for us, an essay (2024)

Heaven

A shy teenager attempts to manipulate a game of seven minutes in heaven so he can confess his feelings to the boy he is infatuated with.

A Trip to the Desert

Three best friends take a trip to the desert, and their friendship is put to the test. Lior, who is openly gay, and religious Jew Elad, suddenly have to face each other's life choices. And Yossi - Where the hell is Yossi?

The Stranger by the Shore

Abandoned after coming out, Shun befriends Mio just before he has to move. Years later, Mio returns with a confession. How will Shun feel?

Supernova

Sam and Tusker, partners of 20 years, are traveling across England in their old RV visiting friends, family and places from their past. Since Tusker was diagnosed with early-onset dementia two years ago, their time together is the most important thing they have. As the trip progresses, however, their ideas for the future clash, secrets come out, and their love for each other is tested as never before. Ultimately, they must confront the question of what it means to love one another in the face of Tusker’s illness.

Yes or No

Pie is a sweet girl who moves into a new college dorm room where she finds out that her new roommate Kim, is a tomboy who looks and dress like a boy. As their friendship develops, Pie and Kim begin to wonder if the feeling they feel for one another is just an ordinary friendship or true love.

Love! Valour! Compassion!

A group of gay friends spend summer weekends together at a lakeside house in upstate New York. As the season progresses and secrets begin to surface, the complex relationships within the group are sometimes strained and sometimes strengthened.

The Bridge

A gay Australian man reflects on the immigration problems of his young Russian boyfriend.

Shakespeare's Sonnets

A Harvard dandy circa 1946 lures his best friend away from the privileges of conformity.

Jean Fell in Love

Jean, 18 years old, is the prodigy heeler of his village rugby club. While his team is defending its title, he falls madly in love with Ayoub, a player from the opposing team. The brotherly relationship he has with his teammates turns out to be more fragile than he thought.

Nobody Knows But Me

An Zi Yan and Mai Ding's love is tested when their family and friends complicate their relationship.

True Love

Seven short stories about growing up gay in America and searching for true love. In order: A Christmas Story; Going Gay; History; Sunday; He Was Perfect; Staying Together; A Little Drama.

The Apple Tree

When Gabe and Jonathan fall in love in the 1940s, they decide to spend their life together in secret. But when Jonathan unexpectedly passes away years later, Gabe is faced with the fact that many Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender elders face when they move into retirement homes...he must return into the closet.

Guaret

Pedro is Mallorcan, born to a mother from Burgos and a father from Mallorca. Due to his distant relationship with his father, Pedro doesn't fully master Mallorcan as a language. He turns to the works of Damià Huguet to remember his father, as only his poems can fill the void left by his death. The poet's words transport Pedro to his childhood and his roots, even though many of the words are unknown to him, despite them belonging to his language. This becomes the driving force behind the protagonist's search for his own identity, his origins, what it means to be a man, father-son relationships, collective identity, and "mallorquinness". Pedro constantly questions the emotions stirred by Huguet's poetry, and, most importantly, who he is and where he belongs.

Samira

Janosch, an interpreter, is called to help during a police deployment at the Port of Hamburg. A young African woman has barricaded herself in a container ship and threatens to commit suicide. In order to get her out, Janosch promises to help her, an offer which bears unexpected consequences.

Antarctica

Set in Tel Aviv, focuses on an interconnected group of friends and their various relationships. At the center is the adorably bookish Omer, about to turn 30, who still hasn't found himself, and his free-spirited best friend Miki, who both end up inadvertently dating the same handsome journalist, Ronen.

The Children's Hour

An unruly student at a private all-girls boarding school scandalously accuses the two women who run it of having a romantic relationship.

Cowboys & Angels

This story concerns a hapless civil servant who gets more than he bargains for when he moves into an apartment in Limerick with a gay fashion student and becomes a star on the catwalk. A contemporary story embracing the essence of what it is to be young in today's Ireland.

Clay Farmers

Mike, a young hired hand in California is working a small farm with a close friend, Dan. Mike is content on the farm and obviously attracted to the handsome Dan. Dan seems to be attracted to Mike as well but is a drifter and not happy as a farmer. He longs to finish out the contract and move on to a big city, perhaps with Mike. Gary, a boy from the next farm over, befriends them during their daily chores. When an innocent session of skinny-dipping is misconstrued, the young hired hands soon find themselves unjustly suspected of wrongdoing in a suddenly hostile small town.

Athlete

Kōhei is a former competitive swimmer who lives an ordinary life with his wife and high school daughter. One day, his wife suddenly asks him for a divorce. He then has a fateful encounter in Tokyo’s gay district, Shinjuku Ni-chōme, with a beautiful boy named Yūtaka. Yūtaka dreams of becoming an animator while working as an online chat boy. At the same time, he is struggling to tell his father that he is gay. They are both confused but eventually become attracted to each other. Then, they have sex. One day they make love, and the next day they hurt each other. Through these emotional ups and downs, their relationship grows deeper and deeper.

Once a Year on Blackpool Sands

A moving comedy-drama about the love, identity and courage of the LGBTQ community during the first walk towards Gay Pride in 1950s England. Based on the real-life events of Yorkshire coal miners and secret gay lovers, Tommy and Eddy, who spend their annual week holiday at a quirky B & B in Blackpool, along with a few other alternative members of society – the transgender Mr. Elbridge, the ex-show girl Red Ethel and the eccentric owner Gladys and her flirty daughter Maureen.

I Should Call Her

An overly anxious man mysteriously finds himself unable to leave a bathroom.

Divine Intention

When young, innocent Eve joins her local Church, she must battle with religion and herself, to come to terms with her new-found love.

My Days of Mercy

The daughter of a man on death row falls in love with a woman on the opposing side of her family's political cause.

Throuple

Michael, a lonely gay singer-songwriter terrified of pursuing his musical dreams and exploring romantic intimacy, relies on his best friend and her girlfriend for support and affection. However, when he meets a newly open married couple seeking a casual encounter, the three men enter into a relationship that is more vulnerable than any of them ever expected.

Leda + Swans

“Leda + Swans” depicts an infernal, mythic birth of cinema, dredging the violence and horror from Wallace McCutcheon’s comic short film “Photographing a Female Crook” (1904). Leda, who may or may not be a falsely accused young woman, is brought in for a mugshot by two officers. She first attempts to avoid the camera’s gaze, and, when overpowered and manhandled, contorts her face to ruin the photograph. However, her small rebellion proves futile; she was already being recorded, objectified, mapped, and co-opted by the Godhead of the director. As her body and image are repurposed and transmuted ad infinitum, the filmic universe also explodes into a supernova. What is born out of this suffering and manipulation is another example of our sublime medium and modern muse. She will not be last the Leda, and she may not even be the first. Who is the guilty party here? Is beauty a chimera in traditional cinema? Has the ephemeral cinema of the attractions and distractions era gone anywhere?

Shelter

Forced to give up his dreams of art school, Zach works dead-end jobs to support his sister and her son. Questioning his life, he paints, surfs and hangs out with his best friend, Gabe. When Gabe's older brother returns home for the summer, Zach suddenly finds himself drawn into a relationship he didn't expect.

Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss

Billy Collier is a photographer working on a series of pictures featuring recreations of movie kisses, with drag queens playing the female roles. For his male model, he hires Gabriel, a young waiter on whom he has developed a serious crush. While Billy is openly gay, Gabriel says that he is straight and even claims to have a girlfriend. However, as they spend more time together and grow closer, Billy becomes increasingly unsure that this is true.

Inside the Storm

In the middle of the night, after a traumatic breakup, Nadav goes to visit a friend he hasn't seen for many years.

Barreira

Plot unavailable

Good Boy

Two high school friends, Caleb and Macon, are reunited after many years. During the tense reunion, Macon fights his tortured mind, wrestling with a dark secret that is the source of Caleb's greatest pain.

Looking for Rohmer

The first homosexual love story themed movie to receive approval for theatrical release in China. The film follows the initial meeting of, and the subsequent secret relationship between Zhao Jie and Rohmer. They decide to travel to Tibet together. During their travels they are involved in an incident which leads to the death of a child. Although they are not responsible, they feel a lot of guilt. They quarrel about it and end up going separate ways. Later Zhao Jie learns that Rohmer has been in an accident on a glacier and, torn with remorse for not having helped him enough after the earlier incident, Zhao Jie goes to find him.

It's All True - A Visual Album

A visual album. A story of falling apart and putting yourself back together again as the world does the same. It is a story about personal death and rebirth, mental health, dealing with the tragedies of the world, queer love and finding community while featuring two of the most important places to the artist, MALINDA- Brooklyn and the west coast of Ireland.

The Power of the Dog

A domineering but charismatic rancher wages a war of intimidation on his brother's new wife and her teen son, until long-hidden secrets come to light.

Broken Sky

Gerardo is deeply in love with longtime lover Jonas. When Jonas falls for a stranger he met at a local nightclub, heartbroken Gerardo soon seeks solace in the arms of Sergio. Despite other interests, Gerardo and Jonas can't bring themselves to end it.

Naked Boys Singing!

This whimsical Off-Broadway hit musical is aptly reworked and transferred to the screen. The self-descriptively titled Naked Boys Singing is a musical revue of songs that poke fun at gay life, body image, love, loss and yearning.

The Colour of His Hair

Based on an unrealized film script written in 1964 for The Homosexual Law Reform Society, a British organisation that campaigned for the decriminalization of homosexual relations between men, "The Colour Of His Hair" merges drama and documentary into a meditation on queer life before and after the partial legalization of homosexuality in 1967.

Private Photos

A sweet couple invite a third person over for the night, who brings a lustful energy to spice things up.

Paths

Andreas and Martin share all the ups and downs of everyday life, and their son is maturing. A cautious approach to the traces of a long relationship. The love story of two people. Not about how they come together, not a phase they go through, but all of their shared experiences: all the years between the first kiss and today.

Poppy Field

A young Romanian gendarme, Cristi, tries to find the balance between two apparently opposing parts of his identity: that of a man working in a macho hierarchical environment and that of a closeted gay person who tries to keep his personal life a secret. While his long-distance French boyfriend, Hadi, is visiting him, Cristi is called in for an intervention at a movie theatre, where an ultra-nationalist, homophobic group has interrupted the screening of a queer film. After one of the protesters threatens to out him, Cristi spirals out of control.

I Think I Do

The marriage of mutual friends reunites former college roommates Bob and Brendan, who tried to ignore the sexual tension that always flowed between them. Brendan finally comes out to Bob at the reception, but is it a case of too little, too late?

Kiss the Bride

In high school, Matt and Ryan were best friends. More than friends, actually. But in the ensuing ten years, they've lost contact. So when Matt receives an invitation to Ryan's wedding he's surprised - especially that Ryan is marrying a woman!

Dashing in December

When Wyatt returns home for the holidays to try to convince his mom to sell their family ranch, an unexpected romance with handsome ranch hand Heath may throw off his plans.

Dante vs. Mohammed Ali

When Wolf refuses to fight his best friend Alexander during a weekly boxing match, the whole village turns against him. He tries to convince Alexander to join him leaving the village, but his overly romantic message runs into a wall.

French Touch: Desires

Fleeting encounters, conversations about identity and experiencing life and love in the most authentic way. Six contemporary stories of men exploring love, lust and modern dating. These award winning French shorts bring raw and diverse stories with beautiful aesthetics, eclectic music and astonishing cinematography. The 6 short films are: Bootyful (2019); Naughty Spot [Gare aux coquins] (2021); Herculanum (2016); Masculine (2018); Woeful Flesh [Les nuits d'Edouard] (2018); Falling [Tomber] (2018).

Antonio's Secret

The story about a teenage boy, Antonio, whose emerging gay sexuality alienates him from his friends and family, until his libertine uncle, Jonbert, comes to live with him and his mother.

Double Mints

Mitsuo Ichikawa receives a phone call from Mitsuo Ichikawa. Their names are pronounced the same, but spelled differently using kanji. They also graduated from the same high school. Back in their high school days, Mitsuo Ichikawa was like a subordinate to Mitsuo Ichikawa. Mitsuo Ichikawa is now a hoodlum and tells the other Mitsuo that he killed a woman. They become accomplices and build a new relationship.

Agosto in pelliccia

It is the middle of August in an apartment in the Roman suburbs. Tommaso is a teenager and is subjected to the teasing of his older brother Leonardo, who calls him "Pelorosso" because of his coppery hair. If he wants his brother to stop teasing him, Tommaso will have to cut his hair.

A Home at the End of the World

Three friends form a bond over the year, Johnathan is gay, Clare is straight and Bobby is neither, instead he loves the people he loves. As their lives go on there is tension and tears which culminate in a strong yet fragile friendship between the three.

Sex, Party and Lies

A youth group is preparing for what will be the summer of their life, including secrets, lies, sex, confusion, evenings and holidays.

A Frozen Flower

A historical drama set in the Koryo dynasty and focused on the relationship between a king and his bodyguard.

Johnny Minotaur

Johnny Minotaur is a lyrical explosion of taboos: incest, intergenerational desire, pansexuality and autoeroticism are a few of the issues Charles Henri Ford grapples with through mythopoeic, sensual imagery, recitations of his diaries and a philosophical debate featuring an impressive narration by such artists as Salvador Dali, Allen Ginsberg, Warren Sonbert and Lynne Tillman.

Even Lovers Get the Blues

After the sudden death of one of them a group of friends grieves trough sexual encounters.

Not That Kind of Guy

Léto, a young trans and gay man, lives in a small, social housing apartment near Tours. During the day, he kills boredom on his phone from the ticket booth of a movie theater on its last legs. But where he's looking for feelings, he's only offered sex. So at night, he flees disillusionment by heading for the stars. The roof of his high-rise building is like his moped: a refuge, an escape. However, one morning, the parking lot of an ice rink becomes the setting for a life-changing encounter when he comes face to face with Hamza, a solitary employee with an enigmatic charm. The emotional disturbance is immediate. With all due respect to the scoundrels!

It's Just in My Head

Andreas and Alessandro are two friends who have known each other since their childhood. Now that they have grown up, they study at University in different cities but they always spend the summer together in the place where they were born: a seaside resort that regularly fills up with tourists every year.

Ten Times Love

Ten fragments of an exciting romance without love and feelings in the life of Numa, an anti-romantic hero of our liquid time.

Slutty Summer

Hunky writer Markus returns home to find his boyfriend of four years naked with another man. Newly single, he begins waiting tables at a swinging Chelsea hotspot where the indelible supporting cast of co-workers offers conflicting directions on the off-road map to love and lust in New York City. Peter insists on holding out for "the one", and Marilyn vows by her "dating commandments." Meanwhile, lascivious Luke promises the film its title by delivering firecracker quips on the joys of his sexcapades. He believes that sleeping around is the best medicine for a broken heart. Despite disillusion, Markus falls for gorgeous model Tyler who doesn't "do relationships" because how can you promise to love somebody forever? Surprising twists, and unlikely advice await, but by the end of one unforgettable SLUTTY SUMMER, happily ever after may just be the answer. Written

Because of a Boy

When Vincent finds himself a victim of outing in his high school, he must accept to live with the drastic changes it provokes, and redefine his relationships with his friends and family.

What's the Matter with Gerald?

A hypochondriac irks his partner by embracing the advice of an eccentric healer.

All Work No Play

Mixes fiction and documentary to tell the story of Marc Helt and his first sexual experience with other men, as a healing ritual after a violent hate crime.

The Distance Between Us and the Sky

Night, national road. Two strangers meet for the first time at an old gas station. One has stopped to gas up his bike, while the other is just stranded. Lacking the 22 euros he needs to get home, he will try to sell him the distance that separates them from the sky.

Poster Boy

The gay son of a conservative senator who is also the poster boy for his father's re-election unknowingly befriends a gay activist bent on destroying the hypocritical campaign.

Express Checkout

Gabrielle went to the grocery store looking for marshmallows and true love. Did she find everything she was looking for?