Week of Oct 6
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Don't get distracted by spooky season, festival season, or awards season yet -- the most special Queer film event this week is a collaboration between Black Cat Cinema Series and Sunny Bunny Ukrainian LGBTQ Film Festival to present a very special series of recent short films made by Queer Ukrainian filmmakers. Don't miss this amazing event!
Queer Ukrainian Shorts
Oct 06, 7:30 PM @ LOOK Dine-In Glendale
A very special one night only screening of a selection of queer Ukrainian short films made under the duress of war. They are fearless, queer AF, gorgeous works that must be seen! Also the screening is a beautiful benefit for Sunny Bunny the Ukrainian LGBTQ film festival.
OUTFEST is back!
Longtime community institution Outfest returns from its hiatus with a new board of directors, the recognition of its staff union, and the rehiring of key staff. PLUS, a new program OutfestNEXT, a four day celebration of Queer film Nov 6 - 9. Program announcements coming soon!
AFI Fest
AFI Fest returns October 22 - 26, bringing a few great queer options, including Chilean AIDS drama The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo, Ira Sachs' latest Peter Hujar's Day, Queer boxing drama Christy, and more!
Chantal Ackerman Retrospective
American Cinematheque celebrates queer Belgian auteur Chantal Akerman with a screening series, including a 50th anniversary screening of her 1974 queer breakout film Je Tu Il Elle. Akerman's films are quiet and meditative, perfect to watch on the big screen without the distractions of your phone.
Chantal Ackerman: An American Cinematheque Retrospective
This Week
FREE: After The Hunt
Oct 06, 2:00 PM @ University of Southern California
Screenwriter Nora Garrett in person
The latest from out director Luca Guadagnino stars out actress Ayo Edebiri as a queer woman embroiled in a campus "cancel culture" drama.
Frankenstein/Bride of Frankenstein Double Feature
Oct 07, 12:00 PM @ Egyptian Theatre
Check out this double feature of golden age horror classics from gay director James Whale, who was both a blockbuster film director and an out gay man in the 1930s!
Double Booking
Oct 08, 7:45 PM @ Cinepolis Inglewood
A lesbian couple and their son arrive at a cabin, eager for a relaxing getaway. That night, an older couple arrives unexpectedly, their seemingly sweet demeanor hiding a hint of something unsettling.
Tickets from Film Festival at Hollywood Park
The Skin I Live In
Oct 10, 8:00 PM @ Eastwood Performing Arts Center
A brilliant plastic surgeon creates a synthetic skin that withstands any kind of damage. His guinea pig: a mysterious and volatile woman who holds the key to his obsession.
Naked Lunch
Oct 11, 7:30 PM @ Academy Museum
Star Peter Weller in person
Luca Guadagnino's Queer is adapted from a semi-autobiographical novel by outlaw beat writer William S Burroughs, as is Naked Lunch, which director David Cronenberg describes as the story of a closeted man trying to cure himself of his homosexuality.
The Conformist
Oct 12, 4:00 PM @ Los Feliz 3
Bertolucci's towering, relevant masterpiece follows a repressed man who joins the Italian fascist party and agrees to assassinate his mentor, all in the hopes of finding his way to belong in society.
Tickets from American Cinematheque
SOLD OUT: Kiss of the Spider Woman
Oct 12, 7:30 PM @ Aero Theater
Director Bill Condon in person
Valentín, a political prisoner, shares a cell with Molina, a window dresser convicted of public indecency. The two form an unlikely bond as Molina recounts the plot of a Hollywood musical starring his favorite silver screen diva, Ingrid Luna.
Tickets from American Cinematheque
Circa: Queer Histories Festival
Madame Behave
Oct 06, 7:00 PM @ One Gallery
A cross-dressing farce, adapted from “Madame Lucy” by Jean Arlette, in which to help a friend in a lawsuit, Jack Mitchell disguises himself as the mysterious “Madame Brown,” a missing witness important to the case of the plaintiff. He attracts the romantic attention of two old roués and one hot Broadway showgirl.
Stuart Timmons WeHo@40 LGBTQ History Tour
Oct 15, 6:00 PM @ West Hollywood Council Chambers
Join us for a special evening honoring the legacy of historian Stuart Timmons (The Trouble with Harry Hay, GAY L.A.) as part of West Hollywood’s 40th Anniversary and the One Institute’s Circa: Queer Histories Festival.
Connection | Isolation
Oct 19, 7:00 PM @ Los Angeles LGBT Center
Director + Producer G. Chesler and Composer + Associate Producer Luka Fisher in person
The documentary Connection | Isolation presents eight intimate portraits of trans and post-gender individuals navigating the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Amidst moments of connection and isolation, participants reveal a deepening awareness of gender, their bodies, and tra
18+ ONLY: Shinjuku Midnight Story: Man and Woman
Oct 19, 8:00 PM @ Whammy Analog Media
Two in the Pinku podcast co-hosts Dakota Noot and Christopher Velasco in person
Shinjuku Midnight Story: Man and Woman (1972) is a “pink film” released by major studio Nikkatsu. It follows a lesbian bar hostess, who is betrayed by her lover for a man. Eventually, the hostess finds new love with a trans woman and cons men.
Next Week
Doppelgängers³
Oct 18, 6:00 PM @ Ahamson Auditorium Pasadena
Director Dr. Nelly Ben Hayoun-Stépanian in person
Bolstered by pre-show performers, post-screening panels, and limited-edition merchandise, Doppelgängers³’s theatrical “tour stops” are taking a cue from how indie musicians bring exciting experiences, beyond their art, and to audiences.
An experimental documentary that draws on the experience of diasporas to challenge the commercialisation of the moon. Through encounters with doppelgängers and meetings with scientists, visionaries, and cultural inventors, Nelly Ben Hayoun-Stépanian and her doppelgängers offer an experimental vision and template for a future diaspora beyond Earth.
FREE PREVIEW: Blue Moon
Oct 14, 7:00 PM @ University of Southern California
Ethan Hawke and Andrew Scott star in this biopic of bisexual Broadway composer Lorenz Hart in the latest from Richard Linklater, which opened NEWFEST, New York's LGBT Film festival.
SOLD OUT: Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror
Oct 17, 7:30 PM @ Vidiots Eagle Theater
Director Linus O'Brien in person
A wild journey into the origins of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the biggest cult film of all time, its impact on popular culture and socio-political resonance to this day.
The Watermelon Woman
Oct 18, 4:15 PM @ Vidiots Eagle Theater
Vidiots celebrates Video Store Day! Here’s the quintessential video store movie and a fun and feisty queer romantic comedy from groundbreaking filmmaker Cheryl Dunye.
Animation Is Film Festival
Lesbian Space Princess
Oct 17, 8:30 PM @ TCL Chinese Theaters
Introverted lesbian space princess Saira embarks on a mission to rescue her ex from evil incel aliens, enlisting the help of an enby popstar and a cantankerous boomer spaceship.
Use code QFLA-25 for 20% off your tickets.
Tickets from Animation is Film
ParaNorman
Oct 18, 2:00 PM @ TCL Chinese Theaters
Director Chris Butler and Star Anna Kendrick in person
Screening with all-new short film “ParaNorman: The Thrifting”
Co-directed by out animator Chris Butler, ParaNorman is a fun stop-motion supernatural romp, and the first animated studio film to feature a gay character.
Use code QFLA-25 for 20% off your tickets.
Tickets from Animation is Film
Pretty Pretty Please I Don’t Want to be a Magical Girl
Oct 19, 12:00 PM @ TCL Chinese Theaters
Creator Kiana Khansmith, Voice Actors Anairis Quiñones and Christine Marie Cabanos, and Editor Emily Rifkin in person
With awe-inspiring powers, courageous storylines, and jaw-dropping transformation sequences, everyone wants to be a magical girl, right? Wrong! Watch the pilot animatic for Pretty Pretty Please I Don’t Want to be a Magical Girl in a special panel and Q&A.
Use code QFLA-25 for 20% off your tickets.
Tickets from Animation is Film
Now on Criterion
Two great Queer films join the Criterion collection this month:
Born in Flames (1983)
A blistering rallying cry issued loud, clear, and unapologetically queer, Lizzie Borden’s explosive postpunk provocation is a DIY fantasia of female rebellion set in America ten years after a revolution that supposedly transformed the country into a social-democratic utopia.
Misericordia (2024)
In the latest queer thriller from Stranger by the Lake director Alain Guiraudie, there are no sex scenes--but a web of unfulfilled erotic connections propel the film's small town missing person mystery. Named best film of 2024 by Cahiers du Cinema.
