New Farm Queer Film Festival
Cannes-fresh premieres, restored queer classics and a full house that gets every joke. This is Brisbane's annual queer film fix, held at New Farm's historic cinema.
Since it launched in 2022, this festival has become a fixture on Brisbane's queer calendar, and it has built a reputation well beyond the city. Recent editions have run over ten days and opened with Queensland premieres straight off the international circuit, including a Cannes Queer Palm winner. For Brisbane film lovers, that puts festival-grade cinema right on the doorstep.
The programming also looks back, and those sessions are often the most fun. Past lineups have put Gregg Araki's Teen Apocalypse trilogy on the big screen alongside newer work with Elliot Page and Tilda Swinton. Dates have moved between spring and late winter, so check the program before you plan a trip. Book the opening night and anything restored early.
Same Seats, New Name
For 22 years, Brisbane's queer cinema lived at the Brisbane Queer Film Festival. It began as a "Queer Film and Video Weekend" in the opening program of the Brisbane Powerhouse, a converted power station just down the river in New Farm. In its later years it screened at New Farm Cinemas. When it faded out in 2021, the cinema's own team saw the audience was still there. They launched a new festival the following year, in the same auditoriums.
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