BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival has revealed the film titles which will open and close this year’s festival.
The celebration of LGBTQ+ film will begin on 19 March, opening with the international premiere of Andrew Ahn’s The Wedding Banquet, a remake of the queer, Oscar-nominated and beloved 1993 rom com.
BFI Flare will continue with a programme full of new feature-length and short films with LGBTQ+ focus, culminating with the festival’s closing gala, Filipe Matzembacher and Marcio Reolon’s erotic thriller Night Stage.
Ahn’s The Wedding Banquet features a glowing cast list including Wicked star and Saturday Night Live regular Bowen Yang and Oscar-nominated Killers of the Flower Moon actor Lily Gladstone.
Lego Star Wars actress Kelly Marie Tran and Where Your Eyes Linger actor Han Gi-chan also star.
Described as a “joyful comedy of errors about a chosen family navigating the disasters and delights of family expectations, queerness, and cultural identity,” The Wedding Banquet follows Gladstone and Tran as lesbian couple Lee and Angela, added to the plot for Ahn’s remake, who are attempting to continue funding their IVF treatment.
Yang stars as Chris, a queer man with a fear of commitment to his boyfriend Min (Gi-chan), who is living on a rapidly-expiring student visa. After Chris declines an engagement proposal from Min, Min suggests he and Angela get hitched instead. He can access a green card in the process, and pay for Lee and Angela’s IVF treatment in exchange. All sounds feasible, yet as with any comedy of errors, chaos will be afoot.
“Their plans to quietly elope are upended when Min’s skeptical grandmother flies in from Korea unannounced, insisting on an all-out wedding extravaganza,” reads BFI Flare’s official synopsis.
Reflecting on the film, director Ahn – best known for his queer, Emmy-nominated series Fire Island – said he was “honoured” to see The Wedding Banquet open BFI Flare.
“I’m incredibly excited for The Wedding Banquet to have its international premiere at BFI Flare, a festival that celebrates and cultivates queer talent. I’m honored to be a part of a cinema legacy that includes filmmakers like Amrou Al-Kadhi and Hong Khaou. I’ve fallen in love with London on my many previous visits, so it feels fitting to bring this love story to the city,” he shared.
Following The Wedding Banquet’s premiere at Sundance Film Festival in the US, it was dubbed an “outstanding” and “sensitively done” remake by critics.
Closing film Night Stage follows two men, one an actor, one a politician, both on rise, embroiled in a secret affair which thrives on their mutual fetish of sex in public places. Yet, “the closer they get to their dream of fame, the more they feel the urge to put themselves at risk,” reads a synopsis.
The full BFI Flare festival programme will be revealed on 18 February.
More information on BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival can be found here.
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