An Arrow Held Back (2024)

Narcosis

A woman and her two young children struggle for answers and shared closure after their husband and father, a professional cave diver, doesn't return from an expedition.

Almost Famous

In 1973, 15-year-old William Miller's unabashed love of music and aspiration to become a rock journalist lands him an assignment from Rolling Stone magazine to interview and tour with the up-and-coming band, Stillwater.

Closely Watched Trains

At a village railway station in occupied Czechoslovakia, a bumbling dispatcher’s apprentice longs to liberate himself from his virginity. Oblivious to the war and the resistance that surrounds him, this young man embarks on a journey of sexual awakening and self-discovery, encountering a universe of frustration, eroticism, and adventure within his sleepy backwater depot.

American Graffiti

A couple of high school graduates spend one final night cruising the strip with their buddies before they go off to college.

City of God

In the poverty-stricken favelas of Rio de Janeiro in the 1970s, two young men choose different paths. Rocket is a budding photographer who documents the increasing drug-related violence of his neighborhood, while José “Zé” Pequeno is an ambitious drug dealer diving into a dangerous life of crime.

The Breakfast Club

Five high school students from different walks of life endure a Saturday detention under a power-hungry principal. The disparate group includes rebel John, princess Claire, outcast Allison, brainy Brian and Andrew, the jock. Each has a chance to tell his or her story, making the others see them a little differently -- and when the day ends, they question whether school will ever be the same.

Lane 1974

At 13 years old and the eldest of three kids, Lane struggles to keep her family together as her iconoclast mother moves without warning through the communes and dusty back woods of Northern California.

Big

When a young boy makes a wish at a carnival machine to be big—he wakes up the following morning to find that it has been granted and his body has grown older overnight. But he is still the same 13-year-old boy inside. Now he must learn how to cope with the unfamiliar world of grown-ups including getting a job and having his first romantic encounter with a woman.

The Wolf and the Cat

Loup, thirteen years old, deaf from birth, spends his summer vacation on a campsite with his mother, Léa. They have developed an exclusive relationship that a meeting with a swimming instructor and a teenage girl will turn upside down.

Aline

Alban lives in a ski resort with his mother. Each night, the teenager slips away to meet up with Julien – this boy who curiously has the same name as the hero of the novel Alban is devouring.

Bliss

A mind-bending love story following Greg who, after recently being divorced and then fired, meets the mysterious Isabel, a woman living on the streets and convinced that the polluted, broken world around them is just a computer simulation. Doubtful at first, Greg eventually discovers there may be some truth to Isabel’s wild conspiracy.

Popular Music

Matti and Niila, growing up in the mid-sixties in the harsh and conservative environment of a Finnish-speaking part of Tornedalen in Swedish Laponia, close to the Finnish border. Their big dream is to become rock stars. In the present the now grown-up Matti feels guilt for the death of his drug-addicted rock star friend Niila.

Aparajito

Apu and his family have moved away from the country to live in the bustling holy city of Benares. As he progresses from wide-eyed child to intellectually curious teenager, eventually studying in Kolkata, we witness his academic and moral education, as well as the growing complexity of his relationship with his mother.

Neverland Now

With her reckless behavior art student Kalina (21) provokes her fellow students, her teachers and sometimes even her only friend Ruth (24). Kalina convinces Ruth take a spontaneous trip to Portugal the next day and they euphorically head out to celebrate their plan. After a half-hearted attempt to steal a car they end up on a big student party. When Ruth voices doubts about the planned trip, the night takes an unexpected turn.

The Tin Drum

Oskar Matzerath is a very unusual boy. Refusing to leave the womb until promised a tin drum by his mother, Agnes, Oskar is reluctant to enter a world he sees as filled with hypocrisy and injustice, and vows on his third birthday to never grow up. Miraculously, he gets his wish. As the Nazis rise to power in Danzig, Oskar wills himself to remain a child, beating his tin drum incessantly and screaming in protest at the chaos surrounding him.

The Stranger

A coming-of-age story that navigates the journey of a family in which the young son grapples with questions about his gender identity.

Y Tu Mamá También

In Mexico, two teenage boys and an attractive older woman embark on a road trip and learn a thing or two about life, friendship, sex, and each other.

The Virgin Suicides

A group of male friends become obsessed with five mysterious sisters who are sheltered by their strict, religious parents.

Miss Impossible

They’re all nuts. Her parents, who want to send her off to boarding school. Her new teacher, who expects her to read impossibly old books. Her fellow band members, who make her sing ridiculous lyrics and dress her up in a frilly white dress for their first show. Everyone seems to know what she should do and how she should act. And it’s not like 13-year-old Aurore has any fundamental problem with changing herself either. Who would want to be like this: unhappy, ugly and emotionally withdrawn? But the others don’t seem all that much happier to her either. She definitely doesn’t ever want to be as old, rundown and lonely as her mother. And so she prefers to stay the way she is, to observe and make her biting comments on whatever comes her way.

The World of Us

A bullied girl becomes friends with a new kid during a break, but when classes start up again, their new friendship is nearly ruined when the bullying continues.

AUGUST 13th

The story follows the encounters of Victor and Tanya at the end of their junior year. The two of them grow closer and closer during the summer vacation, despite the danger surrounding them.

Good One

On a weekend backpacking trip in the Catskills, 17-year-old Sam contends with the competing egos of her father and his oldest friend.

Happy Birthday, Gemini

A poor Harvard student's romance with a girl hits a rough spot when he realizes, on his 21st birthday, that he's in love with her brother.

Plants

For a whole summer, 17-year-old Florencia has to look after her brother, who is trapped in a persistent vegetative state. From time to time she reads to him from a comic about plant souls that take control of human bodies at full moon.

Robby

Shipwrecked on a tropical island, a young boy befriends an abandoned native youth, forcing him to reevaluate societal prejudice about race, religion and nudity.

Night Light

Summer vacation. 1979. Brothers Trevor & Junior Atwood share everything - friends, stories at night, a bunk bed - but as older brother Trevor prepares for high school, the two must confront how their brotherhood will adapt against the current of changing times. Taking place entirely in their shared bedroom, 'Night Light' offers a glimpse behind closed doors to a time when you could ask who else is still awake, and to a place where big brothers reign supreme.

Jules of Light and Dark

In present-day Texas, Maya and her on again, off again girlfriend Jules total their car after a night of backwoods raving and teen mischief. They're rescued from the wreckage by Freddy, an oil worker whose stoic facade crumbles as he comes to see himself, and his repressed desires, in Maya. As Jules recovers, Maya and Freddy develop a rapport that dulls the debilitating silence of their small-town lives. Together, they subtly encourage one another to chase after what they want the most (or at least figure out what that might be).

First Love

This is a story about coming of age, coming out and a gay marriage that is sprinkled with both love and comedy, at the centre of which is a teenager who doesn’t yet know what he wants.

The Edge of Seventeen

Two high school girls are best friends until one dates the other's older brother, who is totally his sister's nemesis.

Then Came You

An American hypochondriac who is working as a baggage handler is forced to confront his fears when a British teenager with a terminal illness enlists him to help her carry out her eccentric bucket list.

Bye Bye Blondie

A love story of two women who meet up in their late forties and attempt to retrieve the romance they had in their youth.

My First Summer

Isolated on a remote property, 16-year-old Claudia finds her world transformed when a spirited girl named Grace wanders into her garden.

A Silent Voice: The Movie

Shouya Ishida starts bullying the new girl in class, Shouko Nishimiya, because she is deaf. But as the teasing continues, the rest of the class starts to turn on Shouya for his lack of compassion. When they leave elementary school, Shouko and Shouya do not speak to each other again... until an older, wiser Shouya, tormented by his past behaviour, decides he must see Shouko once more. He wants to atone for his sins, but is it already too late...?

Boys on the Bridge

One day during the summer vacation before high school, Lil Fish skips the orientation and wants to hang out with his buddies. Still, to get the junior high diploma, all his friends are cleaning up the campus to remove their demerits. Only Lychee pals around with him in their fishing village, as they always do. Lil Fish thinks such kind of life will never change, but what happens that day makes him realize he and his friends have embarked on a different future.

Psychic School Wars

It's a new school year at the local Junior High School i Kamakura. The school year starts off with a new transfer student Ryoichi Kyogoku who joins the 8th grade class. He has been ordered to join the school, and use his special gift of telepathy and take over their school. This boy who happens to be handsome, and be a charismatic person, gains popularity, and using his powers takes over the entire school, except for Seki. This begins a war to regain their freedom for their school and themselves.

Shell

Abandoned by her mother when she was a child, Shell has stayed to take care of her dying father but now feels trapped within the beautiful but desolate landscape that surrounds her. With only her routine of running the decaying petrol station, taking care of her father, and spending afternoons in her bedroom with a local mechanic, life is passing Shell by with every passing truck that rattles her walls. One day a salesman stops to re-fuel and offers Shell a taste of the outside world that takes her closer than ever to the edge of the road and her desire to escape.

Moving Room

Karma, an international high school student from Sikkim struggles to fit in and hold onto his cultural identity when he is stuck at home with his host sibling, Alex.

Nothing Bad Can Happen

Tore, a young lost soul involved with an underground Christian punk movement, falls in with a dysfunctional family who test his seemingly unwavering faith.

Civil War

Summer of 1982, a beach in the south of Portugal. Rui and his parents live closed in their worlds, blind to the failure that characterizes them as a family and condemns them to the malaise of survival. Rui will have school exams but he is only interested in music and in the exploration of imaginary worlds that he constantly sketches in drawings. Only Joana seems capable of pulling him out of his autism. The girl's vitality fascinates him.

Katie Says Goodbye

A kindhearted seventeen-year-old in the American Southwest turns to prostitution to fulfill her dream of a new life in San Francisco.

15 Years and One Day

Jon is a troubled teenager who has been expelled from school. His mother decides to teach him a lesson by sending him away with his grandfather Max, a retired military man who lives in a village by the seaside. But the time they will spend together won’t be that simple, Jon likes to flirt with danger and bad companies, and the veteran has now settled down into a comfortable life.

The Devil in the Skin

Coming-of-age drama telling the story of the strong bond between Xavier and his little brother Jacques and their struggle to remain together despite all odds. Over the course of a summer vacation, both brothers struggle with the harsh reality that Jacques will be sent to a school for children with special needs when a new term begins.

Glint

As the fear of her impending adulthood becomes louder, a sedentary girl is asked to go to a party.

TRiP

A camping trip leads to a journey of self discovery during a psychedelic trip.

Double Plus Fifteen

Ana and Erik, two people apparently with opposite lives meet at a sex chat one day. She is an adult woman with a resolved life but has an existential crisis. He is a teenager with a whole life ahead of him with many unknowns.

Papercut

A small nick from the page of her book would take a young girl on a journey through time and space.

Żaklina

Two high school students are fascinated by a mature, attractive woman named Żaklina. The boys' friendship, strengthened by the common passion of filmmaking, seems to be indestructible until both of them try to seduce her.

Rookie

An awkward 6-footer teen is forced to learn and play volleyball half-heartedly when the Catholic school she transferred to did not have a basketball team. Everything changes when she meets their star player.

1-800-Hot-Nite

When 13-year-old Tommy loses his parents to a drug raid, he turns to a phone sex operator (his fairy godmother) for help as he embarks on an urban odyssey to escape foster care with his two best friends.

The Adventures of Pollyanna

Pollyanna’s Aunt Polly wants the girl to spend her time studying, but Pollyanna has other ideas. She joins a secret club with a group of orphans, and they spy on a mysterious new resident in town, only to learn that her standoffishness is because of her desire to shield a retarded son. Pollyanna helps the town accept the boy and his mother.

Little Wing

Little Wing tells the story of 12-year-old Varpu, who's quickly growing to adulthood, and about her mother, who doesn't want to grow up. Varpu lives with her mother and has never met her father. One night Varpu has enough of her riding buddies and her mother. She steals a car and drives up north in search of her father, of whom she only knows the name. But her father is not exactly what she had expected. Meeting him trigger something in Varpu and mother's life, making them realize their role in each other's lives, and in the world.

Jelgava '94

Film takes us deep inside the world of Latvian teenagers in 90s: combining the intimate diary of a teenager Jānis trying to find himself by joining a subculture, as well as a skillful, detailed and almost documentary-like depiction of the beginnings of the second independence of Latvia. “Jelgava ’94” is a portrait of a generation in the 1990s who are searching for their own identity and are fans of alternative culture. This is a touching story about us as youngsters, when everybody is against the whole world and tries not to become “one of them”. But can one keep the promise? The story is based on the best seller by Jānis Joņevs set in the 1994 in the Latvian city of Jelgava.

The Line

Tom, a passionate ‘brother’ of his fraternity, is charmed by the promises of high social status and alumni connections that open doors. But as Annabelle, a classmate outside his social circle, enters his life, his devotion begins to falter. Once the scheduled hazing of new fraternity members comes to a disturbing head, Tom faces the decision of a lifetime.

Vijay Superum Pournamiyum

Vijay and Pournami are two very different sort of people who first meet because of a misunderstanding. Vijay is a lazy engineering graduate unwilling to follow his passions and Pournami is an unlucky bold girl who doesn't give up on her dreams. They don't seem to find a lot of things in common at first; but as time passes more avenues open up for them to collaborate and learn from each other.

Goldie

Goldie, a precocious teenager in a family shelter, wages war against the system to keep her sisters together while she pursues her dreams of being a dancer. This is a story about displaced youth, ambition, and maintaining your spirit in the face of insurmountable obstacles.

Pitch

Kostya and his friends are young and love playing street football. Kostya dreams of playing professionally, but cannot bring himself to approach the coach. His girlfriend, Nastya, shares his dream, but street football is Kostya’s life, and the outdoor pitch is akin to a second home, a place for friends to meet and play.

Bound for the Fields, the Mountains, and the Seacoast

During the fervently nationalist months leading up to World War II, a rebellious teenager is transferred to a new primary school in a small Inland Sea town. He vies with the school’s reigning bully, who takes a romantic interest in his older stepsister. When they learn she’s going to be sold to a brothel to pay off her father’s debts, they form an uneasy alliance to free her.

Rocks

15-year-old Rocks fears that she and her little brother Emmanuel will be taken into care and forced apart if anyone finds out that their mother has left them. Against all odds, and with the help of her loyal friends, she evades the authorities and navigates the most defining days of her young life.

My Extraordinary Summer with Tess

As the youngest of the family, Sam is haunted by the notion that someday he could become the last remaining survivor, all alone. On a family vacation at the beach, he meets the unconventional Tess, who carries her own secrets around with her and shows him how the present moment can win out over memories and anxiety about what’s yet to come.

The Map That Leads to You

Heather is a young woman traveling Europe with friends before starting her perfectly planned life. A chance meeting with Jack sparks an unexpected romance that leads to deep emotional discovery. As secrets and life choices test their bond, her path changes forever.

Mickey and the Bear

In Anaconda, Montana, a strong-willed teenage girl navigates a loving but volatile relationship with her veteran father. In a desperate search for independence and her own identity, she risks family, heartbreak, and her standing in the only place she can call home.

Reefa

Reefa Hernandez Jr, an 18-year-old Colombian immigrant and talented artist spending his last summer in Miami with friends, family and his new girl Frankie before moving to New York City on an art scholarship.

Dear Dad

Dear Dad is a bittersweet coming of age story; involving a father-son duo – 14 year old Shivam, and his 45 year old dad Nitin Swaminathan. The father-son duo embarks on an impromptu road trip from their home, in Delhi, to Mussorie (Uttarakhand), where Shivam attends boarding school. Unexpected confessions, weird strangers, accidental meetings, a drunken escapade and singing in the rain – all these add up to a complicated and sweet tale.

Fantastic Girls

In 1980, Ayuko is a new transfer student in Okayama from Tokyo. She doesn't have any friends and relies on her boyfriend Hideo who is a college student. Ayuko likes to draw a romance manga of herself and her boyfriend. Ayuko's classmate, Takemi, becomes a huge fan of Ayuko's manga and they become close friends. Due to an incident though, they drift apart. 30 years later, Ayuko is now a manga artist and comes back to Okayama to give a lecture at her former high school. There, Ayuko meets Takemi who is now a teacher.

Teenagers

The story of Lucas and how he helps others as an angel. This is an innovative, educational drama that resembles a documentary.

Mean Dreams

When two youngsters meet and fall for each other, they must go on the run from the girl's corrupt father, who is also the sheriff of the town.

Erotic Passion

Since her parents' death, 19-year old Della lives with her aunt Marsha and Andrew, her old husband. One morning Marsha has sex with Alex, her husband's doctor. Right afterwords, Della seduces him at the beach while Marsha watches them from her window. The two women have a fight which results to Della leaving the house. She finds refuge at Maria's (a friend of hers) place but as it appears she is missing and the house is inhabited by Aris and Samantha. Della makes a pass at Aris, managing to infuriate Samantha. In the meanwhile, the local authorities are investigating the murder of Aris' business partner, Steve Brynner. When all trace leads to Aris, Della suggests a swap: She'll travel to Italy to get fake passports for the couple as long as they accept to murder Marsha.

In the Heat of the Sun

Beijing, 1970s. The Cultural Revolution has driven most adults to the provinces leaving 14-year-old Monkey and his pals have free reign over the city. They hang around, get up to no good, and discover that unsolvable mystery known as "girls."

Eighteen

It's the day before Grace Fitzgerald's 18th Birthday - aka the last day of her childhood. Desperate to have one last 'golden' day, Grace and her best friend, Bella, skip school to have an adventure.

Lesson Learned

Ten-year-old Palkó has just moved home to Budapest from Berlin and observes the daily life of an ordinary Hungarian elementary school with confused amazement. Juci, the young teacher just started working there. She is the only one who understands Palkó, as in their own way, they are both suffering from the same, sometimes grotesque educational system.