LGBTQ+ film festival image+nation to open with Luca Guadagnino’s Queer, starring Daniel Craig

From Nov. 20 to 30, the image+nation festival of LGBTQ+ film will showcase queer cinema from around the world. The festival’s 37th edition, featuring more than 150 films from 27 countries, will open with Luca Guadagnino’s Queer, starring Daniel Craig as a gay expat looking for connection and his next fix in 1950’s Mexico City. 

Screenings will take place in cinemas across Montreal (Cinéma du Musée, ONF Cinéma, PHI Centre, Concordia University, UQAM) and online, offering an accessible way for audiences to enjoy their selection. 

This year’s festival will launch two new projects: an initiative called Culture Queer, encompassing the wide range of year-round activities that image+nation offers, from film programming to mentorship. They will also be launching a new website to help better accommodate the growing needs of their audience — not only by streaming films, but also offering an online space with resources and information on queer storytelling and their programming selection. 

Closing the 10-day festival, on Nov. 30, is Perfect Endings by Daniel Ribeiro, a starry-eyed rom-com from Brazil about a 32-year-old filmmaker navigating the dating scene after a decade in a monogamous relationship. 

In addition to image+nation’s usual Voix Autochtones / Indigiqueer, Queerment Quebec and Made Au Canada programs, this year’s edition will continue its focus on films from France (Langue étrangère, Les reines du drame, Miséricorde) and highlight the Beijing Queer Film Festival (Mama Rainbow, To the South shorts program). The festival will also focus on Acadie with the very latest documentary by Julien Cadieux (Y’a une star), who will attend the festival and speak about his creative vision. 

Another returning focus is Une question de genre / A Question of Gender, which looks at what non-binary and trans folks have to say about the world today (Really Happy Someday, We Forgot to Break Up, Any Other Way: the Jackie Shane Story). The new Zeitgiest focus will feature a selection of films that address some of our most pressing cultural preoccupations (Light, Light, Light, Drone, Les reines du drame, Sabbath Queen). 

Image+nation 37 will also launch I+N CONNEXE, a branded series of live discursive encounters between filmmakers and audiences, offering opportunities for the public to discover queer creators from Quebec, Canada and around the world. This year’s speakers include Courtney Montour (Rising), Martin Henri, Eli Jean Tahchi, Myriam Farsaoui, Béatrice Moukhaiber and Jean Pierre Bergeron (La dérnier communion), Alysha Brilla (The Queen of My Dreams) and Justine Primlott (A Mother Apart).

Among some of the other 2024 program highlights are Sweet Angel Baby, Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara and La révolution des coordinatrices d’intimité (Sex Is Comedy).

For more on image+nation 2024, and to buy tickets, please visit their website.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by image+nation (@imagenationmtl)

This article was originally published in the Nov. 2024 issue of Cult MTL.

---

For our latest in film and TV, please visit our Film & TV section.