TLVFEST, the Tel Aviv International LGBTQ+ Film Festival, announces an exciting collaboration with Disney+, featuring several excellent films currently available on the streaming service, including some of my all-time favorites: Andrew Haigh’s hauntingly beautiful All of Us Strangers and two films starring Emma Stone – Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Favourite and Battle of the Sexes directed by Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton.
In a press release, Disney+ stated that they are proud to be joining forces with the International LGBTQ+ Film Festival, celebrating diversity and inclusion through powerful storytelling. The Walt Disney Company places significant emphasis on DE&I (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) values and is committed to creating a welcoming environment that embraces all individuals, fostering a culture of acceptance to ensure everyone feels represented and valued.
The program of Disney+ films available to watch at the LGBTQ+ Film Festival includes:*
The Eyes of Tammy Faye
Playing for the first time on the big screen in Israel, ‘The Eyes of Tammy Faye’, is directed by Michael Showalter (The Big Sick) and earned Jessica Chastain the ACADEMY AWARD® for Best Actress. The film is an intimate look behind the extraordinary rise, fall and redemption of televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker. In the 1970s and ‘80s, Tammy Faye and her husband, Jim Bakker (Andrew Garfield), rose from humble beginnings to create the world’s largest religious broadcasting network and theme park. Renowned for her message of love, acceptance and prosperity, Tammy Faye became inseparable from her indelible eyelashes, her idiosyncratic singing, and her eagerness to embrace people from all walks of life. However, it wasn’t long before financial improprieties, scheming rivals, and scandal toppled their carefully constructed empire.
Ed Wood
Celebrating 30 years of Tim Burton’s star-celebrity film. Renowned and unique filmmaker Tim Burton (Beetlejuice) brings to the big screen the unbelievable story of the cult and trash movie legend, Edward Wood, considered one of the worst directors of all time, portrayed brilliantly by Johnny Depp.
The film chronicles six years of Wood’s life, including his struggle to make his most well-known movies, such as the autobiographical ‘Glen or Glenda’, which delves into his personal fondness for wearing women’s clothes. The film also explores Wood’s relationship with actor Bela Lugosi (Dracula), who was a horror film star in the 1930s. Martin Landau’s portrayal of Lugosi won him numerous awards, including the ACADEMY AWARD® for Best Supporting Actor. The film competed at the Cannes Film Festival and celebrates its 30 anniversary this year.
Jennifer’s Body
Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried star in this hit from the 2009 Toronto Film Festival, written by Diablo Cody (Juno) and currently celebrating its 15th anniversary.
After being possessed by a demon, the most popular girl in high school, Jennifer (Megan Fox) becomes particularly ravenous. As boys from the high school disappear one by one, her best friend Needy (Amanda Seyfried), a nerd who also shares an unconventional relationship with Jennifer, decides to put an end to the killings. Will she succeed?
All of Us Strangers
Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Jamie Bell, and Claire Foy star in this award-winning drama written and directed by Andrew Haigh (45 Years, Weekend). All of Us Strangers, is considered one of the best films of the decade. It opened the 2023 LGBTQ Film Festival and moved audiences to tears. It returns for another screening due to popular demand, with audiences eager to see it on the big screen.
One night in his near-empty tower block in contemporary London, Adam (Andrew Scott) has a chance encounter with a mysterious neighbor Harry (Paul Mescal), which punctures the rhythm of his everyday life. As a relationship develops between them, Adam is preoccupied with memories of the past and finds himself drawn back to the suburban town where he grew up, and the childhood home where his parents (Claire Foy and Jamie Bell), appear to be living, just as they were on the day they died, 30 years before.
The Favourite
Directed by acclaimed Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos, this film won the Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival and earned Olivia Colman the Best Actress award at Venice, as well as an Academy Award. It also stars Rachel Weisz, Emma Stone and Nicholas Hoult.
Early 18th century. England is at war with the French. Nevertheless, duck racing and pineapple eating are thriving. A frail Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) occupies the throne and her close friend Lady Sarah Churchill (Rachel Weisz) governs the country in her stead while tending to Anne’s ill health and mercurial temper. When a new servant Abigail Masham (Emma Stone) arrives, her charm endears her to Sarah. Sarah takes Abigail under her wing and Abigail sees a chance at a return to her aristocratic roots. As the politics of war become quite time consuming for Sarah, Abigail steps into the breach to fill in as the Queen’s companion. Their burgeoning friendship gives her a chance to fulfil her ambitions and she will not let woman, man, politics or rabbit stand in her way.
Battle of the Sexes
From the directors of Little Miss Sunshine and the writer of Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours, and The Full Monty. Starring ACADEMY AWARD® winner Emma Stone alongside Steve Carell, Elizabeth Shue, Sarah Silverman, Alan Cumming, and Bill Pullman.
In the wake of the sexual revolution and the rise of the women’s movement, the 1973 tennis match between women’s world champion Billie Jean King (Emma Stone) and ex-men’s-champ and serial hustler Bobby Riggs (Steve Carell) was billed as the BATTLE OF THE SEXES and became one of the most watched televised sports events of all time, reaching 90 million viewers around the world. As the rivalry between King and Riggs kicked into high gear, off-court each was fighting more personal and complex battles. The fiercely private King was not only championing equality, but also struggling to come to terms with her own sexuality, as her friendship with Marilyn Barnett (Andrea Riseborough) developed. And Riggs, one of the first self-made media-age celebrities, wrestled with his gambling demons, at the expense of his family and wife Priscilla (Elisabeth Shue). Together, Billie and Bobby served up a cultural spectacle that resonated far beyond the tennis court, sparking discussions in bedrooms and boardrooms that continue to reverberate today.
The full TLVFEST program and ticket information are available on the TLVFEST website: https://www.tlvfest.com/en
*Information and text on the films was provided by the festival.
