for us, an essay (2024)

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.

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.

Discretion

Derek's picture-perfect life as a family man and college professor is compromised when he falls for Trysten, a handsome new student.

Night Swimming

A night in the woods, and its aftermath, helps Otter with a major life decision. He's a high school senior, hanging out with Darby - the local alpha male - and Darby's girlfriend Amber. Their public displays of affection irritate Otter.

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.

D.E.B.S.

The star of a team of teenage crime fighters falls for the alluring villainess she must bring to justice.

Maybe Someday

Jay, a non-binary 40-something photographer, attempts to move across the country in the midst of separating from her wife. Along the way, she takes a detour to stay with her high school best friend who she used to be secretly in love with, and befriends a lonely gay comedian who adds humor and levity to her life. Memories of the past resurface as Jay searches for the joy and courage she needs to move forward with her next chapter in life.

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.

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).

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.

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 Prelude of Mary Beaumont

A mother flees her home with her infant child, only to run into her brother in the process.

12 Points

Jonas's father expresses his enthusiasm about Conchita Wurst's victory at the Eurovision Song Contest 2014. Hence, his 18-year-old son works up the courage to come out as a homosexual and introduce his boyfriend to his parents unexpectedly, his father's euphoria about the tolerance and open-mindedness displayed at the Song Contest comes to a sudden end.

Albino

Yashima is a woman who works as a plumber. She is also uncomfortable with her own sexuality. One day she visits a home for a job and meets Kyu. Yashima senses Kyu's eyes watching her. They become intimate, but a dark secret is soon revealed.

EKS

Three compelling stories in one erotic experience. Yen Durano plays three different women in three titillating stories. In a collaboration of three directors: Roman Perez, Jr., Sigrid Polon, and Omar Deroca.

What the Eyes Can't See

Four Spanish-language shorts about the importance and complexity of people's perception from award winning directors. Stories of identity, misconceptions, regrets, dreams and love are told in this diverse collection. Includes: Tenants [Inquilinos] (2018); My Brother [Mi hermano] (2015); Guillermo on the Roof [Guillermo en el tejado] (2018); You Are Not a Woman [Usted no es mujer] (2018).

A Sad, Sad Ghost Picking at the Hairs of Their Knuckles

A wandering young woman explores the crevices of her apartment, of her corporeal creases, as well as the shadows made up of those things. Through her journey, she comes into contact with fellow vagrancies: a nondescript man of around similar age; a young girl with similar, even familiar, eyes; streets that can only exist during those brief moments of glazing stares. The rain comes and goes, but the A/C never turns off.

Mädchen in Uniform

A sensitive girl is sent to an all-girls boarding school and develops a romantic attachment to one of her teachers.

My Summer of Love

In the Yorkshire countryside, working-class tomboy Mona meets the exotic, pampered Tamsin. To seal their friendship, Mona introduces Tamsin to her born-again Christian brother and helps her spy on her adulterous father. Bound together by their secrets, the two girls see their friendship deepen and enter into dangerous waters.

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.

Footing

One winter morning, a father and his son go for a jog. Along the way, we understand that a gap has grown between Marco, a Parisian who has come to spend a few days in the countryside, and Jean-Claude, a retired policeman who doesn't talk much. Their love is present, but barriers and modesty hold them back from expressing it.

Bones

Victor turns 21 in a month. Before he turns 21, he has set two goals: to lose his virginity and to weigh less than 50 kilos.

Demons at Dawn

Orlando and Marco, two young men who live in Mexico City, meet by chance and fall in love. Every day they fight in order to achieve their dreams: Orlando wants to be a dancer and Marco wants to graduate from nursing school. As they go against a diverse, ever-changing, hostile world, they’ll learn that once the darkness of night is gone and through their intertwined bodies and their synchronized souls, they will have seen all those demons of dawn go by.

Atoms

Hugo, 34, an educator at the boarding school, finds is daily life disrupted by Jules, a provocative teenager.

The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant

Petra von Kant is a successful fashion designer -- arrogant, caustic, and self-satisfied. She mistreats Marlene (her secretary, maid, and co-designer). Enter Karin, a 23-year-old beauty who wants to be a model. Petra falls in love with Karin and invites her to move in.

Hair

Upon receiving his draft notice and leaving his family ranch in Oklahoma, Claude heads to New York and befriends a tribe of long-haired hippies on his way to boot camp.

We Collide

A queercore romance - a visceral and immersive exploration of the power of the mosh pit and finding love in the most unlikely of places.

Eden

In this short story, João and Pedro live in this garden. What João wants the most is for Pedro to be happy and the only way he found to make that happen is to support him in his escape with Sara. On the other hand, Pedro learned how to love João and does not want to leave the garden. But one of them ate the forbidden fruit.

The Memory of You

Adam is going to dinner with his wife, when he is disrupted by something from his past. 'The Memory of You' is a story about a love that never was, and the promise of what could have been, shot in one single take during a quiet night on a Stockholm side street.

Broken Youth

Bullied and outed at school, Li Yang faces cruelty from peers and teachers—until Feng Xiaoao’s friendship becomes the light pulling him out of darkness.

A Sentença

Plot unavailable

Lazarus Come Out

45 year old Don Valter is a traditional priest who still wears an old fashioned black tunic out of nostalgia. One day young Claudio and his exuberant troupe of actors appear, proposing to perform an avant-garde show based on the Gospel's miracle of the rebirth of Lazarus*. The powerless priest is overwhelmed by this young upstart, who stirs within him emotions that will, whether he likes it or not, pull him into the modern era.

Lightning Bugs in a Jar

When a mother and son with a caustic history reunite to pack-up their old house, sparks fly as long-buried secrets are revealed, and it might fall upon the shoulders of the son's boyfriend to help heal old wounds.

Love & Revolution

Seville, 1977. At a time when homosexuality is a crime, Reme, a traditional mother moved by the love of her son, an adolescent aspiring artist, will become involved in the Andalusian LGBTQ+ movement, paradoxically born in the bosom of the Church.

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.

De Civitate Rei

Costante dies and leaves his wife Torella his computer discovery. Torella entrusts the disk to her husband’s friend Gervasio, a lazy man scorned by his family. Twenty years later, Torella tries to get back the disk but Gervasio, who has become rich thanks to the discovery, agrees to go to court over it and comes away the winner. He therefore summons divine misfortune: he loses his third son, suffocated by wealth; kills his wife in a blind rage; and is executed by his first-born son who, after a violent panic attack and reckoning with his conscience, chooses life.

Il Mosè di Michelangelo

Moses searches for history into palletes.

The Life We Have Chosen

Sara loses her parents, which forces her to go to a corner of prostitution,where she meets Marcela, a transgender woman. When Marcela finds out that Sara is a virgin, she decides to protect her, knowing it will get her into trouble with her bosses if they find out.

Young Man's Dance

Mattis feels rejected by his dad and seeks attention from his male dancing teacher. But this night, something is different. Mattis induces a power struggle and when the dancing teacher desperately tries to set boundaries, they both loose control.

Gayby

Jenn and Matt are best friends from college who are now in their thirties. Single by choice, Jenn spends her days teaching hot yoga and running errands for her boss. Matt suffers from comic-book writer's block and can't get over his ex-boyfriend. They decide to fulfill a promise to have a child together... the old fashioned way. Can they navigate the serious and unexpected snags they hit as they attempt to get their careers and dating lives back on track in preparation for parenthood?

All the Crows in the World

18-year-old Shengnan is invited to a mysterious party by her cousin. Upon arrival, Shengnan finds herself surrounded by greasy middle-aged men, with the exception of Jianguo, who is different. Shengnan and Jianguo decide to bail on the party, embarking on a night of adventures in the adult world.

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.

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.

Venena Bibas

In a Catholic seminary, Brother Nestor is found dead and his best friend, Brother Esteban, tells the story of the events that preceded his death. There, a repressed and unhealthy love is discovered.

Wolves

Teenager Josh lives alone with his father in a remote corner of the British countryside. Their relationship is strained, and Josh spends much of his time exploring the nearby woods, but his life takes an unexpected turn when he meets a mysterious boy, wearing nothing but his underwear, shivering with cold and unable to speak.

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.

Private Desert

40-year-old Daniel has been suspended from active police work and is under internal investigation for violence. When Sara, his internet love affair, stops answering his texts he decides to drive north in search of her, starting on what is apparently a fool's errand. He shows Sara's picture around, but nobody seems to recognize the woman. Until eventually one guy pops up, saying he can put the two in touch under very specific conditions.

Mothers, Lovers and Others

This ensemble drama explores a number of interweaving relationships, all grappling with polyamory and sexual expression, amid the personal and societal expectations faced by each character.

My Beautiful Laundrette

A young Pakistani Briton manages a rundown laundrette with his lover while dealing with tension in his family, the local Pakistani community, and a persistent mob of skinheads.

Other Black Boys

A queer, black college student is forced to confront the masks he wears in his relationships.

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.

Wilde

Oscar Wilde is a married playwright who has occasionally indulged his weakness for male suitors. After much toil, Wilde debuts 'The Importance of Being Earnest' in London, and a chat at the theatre with Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas leads to a full-fledged romance. However, this affair leads to a legal dispute with Lord Alfred's oppressive father, the Marquess of Queensberry, and, given the local anti-gay laws, Wilde is jailed. Wilde's vast intellect helps him survive until he regains his freedom.

C.R.A.Z.Y.

A young French Canadian, one of five boys in a conservative family in the 1960s and 1970s, struggles to reconcile his emerging identity with his father's values.

Mysterious Skin

A teenage hustler and a young man obsessed with alien abductions cross paths, together discovering a horrible, liberating truth.

Happy Birthday

Life can be frustrating for a 14-year-old boy in Denmark, where the age of consent is 15.

The Space Between Words

Five years after the death of her wife, an unassuming bookstore owner attempts to accept new love when a chance encounter reawakens buried feelings.

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.

Blessed Boys

In a sunny district of Naples where everyone knows each other, Mario and Lino, two inseparable friends, live day by day in the monotony of neighborhood life until their fraternal friendship is put to the test.