Every week, The GLAAD Wrap brings you LGBTQ-related entertainment news highlights, fresh stuff to watch out for, and fun diversions to help you kick off the weekend. In solidarity with the members of SAG-AFTRA, GLAAD will not be reporting on news and projects from struck companies in the GLAAD Wrap until such time as a fair deal is reached between SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP.
1.) The trailer for the dark drag queen revenge thriller, Femme, has arrived. Written and directed by out British filmmakers, Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping, Femme is an adaptation of their BAFTA-nominated 2021 short film of the same name. The London-set neo-noir feature follows a drag queen who suffers a brutal homophobic attack and gets a shot at revenge when he re-encounters one of his assailants. Watch the trailer below!
2.) Greenwich Entertainment has acquired U.S. rights to the Romanian-produced documentary Who I Am Not, an intimate portrait of the lives of two intersex South Africans and the personal, societal, and medical challenges they face navigating binary sex and gender systems. Sharonn-Rose Khumalo, a finalist for Miss South Africa, and Dimakatso Sebidi, a male-presenting intersex activist, effectively shatter taboos while raising questions about sex and gender identity, and who gets to define it; find the trailer below!
3.) Today, out rapper/singer-songwriter and actor Baby Tate has released her new visual EP, Baby Tate Presents – Sexploration: The Musical. The arrival of the 5-track set came with vignettes for “Luv Everybody” and “Lollipop,” both diving deeper into Tate’s world of sexual freedom and exploration; watch the video for “Lollipop,” in which Baby Tate proclaims her pansexuality, below!
4.) Nonbinary Grammy-winner Sam Smith and Charli XCX have debuted their highly-anticipated collaborative single “In the City.” According to Charli XCX, “It’s about feeling accepted, the magnificence of being welcomed into queer spaces and those once in a lifetime people you get to meet when you’re there.”
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5.) Trans bedroom pop artist and producer Layla Eden, professionally known as awfultune, has dropped a new single “malware,” which pays homage to their indie roots while exploring their experience with mental health and therapy. Check out the official music video below!
6.) Country music icon Dolly Parton released a new version of “Wrecking Ball” with her famed god daughter, queer singer Miley Cyrus. Cyrus’s original release a decade ago skyrocketed to No.1, becoming one of the year’s most streamed singles, and the 2023 version is a taste of what’s to come from Parton’s forty-ninth solo studio album, Rockstar, which arrives in full on November 17. Listen to “Wrecking Ball” (2023) now!
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7.) In more music news, out South African indie artist Kaien Cruz has unveiled their long-awaited debut album KAIEN. The album is a culmination of the diverse ebbs and flows they’ve experienced in throughout their life thus far – love, heartbreak, bliss, misery, and everything that lies in the space between; listen to KAIEN today!
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8.) NewFest, the annual New York LGBTQ Film Festival, has announced the award winners for their 35th anniversary festival. The Grand Jury prizes included Erica Tremblay’s Fancy Dance for “Narrative Feature,” Goran Stolevski’s Housekeeping For Beginners for “International Feature,” Daniel Goncalves’s Assexybilidade for “Documentary Feature,” and Nyala Moon’s Dilating For Maximum Results for “New York Short.” As a part of NewFest’s Black Filmmakers Initiative, the festival also presented three jury-selected filmmakers— Tramaine Raphael Gray, Clementine Narcisse, and Miranda Haymon— who each had short-form work programmed in the festival that features Black LGTBQ leads, with the “Emerging Black LGBTQ Filmmaker Grant.” Check out the full list of winners here!
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9.) The nominations for the 33rd annual Gotham Awards have been announced, led by metaphysical gay drama All of Us Strangers with four nods. Additional LGBTQ-centric nominations include Anatomy of a Fall for “Best Screenplay” and “Best International Feature,” High School for “Breakthrough Television Under 40 Minutes,” and Rain Dogs for “Breakthrough Television Under 40 Minutes.” LGBTQ talent was also recognized with nominees Georgia Oakley for “Breakthrough Director” in Blue Jean, Bella Ramsey for “Outstanding Performance in a New Series” in The Last of Us, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor for “Outstanding Lead Performance” in Origin, and more! The Gotham Awards will take place on November 27 at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City; find the full list of nominees here and read more about which LGBTQ projects made the cut here.
Congratulations to Andrew Haigh, Andrew Scott, Claire Foy and the cast and crew of #AllofUsStrangers on their FOUR #GothamAwards2023 nominations. pic.twitter.com/OF7G0Ucs9S
— All of Us Strangers (@AOUStrangers) October 24, 2023
10.) Insomniac Games‘ new installment of the Miles Morales and Peter Parker saga is a theme park of narrative boldness and streamlined game design. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, one of 2023’s most anticipated games, hits the ground running and never stops, and it’s even more exciting to see a plethora of LGBTQ characters included in many of the main and side missions. Players can help one of Miles’ classmates ask his boyfriend to homecoming, learn of Felicia Hardy’s plans to help her girlfriend in Paris, and chat with a nonbinary scientist that’s working to save the bees. New York has never been more vibrant, and this is a game that makes the players feel just as super as the characters they play as. Swing into the spectacular world of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, now available to play on PS5.