The Male Gaze: A Better Tomorrow (2023)

I Like You, I Like You Very Much

Japanese student You throws his relationship with boyfriend Shin into jeopardy when he begins an affair with an attractive man he meets at a train station. You attempts to come clean with his secret, but ending the affair proves too difficult. As a complicated and dangerous love triangle develops between these three men, each one begins to closely examine his identity, sexuality and intentions.

Make the Yuletide Gay

The holidays get overly festive as Olaf "Gunn" Gunnunderson, an out-and-proud gay college student, crawls back into the closet to survive the holidays with his parents. But when his boyfriend, Nathan, shows up at their doorstep unannounced, Gunn must put on a charade to keep the relationship a secret. With pressure mounting from all sides, will Gunn come out before the truth does?

Bigger Than Life

A friendly, successful suburban teacher and father grows dangerously addicted to cortisone, resulting in his transformation into a household despot.

The Latin Boys: Volume 2

Feast your eyes on a second volume of short stories set in South America that explore growing pains, first loves, political upheaval, gay parenting and coming out. The 6 short films are: Seat Belt [Cinturón de seguridad] (2018); Before It's Too Late [Antes Que Seja Tarde] (2019); Ajar [Entreabierto] (2018); Guacho (2018); The Grey Zones [Las zonas grises] (2019); Orizaba's Peak [Pico de Orizaba] (2017).

Hush!

Naoya and Katsuhiro are boyfriends, new in their relationship. Things are uneven at first—Naoya is open and free while Katsuhiro is cautious and closeted—but nothing compares to the chaos that arrives when Asako, a troubled woman with a history of psychiatric problems, abortions, and casual sex, asks Katsuhiro to conceive a child with her.

Like Grains of Sand

A coming-of-age story. Shuji, a Japanese teen, is falling in love with his friend Hiroyuki, however, Hiroyuki is attracted to Kasane, the new girl in their class.

The Mudge Boy

Chronicling the troubled existence of Duncan Mudge, a 14-year-old misfit who—while vying for the attention of his vacant father—struggles to fill the void brought on by his mother's sudden death.

Otto; or, Up with Dead People

A young zombie named Otto appears on a remote highway. He has no idea where he came from or where he is going. After hitching a ride to Berlin and nesting in an abandoned amusement park, he begins to explore the city. Soon he is discovered by underground filmmaker Medea Yarn, who begins to make a documentary about him with the support of her girlfriend, Hella Bent, and her brother Adolf, who operates the camera. Meanwhile, Medea is still trying to finish Up with Dead People, the epic political-porno-zombie movie that she has been working on for years. She convinces its star, Fritz Fritze, to allow the vulnerable Otto to stay in his guest bedroom. When Otto discovers that he has a wallet that contains information about his past, before he was dead, he begins to remember details about his ex-boyfriend, Rudolf. He arranges to meet him at the schoolyard where they met, with devastating results.

Wild Reeds

As the Algerian War draws to a close, a teenager with a girlfriend starts feeling homosexual urges for two of his classmates: a country boy, and a French-Algerian intellectual.

Cor Petit

Gael, a young aspiring actor, will do everything possible to star in the next play by theater director Luca Rossi. During the rehearsals, a series of strange events will begin to occur while Luca's suspicions about Gael increase.

The Unknown Cyclist

A man's dying wish is for the people in his life to participate in a 450-mile charity bicycle ride through Northern California.

On the Go

To be, or not to be a mother, that is the question. A road movie where music, sexuality and contradictions accompany the main characters on a trip through southern Spain in a '67 Corvair. Milagros stretches a carefree youth in her last years of fertility while Jonathan seeks solace in Grindr in order to overcome abandonment issues.

Pretty Boy

Sean is taken to a motel and is given a prostitute for his 18th birthday by his father. He must sleep with her to "fix" his questionable homosexuality. "Pretty Boy" is a coming of age story of a young bullied teen, Sean, struggling with his sexuality and the hardships of high school. After his father finds some questionable magazines in his room, this devout Christian will go to any lengths to get his son to find the light and "perform" the way a man should. Sean is introduced to Katie, a prostitute that understands the stigmas of modern society and helps him see the true light that is within him.

Rift

Months after they broke up, Gunnar receives a strange phone call from his ex-boyfriend, Einar. He sounds distraught, like he's about to do something terrible to himself. Gunnar drives up to the secluded cabin where Einar is holed up and soon discovers that there's more going on than he imagined. As the two men come to terms with their broken relationship, some other person seems to be lurking outside the cabin, wanting to get in.

Just Charlie

Football star Charlie has the world at her feet. With a top club desperate to sign her, her future is seemingly mapped out. But the teenager sees only a nightmare. Raised as a boy, Charlie is torn between wanting to live up to her father's expectations and shedding this ill fitting skin.

Blood-Red Ox

Amir and Amat are invited to a trip into the South American rain forest, but the pleasant visit to Bolivia quickly takes a bizarre turn as Amat starts having strange visions and loses his mind over the ghostly presence of a giant blood red ox. Amir must save his boyfriend from paranoia but he will quickly realize he can't trust nothing and nobody - as he might be losing his mind too.

That Is All

While trying to navigate life as he enters his 30s, Ryan slips further into loneliness. A chance meeting with a friend's boyfriend, Sam, changes that and as they grow closer. Ryan must now come to terms with who he is, and what that means for him.

Clément, Alex, and Everyone Else

Clement is gay. Alex is gay. They are looking for a new roommate for their big apartment in Paris with only one demand: he must be gay. And they find Leo, a charming student who is in deep trouble to find a place to sleep. Leo will do anything to get that room, whatever it takes.

Summertime

In 1971, a young woman moves from the French countryside to Paris and begins a passionate love affair with a feminist leader.

Saint-Narcisse

Dominic’s fetish is… himself. Nothing turns him on more than his own reflection. That’s why discovering that he has a twin brother, raised in a remote monastery by a depraved priest, causes him major consternation. Fate brings the two young men back together again, and their fraternal relationship is torn between sex, revenge and redemption.

Welcome Home, Bobby

When a Chicago teen is arrested for drug possession, the ensuing investigation reveals that he has had sexual contact with an older man. Discovering his sexual encounter, other students start shunning him and call for his expulsion from school. His conservative blue-collar dad also rejects him, while his mother does try to offer support.

Baby Cake

A gay couple and a lesbian couple are trying to conceive a baby naturally.

Second Thought

Chris and Art lead parallel lives, starting their day with similar routines in different locations. Both go to Provincetown, a welcoming haven for the LGBTQ+ community, where their paths cross on a dating app. A steamy encounter follows their first meeting, but a dramatic turn occurs when one blocks the other the next day.

Silent Sparks

Earnest and obedient, Pua helps his gangster boss “handle" all kinds of matters, constantly putting himself at risk in return for a bit of money to help with the family expenses. But deep down, Pua harbors a secret — he has feelings for Mi-ji, the prisoner who took “special care" of him the last time he was incarcerated. When Mi-ji is released from prison, Pua is excited for their reunion, only to find himself neglected, rendering his pent-up desires more difficult to control than any underworld loyalties or obligations.

Tove

Helsinki, 1945. The end of the war brings a new sense of artistic and social freedom for painter Tove Jansson. While focusing her artistic dreams on painting, the enchanting tales of the ‘Moomin’ creatures she told to scared children in bomb shelters, rapidly take on a life of their own, bringing international fame.

Deceitful Appearances

The sexual misunderstandings caused by the real identity of a rich woman serve Hermosillo to satirize the moral and social hypocrisy of the provincial that every Mexican carries inside.

A Siren in the Dark

Cameron, a Police Officer with psychic abilities, is called upon to interview an accused teen in hopes of finding the whereabouts of the teen's missing gay lover. His investigation immediately spirals into sordid tales of drug abuse, sexual obsessions, and a mysterious man living on a deserted mountain road.

New Queer Visions: Men from the Boys

A compilation of 7 short films exploring first love, revenge, new beginnings and more are unwrapped in this exciting collection from first-time directors from Portugal, Taiwan, Belgium, the UK and the USA. The short films are: Gypsy [Cigano] (2013), Talking To My Mother (2014), Dawn (2012), Spilt Milk (2016), Dinner Confession [亲密告白] (2015), Pittsburgh (2013), Kiss Me Softly [Kus me zachtjes] (2012).

Albatross

Worlds collide at an awkward dinner party in 1959 New England. Tables turn when a progressive biracial couple attends dinner at the imposing home of an unexceptional artist and questionable psychiatrist. By daybreak, they find themselves pawns in a cynical game that exposes the cracks in their facades.

Spaceless

Kan and Tul are aspiring actors who meet at an audition. From there on, another story unfolds, and both find themselves battling their own feelings.

There Was a Father

Shuhei Horikawa, a poor schoolteacher, struggles to raise his son Ryohei by himself, despite neither money nor prospects.

Never Too Young to Die

Secret agent Drew Stargrove is brutally murdered by the ruthless hermaphrodite gang leader Velvet Von Ragnar. The murdered secret agent's son, Lance Stargrove is thrust into the dangerous and intriguing world of secret agents and espionage when he seeks revenge. Danja Deerling teams up with Lance as his sidekick and love interest.

Save Me

A sex and drug addicted young man who is forced into a Christian-run ministry in an attempt to cure him of his "gay affliction", where instead he is faced with the truth in his heart and spirit.

RedLife

Som, daughter of a sex worker, believes that love will lead her towards a better life. Ter, a young criminal, robs just to buy love that doesn't exist. Redlife explores a world that is broken, ignored, and which offers no escape.

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

Two children, Ignacio and Enrique, know love, the movies and fear in a religious school at the beginning of the 1960s. Father Manolo, director of the school and its professor of literature, is witness to and part of these discoveries. The three are followed through the next few decades, their reunion marking life and death.

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.

The Third Sex

Klaus is a young man in post-war Berlin. He is drawn to his friend Manfred and, under the encouragement of their acquaintance, Dr. Winkler, explore the underground world of gay clubs and electronic music. His family begins to learn of his other life and do everything they can to set him straight.

More Than Friendship

Mia, Lukas and Jonas always where like one heart and soul since their earliest childhood. Until three years ago when everything changed. Friendship became love that is well beyond all conventions. A Part of the society feels provoked by such kind of companionship and meets them with some lack of understanding to say the least. Even their parents aren't really fond of the situation. Once a year, the trio makes a trip. During which they try to let emotion flow as they come, not having to fear the reactions of others. Now there is the time again for such a trip. And that is where the film starts. After renting a mobile home the journey starts as usual. Only one thing different this time, Jonas was diagnosed with cancer in terminal state a few months ago. The three of them know that this might very well be the last trip they will ever make. Regardless, Mia and Lukas try their best for Jonas not to think of the inevitable. Sadly the vow to spend the last trip only in joy, fails.

Maybe... Maybe Not

The heterosexual man Axel is thrown out of his girlfriends home for cheating and ends up moving in with a gay man. Axel learns the advantages of living with gay men even though they are attracted to him and when his girlfriend wants him back he must make a tough decision.

Requiem for a Dream

The drug-induced utopias of four Coney Island residents are shattered when their addictions run deep.

Badhaai Do

A gay cop and a lesbian teacher enter a sham marriage to pacify their families but find that relationships — both real and fake — aren't all that easy.

Desire: The Short Films of Ohm

Collection of six short films from director Ohm Phanphiroj. Includes his acclaimed "Desire" trilogy (The Deaf Boy's Disease, The Space Between Us, and The Last Kiss) as well as three self-starring documentary films (Journey, The Meaning Of It All, and The First Conversation Between Frank And I).

Ladyboy

Kristian, who is a transvestite, still lives at home with his mother Emma, because she loves him just the way he is. Life as a transvestite offers many humiliations from the outside world, but with his mom, Kristian feels that he can be himself. Until one day when Emma meets the alcoholic Søren, who does not have the same tolerance...

Crazyhouse

After the suicide of his best friend, a teenage boy is forced to deal with his guilt and sexuality.

1:54

Tim, a shy 16-year-old athlete with a natural gift for running, is dealing with the loss of his mother, as well as his sexuality. After a personal video is posted to social media, Tim's private life is about to explode into the public eye.

Tesis sobre una domesticación

A successful transgender actress and her lawyer husband decide to adopt a child, defying the conservative community in Argentina. But their attempt for a domestic happiness is thwarted when they visit the actress's hometown.

Make Up

After Ruth moves in with her boyfriend in a remote holiday park, tensions rise as she makes an unsettling discovery that lures her into a spiral of obsession.

The Male Gaze: First Kiss

The Male Gaze is a new series of releases from New Queer Visions that showcases short LGBTQ films from across the world. The first instalment, First Kiss, brings together five shorts that are based around men experiencing romantic and/or sexual interaction with other men for the first time. It takes in films from Sweden, Indonesia, USA, Australia and France giving a rounded look at how similar experiences are depicted across the world. The films are: Naked [Naken] (2013); Pria (2017); Walk With Me (2018), One Night Only (2018); Michel's Mouse [Tapette] (2016).

Alexander

Alexander, the King of Macedonia, leads his legions against the giant Persian Empire. After defeating the Persians, he leads his army across the then known world, venturing farther than any westerner had ever gone, all the way to India.

Mr. Holland's Opus

In 1965, passionate musician Glenn Holland takes a day job as a high school music teacher, convinced it's just a small obstacle on the road to his true calling: writing a historic opus. As the decades roll by with the composition unwritten but generations of students inspired through his teaching, Holland must redefine his life's purpose.

Appropriate Behavior

Shirin is struggling to become an ideal Persian daughter, politically correct bisexual and hip young Brooklynite but fails miserably in her attempt at all identities.

Time to Leave

Romain, 31, a fashion photographer with terminal cancer, elects to die alone, preparing others to live past him rather than prolong the inevitable with chemotherapy or be smothered in sympathy by those who know him.

On the Trail of My Father

A kid helps his troubled father to hunt a killer bear.

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

Renowned oceanographer Steve Zissou has sworn vengeance upon the rare shark that devoured a member of his crew. In addition to his regular team, he is joined on his boat by Ned, a man who believes Zissou to be his father, and Jane, a journalist pregnant by a married man. They travel the sea, all too often running into pirates and, perhaps more traumatically, various figures from Zissou's past, including his estranged wife, Eleanor.

Bend It Like Beckham

Jess Bhamra, the daughter of a strict Indian couple in London, is not permitted to play organized soccer, even though she is 18. When Jess is playing for fun one day, her impressive skills are seen by Jules Paxton, who then convinces Jess to play for her semi-pro team. Jess uses elaborate excuses to hide her matches from her family while also dealing with her romantic feelings for her coach, Joe.

My Own Private Idaho

In this loose adaptation of Shakespeare's "Henry IV," Mike Waters is a hustler afflicted with narcolepsy. Scott Favor is the rebellious son of a mayor. Together, the two travel from Portland, Oregon to Idaho and finally to the coast of Italy in a quest to find Mike's estranged mother. Along the way they turn tricks for money and drugs, eventually attracting the attention of a wealthy benefactor and sexual deviant.

7 Virgins

Tano is 16-years-old and is already sitting in jail. In 48 hours he’s a free man and off to the wedding of his brother. In the two days he recounts his neighborhood in a section of Sevilla.

Fire

In a barren, arranged marriage to an amateur swami who seeks enlightenment through celibacy, Radha's life takes an irresistible turn when her beautiful young sister-in-law seeks to free herself from the confines of her own loveless marriage.

Laika

Laika, a Japanese woman studying in Moscow, moves in with Yulia, an aspiring actress, and they develop an intimate relationship.

Slow Dance

During a middle school dance, a boy is struggling with his courage when experiencing his first love.

Cold in July

While investigating noises in his house one balmy Texas night in 1989, Richard Dane puts a bullet in the brain of a low-life burglar. Although he’s hailed as a small-town hero, Dane soon finds himself fearing for his family’s safety when Freddy’s ex-con father rolls into town, hell-bent on revenge.

One More Night

The end of a love story between a young boy and a man with too many regrets which, for the latter, becomes an obsession.

Humo bajo el agua

A look at love and friendship in a historic moment for Argentina after the recovery of democracy. It tells the story of Julián, a young ranch hand who is reunited with Patricio, the son of his boss and his childhood friend. The passage of time and being face to face in the countryside where they were born, will make them realize that their childhood affection has become an indomitable feeling.

Escaping Freedom

Foster siblings Vincent and Krystal have been estranged for many years. When they are forced to reunite, their polar opposite paths in life lead to an explosive outcome where each is made to come to terms with their own faults. Vincent is a pastor of a small church struggling with religious doubts and a burgeoning desire for another male pastor. Krystal, on the other hand, has devoted her life to full on exploration and hedonism through the arts yet struggles with the labels placed on her as a result. As each other's closest confidant as well as biggest critic, Vincent and Krystal attract and repel like magnets. When the siblings reunite, everything comes to a head, both within their relationship and within each of their individual lives.

Bruno Reidal: Confession of a Murderer

Raulhac, Cantal, France, September 1, 1905. In the forest surrounding his hometown, the young seminarian Bruno Reidal murders a child and then surrenders himself to the authorities.

The French Boys 3

Through the unlikely mediums of dance, graffiti, and elementary school dress-up, these French boys young and old show that whether it's about coming out or getting the guy - you had better do it in style. The short films are: Fairyocious [Féeroce] (2019); The Graffiti [Le graffiti] (2019); Eva (2016); A New Breath [Second souffle] (2021); Masculine (2018); The Tightrope Walkers [Les équilibristes] (2017).

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.

A Chorus Line

A group of dancers congregate on the stage of a Broadway theatre to audition for a new musical production directed by Zach. After the initial eliminations, seventeen hopefuls remain, among them Cassie, who once had a tempestuous romantic relationship with Zach. She is desperate enough for work to humble herself and audition for him; whether he's willing to let professionalism overcome his personal feelings about their past remains to be seen.