Twinless, After The Hunt, The Other Film Festival and MQFF 2025

For this Out Takes, we reviewed two new films from gay directors that explore the queer experience in vastly different ways and environments, plus we celebrated the return of The Other Film Festival and MQFF who are collaborating on a special inclusive cinema event this November.
First up, we reviewed ‘Twinless’, a truly original and entertaining film that is equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking. After meeting in a twin bereavement support group, Roman and Dennis develop an unlikely friendship as they both search for solace and an identity without their better halves. They soon become inseparable, but old wounds reopen that will have permanent consequences for their friendship. This stirring, whip-smart, wholly original dark-comedy comes from breakout multi hyphenate writer, actor and director James Sweeney and it’s fair to say it is one of our favourite queer films of 2025. Next, we discussed ‘After The Hunt’, the latest film from gay Italian director Luca Guadagnino starring Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri, Andrew Garfield, Michael Stuhlbarg and Chloë Sevigny. that tells the story of a college professor who is forced to grapple with her own secretive past after one of her male colleagues is faced with a serious accusation against an up-and-coming young queer female student at Yale University. We were then joined by The Other Film Festival’s Artistic Director Fiona Tuomy to discuss their ground-breaking disability-led program for 2025 that places Deaf and Disabled people at the centre of the Australian screen industry. Founded in 2004, The Other Film Festival is Australia’s first international disability film festival and a pioneer in offering a global standard of universal access for audiences. Along with putting on their own festival, this year they are collaborating with MQFF on a special inclusive cinema event for the Australian Premiere of ‘If You Are Afraid You Put Your Heart into Your Mouth and Smile’. We ended the program with a look at this year’s Melbourne Queer Film Festival which is back across Naarm this November with a stellar selection of LGBTQIA+ cinema and events, including a swag of premieres and films that we have been very excited to see on the big screen and in its online program.

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