Big Gay Picture Show

Taking a look at the world of film through gay eyes - news, reviews, trailers, gay film, queer cinema and more

Taking a look at the world of film through gay eyes - news, reviews, trailers, gay film, queer cinema & more

Transparent Trailer – First look at Amazon Prime’s Jeffrey Tambor-starring transgender sitcom

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transparent-slideThere’s been a lot of interest in Transparent, which is part of Amazon Prime’s attempt to fight back against Netflix’s dominance in the realm of online series. The show follows Jeffrey Tambor’s Mort as he transitions to Maura to all those around him.

Of course this has repursussions for his whole family, including his kids – he’s a trans parent, see what they did there?

Along with Arrested Development’s Tambor, there’s a great supporting cast including Judith Light, Gaby Hoffman, Amy Landecker, Jay Duplass, Carrie Brownstein, Kathryn Hahnand Bradley Whitford.

You can take a look at the full trailer below, to get you ready for the series’ premiere on Amazon Prime on September 26th. [Read more…]

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Pride Film Clip – George MacKay goes on his first gay liberation march in the 1980s

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pride-clip-slideWe were lucky enough to see Pride yesterday, and our reviewer absolutely loved it. The Queer Palm winning movie is out on September 12th in the UK, so keep eye out for our review in the days beforehand.

A new clip from the film has been released, which features George MacKay as Joe, who plucks up the courage to join a 1980s gay liberation march, and becomes more involved than he’d expected.

Here’s the synopsis: ‘Pride is inspired by an extraordinary true story.  It’s the summer of 1984, Margaret Thatcher is in power and the National Union of Mineworkers is on strike, prompting a London-based group of gay and lesbian activists to raise money to support the strikers’ families. Initially rebuffed by the Union, the group identifies a tiny mining village in Wales and sets off to make their donation in person.  As the strike drags on, the two groups discover that standing together makes for the strongest union of all.‘

The likes of Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton, Dominic West, Andrew Scott and Paddy Considine star, with Tony Award-winning theatre director Matthew Warchus making his feature helming debut with the movie.

Take a look at the clip below and watch the full trailer here. [Read more…]

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Boys On Film 12: Confession Teaser – First look at the latest selection of gay themed shorts

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boys-on-film-12-dvd-cover-slideThe release of a new Boys On Film collection is always reason for a little bit of excitement. It’s the most successful short film DVD collection in the world, and over the last few years has offered a great selection of gay-themed shorts – as you can see by clicking here.

Some of the shorts have been moving, some have been sexy and a lot have been fun. Hopefully the same will be true of Boys On Film 12.

We’re not 100% sure what shorts will be on the DVD when it’s released in the UK on November 24th, but the first teaser has now been released. It features one of the shorts that looks like it’ll be worth a watch.

Take a look at it below. [Read more…]

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New Boys Trailer – Fresh look at the gay-themed coming of age drama

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boys-2014-slideA new trailer has arrived for the movie boys, a great Dutch coming-of-age drama about thediffifult romance between two teen boys. It premiered at the Boston LGBT Film Festival last April, and now Peccadillo Pictures is planning a UK DVD release on October 13th.

Here’s the synopsis: ‘Do you remember your first love?

‘Sieger and Marc are part of an all-boys athletics club, training hard for the relay championships. During their lakeside summer days, an innocent friendship develops into something deeper, but coming to terms with these new emotions is a hurdle they have to overcome. At first, Sieger denies his attraction to Marc. But then, they kiss.’

Take a look at the new trailer below. [Read more…]

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Steve Carell Replacing Zach Galifianakis In The Gay Rights Drama Freeheld

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Steve-CarellEarlier this year Zach Galifianakis signed up to star in the gay rights drama Freeheld. However a slight slip in the start of shooting has forced him to leave. They’ve found a strong replacement though, as Steve Carell has stepped into the breach, according to Deadline.

Julianne Moore and Ellen Page are still onboard though. Freeheld is based on a 2007 Best Documentary Short winner of the same name, about a landmark LGBT equality case.

Page is set to play mechanic Stacie Andree, who was denied the pension benefits of her longtime partner and New Jersey police detective Laurel Hester (Julianne Moore), when the latter became terminally ill. While Hester’s detective partner, Dane Wells, was conservative and initially surprised to learn of Hester’s sexual orientation, he stepped up to become the leader in the fight for Laurel’s rights to assign her benefits to Andree.

Galifianakis is set to be Steven Goldstein, a Garden State Equality activist who played an important role in the case.

Philadephia screenwriter Ron Nyswaner has come up with the script, while Peter Sollett (Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist) will direct.

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The Wilding Gay-Themed Short Film – Watch the Iris Prize winning film and help turn it into a feature film

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wilding-slideThe wonderful The Wilding won the prestigious Iris Prize a couple of years ago, and we were certainly impressed when we saw it.

Now you can watch the entire 16-minute short online, for a limited time – and it’s well worth taking a lok.

And if you like it you can also help turn it into a feature film (sort of), as director Grant Scicluna is in the final few days of trying to raise $40,000 AUS for the movie Downriver. He says of The Wilding that, ‘To a degree it precedes the story of Downriver’.

Here’s Downriver’s synopsis: ‘DOWNRIVER is a mystery drama feature film. Teenager James has served time for drowning a little boy when he was a child, although the body was never found. With little time and danger at every turn, James must uncover dark truths if he is to return the boy’s body to his grieving mother.

‘DOWNRIVER is a film in the style of WINTER’S BONE, THE BOYS or the TV series TOP OF THE LAKE. The film is confronting, dark, tense and will be controversial. It is also a tender story about friendship and forgiveness. This is the very reason why it is worth doing.

‘We believe there’s an audience hungry for strong, emotional, complex material. We need your help to raise the final portion of the budget to enable us to start production in September.

Scicluna adds, “We believe there’s an audience hungry for strong, emotional, complex material. We need your help to raise the final portion of the budget to enable us to start production in September.”

If you wish to help out, head over to Pozible. [Read more…]

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The Iris Prize LGBT Film Festival Announces Its Extended Feature Programme

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The-Way-He-Looks-slideA young man in a woman’s dress wielding a Samurai’s sword, hotly pursued by the young village police man, who is clearly out of his depth, is just one of the many stories celebrated by the 8th Iris Prize Festival. The five day LGBT film festival boasts a bigger than usual programme with 17 feature films.

European films are well represented with seven making the programme including the German offering, Der Samurai by former Iris Prize winner Till Kleinert. The film has been described as an impressive debut feature and “one of the best and weirdest films I watched” by a reviewer following the South America premier in Fantaspoa. Closer to home organisers of FrightFest have identified the film as one of the top 10 to watch at the annual London horror festival. Till will be attending the screening in Cardiff.

As a counterbalance the festival organisers are delighted to be screening The Way He Looks (pictured above) by another Iris Prize winner, Daniel Ribiero from Brazil who will be attending the screening in Cardiff. The film is a feature length version of his popular 2011 Iris Prize winning short about a blind boy who falls in love with the new boy in class.

“The Iris family is growing and this year we will have 4 previous winners join us in Cardiff. Till from Germany and Daniel from Brazil return with new feature films as they dominate the world film festival circuit. We also have the company of Tim Marshall, our winner from 2013 who has just finished filming Followers, his new Iris Prize funded short film. And if that was not enough we are also delighted to welcome back Eldar Rapaport (Iris Prize winner 2009) who will chair the Best Feature Film Jury,” said Festival Chair Andrew Pierce.

As announced previously the 2014 festival will open with the World Premiere of Jayson Bend: Queen and Country. Jayson Bend is your typical charming gay secret agent. But whilst on a routine mission he retrieves an artefact that reveals hints to a sinister plot by Raymond Perdood, a billionaire hair dressing tycoon who owns the largest global chain of hair salons.

“What better way to open our festival in a year that we are celebrating the Best of British than with a very charming British gay secret agent!” added Andrew.

“I’m delighted and thrilled that ‘Jayson Bend: Queen and Country’ has been chosen as the opening film for the prestigious Iris Prize Festival. It’s wonderful that all the hard work put into making the film has paid off. October is looking to be an exciting month!” said Matt Carter the film’s director.

You can find the full Iris Prize Festival programme by clicking here:

The on-line box office opens on Monday 8 September 2014. (Members Priority Booking opens Wednesday 27 August – through Sunday 7 September).

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The Normal Heart Wins Best TV Movie Emmy, But That’s Its Only Win

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normal-heart-bomer-ruffaloIt was a mixed night for LGBT interest at the Emmys yesterday. There was some good news, including Jim Parsons picking up his fourth Emmy for The Big Bang Theory and gay-friendly Modern Family tying the record for most Best Comedy Series wins by making it five in a row.

However most had expected the big LGBT winner of the evening to be The Normal Heart. However while it picked up the prestigious Best TV Movie gong, it was shut out in all the other categories. That includes losing in the Best Supporting Actor category, which many had expected Matt Bomer to win easily. Some now feel the fact it had four our of six nominations in that category ended up splitting its vote, handing it to Martin Freeman for Sherlock instead.

Orange Is The New Black also walked away empty-handed, although Uzo Aduba did pick up Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for playing Suzanne ‘Crazy Eyes’ Warren earlier this month at the Creative Arts Emmys.

Take a look below for the moment The Normal Heart won Best TV Movie, where director Ryan Murphy and many of the cast were joined on stage by writer Larry Kramer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt1taOKOvm8

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Barrio Boy Trailer – Into Brooklyn with the Iris Prize nominated gay short film

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barrio-boy-slideWe’ve already had a look at a couple of the films nominated for this year’s Iris Prize, the world’s largest international gay and lesbian short film prize which takes place in Cardiff, Wales in October.

Now we’ve got another, Barrio Boy, which you can take a brief look at below.

Here’s the synopsis for Dennis Shinner’s short: ‘Haircuts, hip-hop and homo-sex on the down-low… A Latino barber secretly falls in love with a handsome Irish stranger over the course of a haircut during a hot and sweaty summer afternoon in a macho Brooklyn hood.’

You can take a look at list of films that are due to compete in the Iris Prize, as well as the trailers for I Am Syd Stone and The Phallometer by clicking on the links. [Read more…]

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MPAA Criticised For Giving Gay-Themed Love Is Strange A ‘Homophobic’ R Rating

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love-is-strange-slideIra Sach’s film Love Is Strange is getting great reviews and there’s hope it will do decent business over the weekend in the US. However, while it contains no sex, nudity or violence, it’s been given a ‘R’ rating by the MPAA, in a decision some are calling homophobic.

It’s not the first time the US ratings board has been accused of homophobia – indeed nearly every gay-themed film that come their way seems to get a more restrictive rating that it would have had if it had featured straight characters. For example last year the teen comedy GBF was given an ‘R’ rating, despite being less racy than many straight films given a ‘PG-13’ classification.

The ‘R’ rating means nobody under the age of 17 can see the film unless accompanied by a parent or guardian.

Love Is Strange is being released in the US at the same time as Sin City: A Dame To Kill For and Jersey Shore massacre, both of which contain nudity, sexual situations and lots of graphic violence.

However Stephen Whitty of the New Jersey Star-Ledger notes, ‘Also opening is “Love Is Strange.” There is no nudity. There are no sexual situations. The drug or alcohol material mostly consists of adults having wine with dinner, or cocktails at a bar. There is no violence or gore. There are several scenes of men kissing, and two scenes of a gay couple sleeping together, fully clothed, in bed. It is rated R.

If there’s an equivalence among these three films, and their equal unsuitability for anyone under 17, it’s lost on me — and, I suspect, on anyone but the censors at the MPAA.’

Part of the problem with the MPAA rating system is a hangover from the way it was created. Historically the most vociferous voice against sex and violence in film was the Catholic Church, which was instrumental in forcing Hollywood to adopt the Production Code in the 1930s and to adopt the modern rating system after the Production Code collapsed in the 1960s. To help stop the Catholic Bishops publicising their own ratings (which inevitably suggested most movies were depraved) and lobbying for the Government to step in and force Hollywood to accept its ratings/censorship system, the MPAA agreed that religious representatives would be part of the new ratings board.

Although the MPAA is still unwilling to say who exactly it is that rates movie – beyond vague ideas about those involved being family friendly – it is known the board still includes religious representatives, including those from the Catholic faith who are unlikely to be friendly to gay content. It’s also true that unlike many countries’ ratings system, there are no specific guidelines as to what different sorts of content should be given which rating in the US.

All this tends to ensure that gay content gets a more restrictive rating, simply because the make-up of the rating board is likely to lean towards those who don’t like gay content.

The official reason the MPAA has given for Love Is Strange’s ‘R’ rating is ‘Language’, although as Whitty says, ‘It is very hard to imagine that — if it starred, say, Robert Duvall and Jane Fonda as a similar long-time couple suddenly facing homelessness — it would be lumped in with movies crammed full of queasily stylish sexism and sickening torture porn.”

That’s especially true when the violence of The Expendables 3 and many of this summer’s blockbuster was given a ‘PG-13’ rating. In a week where the reality of brutal violence has been brought home to many around the world, the MPAA suggests it’s fine for teens to watch an endless succession of human lives being snuffed out on-screen without parental supervision, but John Lithgow and Alfred Molina as an aging, married gay couple is too much for them.

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