éabha (2023)

The Danish Boys

In a Copenhagen motel, a politician's hookup doesn't go to plan. Meanwhile at a nightclub, a mother and son are connected via song. Whereas in the suburbs, a football team prepares for the big outing - of one of its players. The 5 short films are: Hotel Boy (2018); Poz (2016); Young Man's Dance [Ung mands dans] (2014); Swans [Svans] (2016); Ladyboy (2011).

Vanilla

When Bastien has an affair with a woman, Matt finds it increasingly difficult to forget. And when they meet Florent, things take an unexpected turn.

Transamerica

A transgender woman takes an unexpected journey when she learns that she had a son, now a teenage runaway hustling on the streets of New York.

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.

Buddy

A young man agrees to support his ex lover during an HIV test. What starts out as an awkward reunion, soon becomes something more tender. Is there still hope for reconciliation?

After School

Fifteen year-old Jack is forced to come face-to-face with his growing romantic feelings for his best friend Danny.

Twins

On the eve of his wedding Daniel meets again with his true love-his identical twin brother Jan. For the last five years he's been running away from his feelings. Now, on his stag night he is being tested once more.

Burning Soul

Australia, June 1727, a ship from the Dutch East India Company wrecked on the hostile coast. Pieter and Hendrick are friends like brothers - they grew up together, sailed together, survived together. But when Hendrick discovers the true nature of Pieter's heart, the two men are taken in a storm where friendship and faith collapse.

Anything

After the death of his wife, a man moves from Mississippi to a run-down Hollywood apartment, where he meets someone new.

About Us But Not About Us

A literature professor meets his student at a restaurant and, over the course of one meal, secrets and lies will be unearthed and the sinister connection to a tragedy will be revealed.

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.

The Sheds

Examining the underlying tensions between mateship and masculinity in Australian sport in a portrayal of athletes rife with foul language, stigma, secrets, violence and nudity.

2:37

A contemporary, ensemble drama that tells the complex tale of six high school students whose lives are interwoven with situations that so many of today's youth are faced with. The story takes place during a normal school day. At precisely 2:37 a tragedy will occur, affecting the lives of a group of students and their teachers.

Savage Fire

In the city of Cajamar, in the middle of ruined nature, lonely characters deal with the police, rodeos and mysterious fires.

Boys On Film 16: Possession

Golden boys, teen lust, self-conscious dolls, chance encounters, a vengeful creature, holiday romance, hidden sexuality — Boys On Film celebrates it's (not so) sweet sixteen with an astonishing selection of the latest international gay short films. Volume 16: Possession features ten complete films: Kai Stänicke's "Golden" with Christian Tesch and Maximilian Gehrlinger; Christopher Manning's "Jamie" starring Sebastian Christophers and Raphael Verrion; Kai Stänicke's "B." starring Susanne Bormann and Andreas Jähnert; Blake Mawson's "PYOTR495" starring Alex Ozerov; Charlie Francis's "When A Man Loves A Woman" starring Tommy Jay Brennan, Jemima Spence, and Diane Brooks Webster; Anthony Schatteman's "Follow Me" starring Ezra Fieremans and Maarten Ketels; Jake Graf's "Chance" starring 'ABS' and Clifford Hume; Andrew Keenan-Bolger's "Sign" starring John McGinty and Preston Sadleir; Oliver Mason's "Away With Me" starring Chris Polick and Lee Knight; and "We Could Be Parents" by Björn Elgerd.

The Glider

Bruno pursues Fabrice, runs without calculation, to fly away with him, until the end.

And Then Came Lola

A talented, but distracted photographer, Lola, on the verge of success in both love and work, could lose it all if she doesn't make it to a crucial meeting on time. But, as usual, Lola is late. With her job and girlfriend on the line, she has three chances to make it right. In a desperate race through the streets and back rooms of San Francisco, time grows short-will Lola make it? Will she come at all? With a pop sensibility that mixes live action, animation and still photography, And Then Came Lola explores love's age old question in a fresh new way, "If you try, try again, will you finally get it right?" (Written by M. Siler and E. Seidler)

Despertar

Nico and Thomas are childhood friends who were separated. Years later, at the beginning of their adult lives, they meet again and feelings from the past resurface, causing them both to face personal dilemmas. This is how, between dreams and disagreements, Nico and Thomas reflect on life, themselves, and love.

Fragment 24

One night, contract killers Safo and Erina celebrate their latest work when they are surprised by an unusual request: a black envelope with just the signature 'V'.

Stockholm Daybreak

At the break of dawn, teenagers Axel and Love are on the way home after a night out partying. As the sun rises, they start to see each other in a whole new light... Elin Övergaard's remarkably tender portrait of the struggle to say what you mean to the person you care for the most packs a considerable emotive punch in only just a few minutes.

The Flock

Two teenage outcasts, who resent their schoolmates and teachers, resolve to spread panic in school through a series of anonymous vandalism acts. Little by little, the game loses its innocent approach and the boys find themselves absorbed in a dangerous spiral of violence that seems to have no limits.

Shank

Teenage gang member Cal, hides his sexuality from his fellow gang members despite their often violent dislike of anyone that isn't the same as them, be they unsuspecting shoppers, foreign students, gays, etc. When his world collides with Olivier, a student he rescues from a pointless beating, he encounters a lifestyle that presents as many new experiences as it does obstacles.

Lek and the Waterboy

14-year-old Lek works in his mother's shop. While his best friend flirts with a new girlfriend, Lek has decidedly different fantasies.

The Deep End

With her husband Jack perpetually away at work, Margaret Hall raises her children virtually alone. Her teenage son is testing the waters of the adult world, and early one morning she wakes to find the dead body of his gay lover on the beach of their rural lakeside home. What would you do? What is rational and what do you do to protect your child? How far do you go and when do you stop?

Redwoods

Both original and incredibly romantic, Redwoods tells the story of an already-partnered man whose love is tested when a mysterious drifter passes through his small Northern California town.

Moriqueta

Lucas is a 19 years old deaf animator who explores life through his sketchbook. He encounters a handsome young man at his favorite library, leading him to seek a creative way to communicate with him. He chooses to set aside his beliefs and insecurities to ask him out on a date.

For a Lost Soldier

In the occupied Netherlands near the end of WWII, a young teenager, Jeroen Boman (Maarten Smit) is sent to the Dutch countryside to avoid the war in Amsterdam. While living with his adopted family, Jeroen meets and becomes friends with a Canadian soldier named Walt Cook, who is stationed at the same town he is staying at. Joroen and Walt spend a lot of time playing around and eventually a romantic relationship develops between them. The boy’s sexual curiosity leads him to have a sexual experience with Walt, an encounter that is shown with some vague detail but without actually showing any nudity, even though sexual intimacy between the two of them is implied. Overall, the movie handles this difficult subject with an elegant style and feeling, without having the adult-child relationship overwhelm the viewer and thus allowing the movie to be seen as just a wartime relationship between two people that marks an important time in a young boy’s life.

Lan Yu

A love story between a country boy in Beijing to study and a wealthy businessman set against the backdrop of the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident.

Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters

A fictional account of the life of Japanese author Yukio Mishima, combining dramatizations of three of his novels and a depiction of the events of November 25th, 1970.

Come Undone

Story of two gorgeous, young French boys who begin a passionate relationship that boils over and threatens to destroy both their lives. Shy 18-year-old Mathieu is on summer vacation in the south of France. He spends his days lazily sunning himself at the beach, until he spies the handsome Cédric and falls in love.

My Life in Pink

Ludovic is waiting for a miracle. With six-year-old certainty, she believes she was meant to be a little girl -- and that the mistake will soon be corrected. But where she expects the miraculous, Ludo finds only rejection, isolation, and guilt -- as the intense reactions of family, friends, and neighbors strip away every innocent lace and bauble.

Steam: The Turkish Bath

Francesco and Marta run a husband-and-wife design company in Rome. When Francesco's aunt dies in Istanbul he travels there to sort out the hamam Turkish steam bath that she left him. He finds a love and warmth in his relatives' Istanbul home that is missing from his life in Italy.

Meteorango Kid, Intergalactic Hero

In Bahia, in the late '60s, the alienated college student Lula spends his time protesting in the university, but without political orientation, wandering on the streets, smoking grass, trying to be an actor and having sex. Meanwhile, a common young man stalks women on the streets trying to have intercourse with them.

Drifting

Yan is an illegal second child born during the One-Child policy. To avoid government punishment, Yan's parents hid their oldest daughter in the countryside and raised Yan as a girl. Now a young adult, Yan struggles with his gender identity and being treated as an outcast in a conservative society. His sole escape is drifting his father's old taxi through abandoned parking lots.

Roses

Rosa unexpectedly finds herself spending an evening out alone as her daughter throws an 18th birthday party in their house. Wasting time in her small Cornish town, she spies a woman she has met once before - and is drawn to her.

Bittersweet Power

In one night, Lucas, Luiza and Bia remember the pains and delights of being who they are.

Margarita with a Straw

A rebellious young woman with cerebral palsy leaves India to study in New York. On her journey of self-discovery, she unexpectedly falls in love.

Blackbird

Seventeen-year-old Randy tries very hard to be a good person. Since his father left, Randy takes care of his emotionally disturbed mother, and he's the kind of friend all of his classmates can depend on. As strong as he seems on the outside, Randy is hiding a secret inner struggle and denial of his true self. It's not until he opens himself up to love that he discovers that becoming a man means accepting who you really are.

Garage

Due to a learning disability, Josie's life in a tiny town revolves around a menial job taking care of a garage that could close at any day. Things start to change, however, when David, the son of his boss' girlfriend, comes to work with him. Josie hangs out with David and his teenage friends, bringing them beer, and despite being a grown man himself, finds that the new company lifts his spirits. But his simple-mindedness blinds him to some potential legal dangers.

Go Fish

Max is a trendy, pretty, young lesbian, who is having trouble finding love. A friend sets her up with Ely, whom Max likes, but Ely is frumpy, homely, and older. Nor do they have much in common. Can Max learn to look past the packaging?

Bad Romance

7 young men and women and their three stories involved with heterosexual, homosexual and bisexual affairs that happened in Beijing. A single mom meets a young student; A city boy meets a guy of his dream; A girl falls into a love game of a male and a female fellows in her French class.

Toto Forever

A wide-eyed young postman and a gangster in trouble with the mafia find their lives become inexplicably intertwined when a heady affair attracts danger at every turn.

Tell It to the Bees

Dr. Jean Markham returns to the town she left as a teenager to take over her late father's medical practice. When a school-yard scuffle lands Charlie in her surgery, she invites him to visit the hives in her garden and tell his secrets to the bees, as she once did. The new friendship between the boy and the bee keeper brings his mother Lydia into Jean's world.

Carmilla

In 19th-century Styria, isolated teen Lara's quiet life is upended by the arrival of mysterious, beautiful Carmilla, a female vampire with whom she develops an intense, homoerotic bond. As Lara's life slowly drains, themes of forbidden desire, identity, and the supernatural are explored, culminating in Lara's discovery of Carmilla's vampiric nature and a confrontation with her ancient lineage.

A Male

Carlos lives in a boarding school in the centre of Bogotá and longs to spend Christmas with his family. The circumstances around him force him to assume the male stereotype, in open contradiction to his true being. In private, Carlos acknowledges his sensitivity, his fragility and moves towards other forms of masculinity. At his 16 years of age, Carlos explores his sexual identity, discovers his fears, his desires, and all the things that real men never show.

Sunset Cemetery

Joseph isn't particularly happy, even though he's good at hiding it. The day his brother dies, he becomes certain he'll miss out on his life. So that it doesn't slip away from him, one night he gives in to his desire.

Agave Echoes

Under the dawn of the agave fields of Jalisco, Alejandro and Miguel, two friends with a special bond, confront an inevitable farewell. Amidst memories, their emotions intensify, challenging the boundaries of their friendship.

The Passenger

While searching for a condo in Berlin for his father, Nick meets Philipp, a young talented photographer and a gorgeous actress named Lilli. There is instant chemistry and both are easily seduced by Nick's charms. Lilli and Philipp begin to explore their relationship with the sexy visitor, succumbing to their passionate affections for him which intensifies their volatile emotional and physical bonds. But what Philipp and Lilli don't realize is that they are being lured into Nick's manipulative..and deadly, love game.

Furious Desires

Desire is mysterious. Desire is overwhelming. Desire is tragic. Desire is FURIOUS. The many permutations of that strange thing called desire are on full display in this stunning collection of 5 short films. Includes: Loris Is Fine [Loris sta bene] (2017); The Daytime Doorman [O Porteiro do Dia] (2016); The Other Side [Al otro lado] (2017); The Tiger's Fight [El tigre y la flor] (2016); Xavier (2016).

The Male Gaze: Celluloid Dreams

Embark on a journey through celluloid from 1985 to present day in these freshly digitized cinematic pearls from around the world that explore an array of gay encounters from years gone by. The 7 short films are: Just Out of Reach (1998); Toto Forever (2010); Men Don't Cry [Οι άντρες δεν κλαίνε] (2001); Alger la blanche (1986); Unconfessions [Inconfissões] (2018); Same Difference (2002); Boychick (2001).

Climax

When a dance troupe is lured to an empty school, a bowl of drug-laced sangria causes their jubilant rehearsal to descend into a dark and explosive nightmare as they try to survive the night—and find who's responsible—before it's too late.

Diane from the Moon

Shortly after a hurtful breakup, Diane, a transgender pagan priestess, finds refuge in Palm Springs. She is engaged in a battle with her inner demons when an enigmatic sociopath, starts to stalk her.

Myra

A trans sex worker in the Spanish barrio finds herself in an unwanted love triangle with a notorious gang leader while two drug organizations battle for supremacy suddenly finds herself tangled in a world of chaos and deceit.

Afuera

When Jennifer, an undocumented transgender woman, is forced to resort to the sex trade to support herself, her boyfriend, Pedro, gives her an ultimatum with unintended consequences.

Viva Diva

Viva Diva is a road trip movie, centering on Rozene and Diva, as they make their way down to Guadalajara for gender reassignment surgery. Rozene stops in on her father to try to get answers about their fractured relationship, but drama stands in the way of her getting the closure that she seeks.

Love Blade

A Woman named Rose is a virgin in her early twenties, who has a rare condition which cause her to kill every time she is sexually aroused. She tries to hide the bodies, fix herself and find out about her condition. That keeps her alone and in love with her knives. She takes up a job as a hired killer and stays single but meets another woman, named Sam, who has the same condition and has answers for her question, but does love prevail and what secrets are revealed?

The Waiting City

An outwardly happy Australian couple journey to Calcutta to collect their adopted baby, but on arrival find that the arrangements have yet to be finalized. Soon, the intoxicating mystic power of the Indian city pulls them in separate and unexpected directions, and the vulnerability of their marriage begins to reveal itself.

The Dybbuk of the Holy Apple Field

This mythic love story set in a timeless, lavishly colorful and mystical Jerusalem incorporates hard rock, striking set design, computer-generated imagery and modern-day tensions between the secular and the Orthodox worlds. Hanan, a handsome young traveler - who has pierced ears and wears grungy flannel shirts - falls in love with Lea, the beautiful daughter of a leader in the religious community. Unbeknownst to the couple, a deal was struck, years earlier, in which they were promised to each other by their fathers. When Hanan consults with a master of Kabbala, a set of mysteriously forbidden eleventh-century texts unleashes untold powers, merging the erotic with the divine and affirming love's infinite potential to transcend all obstacles. The lovers are played by Yehezkel Lazarov (Waltz with Bashir) and Ayelet Z'urer (Angels & Demons; Vantage Point). (from sfjff.org)

Postmortem

Two ex-lovers meet after years a part and examine the painful break up and what they should do now.

In Your Absence

13-year-old Pablo is a quiet, lonely boy with a troubled past. His only friend is Julia, a shameless 15-year-old girl who is more than willing to help Pablo with his transition from childhood to adolescence, and give him some advice on sex, love, and life in general. On a quiet country road just outside of the village, Pablo meets Paco, an oddly calm, well-dressed stranger whose car just broke down. Nevertheless, he seems more interested in the boy than fixing his problem.

Serene Hunter

A randy gay Parisian moves in with his new boyfriend just as an old flame from Los Angeles comes back into town.

Super 8½

A down-on-his-luck adult film star sees a chance to make a comeback via a lesbian documentary film-maker, but she is exploiting him to get financial backing for her pet project.

Muse

A painter's life is forever changed when a mythical and deadly spirit from Celtic lore – a Leannán Sí – becomes his muse and lover.

Stupid Boy

This coming-of-age drama deals with a young man, realizing who he really is and which things he will never do...

Strawberry and Chocolate

In 1979 Cuba, flamboyant gay artist Diego attempts to seduce straitlaced David, an idealistic young communist, and fails dismally. But David conspires to be "friends" with Diego so he can monitor the artist's subversive life for the state. As Diego and David discuss politics, individuality and personal expression in Castro's Cuba, a genuine friendship develops between the two.

The Year of the First Kiss

31 year-old Tristan remembers the time when he was 15 and had just hit puberty. But he is not alone in this, he is with a large group of friends: Specki, a fat kid who is always stuffing himself, Streusel, a cheeky boy covered with spots, Tümai, a pretty Turkish girl, Kerstin, best friend of Tümai and very sporty, Elrond, with a heavy stutter, but regardless extremely popular and good looking, Lars and Simone, so far the only couple in the class who spend most of their time smooching and Long Jana, a girl who is at least 6 foot tall and extremely skinny.

Norn

A young girl is approaching the end of a cycle, when she gets a visit from a goddess named Norn. Unaware of Norn's intentions, the girl is very excited to create a deep and intimate friendship with her. Until Norn tells her the truth.

Flamboyants

The trajectory of flamboyant bodies that expose themselves in their social networks, whether artistic or not, and use these spaces freely.