The Male Gaze: Boy Trouble (2024)

Beau

Beau, an emerging artist is about to unveil her latest installation. Her lover Paloma, is a devoted supporter. Her final breakthrough hinges on the success of this piece and soon this pressure causes a rife in the two women's relationship.

Vincent Before Noon

A father pays his son a visit after years of conflict and turns up in the middle of his house move. The son, Vincent, reacts violently to that intrusion. Emotionally weakened, the father involuntarily reveals the true reason of his visit, which revives the tension between them. Within a few minutes, the anger, the memories and the crossed looks move the two men deeply.

Rope

Two men murder a man in cold blood for the thrill and invite his parents over for a celebration to prove they have committed the perfect crime, but they also have to deal with their former schoolmaster, who becomes suspicious.

Cal

Twenty-year-old Cal returns from France to Britain after receiving news that his mother is ill. His finds his home city of Bristol facing hard economic times brought on by the global economic crisis, with poverty and crime on the rise and rioting and looting almost a nightly occurrence. It is not a warm homecoming as his sick mother remains stubbornly homophobic and wants nothing to do with the now openingly gay Cal while his battered Auntie Jane, now living in a run down council house, dulls her stagnation with welfare funded booze and disturbing attempts to sexually seduce her nephew. Navigating his way across this new landscape he meets a young student who needs his help. However his act of kindness brings him into contact with a lawless drug dealing pimp and a race against time to make peace with his mother and get out of town as quickly as possible. An intense tale of a family mired in poverty, angry and lost but still searching for love, respect and acceptance.

The Truth About Alex

Brad Stevens and Alex Prager are best friends. They are both popular high school students and key members of the football team. Brad is up for nomination to West Point, and Alex is a talented pianist who’s counting on his football skills to land him a university scholarship. But their lives are turned upside down when one day Alex admits that he is gay.

Another Story of Love

Diego is a twenty-year-old Chilean boy who spends every day taking pictures of anything he sees. After many years he meets Sebastian, his childhood friend, and they spend a whole summer together drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana and walking around in the blazing sun of Santiago. They both come from dysfunctional families (Diego's mother is an alcoholic and Sebastian feels abandoned by his father and his stepmother), but the need to discover the world around them and explore their inner feelings brings them closer to each other, making their friendship very, very intense. The desire that ties them to each other is palpable, and soon barriers and fears fall, leading them to wonder what they really want.

Must Not Think

A short film produced by, and staring, two high school students in Paris. Focusing on a couple of young lovers and their fear of not being accepted because they're gay, they try to only appear as friends in front of one of the boys father.

Agony

On the 3rd of October a twenty-four-year-old student from Vienna kills his lover and chops up her corpse. Her torso is found in a dumpster, other body parts and the head are missing. There is no clue about the motive of the murder. A silent chronology of the events.

Test

San Francisco, 1985. Two opposites attract at a modern dance company. Together, their courage and resilience are tested as they navigate a world full of risks and promise, against the backdrop of a disease no one seems to know anything about.

As You Like It

A modern-day, all-male re telling of Shakespeare’s comedy classic about lovelorn lads, vengeful men, shameless hussies and mind games. Set in the contemporary American west, with original language.

Circuit

The hunky John is a closeted small-town cop who moves to L.A., where he is quickly seduced into the gay life of workouts and dusk-to-dawn parties. With actual circuit party footage and mounds of glistening and chiseled flesh, the pulsating Circuit is bound to get your juices flowing.

Shed My Skin

The adolescent Milan discovers his own suspected homosexuality at the age of 17 and the consequences for him and his family but also the liberation as he understands why he has been so down and rebellious.

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.

Sodom's Cat

Sodom's Cat, from Taiwanese director Huang Ting-Chun, asks what it must be like to be a part of this world, and yet feel strangely distant from it. Sun is a young man who attends a sex party, organized via a dating app, with four other men. While the others seem to be enjoying themselves enormously, Sun finds himself unaroused, despite the others' best efforts turn him on.

Tomcat

Andreas and Stefan lead a happy and passionate life: Together with their beloved tomcat Moses, they live in a beautiful old house in Vienna's vineyards. They work as a musician and as a scheduler in the same orchestra and they love their large circle of friends. An unexpected and inexplicable outburst of violence suddenly shakes up the relationship and calls everything into question - the blind spot that resides in all of us.

Shut Eye

Scraping by in a thankless job and suffering from chronic insomnia, lonely twentysomething Sierra turns to the online world of ASMR, where she meets Kate, a streamer whose soothing voice quickly becomes her virtual companion. When the two women meet in person, they discover there’s chemistry beyond the virtual. It’s not long before Sierra becomes increasingly fixated on Kate – which only intensifies when she feels their relationship is threatened.

Quarantaines

"Quarantines" is a collective film made at the time of the first confinement of 2020. Ten international directors, ten perspectives that intersect in the same period, with their authentic and more atypical universes than each other. A work that unites in isolation and expresses the impalpable. This film is a challenge, a bet: that of creation which persists despite everything within the constraints of the health crisis.

Dungarees

Transgender Blake and cisgender Cane hang out, play video games and grapple with their insecurities. This is their love story.

Velvet Goldmine

Almost a decade has elapsed since glam-rock superstar Brian Slade escaped the spotlight of the London scene. Now, investigative journalist Arthur Stuart is on assignment to uncover the truth behind the enigmatic Slade. Stuart, himself forged by the music of the 1970s, explores the larger-than-life stars who were once his idols and what has become of them since the turn of the new decade.

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.

Les Biches

Bored bisexual millionaire Frédérique picks up a young street artist named Why, and whisks her away to her villa in St. Tropez for the winter season. They soon meet dashing architect Paul and both fall for him, setting in motion a ménage à trois of deception and betrayal.

Dramarama

In 1994, a closeted teen struggles to part ways with his four high school drama friends at their final murder mystery party before they leave for college.

Desert Hearts

While waiting for her divorce papers, a repressed literature professor finds herself unexpectedly attracted by a carefree, spirited young woman named Cay.

Everything Is Illuminated

A young Jewish American man endeavors—with the help of eccentric, distant relatives—to find the woman who saved his grandfather during World War II—in a Ukrainian village which was ultimately razed by the Nazis.

Summer Storm

Tobi and Achim, the pride of the local crew club, have been the best of friends for years and are convinced that nothing will ever stand in the way of their friendship. They look forward to the upcoming summer camp and the crew competition. Then the gay team from Berlin arrives and Tobi is totally confused. The evening before the races begin, the storm that breaks out is more than meteor-logical.

Mala Noche

Walt is a lonely convenience store clerk who has fallen in love with a Mexican migrant worker named Johnny. Though Walt has little in common with the object of his affections — including a shared language — his desire to possess Johnny prompts a sexual awakening that results in taboo trysts and a tangled love triangle.

Supermarket

Willi is 18 years old and lives on the street. Without a goal in his life he walks around the city and meets several people, helping but also cheating him. When he meets a girl, Monica, he realizes that there are people out there whose lives are even more desperate than his. So he's trying to help her (and him) by planning a great robbery on a supermarket's money transporter.

Bulldog in the White House

"Bulldog in the Whitehouse" takes political satire to obscene new heights: portraying the Bush administration as a cabal of lustful and traitorous gay men who are too busy having sex to notice the empire crumbling down around them. An explosive and darkly comic adaptation of Choderlos de Laclos' novel Dangerous Liaisons, the film's web of sex and deceit centers on Bulldog, a hustler who seduces his way into the Washington press corps to gain access to the halls of the political elite. At the bidding of his puppet master, a corpulent and power mad Karl Rove, Bulldog engages in manipulative trysts with Whitehouse hotties like the demure press secretary, the religious leader and the confused, imbecilic good ol' boy president himself.

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.

Freed

After two years in jail, Issa is about to get out when he meets Gaëtan, a young inmate who has not served his sentence yet.

Exteriors

Three gay men each find themselves in modern relationship issues through three separate coincidences. Wyatt learns that his best friend Logan is unknowingly falling in love with his ex, while Jason is shocked to learn the owner of the pool he's cleaning is the man he fell in love with over a one-night stand eight years earlier. Finally, therapist Peter Lesh has become dangerously obsessed with his client Lex who tells him he's just met the man of his dreams.

Breakfast on Pluto

In the 1970s, a young transgender woman called “Kitten” leaves her small Irish town for London in search of love, acceptance, and her long-lost mother.

Imagine Me & You

During her wedding ceremony, Rachel notices Luce in the audience and feels instantly drawn to her. The two women become close friends, and when Rachel learns that Luce is a lesbian, she realizes that despite her happy marriage to Heck, she is falling for Luce. As she questions her sexual orientation, Rachel must decide between her stable relationship with Heck and her exhilarating new romance with Luce.

Styx

Long-term partners Marc and Adrien live a seemingly perfect existence close to Lake Constance. Only whilst Marc is content to spend his days working for the local ferry service, Adrien yearns for the bright lights of Berlin and the clubs in which he hopes to realize his dream of becoming a musician. Yet life has a way of turning out not as you expect and here events culminate on a lengthy ferry crossing, one that sees Marc soon to spot Adrien onboard, complete with a one-way ticket and a car packed full of his belongings. Suffice to say that the stage is set for a traumatic farewell.

Remy & Arletta

Remy attempts to balance her relationship with her alcoholic mother and her longtime best friend, Arletta. While Remy leans on her best friend as a coping mechanism, she learns that their co-dependent friendship is more than she realized.

Blank Narcissus (Passion of the Swamp)

An ageing director commentates on a porno he directed 50 years ago, reminiscing on his relationship with the lead actor.

Paris 05:59 / Théo & Hugo

Théo and Hugo meet in a club and form an immediate bond. Once the desire and elation of this first moment has passed, the two young men, now sober, wander through the empty streets of nocturnal Paris, having to confront the love they sense blossoming between them.

Rara

Since their parents split up, Sara and her younger sister live with their mother, whose new partner is a woman. Everyday life for the four of them is hardly any different than it is for other families. But not everyone sees it that way – Sara's father in particular has his doubts. As Sara’s 13th birthday approaches, she feels rather overwhelmed: her first crush, a body in the midst of changes and to top it off, conflicts over loyalty with her parents.

Angel of Anywhere

An empathetic stripper plays therapist to the many damaged clientele and co-workers who frequent the popular Anywhere Bar.

Father & Son

A story about a gay dad who has raised his surrogate son alone after the death of his partner. The kid, weary of being bullied, seeks to break out on his own. He takes up with a guy who it turns out has a crush on the kid's dad.

I Am So Happy

Fragments of a Saturday winter day. The Vittenzein brothers are alone at their family house. Mateo stops by to pick up Bruno and Camilo and drive them to the country house where their mother awaits. A sudden break slam brings them into the intimacy of a waste land.

Markova: Comfort Gay

Escaping the torment of growing up with an abusive older brother, he and his friends found further suffering at the hands of Japanese soldiers, forced into sex work to survive. But even after the war, Markova's struggle continued.

Dream A40

Two years before the Sexual Offences Act decriminalised homosexuality, a young gay couple's relationship is put to the test as they make a journey during which they must refrain from public demonstrations of affection. Daring and poetic, An experimental drama which explores a gay man's fears about his sexuality and physical attraction to another man. Dream A40 was the second film by Jamaican actor-director Lloyd Reckord.

Loev

When hot shot, Wall Street dealmaker Jai thinks of putting some pleasure into his 48 hour business trip to Mumbai, Sahil, his young, music-producer friend, drops everything, including his reckless boyfriend Alex, to help him execute the perfect getaway. Hiking the hills and canyons of Maharashtra, amidst half-attempted conversations and sudden silences, business calls and old jokes, the friends discover there is more than just time-zones keeping them apart. Things take another turn when Alex shows up with a new male-companion at his side, throwing up old conflicts and bringing unanswered questions to the fore.

River Made to Drown In

Thaddeus Mackenzie, a wealthy lawyer, learns that he is dying and decides to sell all of his property and visit his old friend Allen Hayden. Allen is a struggling artist with a passion for life who once survived by working the streets, but now is romantically involved with Eva, a wealthy European gallery owner living in L.A. Thaddeus implores Allen to find Jamie, a young street hustler that Thaddeus had once tried to rescue. Allen returns to the streets to face the dark corners of his past where he must choose between what he left behind and the uncertainty that lies ahead.

Aleksandr's Price

The life of an illegal Russian boy who, after losing his family, is pushed into becoming an escort - ultimately trying to come to terms with who he thinks he is.

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.

High Art

A young female intern at a small magazine company becomes involved with a drug-addicted lesbian photographer, both of whom seek to exploit each other for their respective careers, while slowly falling in love with each other.

School Trip

The class of a normal German school travel to a small village in Poland near the sea where no action of any kind can take place. Due to this fact they focus on themselves. Especially one girl, Isa, has to choose between two boys who are fighting against each other. Then a final "test" is made to come to a decision... a test with final results.

Kiss Me If You Can

This short film shows an honest portrayal of love in Sao Paolo. A guy keeps wondering when will he ever find true love and asks his best friend the same question. They both look for love and as unexpected as it can be they both ultimately find it.

Awakening

Carsten is dating Melissa, who introduces him to her parents. On a camping trip with Melissa's family, Carsten finds that he shares a secret with Melissa's father.