The 39th edition of BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival is thrilled to announce a Screen Talk with the award-winning actor, comedian and writer Bowen Yang. BFI Flare will welcome Bowen onstage at BFI Southbank on Thursday 20th March to talk about his career and his latest film The Wedding Banquet, which opens BFI Flare with its International Premiere on 19th March. The festival, which is the largest LGBTQIA+ film festival in Europe, will take place from 19 – 30 March at BFI Southbank.
BFI Flare is delighted to welcome Emmy®-nominated comedian, actor and writer, Bowen Yang to the festival where he will discuss his career, including his latest role in Andrew Ahn’s The Wedding Banquet.
Yang began his career with Saturday Night Live in 2018, initially joining as a writer before progressing to an on-air cast member in 2019. He can currently be seen on his 6th season as a repertory player on the show, for which he has received critical acclaim and gone on to receive three Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.
Additional film and television credits include LGBT comedies Fire Island and Bros, Dicks: The Musical, Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens and the film adaptation of the award-winning Broadway musical, Wicked.
Alongside his acting career Yang co-hosts the acclaimed comedy pop-culture podcast, Las Culturistas, with fellow comedian Matt Rogers, where they take listeners on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of culture. Garnering rapid success, the podcast was named Podcast of the Year at the 2023 iHeartRadio Podcast Awards.
Yang’s latest film, Andrew Ahn’s big-hearted reimagining of Ang Lee’s Oscar-nominated 1993 classic, The Wedding Banquet, opens this year’s BFI Flare Festival, following its premiere at Sundance. BFI Flare is delighted to welcome Yang to this Screen Talk.
The Wedding Banquet is a joyful comedy of errors about a chosen family navigating the disasters and delights of family expectations, queerness and cultural identity. Angela and her partner Lee have been unlucky with their IVF treatments, but can’t afford to pay for another round. Meanwhile their friend Min, the closeted scion of a multinational corporate empire, has plenty of family money but a soon-to-expire student visa. When his commitment-phobic boyfriend Chris rejects his proposal, Min makes the offer to Angela instead: a green card marriage in exchange for funding Lee’s IVF. But their plans to quietly elope are upended when Min’s skeptical grandmother flies in from Korea unannounced, insisting on an all-out wedding extravaganza.
Listing:
Bowen Yang
Thursday 20th March, 13:00pm – BFI Southbank NFT1
