Heather Fraser
Heather Fraser is a transgender screenwriting student completing a BFA at the VCA and a film programmer working with the Brunswick Underground Film Festival. In her writing, programming and criticism, Heather explores cinema ranging from genre, horror and exploitation to arthouse and the intersections between those groups. Heather is very interested in queer and trans narratives, especially those which stray from the mainstream and express themselves in experimental, provocative, transgressive ways, truthful to the experiences of the authors and audiences. Heather Fraser is a genuine lover, fighting for the good art and cinema to prosper.
Instagram: @badgirlsgotohell
Letterboxd: @heatherfeather_
X the everything app: @featherfheather
Substack: @badgirlsgotohell
Location: Melbourne
Movie location I call home: The beautiful dollhouse set from Jerry Lewis’s The Ladies Man.
What was the film or experience that made you want to write about the screen? Being given the opportunity to introduce a screening of Doris Wishman’s Let Me Die a Woman (a personal favourite) made me realise that I’d have to take writing about film seriously. In the process of thoughtfully writing the introduction, I realised how valuable doing so was, and seeing how many people were opened to and enjoyed this (frankly quite difficult) film revealed the effect and potential my writing on film could have.
Why do you think film criticism matters in 2026? As wretched streaming garbage and miserable social media continues to glut our minds, it is crucial to slow people down with thoughtful writing to read – to remind them that good art is still being made, that they can find it, appreciate it, make it and heal their precious heads.
Who is a critic that inspires you? Jean-Luc Godard. His commitment to a personal voice in his criticism that was often in conflict with broader legibility, his grand assertions of the need for good cinema supported by his execution of such ideals in his own filmmaking, serves as an endless well of inspiration for me. Whenever I need to rejig my love for cinema, whenever I need reminding of the need for the creation of thoughtful, new cinema and the infinite possibilities of such cinema, I return to the works of Godard.
In five words (or less), the future of cinema is: bad bad bad good bad.
What’s the best thing you’ve seen this year so far? I saw Isiah Medina’s new film Gangsterism at BUFF and found it challenging, inspiring and powerful, despite (and because of) the animosity felt in the cinema. I also finally saw Paul Morrissey’s Women in Revolt, which has become an all-time favourite even though it is quite awful.
What’s your MIFF 2026 theme music? ‘Winter Lady’ by Leonard Cohen.