Once again the New Zealand International Film Festival is serving up another strong selection of lgbti films – while a gay Kiwi writer and director’s first ever feature film is also in the line-up. Check out the films which are New Zealand AIDS Foundation fundraisers here Buy tickets here Max Currie’s EVERYTHING WE LOVED Former Queer Nation host and director Max Currie’s first ever feature film Everything We Loved will show at the NZIFF on 28 July – when it will also be released through the NZ Film Commission’s video-on-demand format. Its synopsis: A shy magician coaxes his once happy wife back to life with his greatest illusion - a little boy. But the loving family they create is threatened when they become hunted as child abductors. Other films hand-picked for the glbti community: 52 TUESDAYS A delicate and frequently touching debut drama, Australian director Sophie Hyde’s film, shot over a year of Tuesdays, traces a teenage girl’s explorations of her own sexual identity while her mother undergoes gender transition. 2013 | Australia | Director: Sophie Hyde | 110 minutes | Censors rating tbc LOVE IS STRANGE John Lithgow and Alfred Molina are magnificent in Ira Sachs’ topical, moving and beautifully tender portrait of an ageing gay couple whose decision to marry after 39 years has complicated consequences. 2014 | USA | Director: Ira Sachs | 98 minutes | Censors rating tbc REACHING FOR THE MOON The turbulent love story of American poet Elizabeth Bishop (Mirando Otto) and Brazilian architect Lota de Macedo Soares. “An empowering portrait of two highly gifted women who defy social convention.” — Hollywood Reporter 2013| Brazil | Director: Bruno Barreto | 118 minutes I M offensive language, content that may disturb I In English and Portuguese WILLIAM YANG: FRIENDS OF DOROTHY With myriad images and candid narration, renowned photographer William Yang presents his personal stories of queer Sydney and its famous Mardi Gras through the 70s to now. 2014 | Australia | Director: Martin Fox | 57 minutes | Documentary EASTERN BOYS A 50-something businessman gets more than he bargained for when he invites a young street hustler back to his apartment. Loaded with sexual tension, this superbly directed thriller never goes where you expect. 2013 | France | Director: Robin Campillo | 128 minutes I Censors rating tbc YVES SAINT LAURENT “Director Jalil Lespert exquisitely recreates the glamor of Saint Laurent’s world and designs, but his true stroke of genius is in the casting of his star. Niney bears a striking resemblance to the man he portrays… not so much playing Saint Laurent as incarnating him.” — SFIFF 2013 | France | Director: Robin Campillo | 128 minutes I Censors rating tbc LILTING Ben Whishaw brings moving sensitivity to this lyrical tale of a young gay man tragically bereft of the love of his life and craving reconciliation with his lover’s old school Chinese-Cambodian mother. 2014 | UK | Director: Hong Khaou | 91 minutes | Censors rating tbc REGARDING SUSAN SONTAG This documentary of novelist, critic and public intellectual Susan Sontag is rich with insight and biographical details about the defining impact on her life and work of key relationships with several highly accomplished women. 2014 | USA | Director: Nancy Kates | 100 minutes | Documentary New Zealand International Film Festival: AUCKLAND 17 JUL–3 AUG 2014 WELLINGTON 25 JUL–10 AUG 2014 DUNEDIN 31 JUL–17 AUG CHRISTCHURCH 7–24 AUG 2014 GayNZ.com staff - 18th July 2014