Out Takes

If you listened to our show in June 2023, then you know we absolutely loved season 1 of Deadloch and we were very excited to hear that a second season was in the works. Nearly three years later and its fair to say that the return of Deadloch to our small screens was well worth the wait! Not only do we get to spend more time with Eddy and Dulcie, this time the unlikely cop duo are in Darwin investigating the death of Eddie’s former policing partner Bushy, but when the body of a Top End icon is discovered in a...

For this Out Takes, we celebrated the return of two homegrown television shows that represent the best of Aussie queer talent across the board, and we took a look at five LGBTQIA+ short films that highlight some of the best global queer cinema on offer for free this March.

First up, we welcomed back Deadloch which saw its second season transported from the cool Tasmanian climate up into the balmy Top End for a wild ride full of murder, mystery, crocodiles and that brilliant trademark comedy we loved the first time around. Not only did we get...

For this Out Takes Extra, we got together 24 hours post-Oscars for a debrief and to see if any of our winner predictions were spot on or way off (spoiler – we did pretty well). Let us know what you loved and loathed about the 98th Academy Awards via email or on our socials. Happy Awards Season to all who celebrate!

The post Oscars Recap 2026 appeared first on Out Takes.

For this Out Takes, we welcomed the return of the Melbourne Women in Film Festival. Running from March 19–23 across ACMI and Fed Square, this year’s program continues to bring together bold works from Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand and Pasifika. Over four days, audiences can look forward to premiere screenings, restorations, creator conversations and hands-on workshops—an immersive celebration of diverse perspectives and the homegrown visionaries shaping the screen industry’s future. The Melbourne Women in Film Festival recently unveiled its landmark tenth-year program, marking a decade of championing women and gender-diverse filmmakers from Australia and beyond. We caught up with F...

With ‘Scream 7’ finally out in cinemas around the world after various delays and controversies, we took the opportunity for this Out Takes to review this latest instalment in the 30+ year franchise and also explore its queer legacy across this incredibly popular and at times very camp slasher film series. From those iconic early days of high-profile scream queens being killed off in the opening scenes of the films to the enduring and contentious relationship between Sidney and Gail across the years, we celebrate the queer connection between the films and its fans along with the impact it’s gay creato...

For this Out Takes, we celebrated the release of two highly anticipated queer films for February that celebrate the diversity of our community, the importance of representation and the ability for LGBTQIA+ folks to tell our own stories in an authentic way while still been given the opportunity to have them out in the mainstream.

First up was ‘Jimpa’, the latest film from Adelaide based writer, producer and director Sophie Hyde. Inspired by Hyde’s own life with a direct link to her gay activist father Jim, this film is a multi-generational queer family story starring award-winning favour...

For this Out Takes Extra, we had the pleasure of speaking with Sophie Hyde and Aud Mason-Hyde at the JOY studios in the lead up to the Australian release of ‘Jimpa’ which is in cinemas now. Sophie Hyde is an acclaimed Adelaide-based film director, writer, and producer. Following on from her debut feature ’52 Tuesdays’, she has gone on to work on projects here and around the world including ‘Good Luck to You, Leo Grande’ with Emma Thompson and ‘Animals’ with Alia Shawkat. Her latest film ‘Jimpa’ is based on her own family story after her father, Jim Hyde, came out to his wife as g...

For this Out Takes, we had a stack of reviews to cover some of the films on offer in cinemas and online this February. We started off by saying bon retour to the 37th Alliance Française French Film Festival which kicks off again across Australia from March 3rd. One of the queer highlights in this year’s program is ‘The Little Sister’ which tells the story of Fatima (played by Nadia Melliti), who is the youngest daughter of a Franco-Algerian family living in the suburbs of Paris. Surrounded by her sisters, she grows up in a warm, loving househo...

For this Out Takes, we celebrated the recent success of Leela Varghese at the 2026 AACTA Awards for  ‘Lesbian Space Princess’ and ‘I’m The Most Racist Person I Know’ (which were two of our favourite queer films of 2025) by revisiting our interview with her from last year along with our review of LSP which is available to watch locally on Netflix now. We also reviewed ‘Christy’, the latest film from Aussie director David Michôd that stars Sydney Sweeney in the lead role that chronicles the rise of former professional boxer Christy Martin and her incredibly tumultuous life in and outside of t...

Now that we’re well in to this new year, we’re starting to see the return of some of our favourite film festivals and we were excited to take a closer look at the fifth edition of the Europa! Europa Film Festival which is back in cinemas across Australia and New Zealand  from February 19 to March 19. To take a deep dive in to the program, we welcomed back the festival’s Artistic Director Spiro Economopoulos to tell us more about the 43 films on offer and some of his personal recommendations too.

We also reviewed one of the highli...

For this Out Takes, we were excited to introduce you to ‘From All Sides’, a new Australian feature film that is having a special Q&A screening at the Sun Theatre in Yarraville on Friday January 30 that is described as a subversive, sexually frank drama about a seemingly average suburban middle-class, multiracial family that features a strikingly original fusion of steamy bisexual orgies, extramarital hookups, and dazzling classical Indian dance sequences. We wanted to know more about this exciting local queer film so we went straight to the source and spoke to its writer and director Bina Bhattacharya. This wond...

It’s no secret we love a film festival and with the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival returning  this February, we took the opportunity for this show to spotlight the fantastic Mardi Gras Film Festival and many of the top tier queer films on offer in this year’s program. Queer Screen’s 33rd Mardi Gras Film Festival runs from 12-26 February 2026, presenting outstanding LGBTQIA+ cinema from around the world. Alongside film premieres, audiences can enjoy panel discussions and networking events celebrating global queer storytelling and connection. We wanted to know more about this incredible line up, so we went...

With Melbourne’s premiere queer arts and culture festival a.k.a. Midsumma 2026, kicking off on January 18, we dedicated this program to celebrating two fantastic LGBTQIA+ film related events that are coming your way that will leave you entertained and engaged. First up, we always know that the Melbourne Queer Film Festival brings a great selection of films for Midsumma and 2026 is no exception. One of our favourite returning guests, MQFF’s Program Director Ro Bright, joined us to take us through the great line up of films on offer for their 2026 MQFF Midsumma series. Then we turned our atte...

Even though we are at the start of a new year, we wanted to take the time to spotlight a TV series that came out at the end of 2025 that has literally taken over social media (and our lives) plus made us all into big fans of ice hockey. ‘Heated Rivalry’ came out in late November and took the internet by storm with its good-looking cast, romantic storylines, and steamy gay sex scenes. As the first season rolled out over six episodes, the fandom grew and it was easy to see why this Canadian-made show set in the world of p...

With 2025 coming to a close, we thought it would be a good time to revisit some of our favourite interviews from the past 12 months. We’ve been fortunate to speak to so many great filmmakers, actors and industry creatives over the year and quite honestly, we could do another 5 of these interview highlight shows and still have more leftover. For this special, we revisited our interviews with Tracie Laymon, Karan Soni, Roshan Sethi, Andrew Ahn and Kate Woods to discuss their respective projects, careers and more. If you enjoy these interviews and want more then you’re in luck – check...

We know that ‘Best of’ lists can be problematic but with the end of the year fast approaching we wanted to share with you some of our favourite queer films and television shows for 2025. In no particular order, we offered up three picks each that reflected some of the best shows and movies this year that showcased representation from a LGBTQIA+ perspective on our big and small screens or was just something that brought us some joy and that we loved watching in a very challenging year. Let us know if you liked our selections, think we made a mist...

The year was 2016 and two weeks out from Christmas, a new show started on JOY that promised to bring you the best in queer film and television every week… and on Monday December 15, Out Takes celebrated 10 years on air and on podcast and everyone was invited! For this very special live show from the JOY studios at the Victorian Pride Centre, we were joined by some very special guests, including Cinema Nova CEO and friend of the show Kristian Connelly, along with a shout out from our London-based international correspondent Dion. We also had some great giveaways courtesy of Ec...

For this Out Takes, we decided to get into the festive season by looking at two new Christmas themed films that explore queer stories within the family dynamic that is often overlooked in these genre.

First up we took a look at ‘The Christmas Writer’ from Tello Films which is the first network dedicated to telling stories featuring and about lesbian/queer women and is the world’s longest running LGBTQ+ streaming platform with the biggest library of sapphic holiday films available anywhere. Their latest sapphic holiday-themed film follows Noel, a bestselling lesbian Christmas author who loses her ho...

For this special Out Takes episode, we headed back in time then back to the future in honour of JOY 94.9’s 32nd on-air anniversary and World AIDs Day 2025. We started off by using the 1993 December 1st start date for JOY to reflect on what was happening in queer film and television during this period and also check in on where we were at on our specific queer journeys and what we were watching at the time. We then caught up with Cal Hawk from Thorne Harbour Health and one of the hosts of Well, Well, Well on JOY to di...

As is our way at Out Takes, we literally had something for everyone this week! The highly anticipated second film of the most talked about movie musical in years, the return of a fantastic local documentary to a local streaming service, a queer Christmas radio play from one of our own that is on around Melbourne for a limited run, and a review of a new psychological drama that is in Aussie cinemas from November 27.
First up, we discussed our return to Oz with the release of ‘Wicked: For Good’ and had our say on whether it’s a perf...

For this Out Takes, we welcomed the return of Melbourne’s very own queer film festival with a selection of reviews, took a look at a new local show that promises to be a feisty feminist murder mystery plus we checked in on Eclipse Cinema, the latest independent cinema to open in Melbourne’s Northside.

First up, with the 35th Melbourne Queer Film Festival under way, we let you know about a few of the films we’ve seen that you can check out in this year’s programs, including In Transit, She’s The He, Hot Milk and 3...

For this Out Takes, we kept it eclectic by discussing the latest all-star female focused series from Ryan Murphy that the internet cannot get enough of, a documentary about one of the most respected and queer friendly world leaders, and we welcome the return of Melbourne’s very own queer film festival.
We started off with ‘All’s Fair’, the new TV series that has received some of the worst reviews in recent history while generating excellent ratings and major online buzz. Is it a case of its-so-bad-it’s-great or something more predictable at work here like good old-fashio...

For this Out Takes the theme of the show was ‘eclectic’ with a delightful mix including our review of JLo’s latest film (and her first ever movie musical), an update from our London-based international correspondent on the latest releases coming our way soon and we catch up with two special guests to discuss the power and importance of queer music videos.

First up, we took a look at ‘Kiss of the Spiderwoman’. It started life as an award-winning novel. Then, a groundbreaking drama in the 1980s that won the late William Hurt a Best Actor Oscar. In the 90’...

For this Out Takes, we went on a global cinematic trip looking at films and filmmakers from Britain, Iran, and the U.S.A.
First up, we looked at ‘Hedda’, the latest provocative drama from writer-director Nia DaCosta which is a modern reimagining of Henrik Ibsen’s classic. This time around, the action has been transposed from 19th-century Oslo to 1950’s Britain, where former bohemian free-spirit Hedda has moved into a sprawling estate with her new husband, the pinched and humourless academic George. Hedda has a lot going on – as the daughter of a general navigating a house she does n...

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 woun...

For this show, we take the phrase ‘mixed-bag’ and make it a reality by celebrating the return of one of our favourite local film festivals, review two television shows that highlight two gay men’s experience of dealing with two very different battlefields – one being the US Marine’s boot camp and the other being the hellscape known as the American High School campus, and we revisit a queer highlight from the ‘Black Mirror’ anthology.
With TILDE returning to Melbourne from October 31 – November 2, we welcome back their CEO Ro Bright to discuss this year’s program and find out why the festiv...

It’s no secret that we love a film festival at Out Takes so for this program we let you know what’s the craic with the return of the Irish Film Festival. Now in its 11th year, the 2025 Festival will showcase sixteen films and documentaries from Ireland, including 14 Australian premieres, and will take place in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra, and Perth, alongside a nationwide online program from October 9 to November 9.

We had the opportunity to review three films, starting with ‘Never Stop the Action’, which is described as a kaleidoscopic journey through time and space. We begin th...

For this program, we looked at two films that explore the queer experience through very different perspectives; one being a documentary on the creative team behind many loved films from the past 50 years including the queer classic ‘Maurice’; and the second, a queer coming-of-age comedy about coming out of the closet that is screening at the VPC and Thornbury Picture House in Melbourne this October.

First up we reviewed the delightful ‘Egghead & Twinkie’ which explores the aftermath of Vivian a.k.a. Twinkie, a teenage girl who has just come out to her conservative parents who then takes of...

For this Out Takes, we bring you a spring edition of Out Takes Recommends looking at a selection of films, TV shows and more that we’re enjoying as it is warming up down under and we struggle through hay-fever season a.k.a springtime in Melbourne!

We started off with a review of Wayward which is streaming now on Netflix and is from Mae Martin, the queer comedian and actor whose previous show ‘Feel Good’ was a big hit in 2020 – 21, and also stars Toni Collette in a scene stealing role. Wayward is set in the picture-perfect town of...

Disclaimer: the two films discussed on this episode deal with the topic of suicide and domestic violence and our commentary may contain content that could be distressing to some people so listener discretion is advised.

For this Out Takes we’re saying Bentornato to the St Ali Italian Film Festival which is back this spring in Palace Cinemas across Australia from September 17, delivering a Bellissimo selection of box office hits and award-winning films. We started with a review of ‘Il ragazzo dai pantaloni rosa’, also known as ‘The Boy with Pink Trousers’, which has become a cultural phenomenon...

For this episode we turned the spotlight on two local female directors in line with a special cinema event coming to the Victorian Pride Centre for one and the latest release for the other which is coming to a cinema near you soon. First up we took a look at ‘Revolt She Said’, a feature documentary that interrogates ideas about contemporary feminism and gender from an Australian and New Zealand lens. The film is from director Louise Lever who appeared on the program recently to discuss her short film ‘Joey’s Heart’ and is presenting a special screening of ‘Revolt She S...

For this episode, we took a deep dive into ‘Went Up the Hill’, the latest film from Samuel Van Grinsven that stars Vicky Krieps and Dacre Montgomery which has been appearing at festivals around the world and will be in Aussie cinemas from September 11. This haunting, original tale of grief and possession set in remote New Zealand. The film follows Jack who has arrived at a distinctly unwelcoming funeral of Elizabeth, the artist mother he barely knew. An unnerving atmosphere hovers in Elizabeth’s cavernous and isolated house as Jack attempts to connect with Jill, his mother’s widow.

We...

For this Out Takes, we welcomed the return of the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne that promises ‘More Cinema, More Culture, More Celebration’ featuring an inclusive Pride event this August. We began by reviewing ‘We Are Faheem and Karun’, the latest film from celebrated gay Indian filmmaker Onir. This beautiful and unique tale is the first ever queer Kashmiri love story, set in Kashmir itself, and in the Kashmiri language, with local actors. Set in a remote Kashmiri village on the Indian and Pakistan border, we meet reserved security guard Karun who forms a forbidden bond with Faheem, a man torn...

The Melbourne International Film Festival not only allows us to explore over 250 films during its run but we also get to meet some of the people behind them who have travelled from around the world to come to Australia to present their films to local audiences. One of these special guests in 2025 was Addison Heimann, a California based queer filmmaker who was down under at MIFF this August to promote his latest film ‘Touch Me’ which is described as an erotic extraterrestrial horror-comedy with a kaleidoscopically camp aesthetic inspired by 1960s and 70s Japanese horror. However, amid the gory mayh...

For this Out Takes, we reviewed two new films, one very queer and the other very camp, plus we celebrated the return of the Queer Screen Film Festival that is bringing fresh and diverse LGBTIQ+ cinema from around the world to Sydney from August 27 to 31.
Our first review was for the highly anticipated and award winning ‘Lesbian Space Princess’ that is finally showing in Melbourne at sold out sessions at MIFF and getting a general release across Australia this September. Described as an adult animated science fiction comedy, this truly original and ridiculously hilarious feature is written and dire...

We continue celebrating the return of the Melbourne International Film Festival this August with two special guests and a look at a wonderful homegrown queer short film, a retrospective from a revered Belgian auteur, and the return of a lesbian cult classic to the big screen that spotlights the heady heroin-chic days of the 90’s New York art scene.

First up we reviewed ‘I’m the Most Racist Person I Know’, a fantastic short film that follows Lali and Ana who go on a date where they bond over their shared experiences as queer women of colour and also...

For this program, we looked at the latest film from revered French filmmaker François Ozon film that is a very timely tale of secrets, murder, and mushrooms, plus we discussed some of the many queer films on offer that we’re looking forward to seeing in August at the Melbourne International Film Festival.

First up was our review of François Ozon’s latest film ‘When Fall is Coming’ which is in cinemas from July 31 and is set in rural autumnal Burgundy where we meet Michelle who leads an isolated life, foraging for mushrooms in the forest wit...

For this Out Takes, we reviewed ‘On Swift Horses’ which is screening now exclusively in Melbourne at Cinema Nova. Director Daniel Minahan’s queer period romance stars Daisy Edgar-Jones, Jacob Elordi, Will Poulter, Diego Calva and Sasha Calle. Set in the 1950’s, it tells the story of Muriel and her husband, Lee, who begin a new life together after he returns home from the Korean War. However, their newfound stability gets upended by the arrival of Lee’s charismatic brother Julius, a wayward gambler with a secret past. While its director is not a household name, his list of credit’s f...

For this Out Takes, we turned the spotlight on to a new gay romantic comedy that follows a gay Indian man who both dreams of – and fears – the big Indian wedding of their dreams with the love of his life and his journey to get there with Jonathan Groff by his side, plus we welcomed back the creative force behind ‘Girls’ who has teamed up with one of the standout performers in Hacks for a new must-see TV show on Netflix.

First up we reviewed ‘A Nice Indian Boy’ which is in select Australian cinemas now and it’s fair to...

For this program, we started off by welcoming back the 2025 Hurtigruten Scandinavian Film Festival this July and August which once again presents the best new cinema from the Nordic region . One highlight in the program that we were excited to review was ‘Odd Fish’, a tale of dreams, identity, and acceptance. This feel-good film follows childhood friends Hjalti and Björn, who run a seafood restaurant in their hometown during the summer. They dream of keeping the restaurant open year- round, and when an unexpected opportunity arises, Björn reveals to Hjalti that she is a transgender woman and will b...