Themes Seafaring films,
Films about sexuality,
Transport films,
Bisexuality-related films,
LGBT-related films,
Transgender in film,
Films about automobiles,
Road movies,
Buddy films,
LGBT-related films,
LGBT-related film
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is a 1994 Australian comedy-drama film written and directed by Stephan Elliott. The plot follows the journey of two drag queens and a transsexual woman, played by Hugo Weaving, Guy Pearce, and Terence Stamp, across the Australian Outback from Sydney to Alice Springs in a tour bus that they have named "Priscilla", along the way encountering various groups and individuals. The film's title is a pun on the fact that in English speaking cultures, "queen" is a slang term for a drag queen or female impersonator.
The film was instrumental in bringing Australian cinema to worldwide attention and for its positive portrayal of LGBT individuals, helping to introduce LGBT themes to a mainstream audience. The film has also been criticized for perceived racist and sexist stereotyping.
The film received predominantly positive reviews and won an Academy Award for Best Costume Design at the 67th Academy Awards. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section of the 1994 Cannes Film Festival and became a cult classic in both Australia and abroad. Priscilla subsequently provided the basis for a musical, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, which opened in 2006 in Sydney before travelling to New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Canada, and New York City's Broadway.Synopsis
Anthony "Tick" Belrose (Hugo Weaving), using the drag pseudonym of Mitzi Del Bra, is a Sydney-based drag queen who accepts an offer to perform his drag act at Lasseter's Hotel Casino Resort managed by a female friend named Marion in Alice Springs, a remote town in central Australia. After persuading his friends and fellow performers, Bernadette Bassinger (Terence Stamp), a recently bereaved transsexual woman, and Adam Whitely (Guy Pearce), a flamboyant and obnoxious younger drag queen who goes under the drag name Felicia Jollygoodfellow, to join him, the three set out in a large tour bus, which Adam christens "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" for a four-week run in the Australian Outback town.
Actors