A Queer Review of the Austin Film Festival (2023)
Highlighting the many ways in which AFF 2023 illustrated that the queer experience is not a monolithic one.

Al Nakba: The Palestinian Catastrophe 1948 is a groundbreaking documentary film that comprehensively examines the events that resulted in the creation of over 700,000 Palestinian refugees and the destruction of approximately 400 Palestinian villages at the end of the first "Israeli-Arab war" in 1948. Featuring historian Benny Morris and drawing on his book “The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947-1949,” this film is conducted in both Hebrew and Arabic with English voice-over. It is widely regarded as the first film to seriously tackle these historic events.
Highlighting the many ways in which AFF 2023 illustrated that the queer experience is not a monolithic one.
KIMI is the main character of this film and as much as I wish it was Angela Childs played by Zoe Kravitz, it isn't. KIMI is a smart device that works not unlike Amazon's Alexa and Google's Nest assisting in anything from home purchases to music playing all under the guise of only activating when in use.
The Roses is a wickedly sharp marital warfare comedy that transforms domestic dysfunction into high art. Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch deliver powerhouse performances as a couple whose fairy-tale romance implodes when his architectural career collapses just as her culinary empire takes off. What makes Jay Roach's remake so devastatingly effective is its refusal to pick sides—both spouses are equally sympathetic and monstrous, wielding Tony McNamara's razor-sharp dialogue like weapons forged from shared intimacies. It's a film that dares you to laugh at relationship wreckage while forcing you to confront the uncomfortable truth that the line between passionate love and mutual destruction is terrifyingly thin.
This list was made with the intention of celebrating the craft. I love seeing more women of colour on this list than before and more newcomers on the scene as well!
“The most disrespected person in America is the Black Woman/the most unprotected person in America is the Black Woman,” Director Spivey Jr quotes. The quotes are absolutely true. Misogynoir is a devastating social ill that is not given the weight it is due.
For the most part, 'Sweet Girl' recycles tired hyper masculine revenge tropes, but a surprise twist in the end turns it into a female-centric revenge film.