Pride_wa #PrideFESTfilmFEST

 

More on the films

Swan Song
Comedy/ Drama | WA Premiere | M
Starring: Jennifer Coolidge, Udo Kier, Linda Evans
Legendary actor Udo Kier stars as retired hairdresser Pat Pitsenbarger, who escapes the confines of his small-town Sandusky, Ohio nursing home after learning of his former client’s dying wish for him to style her final hairdo. Pat embarks on an odyssey to confront the ghosts of his past – and collect the beauty supplies necessary for the job. Swan Song is a comical and bittersweet journey about rediscovering one’s sparkle, acceptance and looking gorgeous while doing so.

Straight Up
Romance | WA Premiere | 18+
Starring: Katie Findlay James Sweeney Dana Drori  
For most of this life, Todd just assumed he was gay. People thought he was gay due to the way he
dresses and talks, and girls didn’t approach him or see him as a potential boyfriend so, he lived as he was pushed to. But as he grows, he comes to question his sexuality. Meeting Rory, a young woman who – to him – is perfect in every way he is forced to reconcile with the fact he has thus far lived his life as a gay man, and if he is right for her. A task which never becomes easy.

“Well-acted and sharply written, Straight Up serves as an effervescent calling card for writer/director/star James Sweeney.” – Rotten Tomatoes

Stage Mother
Comedy | WA Premiere | 18+
Starring: Jacki Weaver, Adrian Grenier, Lucy Liu
When conservative, Texas church choir director Maybelline (Jacqui Weaver) inherits her recently deceased son’s drag club, she surprises her closed-minded husband and everyone else she knows by moving alone to San Francisco to save the club from bankruptcy. In this raucous, vibrant environment, she begins to open up and find new meaning for her life, even becoming a mother figure to the club’s flamboyant performers …until a surprise visit threatens to upend her new life. Stage Mother is a dance in your seat, music-infused comedy-drama that boasts a fiery supporting cast, including Lucy Liu, Adrian Grenier, Mya Taylor, and drag superstar Jackie Beat.

Miss
Comedy/ Drama | Award Winning | M
Starring: Thibault de Montalembert, Pascale Arbillot
Twenty years ago, Billy Elliot showed us that boys can dance and now Miss will win hearts as it proves that boys can compete in beauty pageants. The new film by Ruben Alves (The Gilded Cage) is a feel-good story about overcoming hardship and prejudice, with a fun and light-hearted commentary on how attitudes towards gender are shaped. It is the best kind of thought-provoking film: one that is celebratory and joyful. Ever since childhood Alex (Alexandre Wetter) had wanted to enter the annual Miss France beauty pageant, despite being a boy. However, adolescence was not kind and Alex suffered huge blows to his self-esteem. When an unexpected encounter allows Alex to once more pursue his dreams, he does everything he can to transcend the traditional binary gender definitions that threaten to hold him back. Miss is the first major acting role for Wetter, a model who has made a career out of defying gender norms. Wetter’s personal journey makes them the perfect person to play Alex in this inspirational film that inspires us to rethink the status quo.

Gender non-conforming model Alexandre Wetter is absolutely divine as his character seeks to liberate his femininity through an antiquated and problematic competition that is, fortunately, able to poke fun at itself.” ★ ★ ★ ★ ½ –OUT IN PERTH

Tangerine
Comedy, Crime | MA15+
Starring: Mya Taylor, Karren Karagulian, Kitana Kiki Rodriguez
Upon hearing that her pimp boyfriend (James Ransone) hasn’t been faithful during the 28 days she was locked up, the trans working girl and her best friend, Alexandra (Mya Taylor), embark on a mission to get to the bottom of the scandalous rumour. Their rip-roaring odyssey leads them through various subcultures of Los Angeles, including an Armenian family dealing with their own repercussions of infidelity. Director Sean Baker’s prior films brought rich texture and intimate detail to worlds seldom seen on film. TANGERINE follows suit, bursting off the screen with energy and style. A decidedly modern tale told on the streets of L.A., TANGERINE defies expectation at every turn.

Tangerine shatters casting conventions and its filmmaking techniques are up-to-the-minute, but it’s an old-fashioned comedy at heart — and a pretty wonderful one at that – Rotten Tomatoes.

Tom Of Finland
History, Drama | R18+
Starring: Jakob Oftebro, Pekka Strang
A stunning film based on the life and work of one of the most influential and celebrated figures of twentieth century gay culture.
Touko Laaksonen, a decorated officer, returns home after a harrowing and heroic experience serving his country in World War II, but life in Finland during peacetime proves equally distressing. He finds peace-time Helsinki rampant with persecution of the homosexual and men around him even being pressured to marry women and have children. Touko finds refuge in his liberating art, specializing in homoerotic drawings of muscular men, free of inhibitions. His work – made famous by his signature ‘Tom of Finland’ – became the emblem of a generation of men and fanned the flames of a gay revolution.

★★★★ “Masterfully juxtaposes the older, harsh regimes of Laaksonen’s life in Finland, with the liberal and colourful Los Angeles of the 1960s and 70s, and shines a well-deserved, colourful light on a defining cultural and homosexual icon of the late 20th century.” THE UPCOMING

The Scary of Sixty-First
Horror, Thriller | WA Premiere | R18+
Starring: Betsy Brown, Mark Rapaport, Madeline Quinn
Nothing Is out of Bounds in This Rude, Riotous, Post-Epstein Horror. After two mismatched roommates discover that their new Upper East Side apartment once belonged to the late billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, the pair find themselves compelled to uncover—and relive—the murky secrets of the past.

Equal parts ’70s-style paranoia thriller, Polanski-infused apartment horror, “Eyes Wide Shut” homage, and empathetic critical commentary on the conspiracy theories craze, this hallucinatory pastiche is even more than the sum of its cinematically riveting parts. It feels like one of the few genuine attempts at understanding this dislocating moment and the many people who have lost themselves within it.” – Indiewire

 

The Adventures of Priscilla; Queen of the Desert
Musical, Comedy | M
Starring: Hugo Weaving, Terence Stamp, Guy Pearce
It’s the Australian film that blitzed overseas box offices. It caused a near riot at the Cannes Film Festival. It won an Academy Award®. It’s fun, daring, over-the-top and unforgettable. It’s a road movie with attitude and the occasional frock.
Two drag-queens (Anthony/Mitzi and Adam/Felicia) and a transgender woman contract to perform a drag show at a resort in Alice Springs, a resort town in the remote Australian desert. They head west from Sydney aboard their lavender bus, Priscilla. En route, it is discovered that the woman they’ve contracted with is Anthony’s wife.