The line-up for the New Zealand International Film Festival is out - and there are plenty of lgbti-interest films for you to check out. Grandma USA 2015 | Director: Paul Weitz Lily Tomlin is perfectly cast as a sharp-tongued, taboo-breaking granny who comes out fighting for her pregnant teenage granddaughter in this constantly surprising comedy-drama from About a Boy director Paul Weitz. “This is really a story about three generations of women and how they interact with each other… Lily Tomlin adds heart, soul, and, naturally, tons of comedy.” — Brian Moylan, The Guardian 54: The Director's Cut USA 2015 | Director: Mark Christopher Decades after it was deemed too deviant to release, 54: The Director’s Cut delivers the full decadent glory of legendary Manhattan disco Studio 54 as its makers intended. With Ryan Phillippe, Salma Hayek and Mike Myers. “54: The Director’s Cut represents an act of jubilant resurrection… Mike Myers and Ryan Phillippe are revealed in all their hedonistic glory.” — Ryan Gilbey, The Guardian Saint Laurent France/Belgium 2014 | Director: Bertrand Bonello The latest French biopic of the iconic fashion designer is a heady experience, stunningly realised without official YSL approval, and concentrating on the decade that culminated with a triumphant collection in 1976. “Focusing on a dark, hedonistic, wildly creative decade in Yves Saint Laurent’s life and career, Bonello considers the couturier as a myth, a brand, an avatar of his era.” — Dennis Lim, Artforum Best of Enemies 2015 USA | Director Daniel Junge “Enticing, scintillating and downright fascinating… A sort of brainy equivalent of the Ali–Frazier boxing matches of the same general era.” — Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter Anticipating the punch-counterpunch set-up of today’s TV punditry, but so much more incisive, the 1968 TV debates between liberal Gore Vidal and conservative William F. Buckley Jr resound again in this terrific documentary. She's Beautiful When She's Angry USA 2014 | Director: Mary Dore All the anger, joy and turmoil of the 60s–70s feminist explosion comes alive in a vivid documentary, blending the recollections of key US campaigners with archival action likely to astound anyone who wasn’t there. “If you were there, it’s the turn-on of reliving the Great Awakening. If you weren’t yet born, hopefully you’ll get what an exciting, life-changing time it was.” — Amy Stone, Lilith Tangerine USA 2014 | Director: Sean Baker Shot on iPhone and looking fantastic, Sean Baker’s R-rated comedy storms the streets, doughnut shops, brothels and clubs of West Hollywood as two transgender BFFs hunt down the ‘bitch’ who did them wrong. “Juicy and delicious… fierce energy courses through every frame of this scrappy mosaic of Los Angeles street life.” — David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter Holding the Man 2015 Australia | Director Neil Armfeild The memoir of a gay relationship that began at school when the author fell for the captain of the football team and ended in tragedy 15 years later is already a classic of Australian literature, and now an inspiring, heartbreaking film. Timothy Conigrave’s unforgettable book informs every moment of this beautiful film adaptation. Crossing Rachmaninoff New Zealand 2015 | Director: Rebecca Tansley A winning portrait of Italian-born Auckland concert pianist Flavio Villani as he returns like the prodigal son to Italy for his concert debut, scaling one of the summits of the Romantic repertoire. “We don’t choose the music. The music chooses us.” — Matteo Napoli William Yang: Blood Links Australia 2014 | Director: William Yang Raised a child of ‘White Australia’, photographer and performer William Yang traces his genealogy as born-again Chinese in this charming documentary tribute to the sustaining power of family ties. Australian performance artist and photographer William Yang explores an unwieldly family tree with deep distant roots in China. Women He's Undressed Australia 2015 | Director: Gillian Armstrong Gillian Armstrong’s doco celebrates the colourful Orry-Kelly, the Australian-born designer who dressed Bogart and Bergman in Casablanca, Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot and Bette Davis in many of her greatest roles. A clip-filled celebration of unsung Australian cinema hero and three-time Oscar winner, costume designer Orry-Kelly. The Duke of Burgundy UK 2014 | Director/Screenplay: Peter Strickland Sidse Babett Knudsen from Borgen and Chiara D’Anna star as lovers locked in a game of mistress and servant in this consummately coutured, surreal fantasy inspired by European soft-core of the 70s. “Strickland’s film is rich, pleasurable and multilayered – to Fifty Shades of Grey, what an expensive black forest gateau is to a mass-produced vanilla slice.” — Laurence Phelan, The Independent Note: The New Zealand International Film Festival is happy to use screenings as fundraisers for community groups. Find out more here The Auckland programme is now out here – more to follow Festival Dates 2015 Auckland, 16 July – 2 August Wellington, 24 July – 9 August Dunedin, 30 July – 16 August Christchurch, 7 – 23 August Nelson, 6 – 24 August Timaru, 13 – 23 August Tauranga, 20 August – 13 Sept Hamilton, 19 August – 13 Sept Masterton, 2 – 16 September New Plymouth, 3 – 20 September GayNZ.com staff - 23rd June 2015