Program 2026
WE ACKNOWLEDGE THAT WE ARE ON TRADITIONAL LANDS OF THE WURUNDJERI WOI WURRUNG PEOPLE OF THE KULIN NATION. WE OFFER OUR RESPECT TO THE ELDERS OF THESE TRADITIONAL LANDS AND, THROUGH THEM, TO ALL ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER PEOPLE.
WE ACKNOWLEDGE AND OFFER OUR RESPECT TO ALL SISTERGIRLS AND BROTHERBOYS. ALWAYS WAS, ALWAYS WILL BE, ABORIGINAL LAND.
2 weekends of trans-authored cinema, MAY 1- 9, 2026
Quick Links - 2026 Program
day 1 - FRIDAY may 1
SAPPHIC FLICKS PRESENTS OPENING NIGHT
Guest Curated by Merryn Trescott & Jamie Connor
MAY 1ST, 6:30PM – 9:00PM
FOOTSCRAY COMMUNITY ARTS
45 Moreland St, Footscray
Sapphic Flicks presents the Opening Night of TILDE – A critical conversation between Sistergirls, Brotherboys, trans and gender expansive First Nations creatives in response to ‘Trans Day of Vanishing’ by Lily Alexandre. A night for trans truth telling, led by the First Storytellers.
Notes on Vanishing
Canada, 2025, 48mins
Dir. Lily Alexandre
Documentary
Unclassified (U) 15+
Captioned 
Through film critique, protest footage, and surveillance cameras, Lily Alexandre raises a difficult question: is it time for trans people to make themselves disappear?
Indigenous Luv (Hanky Code: The Movie)
USA, 2015, 5 mins
Experimental
Dir. Demian DineYazhi
A short film about cruising as an Indigenous Queer. Part of Hanky Code: The Movie, Indigenous Luv explores the different codes inherent in the hanky code & creates a crucial space for Indigenous Queer studies while critiquing Western homo/Queer culture. It asks the viewer to consider the romanticized body of non-Indigenous peoples in order to strive toward an imagined space where Queer phantasies of sexual orientation & gender identity/non-identity are either de/reconstructed, appropriated, or decolonized.
He Takatāpui Ahau
Aotearoa, 2021, 11 mins
Dir. Alesha Ahdar
When encouraged to return to their Marae, a gentle non-binary person decides to go back to their tūrangawaewae despite uncertainty that they’ll be accepted for who they are.
A takatāpui non-binary person has decided to go home to their marae for the first time since coming out to their everyday community. They have borne witness to homophobia and transphobia in the past from their family, and they’ve seen it on the whānau Facebook pages, so they don’t know how it’s gonna go.I think that the main character was right in being nervous to go home, because it was what they thought it was going to be. But then they find acceptance in an unexpected place.
day 2 session 1 - SATURDAY may 2
INFLUX – INTERNATIONAL SHORTS
A Mask Encouraged Screening 
MAY 1ST, 5:00PM – 6:30PM
THE EDGE, FED SQUARE
Swanston St & Flinders St, Melbourne
80 MINS
UNCLASSIFIED 18+
A cinematic exploration of liminal space and self-construction, spanning a vampiric trio, a defense-tech romance, and a transmasc journey toward receiving a pūhoro (Māori tā moko).
We aim to keep this TILDE screening accessible for our immunocompromised and disabled audiences. Please consider testing beforehand and wearing a mask (P2 or N95 preferred); masks will be available at the door.
Presented by TILDE Festival and Fed Square.
Contains: depictions of gender affirming treatment, blood, as well as discussions of suicide.
While construction is in progress, shops will remain open
France, 2026, 2 mins
ExperimentaL
Dir. Mordred Guadagno
Unclassified (U) 18+
Captioned
Between 2021 and 2025, Mordred Guadagno’s city was under massive construction to prepare for a new streetcar line. As the works finally come to an end, Mordred grapples with the ending of a construction of their own.
Takapapa
Aotearoa, 2026, 12 mins
Documentary
Creators: Briar Rose, Jordan Walker
Unclassified (U) 18+
Captioned
TAKAPAPA is an indigenous queer short documentary that shares the personal story of Jordan Walker navigating what it means for them to get puhoro as takatāpui.
Still Life
Brazil, 2025, 15 mins
Poetic Documentary.
Dir. Diran Serafim
Unclassified (U) 15+
Captioned
Upon seeing a news report about an accident involving a delivery driver, Lucas, a transmasculine photographer, thinks he recognizes João, the guy he was in love with during his teenage years. Flooded by memories, he revisits images of Cohab1 in the East Zone of São Paulo.
How to Find a Career That Loves You Back
USA, 2025, 25 mins
Drama
Dir. Ethernet Wang
Unclassified (U) 18+
Captioned
When two trans women are selected to represent a defence tech company at a careers expo, their trip sparks a tentative romance.
Resurrect Me as a Parasite
Canada, Netherlands, UK, 2025 10 mins
Experimental horror
Dir. Lou Lou Sainsbury, Gabi Dao
Unclassified (U) 18+
Captioned
A vampiric trio facilitates the transition of a new host across a former limestone quarry and the sacred mountain grotto of Mary Magdalene, troubling the binaries of life, death, gender and parasitism.
Purebred
Northern Ireland, 2025, 15 mins
Drama
Dir. Caleb J. Roberts
Unclassified (U) 18+
Captioned
During a heatwave in Belfast, transgender man Owen returns to the flat of his on-off-again lover Seán after taking a pregnancy test.
day 2 session 2 - SATURDAY may 2
AFTRS PRESENTS: OUR FUTURE – THIRD EDITION
Screening & filmmaker in-conversation
MAY 2, 7:00PM – 9:00PM
THE EDGE, FED SQUARE
Swanston St & Flinders St, Melbourne
UNCLASSIFIED 18+
FREE EVENT
OUR FUTURE is TILDE’s third edition spotlighting visionary gender-diverse filmmakers from across the country. Featuring award-winning shorts and world premieres, these are the voices shaping the future of cinema.
Expect fruity-ness, satanic rituals, pregnancy tests, and our filmmakers in-person, with a TILDE Q&A.
Presented by TILDE Festival, Fed Square and AFTRS.
Bloodfire
So called Australia, 2025, 7 mins
Music Video
Dir. Sione Teumohenga, Bella Waru
Unclassified (U) 15+
Captioned
An intercultural musical collaboration from the collective FAMILI, from their debut EP BLOODFIRE. Oceanic shapeshifters making future-ancient sounds. Fire. Reclamation
Flight Risk
So called Australia, 2025, 16 mins
Comedy
Dir. Mohammad Awad
Unclassified (U) 18+
Captioned
Muhammad’s fruity holiday plans hit a roadblock when he gets stopped by airport security and is accused of running off to join ISIS. While he desperately needs to catch his flight, he’d still like to have some fun along the way. Based on a true story.
Hope
So called Australia, 2026, 20 mins
Comedy
Dir. Izzi Harris, Ada Tzinis
Unclassified (U) 18+
Captioned
A lesbian and a trans woman walk into a fertility clinic… it, um, it doesn’t go particularly well.
They Persist
So called Australia, 2026, 8 mins
Drama
Dir. Lachlan Salvestro
Unclassified (U) 18+
Captioned
A short film about the forever stagnant versions of ourselves that exist in the hearts and minds of the people we’ve left behind, as we grow and move on with our lives.
Soyboy
So called Australia, 2025, 17 mins
Comedy
Dir. Moo Renzaho
Unclassified (U) 18+
Captioned
When infamous conservative media outlet ‘The Daily Larrikin’ becomes the target of a federal investigation into so-called “discriminatory hiring practices”, producers Jack and Tom scramble to come up with a way out of the ensuing legal trouble that will undoubtedly cripple the company.
The Museum of Lost Things
So called Australia, 2023, 13 mins
Comedy
Dir. Polly Garrett
Unclassified (U) 18+
Captioned
Charlie is sucked behind their couch into a surreal museum of everything they’ve ever lost, from piles of mismatched socks to a cabinet of virginity trophies, only to discover a disturbing new exhibit devoted to their current relationship.
The Dysphoria
So called Australia, 2025 13 mins
Horror
Dir. Kylie Aoibheann
Unclassified (U) 18+
Captioned
A trans woman performs a Satanic ritual to get a vagina, but unwittingly invites a demonic presence into her home which demands a terrible sacrifice.
day 3 session 1 - Sunday may 3
UNDERSTANDING MYSELF AS AN AMPHIBIAN
Featuring Birdwatching with the Queer Birder’s collective
MAY 3, 2:00PM – 3:20PM
ECLIPSE CINEMA
32 Wellington St, Collingwood
70 MINS
UNCLASSIFIED 15+
Join us and the Melbourne Queer Birders Collective for the world premiere of Canadian filmmaker May Matchim’s sweet and hopeful documentary Understanding Myself as an Amphibian. Celebrate how transness connects with Country, queer spaces, and the joy of nature, featuring giant squids, lesbian albatrosses, and green frogs.
Bird with us, then head to Eclipse Cinema for the film and two shorts on whenua: Herekore (Hariata Wilson’s poetry) and Foreign Bodies (animation by UK director Lysander Wong).
Keep an eye on our Instagram for more details.
Herekore
Aotearoa, 2024, 2 mins
Experimental poetry
Dir. Melissa Spratt, Gabe Bertogg
Unclassified (U) 15+
A visual representation of a poem by Maori poet, Hariata Wilson which tells the story of how they connect with their Takataapui identity through their whenua and ancestors of Te Tauihu.
Foreign Bodies
UK, 2025, 3 mins
Animation
Dir. Lysander Wong
Unclassified (U) 15+
A simple itch descends into an outbreak with many legs. Certain things will always find their way to the surface.
Understanding Myself as an Amphibian
Canada, 2026, 63 mins
Documentary
Dir. May Caroline Matchim
Unclassified (U) 15+
WORLD PREMIERE
Understanding Myself as an Amphibian is a Queer ecology documentary that explores the sexual diversity of the wildlife around us. Director May Matchim draws connections between these incredible species and her own journey accepting her Transness.
day 3 session 2 - Sunday may 3
TILDE @ PONY CLUB GYM PRESENTS: SHE’S THE HE
MAY 3, 7:00PM – 9:00PM
PONY CLUB GYM
69 Chifley Dr, Preston
90 MINS
UNCLASSIFIED 15+
FREE EVENT
We’re hanging out at the gym — the Pony Club Gym — to watch the hilarious coming-of-age hit of the decade, She’s the He. We promise you, this movie made us trans. Siobhan McCarthy’s trans-filled teen comedy not only delivers everything we love about ’90s high school cult classics (like She’s the Man), it also hits you right in the face like a game of trans-joy-dodgeball.
Chill out this Sunday with DJs and a pre-feature short: the World Premiere of local filmmaker Josie Buden’s Under the Clocks.
Limited tickets, so get in quick!
Under the Clocks
So called Australia, 2026, 8 mins
Dir. Josie Buden
Comedy
Unclassified (U) 15+
Open Captions
WORLD PREMIERE
Two strangers cross paths at a train station.
She’s the He
USA, 2025, 81 mins
Comedy
Dir. Siobhan McCarthy
Unclassified (U) 15+
Open Captions
Just before graduation, Alex and Ethan pretend to be trans women to get into the girl’s lockers. It’s all a joke until Ethan realizes: she really is trans.
day - Wednesday may 6
DESIRE TO LIVE (MUTATIS MUTANDIS)
MAY 6TH, 6:30PM – 8PM
ECLIPSE CINEMA
32 Wellington St, Collingwood
84 MINS
UNCLASSIFIED 18+
Desire to Live (mutatis mutandis)
Brazil, 2025, 83 mins
Documentary
Dir. Giorgia Narciso
Unclassified (U) 15+
Open Captions
Bárbara is a fortune teller preparing to become a priestess in Candomblé. Heitor is a psychologist with a passion for horses. Aylla loves makeup and partying at techno nights. Anita is a performer living in a shelter. Kalú is a photographer who helps his partner raise her stepson.
These five individuals lead different lives, yet share one thing in common: they are trans and disabled. Giorgia Narciso’s stunning vision captures Brazil’s trans-disabled community, including their desires, their art, and the rhythms that give meaning to their lives, and offers a beautiful expression of how filmmakers can connect with their communities.
Contains: discussions surrounding transphobia, misgendering and suicide.
day - Friday may 8
SPECIAL EVENT: GAY24 PRESENTS
MAY 8TH, 9:00PM – 11:00PM
VILLAGE CINEMAS COBURG DRIVE-IN
155 Newlands Rd, Coburg North
UNCLASSIFIED 18+
GAY24, BUFF & TILDE TAKE OVER THE COBURG DRIVE-IN: DISPATCHES FROM THE GROTTY TRANS UNDERGROUND
Following hot on the heels of last year’s sold-out trans softcore TILDE session, GAY24 Film Club team up with the Brunswick Underground Film Festival to once again draw us into their squalid web with a selection of brand new voices from the international trans underground; presented on the big screen at the Coburg Drive-In Cinema!
Following a string of sold-out international screenings, the M. Sisters’ debut feature DIVINE HAMMER makes its much requested Australian premiere. In DIVINE HAMMER, two maladapted young women, both part of the same internet gore enthusiast community, formulate a plan to meet in person with the intent that one will kill the other, film the killing, and then sell the cameras that “watched” to unsuspecting customers online in the hopes of spurring on a “new era of death.” What happens when they meet up spirals out to become something beyond either of their cruelest expectations.
Preceding DIVINE HAMMER will be the Naarm premiere of Aubrey Winslow’s short GUTTERCAT, in which a punk sapphic couple attempt to wipe away their drug debt in Adelaide’s seedy southern suburbs.
Contains: gore, depictions of suicide and drug use.
Guttercat
So called Australia, 2025, 12 mins
Horror
Dir. Aubrey Winslow
Unclassified (U) 18+
A punk sapphic couple attempt to wipe away their drug debt in Adelaide’s seedy southern suburbs.
The Divine Hammer
USA, 2025, 75 mins
Horror
Dir. Mae M. Hazel M
Unclassified (U) 18+
Two maladapted young women, both part of the same online gore enthusiast community, formulate a plan to meet in person with the intent that one will kill the other, film the killing, and sell the cameras that “watched” online to an unsuspecting customer in the hopes of spurring on a “new era of death.”
day - Saturday may 9
CLOSING EVENT: ALICE MAIO MACKAY MARATHON
MAY 9TH
FOOTSCRAY DRILL HALL – HOME OF SNUFF PUPPETS
395 Barkly St, Footscray
UNCLASSIFIED 18+
RETROSPECTIVE + FOOD + DJs + IN-CONVERSATION
From DIY punk horror to dreamy, hypnotic trans fairytales, Alice Maio Mackay is a fearless filmmaker taking on the world. Making her first feature at 16, she’s since collaborated with trans icons like Louise Weard (Castration Movie), Vera Drew (The People’s Joker), and Jane Schoenbrun (I Saw the TV Glow).
This is the first-ever retrospective of Alice’s work. Grab a wristband, settle into comfy bean bags, and catch a single film or lose yourself in the full marathon. We’ve got free food, DJs, and more to be announced.
Check our Instagram for the lineup and schedule. Don’t miss the evolution.
Contains: gore, depictions of self-harm, graphic violence, and sexual content
In their dreams all jellyfish are wet
Austria, 2023, 27 mins
Comedy
Dir. Marie Luise Lehner
16+
Captioned
AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE
This film is a manifesto for the fact that the rules by which we behave can be changed and transformed. The rules that determine the course of a sauna visit provide the structure. Orlando, who tries to master an inconspicuous visit to the sauna does not know the rules. After he has to leave the sauna during the infusion because his nipple piercings get too hot, he settles down hidden on a lounger and falls into a strange dream in which Laura’s beautiful cousin dances as a devilin an empty pool.
Desire Lines
USA, 2024, 83 mins
Documentary
Dir: Jules Rosskam
Unclassified (U)
Captioned
AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE FRESH FROM SUNDANCE
Identity. Desire. History.
An Iranian-American transman, Ahmad, searching for his place in history, finds more than just a link to the past in the archives. Drawing from first-person accounts, as well as fictionalized segments, filmmaker Jules Rosskam explores the lines of desire as they intersect with identity for many transmen.
Directed by leading academic and scholar Jules Rosskam (Something to Cry About Tilde 2019) and winner of the Next Special Jury Award at Sundance.
“Desire Lines is hypnotic and enduring, a remarkably incisive work that should be seen far and wide” – Cinema Daily US
TILDE
MELBOURNE TRANS
& GENDER DIVERSE
FILM FESTIVAL
KEEP UP TO DATE:
IG.@TILDEMELBOURNE
FB./TILDE.MELBOURNE
TW.@TILDEMELBOURNE
ACN. A0060769Z
