Check out these LGBTQ films at the Palm Springs International Film Festival
Brian Blueskye
LGBTQ films have evolved in themes ranging from aging and forbidden love to social struggles, heartbreak and, in recent years, parenting.
The 2020 Palm Springs International Film Festival offers several LGBTQ films that are emotionally powerful, offering a view as to how society has changed its perceptions of sexuality, and how certain countries still have ongoing struggles with equality.
One of the most talked about films at this year's festival is the Spanish movie "Pain and Glory," directed by Pedro Almodovar and starring Antonio Banderas as a a gay film director named Salvador Mallo.
It won Banderas a "Best Actor" award at the Cannes Film Festival and it was also nominated in the "Queer Palm" category, Cannes' prize for LGBTQ-related films. It also has Golden Globe nominations and Oscar buzz. TIME called "Pain and Glory" the "best film of 2019."
It screens at 1:45 p.m. on Jan. 6 and 4:15 p.m. on Jan. 7.
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Festival programmers mentioned many other LGBTQ films that include powerful stories. Here are some others receiving acclaim to check out at the film festival:
'Moffie' (South Africa)
Set in South Africa during apartheid in 1981, this autobiographical drama written by Andre Carl van der Merwe follows two young gay teenagers trying to come to terms with their sexuality while sharing a forbidden love during the country's 23-year border war with Angola. It premiered at the Venice International Film Festival in September.
"Anyone who grew up gay in pre-millennial South Africa may need to dig their nails into their armrest to get through what is both a shiver-delicate exploration of unspoken desire and a scarringly brilliant anatomy of white South African masculinity," wrote Variety film critic Guy Lodge in his review of the film.
Screenings: 6 p.m., Jan. 8, Regal Cinemas; 1:30 p.m., Jan. 9, Mary Pickford is D'Place; 1:45 p.m., Jan. 11, Palm Springs Cultural Center
'Portrait of a Lady on Fire' (France)
Director Celine Schiamma made history at the Cannes Film Festival in September after she became the first woman to win the "Queer Palm" award for her French 18th-century romance, "Portrait of a Lady on Fire." The film also won Best Screenplay at the festival.
It's a forbidden love story about a young painter who teaches art lessons and a young woman who she is commissioned to paint. A.O. Scott of The New York Times called it "a subtle and thrilling love story, at once unsentimental in its assessment of women's circumstances and almost utopian in its celebration of the freedom that is nonetheless available to them."
Screenings: 3:15, p.m., Jan. 9, Palm Springs High School; 9 a.m., Jan. 10, Mary Pickford is D'Place
'Retablo' (Peru)
First screened at the 2017 Festival de Cine de Lima in Peru, where it won the award for Best Peruvian Film, "Retablo" picked up steam on the festival circuit in Berlin in 2018 and at the Havana Film Festival in New York in 2019.
The film follows a young boy in Peru who is being trained by his father to design and build religious retablos, which are Catholic-inspired religious imagery, but he discovers something about his father that makes him question his own masculinity.
It is one of two films submitted for consideration to the Oscars by Latin American countries that have, in the past, had oppressive anti-LGBTQ laws, according to Palm Springs International Film Festival programmer Hebe Tabachnik.
"I think it's huge, it's a big step forward," Tabachnik said.
Screenings: 3:45 p.m., Jan. 5, Mary Pickford is D'Place; 3:45 p.m., Jan. 7, Regal Cinemas
'Stage Mother' (U.S.)
In this drama starring Jacki Weaver, Lucy Liu and drag star Jackie Beat, a conservative Texas church choir director (played by Weaver) inherits a San Francisco drag club from her deceased gay son, from whom she was estranged due to his sexuality. When she discovers the eclectic world of drag through the club's performers, she decides to stay and help save the club from financial ruin and make peace with herself for disowning her son years before.
Screenings: 7 p.m., Jan. 4, Annenberg Theater; 7:30 p.m., Jan. 5, Regal Cinemas; 12:45 p.m., Jan. 12, Mary Pickford is D'Place
'And Then We Danced' (Sweden)
When this Swedish-Georgian gay romance film about two male dancers was scheduled for screenings in the Georgian cities of Tbilisi and Batumi, ultra-conservative and pro-Russian groups threatened to have them cancelled. Riot police mobilized outside of the theater, and protesters used pyrotechnics in an attempt to gain entry into the Amirani Theatre in Tibilisi, according to Interpressnews.
The film is Sweden's International Feature Film entry to the Oscars. Jude Dry of IndieWire called it "one of the year's best gay films."
Screenings: 7:30 p.m., Jan. 7, Palm Springs Cultural Center; 1:45 p.m., Jan. 8, Regal Cinemas; 12:45 p.m., Jan. 9, Mary Pickford is D'Place
Desert Sun reporter Brian Blueskye covers arts and entertainment. He can be reached at brian.blueskye@desertsun.com or (760) 778-4617. Support local news, subscribe to The Desert Sun.