Thaw (2023)

Altered Innocence Vol. 1

A vibrant anthology of LGBTQ+ short films and music videos that delve into the complexities of youth, identity, and desire. This diverse collection showcases a range of cinematic voices—both emerging and established—exploring the exhilaration, vulnerability, and confusion of coming-of-age through stories that celebrate queer love, self-discovery, and the breaking of societal boundaries. Blending narrative shorts, experimental visuals, and music-driven pieces, the anthology offers an evocative, multifaceted portrait of innocence transformed.

Dreams

Once a dream wove a shade, and pitying I dropped a tear. But I saw lights near, that light the ground while the soul wanders.

Walk on Water

Eyal, an Israeli Mossad agent, is given the mission to track down and kill the very old Alfred Himmelman, an ex-Nazi officer, who might still be alive. Pretending to be a tourist guide, he befriends his grandson Axel, in Israel to visit his sister Pia. The two men set out on a tour of the country, during which Axel challenges Eyal's values.

Billy Elliot

County Durham, England, 1984. The miners' strike has started and the police have started coming up from Bethnal Green, starting a class war with the lower classes suffering. Caught in the middle of the conflict is 11-year old Billy Elliot, who, after leaving his boxing club for the day, stumbles upon a ballet class and finds out that he's naturally talented. He practices with his teacher Mrs. Wilkinson for an upcoming audition in Newcastle-upon Tyne for the royal Ballet school in London.

All About My Mother

Following the tragic death of her teenage son, Manuela travels from Madrid to Barcelona in an attempt to contact the long-estranged father the boy never knew. She reunites with an old friend, an outspoken transgender sex worker, and befriends a troubled actress and a pregnant, HIV-positive nun.

Bad Education

An examination on the effect of Franco-era religious schooling and sexual abuse on the lives of two longtime friends.

Brokeback Mountain

In 1960s Wyoming, two men develop a strong emotional and sexual relationship that endures as a lifelong connection complicating their lives as they get married and start families of their own.

Preface to a History

A man becomes engrossed in an audiobook while walking home on a summer night.

Vita & Virginia

Socialite Vita Sackville-West and literary icon Virginia Woolf run in different circles in 1920s London. Despite the odds, the two forge an unconventional affair, set against the backdrop of their own strikingly contemporary marriages.

Bitter Sweet

Maki, a creative executive with a deep-seated loathing for vegetables, meets Nagisa, a closeted gay vegetarian with amazing cooking skills and they end up as roommates. Being complete opposites, the two initially clash. But Maki falls for Nagisa and his food over time. As they begin accepting the other as they are, a unique relationship flourishes.

Red Nose Day Actually

Fourteen years after the events of the first film, a series of encounters between people in Britain reminds us that in these different times Love, actually exists.

The Necklace

Marco is a shy courier instructed to deliver some jewels in a photo studio. Here he meets Giorgio, the photographer: handsome, gay, cheeky.

Shortcomings

When his girlfriend leaves for New York City on a 3-month-long internship, a strongly opinionated Berkeley arthouse movie theater manager begins exploring life as a bachelor.

Carmín tropical

Mabel travels to her hometown to find the murderer of her friend Daniela. A journey through nostalgia, love and betrayal in a place where transgenderism once took on an unusual dimension.

The Doldrums or How to Cure Sadness

The tiricia is an illness of the soul when the heart is saddened. A story of three generations afflicted with being tiricientas: Ita, Justa and Alicia – grandmother, mother and daughter – who have at different times suffered, tolerated and allowed abuse, dragging on the disease. Alicia decides to break the cycle, eradicating it for future generations.

Perfect Obedience

The fictional Father Ángel de la Cruz is based on Legion of Christ founder Marcial Maciel, whose long history of child abuse was not addressed until 2006 and only publicly acknowledged in 2009. But director Luis Urquiza chooses to structure his film through the largely uncomprehending, wondering eyes of 13-year-old Julián, who travels from the arms of his loving pastoral family into the austere, hallowed halls of the seminary. Singling out the boy as his intimate disciple, installing him in his palatial private quarters and redubbing him “Sacramento Santos,” Father Ángel begins Julian’s instruction into the mysteries of “perfect obedience,” whose cardinal rule is: Never question a superior’s actions.

La Jetée

A man confronts his past during an experiment that attempts to find a solution to the problems of a post-apocalyptic world caused by a world war.

Shut Up, Butterfly!

Vincent grew up in a violent surrounding, his own family. After a new family feud Vincent decides to call the police but is taken to a youth center unintentionally. There Vincent beats up the director who touched him improvidently. It seems that violence looms large in Vincent's life. Then he meets Butterfly, a diffident young boy who collects butterflies to bear his parent's death. Vincent gets curious about the butterfly boy and tries to empathize. Step by step Vincent gains the friendship of butterfly. But one day his mother reappears to tell him he is not wanted at home anymore. Vincent is stunned. All of a sudden his feelings burst out and he beats up his defenseless roommate: Butterfly.

A Family Affair

A woman makes a powerful connection with a surprising stranger on her 30th birthday.

Summer Solstice

Trans man Leo's idyllic summer housesitting gig veers off course when his straight, cisgender friend Eleanor shows up for a weekend. These two friends come to realize that their once natural and easy sense of connection is now more tenuous than they'd like to believe.

Pram Snatcher

A heavily pregnant criminal and her partner-in-crime head to a remote service station off the A90 for one last job.

Stranger Out of You

After a chance meeting with an attractive stranger, a spellbound admirer returns to the same bar and tries to recreate his first encounter. With each nightly visit, a far more sinister and surreal pattern emerges beneath this man’s naïve attempts.

Three Months

When a young man belatedly reveals to his lover an omission, their romance wavers.

Touchscreen

After an unusual online encounter, a lonely man is challenged to step out from behind his computer screen and shatter long-lived inhibitions to claim the touch of another human being.

We Are Dancers

Set in Berlin, 1933, We are Dancers is the story of real-life anti-Nazi drag artist Hansi Sturm and his circle of friends in the immediate aftermath of the Reichstag fire, an event that allowed Hitler to become absolute dictator of Germany. Confronted by a former lover, now a Nazi, Hansi must decide whether to abandon his club or stay and face the Fascists on his own terms.

Wonder

An 11-year-old kid growing up in "the hood" secretly dreams of trick-or-treating as Wonder Woman for Halloween.

You Say Hello

A suicidal young gay man retreats to his family's beach house to end his life, but a chance encounter with a hustler changes his plans.

Chasing Amy

Holden and Banky are comic book artists. Everything is going good for them until they meet Alyssa, also a comic book artist. Holden falls for her, but his hopes are crushed when he finds out she's a lesbian.

Chrysalises

The streets of Barcelona, ​​thousands of people coinciding at the same time, eyes crossed lost in thought. Not realizing that even though it may seem unique, everyone has a story worth telling. People who live the moment that will change them forever, that will define and vindicate them. Moments in our lives where we have been, or will be, aware of a change of stage; of a before and an after. Moments when we feel like we’re dragging our backs every minute we’ve lived. Because we are all inside our chrysalis until someone breaks them and forces us to face the real world.

Pink Ulysses

A homoerotic exploration of the Odyssey mixing black and white, color, and old film clips.

Killer Friends

Four friends go on a camping trip that one won't be coming back from alive...

Utopia

When two boys from different social backgrounds connect via the internet, they go on an adventure into the suburbs around Paris. Lost among architectural projects from times when the future was still bright, they nourish their own personal utopia.

Stay

When Ash invites his ex-boyfriend on a road trip to the Florida Keys, he doesn't mention that their weekend getaway is actually a dangerous drug deal.

Between Friends

Jorge asks Noah for a special favor that questions the limits of friendship and his identity.

Home Is Where The Heart Is

A young lawyer, Jane Liu, is assigned by her mentor to help Madam Wong, a 75 years old repeated shoplifter, as a pro bono defense counsel. What seems to be an easy open and shut case suddenly takes a weird turn when Jane discovers that Madam Wong's repeated petty crimes are intentional and deliberate.

Let People Exit Before Boarding

Jesus and Pablo, two teenagers, are looking for a place to have sex for the first time.

Blue Film

Drawn by the promise of easy money and anonymous sex, queer camboy Aaron Eagle is shocked to discover a personal connection with the mysterious stranger who has paid for his company. Over the course of one night, the two men engage in a war of words and emotions as they wrestle with the impact of a tainted and shared past.

Les Biches

A bored bisexual millionaire picks up a young destitute street artist and whisks her away to her villa in Saint Tropez. They meet a dashing local architect and both fall for him, setting in motion a ménage à trois of deception and betrayal.

Velvet Goldmine

Almost a decade since larger-than-life glam-rock enigma Brian Slade disappeared from public eye, an investigative journalist is on assignment to uncover the truth behind his former idol.

Nowhere

In Los Angeles, a colorful assortment of bohemians try to make sense of their intersecting lives. The moody Dark Smith, his bisexual girlfriend, her lesbian lover and their shy gay friend plan on attending the wildest party of the year. But they'll only make it if they can survive the drug trips, suicides, trysts, mutilations and alien abductions that occur as one surreal day unfolds.

Trick

Gabriel is a young, aspiring musical composer whose life seems stuck in the First Act. When his new musical number gets a critical reception, a theatre colleague, Perry, tells Gabriel that he needs to get a life before he can write about one – so he heads straight for his local gay bar.

Rent

This rock opera tells the story of one year in the life of a group of bohemians struggling in late 1980s East Village, New York, USA. The film centers around Mark and Roger, two roommates. While a tragedy has made Roger numb to new experiences, Mark begins capturing their world through his attempts to make a personal movie. In the year that follows, they and their friends deal with love, loss, and working together.

What Did You Eat Yesterday?

Kenji is overjoyed when his usually thrifty boyfriend takes him on a trip to Kyoto for his birthday, but the trip ends up uncovering a painful topic.

Five Steps to Accept Farewell

YeJoo and EunMin spent two years as a couple so far. One day, YeJoo wants to finish the relationship that she had with EunMin. EunMin gets angry and asks if there's another girl. Yejoo says she got a boyfriend.

Parallel Novel

A writer tries to force his character into suicide, but the character fights back.

My Brother is a Mermaid

A short film about the experiences of a non-binary teenager, as seen through the eyes of their 7-year old brother. Set in a desolate seaside town, the film fuses social realism with fairytale, as it examines how a child's innocence and unconditional love can be a powerful and disruptive force for good.

Feral

A disturbed young man pushes away his exurban family to seek wildness in the woods. The boy's urge for the primitive manifests in his bedroom at home and in a wild dog he follows through the countryside.

The Ring Thing

When Sarah accidentally proposes to her girlfriend in Provincetown, the mixup turns their loving relationship into a minefield of marital exploration.

Male Shorts: International V6

A collection of sensual and provocative male-centric LGBTQ+ short films. The 4 short films are: My Pana (2023); Two Amongst Many [Dos entre muchos] (2022); The Anniversary [L'anniversario] (2022); If We Keep Talking in Summer Days (2023).

Click

A rock singer, escaping from her abusive boyfriend, forms an unlikely friendship with a struggling photographer with scars of his own.

Goodbye Blue Sky

Long after the end of the world, five strangers sharing an abandoned desert motel are forced to decide between love and survival.

A Christmas to Treasure

The passing of a beloved old neighbor reunites six friends for a hometown holiday treasure hunt, where sparks fly once again between brand strategist Austin and his former best friend Everett.