BFI Flare â an annual celebration of the very best new queer cinema â returns to London’s South Bank next month. From films and appearances with big stars (Kristen Stewart, Lil Nas X and Elliot Page, to name three) to innovative indie flicks and fascinating documentaries, there’s plenty on offer from the film festival, which takes place from March 13 to 24 at BFI Southbank, and on BFI Player.
Ahead of tickets for the festival going on sale â sharpen your elbows ready for the general sale at 11.30am on February 22 â here’s our pick of the stand-outs to book.
Oh, and if you’re a BFI member, priority booking opens a little earlier, on February 20 at the same time. A number of extra tickets and screenings will also be released on March 7.
Layla
This year’s opening night gala is Layla, a love story between a non-binary Palestinian-British drag performer Layla, and Max, a straight-laced white London gay man who works as an exec. The pair initially cross paths at a corporate Pride event, and it soon becomes apparent that they share a deeper chemistry that goes well beyond their initial physical attraction. As time goes on, however, the cracks begin to show as they struggle to find places in each other’s drastically different lives. It’s loosely and partially based on the life of its writer and director Amrou Al-Kadhi.
13 March
Slow
A hit at Sundance (it won the Directing Award for World Cinema) and Lithuania’s selection for this year’s Oscars, this film takes an intimate look at asexuality. When they first meet, sign language interpreter Dovydas and interpretive dancer Elena share a powerful connection, but when Dovydas reveals that he’s asexual, they have to carve out their own idea of what the relationship should look like, and overcome their differences to find other kinds of intimacy
15 and 17 March
Close to You
This highly improvised collaboration between Elliot Page and Dominic Savage should be an interesting prospect. Over the past few years, Page has largely stuck to starring in Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy, but now makes his return to the big screen in his first major role since coming out as trans. He stars as Sam, who encounters his old friend Katherine (Hillary Baack) on the train as he travels back to see his family in Lake Ontario for the first time since transitioning. “The best parts of the movie echo [Page’s] memoir Pageboy in their honesty,” wrote The Hollywood Reporter in a review. “If Page’s book reflects on the journey to self-acceptance then Close to You points toward a future where staying free means insisting, again and again, on your own happiness”. Following the film’s European premiere on March 14, Page will appear the next day for a Screen Talk.
14 and 15 March
Love Lies Bleeding
There’s plenty of buzz around this greased-up, ultra-gory crime-meets-romance film, which stars Kristen Stewart as Lou, a shy manager at a small-town gym who falls for runaway bodybuilder Jackie. The pair head to Las Vegas to chase Jackie’s iron-pumping championship dreams, but things take a darker turn when they get tangled up ”deep into the web of Lou’s criminal family”. It’s the second feature from Saint Maud director Rose Glass, and is produced by the ever-dependable indie A24 (the company behind Everything Everywhere All At Once, Aftersun, and How To Have Sex).
18 and 19 March
Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero
Firmly a pop star of the social media age, Lil Nas X secretly ran a Nicki Minaj fan account before his brilliantly silly country-rap hit Old Town Road rapidly went viral, thanks to TikTok’s YeeHaw challenge. The song, which samples Nine Inch Nails’ 34 Ghosts IV, landed him a major label record deal. Things could’ve easily fizzled out from here, but instead the Lithia Springs artist kept momentum going, guesting with Miley Cyrus at Glastonbury the following summer, and releasing bold, audacious pop hits such as the Jack Harlow-assisted INDUSTRY BABY, and MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name). Directed by Carlos López Estrada and Zac Manuel, this documentary shows the star on his first ever world tour: “In this electrifying tour documentary, we see behind his witty – and occasionally controversial – online presence: a young gay man reconciling the price of fame,” reads the synopsis, “and the musical prowess that got him there.”
20 and 23 March
Backspot
It’s a BFI Flare double whammy for Elliot Page this year; he has also executive produced this cheerleading drama. Pom-poms and queer storytelling obviously go hand in hand (from 1999’s satire But I’m A Cheerleader to last year’s comedy Bottoms, the examples are numerous) but it’s safe to say this one occupies the dark end of the spectrum as Riley (Devery Jacobs) and her girlfriend Amanda (Kudakwashe Rutendo) crumble under the pressure of joining an elite cheer team, coached by a cutthroat Eileen (Evan Rachel Wood). It’s a tale as old as time â characters flying too close to the sun and discovering that ambition comes with immense cost â but writer-director DW Waterson unearths a new take in their feature-length directorial debut.
16 and 18 March
The Summer with Carmen
This slightly meta comedy follows friends Demosthenes and Nikitas as they spend the afternoon sunning themselves on an Athens week, coming up with ideas for Nikitas’ first film. They soon land on a winner, inspired by the adventures of a dog called Carmen. As well as winning three prizes at the Thessaloniki Film Festival, its Venice premiere prompted a clamber of distributors, all eager to acquire it. “It’s an unapologetically out-and-proud film that spotlights the friendships between gay men,” said director Zacharias Mavroeidis, “a complex and multifaceted type of relationship that rarely holds the leading part in movie narratives.”
15 and 16 March
TOPS
Influenced by the chaotic and slightly invasive air of Nineties staples like MTV and British daytime telly, TOPS stars filmmaker Amy Pennington as they head on an interviewing odyssey to learn more about four trans subjects: “a powerlifter and gay-games Olympian hopeful, a housing-officer-slash-actor, an Essex filmmaker, and an equality, diversity and inclusion-specialist-and-occasional-model.” Heading into their homes and asking all manner of curious, invasive, inappropriate, and brash questions, bribing interviewees with increasing amounts of money, and rifling through their wardrobes, it raises important questions about the supposed power of media visibility, and who it really benefits.
17 and 23 March
We Were Dangerous
When badly-behaved students Nellie, Lou and Daisy are packed off to an institution for delinquent girls on a remote island, they form a tight-knit trio and set out to one-up the school’s strict matron. Inspired by Jamie Babbit’s equally satirical But I’m A Cheerleader, but with added 1950s boarding school vibes, it’s directed by the MÄori filmmaker Josephine Stewart Te-Whiu; New Zealand actor-director Taika Waititi is among the executive producers.
21 and 23 March
Stories of Our Lives
When it was first released a decade ago, this Kenyan anthology film was an indie hit; its filmmakers initially stayed anonymous due to fears about their exploration of LGBTQ+ life putting them in danger of arrest, and it remains banned in Kenya. Now, its coming out of the BFI’s archives for an anniversary screening; from lush rural romances to fantastical dreams of escaping anti-gay laws, The Nest Collective shot it over the course of eight months, with a single DSLR video camera.
17 and 20 March
