for us, an essay (2024)

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.

No More We

Boyfriends Hampus and Adrian are in a destructive relationship. When Hampus finally works up the nerve to call it quits, he finds himself relieved. Adrian, however, is not quite ready to say goodbye. Examining the final week of a gay love affair, award-winning short film director David Färdmar begins with the end.

Faces

Ryan meets Nathan and they fall in love over the course of their first date. It's only later, as their relationship progresses, that Ryan starts to wonder: is my boyfriend who I thought he was? Am I who I thought I was? They experience joy and pain together, trying to overcome the painful fear of whether or not you can truly know another person.

Requited

Nicolas, a young man in his mid 20s, struggles to decide whether or not to go to the wedding of his best friend from high school, Aaron, who he's always been quietly in love with. The two had a falling out years earlier after Nicolas inexplicably kissed Aaron's girlfriend. Nicolas clings to an idealized image of his former friend, unconsciously sabotaging his own happiness in the process. The film is a realistic slice-of-life that poses the question "How do you get over something you never had?"

Boys Like You

A young man struggles with the boundaries of friendship when he finds himself in an intimate situation

Revolution

A coming-of-age story about Jack, a 16-year old Iranian boy growing up in 1989 Los Angeles. With the 1979 Iranian Revolution a distant memory, the AIDS movement as a backdrop, and a haunting score by Vampire Weekend's Rostam Batmanglij, Jack learns how to stage his own much smaller revolution within the confines of his traditional family.

The In-Between

The story or two men who fall in love and move in together.

Frozen Roads

Balthazar and siblings Christian and Lyla have been friends since childhood. As the trio struggles with coming of age in a rural, conservative Canadian town, they must confront escalating desires for one another that threaten to destroy their delicate bond.

Ground Control

A journey to an unknown star, a children's theatre play, an untalented writer and the fear of becoming the worst version of oneself. A mixture of live-action footage and animated scenes. A stream of (un)conscious stereotypes.

Yo, Diablo

Joey works as a waiter for a hedonistic community of summer holiday makers in a small Mediterranean paradise. It is unclear if their exaggerated behaviors are due to the fact that the summer is coming to an end or if its just the last of their summers.

Louder Than Words

A young musician named Ansel has an unexpected encounter with Niall, an endearing, deaf dancer.

Just Me

Scott gets a visit from Connor which brings his past back to haunt him, but will it change his future?

Stay

When Ash invites his ex-boyfriend on a road trip to the Florida Keys, he doesn't mention that their weekend getaway is actually a dangerous drug deal.

Between Friends

Jorge asks Noah for a special favor that questions the limits of friendship and his identity.

My Sweet Prince

Alcopops, VHS tapes, cigarettes, boys, MSN Messenger, Placebo - this is 2003. Set on the Isle of Wight, fragments of the director's own teenage video diaries collide with the fictional story of 15-year-old Tommy in this short film about a boy's search for connection in the advent of the internet age. Infatuated with his best friend's boyfriend and unable to truly reveal himself to anyone, Tommy feels an overwhelming sense of isolation on the small chalk island he calls home. Desperate to be seen, he logs on to family computer, clicks connect and opens MSN.

Hey You

When two men arrange a hook-up, is who's top or bottom all they should be worried about? Hey You exposes how, with the convenience of social media and dating apps, our hard-fought rights and freedoms can be taken for granted and how, for many others, that fight isn't over.

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.

Two Twenty-Three

An honest and heartfelt confession of a guy. A sharp return to reality.

Five Steps to Accept Farewell

YeJoo and EunMin spent two years as a couple so far. One day, YeJoo wants to finish the relationship that she had with EunMin. EunMin gets angry and asks if there's another girl. Yejoo says she got a boyfriend.

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.

Kiss Me

A late night hook-up leads Shay and Adam to the bedroom. Before long, chit-chat gives way to passion. But something is missing from their interaction – something that is important to Adam, repellent to Shay – and it soon becomes a sticking point.

The First Time

A young man catches the eye of another in a public park. The dance begins, the public toilets beckon. For one of them, this is one of many such encounters. For the other, it's the first time.

Distances

Eva and David have a complicated mother-son relationship. They try to reach each other but do not quite know how. One problem is the language barrier, as David is deaf and Eva is not very good at sign language. After moving back to her country of birth, Eva comes to Sweden on a short visit, where she discovers what so many parents do throughout the lives of their offspring - your children never cease to surprise you.

About Us

Two young students, Matheus and Diego, experience their first love.

Daddy

After the death of his wife, an 80-year-old man checks into the Plaza Hotel to celebrate their first anniversary apart, hiring a male escort to take her place.

Gentleman Spa

Hao, a chubby gay man, works as a janitor at a gay spa. For him, romantic relationships are an unreachable dream. One day, an attractive customer, Kai, walks into the place, and Hao has the opportunity to massage him.

Guardian

Manuel is a gay Latino teen who lacks guidance and support. Even though his mother, Anna deeply cares for him, she is only able to prove and instill her love through video tapes made from afar. Keeping his sexuality and boyfriend a secret from his homophobic father, Manuel must decide the life he wants to live or end.

Sublime

When 16-year-old Manu realises that he has fallen in love with his bandmate Felipe, turbulent emotions start brewing beneath the surface. How do you avoid losing a friendship once its very foundation has shifted?

When Night Is Falling

Camille is a professor at a Protestant college and is in a long-term relationship with Martin, a respected minister and fellow professor. When Camille meets Petra, a bold and flamboyant performer in a circus troupe, she is inexplicably drawn. Pursuing Petra, Camille throws her whole conservative life into disarray.

The Page Turner

Mélanie Prouvost, a ten-year-old butcher's daughter, is a gifted pianist. That is why she and her parents decide that she sit for the Conservatory entrance exam. Although Mélanie is very likely to be admitted, she unfortunately gets distracted by the president of the jury's offhand attitude and she fails. Ten years later, Mélanie becomes her page turner, waiting patiently for her revenge.

Waiting Outside

A father strives to give his daughter a perfect life full of happy memories, in spite of a troubling diagnosis and a partner overseas.

Star

In this experimental short film, a young man and woman enter into a relationship with one another and quickly learn the ups and downs of intertwining their life with the one they love.

Kiss of the Spider Woman

Valentín, a political prisoner, shares a cell with Molina, a window dresser convicted of public indecency. The two form an unlikely bond as Molina recounts the plot of a Hollywood musical starring his favorite silver screen diva, Ingrid Luna.

Fall Risk

Set in Los Angeles, a young woman, Dylan, is in and out of the hospital with a life-changing diagnosis, but something isn't right with her partner, Emily. Dylan begins questioning her reality and everyone in it, until her best friend breaks her out of the rehabilitation center to confront the source of the deception.

Egoist

A lonely magazine editor finds romance with his personal trainer until a confession changes everything. Based on the novel by Makoto Takayama.

Pink Ulysses

A homoerotic exploration of the Odyssey mixing black and white, color, and old film clips.

Between You and You All

A chronicle of the lives of a couple and the gradual dissolution of their relationship.

Tennessee Queer

Religion, politics and gay pride clash in a small Tennessee town when out, proud and living in New York Jason Potts returns home to make life better for the LGBT teenagers.

The Estrogen Gospel

A young transgender woman takes a hike through the English countryside in an attempt to resolve her spiritual crisis - but an ancient evil strives to ensure that she never completes her journey.

Pria

Caught between the traditions of his upbringing in rural Indonesia and his idealization of Western freedom, a teenager struggles with the expectations of imminent manhood.

Love, Simon

Everyone deserves a great love story, but for 17-year-old Simon Spier, it's a little more complicated. He hasn't told his family or friends that he's gay, and he doesn't know the identity of the anonymous classmate that he's fallen for online.

D.E.B.S.

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

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.

Bedspacer

Janice's steamy obsession to imitate Lexi propels them to campus stardom. But dark secrets blur the lines between authenticity and seductive deception.

Dominant Chord

Country music star Adam has to choose between damaging his career by coming out in the closed-minded world of country music or losing his long-time partner Brian.

Chasing Chasing Amy

CHASING CHASING AMY explores the transformational impact of a ‘90s rom-com on a 12 year old kid from Kansas, coming of age and contending with queer identity. For young Sav Rodgers, the Kevin Smith cult classic, CHASING AMY, became a life raft. As Rodgers examines the film and its making as a cornerstone of LGBTQ+ cinema, he finds himself at a complicated crossroads.

I Know Her

In the afterglow of a seemingly fated hookup, two women realize that perhaps they have a little too much in common.

Kiko's Saints

Kiko, a Japanese illustrator on assignment in France, gets suddenly overwhelmed by a strange new inspiration, while she realizes she's been spying on a gay couple on the beach next to the chapel where she's working. Obsessed by such a vision, she will continue spying on those men and drawing them secretly. These drawings will slowly push her towards an encounter that will change her life and break the barriers she created around her.

Kokuhaku

During an interview, Tadashi, a young Spanish-Japanese actor who plays female characters in a theatrical practice similar to kabuki, will return to the past to relive his most intimate memories.

Golden Delicious

When a hot, openly gay new neighbour moves in across the street, high school senior Jake is forced to think about what - and who - he really wants.

The One You Never Forget

A 14 year old boy excitedly prepares for his first dance, but when his date arrives he's faced with a split-second decision.

Our Highland Hotel

Ayumi Aizawa is a lonely young man without a family. He works at Forest Hyde Press Hotel as a cleaner. His deceased grandfather Kenzaburo worked at the same hotel. When his grandfather worked at the Forest Hyde Press Hotel, the hotel was well known for its extreme hospitality. Now, the hotel is nothing more than an ordinary hotel. New manager Ryuuya Sawashiro then attempts to bring the hotel back to its glory days.

We Are Dancers

Set in Berlin, 1933, We are Dancers is the story of real-life anti-Nazi drag artist Hansi Sturm and his circle of friends in the immediate aftermath of the Reichstag fire, an event that allowed Hitler to become absolute dictator of Germany. Confronted by a former lover, now a Nazi, Hansi must decide whether to abandon his club or stay and face the Fascists on his own terms.

Santuaryo

Santuaryo is a movie that centers on the unfolding narration of a young man named Archie (Basti Romero). Archie went looking for a lost treasure when he came into the possession of an ancient map left by an old adventurer. His journey left him battered and cloudy with memories as he was found drifting on the ocean and later rescued by island fishermen. When his long time lover, William (Will Sandejas) arrives at his side, he is forced to painfully recall what happened to him and describes how he crossed paths with a group of boys looking for the same treasure. In the end, Archie realizes what is most valuable in life and it is in his relationship with William that he finds his greatest fortune. Panoramic and provoking. Santuaryo is ultimately a hypothesis about the behavioral mutations of a group of boys when faced with desperate circumstances.

AYOR

In 1970, during the annual Dutch national commemoration of those fallen in World War II, two men try to make a statement against gay discrimination. In the moments before and after the incident, their doubt, fear and firm belief becomes clear.

Stranger Out of You

After a chance meeting with an attractive stranger, a spellbound admirer returns to the same bar and tries to recreate his first encounter. With each nightly visit, a far more sinister and surreal pattern emerges beneath this man’s naïve attempts.

Three Months

When a young man belatedly reveals to his lover an omission, their romance wavers.

Touchscreen

After an unusual online encounter, a lonely man is challenged to step out from behind his computer screen and shatter long-lived inhibitions to claim the touch of another human being.

Nightstand

An unsettling portrait of a destructive three night affair between two men - one is gay, lost and adolescent, the other is married to a woman and middle-aged. Set in the heart of Soho, a fracturing queer landscape, Nightstand is a whirlwind of repressed yearnings and urban loneliness.

An Evening

Having slept together for the first time, two teenage boys must make sense of their evolving relationship.

Aban

Under constant pressure from her ex-husband, Nazanin should turn their child - Aban, nine years old - away from a very driven feminine taste. One day, Aban goes to the hospital thinking of undergoing life-changing surgery.

Front Cover

One man does all he can to veil his Asian heritage; the other takes great pains to hide his sexual orientation. Both of these things begin to change when Ryan is hired to prepare film star Ning for a fashion shoot, and the men develop a bond.