Queer Stories Worth Your Screen Time This IDAHOBIT
WIFT VIC Communications Director, Yvette Turnbull, shares her picks to watch in celebration of IDAHOBIT, May 17 2026.
What is IDAHOBIT?
International Day Against LGBTQIA+ Discrimination.
On May 17, 1990 - the World Health Organisation removed homosexuality from the Classification of Diseases. While we celebrate this milestone and other advancements in LGBTQIA+ equality, the unfortunate reality is that there's still more work to do.
The List
Lesbian Space Princess
LESBIAN SPACE PRINCESS
Directors: Emma Hough Hobbs, Leela Varghese
Stream on Netflix
Princess Saira, an introverted royal from Planet Clitopolis, is forced into an inter-gay-lactic mission to rescue her ex-girlfriend Kiki from the Straight White Maliens and honestly… that sentence alone should sell you. Winner of the Teddy Award for Best Feature Film at the 2025 Berlinale, Lesbian Space Princess is one of the most joyful, weird and heartfelt queer films to come out of Australia in years.
I first caught it at a sold-out late-night screening at MIFF and the crowd energy was completely electric. The film is loud, silly, tender and gloriously unabashed in its queerness, balancing camp chaos with a genuinely sweet story about anxiety, heartbreak and figuring out who you are.
We were lucky enough to have directors Emma Hough Hobbs and Leela Varghese join us as experts on panels at Lifecycle earlier this year, and the film feels exactly like their energy: warm, sharp, playful and deeply funny. Packed with a killer Aussie cast, gorgeous animation and endless visual gags, this one completely stole my heart.
Videoland
VIDEOLAND
Director: Jessica Smith
Stream on Netflix
Videoland, created by Jessica Smith, follows 17-year-old video store clerk Hayley in 1998 as she quietly, clumsily, beautifully navigates her emerging lesbian identity. Set against a warm wave of 90s nostalgia, she leans on friends, found family, and the video store itself as she figures out self-acceptance, first love, and what it means to actually see yourself on screen. The series won Best Series in the Comedy Competition at the 2024 Series Mania festival in France.
We were lucky enough to have Jessica as an expert on a Lifecycle panel this year, and I also met her (along with Scarlett Koehne of Pikelet Pictures) through the ACMI X residency, where they were both incredibly generous in offering feedback that genuinely shaped my own queer short.
Videoland is funny, tender and deeply wholesome without ever feeling naïve. It leans into 90s nostalgia with real affection, and sits in that sweet spot of awkward becoming, small-town longing, and the messiness of figuring yourself out in real time. A coming-of-age story with real heart and even more care.
Blue Jean
BLUE JEAN
Director: Georgia Oakley
Stream on SBS on Demand
Blue Jean took me a while to get to. It screened in Melbourne at MIFF and, for reasons I can only describe as “I am emotionally tired of sad queer stories”, I avoided it for longer than I should have. I eventually watched it alone at home and immediately regretted not seeing it sooner.
It is stunning. The cinematography is so carefully composed and evocative, and the colour grade perfectly captures that damp, fluorescent heaviness of late-80s Britain. There’s a real visual restraint to it that makes everything feel lived-in and tense at the same time.
Rosy McEwen is completely magnetic as Jean. It’s a complex, quiet film about fear, desire, and the cost of being seen in the wrong time and place, and it sits very firmly in that IDAHOBIT reminder of how recent and fragile queer safety still is.
20,000 Species of Bees
20,000 SPECIES OF BEES
Director: Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren
Stream on SBS on Demand
20,000 Species of Bees was my first film of MIFF 2023, and it honestly set the tone for the whole festival for me. I remember coming out of it just quietly floored, like I’d been handed something incredibly tender and important to carry around.
I adored it. It’s such a powerful, deeply human exploration of gender expression through a child’s perspective, and the agency the young lead holds in naming and affirming themselves as Coco is so beautifully handled, never rushed, never explained away.
I was completely wrecked by the mother’s performance in the final moments. It lands with this emotional clarity that stays with you long after the credits.
It’s also a gorgeous intergenerational story, with the grandmother connecting family, land, and the bees themselves, gently opening up space for questions, care, and conversation across generations. It’s the kind of film that reminds you why these stories matter, and I don’t think it got nearly enough attention at the time. It’s also currently available to stream free on SBS On Demand, which feels like a very good reason to (re)visit it.
Deadloch
DEADLOCH, SEASON 2
Creators: Kate McCartney, Kate McLennan
Stream on Amazon Prime
Deadloch, Season 2 is bloody brilliant television and exactly the kind of Australian series we should be bragging about. Season 1 had us all hooked on the lesbian murder mystery comedy chaos in Tasmania, and this season throws the whole glorious mess up north to sticky Darwin, where the heat, the humour and the madness somehow get even better.
I adore Alicia Gardiner as Cath, and watching Madeline Sami’s character Eddie dig deeper into their own identity is a joy. The cast just keeps getting queerer too, with gays and theys everywhere you look, including new arrival Leo, played by our very own Playback mentor Jean Tong.
Honestly, why aren’t you watching it already? It is sharp, silly, filthy, and such a joy to watch. Also, follow director Gracie Otto on Instagram for the behind-the-scenes antics up north, including the collective assault of the midgies on cast and crew.