Fridae

The HKLGFF will screen a total 54 films from around the world – exceeding any previous year's record – including five feature films and one short under the new bisexual category, one feature and four shorts under the lesbian porn category, and two French films to close: Stranger by the Lake, and Winner of this year's Palme d'Or at the Cannes film festival, Blue Is the Warmest Colour.

The award winning play by Singapore-born, US-based playwright Chay Yew will be staged for the first time in Malaysia since 1999 from Aug 23 to 25 in Petaling Jaya.

A new low-budget comedy continues the Thai film world's love affair with Tom lesbians, and non-lady-boy gay men. There is only one kathoey character in the film, reports Doug Sanders from Bangkok, a departure from the standard Thai queer comedies.

Blue Is the Warmest Color, a sexually explicit drama about a French teenage girl's love affair with another woman, has received the Palme d'Or for best film at the Cannes Film Festival on Sunday, the first time the award has gone to a gay romantic drama.

Singer and TV host Pongsak "Aof" Rattanaphong joins singer Ben Chalatit and lesbian singer Zee as being openly gay stars in Thailand.

From 10 April to 4 May, Singaporean theatre company Wild Rice is restaging their all-male version of The Importance of Being Earnest, a sparkling comedy by 19th century gay icon Oscar Wilde. We talk to director Glen Goei and 'leading lady' Ivan Heng – both of them local gay icons themselves.

Fresh off the stages in Hong Kong and Shanghai on his "We Are Glamily" mini-tour, openly gay singer Adam Lambert’s two songs have been deemed unsuitable for younger audiences and his concert in Singapore this Friday has been rated "Advisory 16 and above (some mature content)" by Singapore's media authority.

Fridae's Hong Kong Correspondent, Nigel Collett, reviews photographer Norm Yip's latest venture, his magazine beaux volume 1.

This week, the Love and Pride Film Festival presents four LGBT-themed films for Singaporean audiences. We focus on a festival highlight: Vu Ngoc Dang's Lost in Paradise, which may be Vietnam's very first gay movie.

Performing in Singapore on Saturday night, Taiwanese pop star and gay equality advocate Chang Hui-mei, who is popularly known as A-mei, showed her support for gay men and lesbians as she waved a rainbow flag and same-sex couples in the audience were shown kissing on the large screen.