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Polestar returns as Supporting Partner of the 2024 Melbourne Queer Film Festival

Gracing the cinemas of Melbourne for its 34th year running, the Melbourne Queer Film Festival has become a staple of the city’s arts and culture calendar. Lauded as one of Australia’s premier cinema showcases, the 2024 festival kicks off with a program of shorts, features and documentaries centered around this year’s theme: Formative Sound and Vision. Returning as a proud Supporting Partner in 2024, Polestar celebrates the festival for being a pioneer in the arts industry pushing boundaries and opening minds, as we strive to do the same in the automotive industry.

In 1991, a small group of creatives gathered at Hares and Hyenas, an independent queer bookstore in Melbourne, to envision Australia’s first queer film festival. It was a daring concept. At the time, public sentiment and understanding of the community was low, and homosexuality was criminalised in some parts of the country. Today, the festival is the largest event of its kind in the southern hemisphere, showcasing the stories of global LGBTQIA+ communities through film.

This year’s theme of Formative Sound and Vision takes cues from everything audio-visual. From lip-syncing and ballroom, to karaoke, to movie musicals and music videos, the festival explores the sights and sounds that helped shape the LGBTQIA+ community of today. VIP guests and staff travelling in Polestar 4, the festival's official electric vehicle, will benefit from the optional Harman Kardon sound system, allowing them to enjoy crisp, concert hall-like clarity for their music... or to live their best carpool karaoke life in the spacious, luxury SUV-coupe.

MQFF continues to play a vital role in celebrating and advocating for the queer community. However, its broader mission is using the power of film to advance a more inclusive, understanding society. Driving the success of the festival is a team of organisers, programmers, and volunteers working tirelessly to shift public opinion and help drive positive social progress.

Polestar operates in a very different industry, but we share similar goals for the world.

One of key the reasons Polestar exists is to improve the society we live in. That means helping the world transition to thoughtfully designed electric vehicles with a complete lack of compromise. We do this to help shape a sustainable future for the planet, and all who live on it.

In partnering with the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, we stand with those who push boundaries, open minds, and envision a better world. We know we can’t keep moving forward without diverse perspectives and lived experiences, as they allow us to learn, grow, and thrive.

The transition to electric vehicles isn’t without its challenges. Changing minds and inspiring those hesitant to embrace this change is a tough journey, but it’s one we undertake for the wellbeing of our planet and everyone on it.

Like the creatives making cinema that provokes and pushes boundaries, we too challenge the status quo in our own industry, to inspire and create a positive, sustainable future for all.

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