Sketch (2017)

Strange Days

Former policeman Lenny Nero has moved into a more lucrative trade: the illegal sale of virtual reality-like recordings that allow users to experience the emotions and past experiences of others. While they typically contain tawdry incidents, Nero is shocked when he receives one showing a murder.

Desert Hearts

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

Beyond Silence

Beyond Silence is about a family and a young girl’s coming of age story. This German film looks into the lives of the deaf and at a story about the love for music. A girl who has always had to translate speech into sign language for her deaf parents yet when her love for playing music grows strong she must decide to continue doing something she cannot share with her parents.

Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams

A woman and her daughter struggle to make their way through the aftermath of the Balkan war.

Bollywood/Hollywood

Rahul Seth is a dashing young millionaire who believes he is "western" enough to rebel against his mother and grandmother. They are not too keen about his Caucasian girlfriend Kimberly who, to make matters worse, is a pop star. Before you can say "karmic intervention," Kimberly dies in a freak accident and Rahul is devastated. Instead of allowing him to mourn in peace, Rahul's mother sees the opportunity she's been waiting for. She threatens to call off his sister's wedding unless he finds himself a "nice Indian girl." Rahul enlists the services of Sue, a fiercely independent escort whom he believes to be Hispanic, and therefore not "married" to the conventions taught to young Indian women. With a wink in her eye, Sue accepts the deal to pose as his Indian bride-to-be. She needs the money and having never been a fan of the typical Indian male, she feels her heart is safe. The charade begins....

Longing

An average, everyday metalworker and volunteer firefighter content in his marriage to his childhood sweetheart finds his emotions unexpectedly stirred when he falls for a pretty waitress from a nearby town.

Liar

Due to drug abuse, a 13-year-old boy is placed into a detention center for young offenders. After a week, the judge will decide if he must stay there or go back home. Confronted with the adults, the judge, the psychologist and the social workers, the boy uses his most effective power to rebel against them all: lying.

Visas and Virtue

Europe, 1940. For thousands of Jews, a Japanese diplomat and his wife defy Tokyo and the Nazis, and offer visas, for life.

Theis and Nico

The two brothers Teis and Nico find a poster from "Gone with the Wind" and they start talking about why people kiss and the techniques behind it. Later they meet Giinjha and she invites them to her birthday-party. While they are preparing to go to the party they rehearse how to kiss in the way the poster suggested because Teis has announced that he is in love with Giinjha and will kiss her even though he is not comfortable about it.

Fall of Ming

Plot unavailable

Barcelona: A Love Untold

Ely, a young man who can't get over Celine, his past love, meets Mia, a young woman who escaped from a painful past in the Philippines and is trying her luck to rebuild her life in Spain. They meet. They fall in love. But can they overcome the hurt of the past to have a future together?

Crazyhouse

After the suicide of his best friend, a teenage boy is forced to deal with his guilt and sexuality.

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.

Desired Children

The life of Marie and Peter seems perfect, but their greatest wish remains unfulfilled: a family of their own. After several painfully failed attempts to have a child by natural means, Marie and Peter decide to try adoption in Russia. Carried by their longing and after many months of preparation and waiting, they set off to get to know their future daughter Nina in a children's home thousands of kilometers away from Germany. They still have no idea that they are only at the beginning of a tour de force against the Russian authorities – and they are facing the biggest challenge for their relationship, because while Marie and Peter are fighting for their future child, the question is: are we still pursuing the same goal? Each for himself – and especially as a couple?

Thomas and the Magic Railroad

Mr. Conductor's supply of magic gold dust, which allows him to travel between Shining Time and Thomas's island, is critically low. Unfortunately, he doesn't know how to get more. Meanwhile, Thomas is fending off attacks by the nasty diesel engines. Getting more gold dust will require help from Mr. C's slacker cousin, his new friend Lily and her morose grandfather, plus the secret engine.

Fear(s) of the Dark

Several scary black-and-white animated segments in different styles appeal to our fear(s) of the dark.

Look Both Ways

During one unusually hot weekend, four friends struggle after hearing some life-changing news.

The Owners

Two friends have recently broken up with their lovers. While taking a walk in a forest in Seoul, they find a bag on a bench. After some time, they travel to Gangwon-do to have their fortunes read. Someone appears out of the blue and yells that the bag is hers.

Dusk Shall Come

Greta's parents have decided that the three of them are going back to their hometown. Greta has to tell them that she won't return with them.

Fort Bliss

After returning home from an extended tour in Afghanistan, a decorated U.S. Army medic and single mother struggles to rebuild her relationship with her young son.

Tooty's Wedding

A young couple's marriage hilariously hits the rocks during a weekend wedding in the country.

The Colt

During the heat of battle in the midst of the Civil War, a beguilingly innocent colt is born to Union Jim Rabb's beloved mare. Refusing the orders to shoot it, lest it prove a hindrance, Rabb keeps the colt as a consolation in these desperate times-a symbol of hope that leads the men of the First Cavalry on a journey of self-discovery and newfound brotherhood.

Thick as Thieves

A master thief recruits a notorious thief to help him steal two famous Faberge eggs from an impenetrable vault in an effort to pull off one final job and repay his debt to the Russian mob.

House of Fools

At the psychiatric clinic Varden the attendants are mad and the inmates are sane.

Rails & Ties

A deadly collision between a train and car lead to an unlikely bond between the train engineer and a young boy who escapes the carnage.

I Could Never Be Your Woman

Mother Nature loves to cause mischief, and she steps in to help two love-starved souls find happiness. She helps an aging professional woman and single mother, Rosie, who's unlucky in love find her match with Adam, a much younger man. As their relationship blossoms beyond physical attraction, matters complicate when her adolescent daughter starts to fall for a handsome local boy.

Speak

Freshman high-school student Melinda has refused to speak ever since she called the cops on a popular summer party. With her old friends snubbing her for being a rat, and her parents too busy to notice her troubles, she folds into herself, trying to hide her secret: that star senior Andy raped her at the party. But Melinda does manage to find solace in her art class headed by Mr. Freeman.

Contos Analógicos do Centro da Cidade

Plot unavailable

Unsichtbarer Angreifer

The Turguts are a modern, tech-savvy family: Emma, her husband Amir and their son Malik live in a state-of-the-art smart home. Emma relies on smart technologies not only in the house, but also in her work as a psychotherapist. In order to be able to help more and more people, she is helping to develop an AI-based therapy app. However, as the first practical phase begins, initially minor but soon serious incidents occur with the networked and omnipresent technology.

The Male Gaze: First Kiss

The Male Gaze is a new series of releases from New Queer Visions that showcases short LGBTQ films from across the world. The first instalment, First Kiss, brings together five shorts that are based around men experiencing romantic and/or sexual interaction with other men for the first time. It takes in films from Sweden, Indonesia, USA, Australia and France giving a rounded look at how similar experiences are depicted across the world. The films are: Naked [Naken] (2013); Pria (2017); Walk With Me (2018), One Night Only (2018); Michel's Mouse [Tapette] (2016).

Fat Girl

Anaïs is twelve and bears the weight of the world on her shoulders. She watches her older sister, Elena, whom she both loves and hates. Elena is fifteen and devilishly beautiful. Neither more futile, nor more stupid than her younger sister, she cannot understand that she is merely an object of desire. And, as such, she can only be taken. Or had. Indeed, this is the subject: a girl's loss of virginity. And, that summer, it opens a door to tragedy.

Carne

After a dreadful incident coupled with an ungovernable paroxysm of violence, a butcher will fall into a downward spiral that will burn to the ground whatever dignity still remained in him.

Pig

A young man journeys through a desert, where he is kidnapped by a sadistic stranger clad in a pig mask. The stranger proceeds to brutally torture the young man, who then finds himself escaping into his imagination, with fantasy and reality intersecting.

Copying Beethoven

A fictionalised exploration of Beethoven's life in his final days working on his Ninth Symphony. It is 1824. Beethoven is racing to finish his new symphony. However, it has been years since his last success and he is plagued by deafness, loneliness and personal trauma. A copyist is urgently needed to help the composer. A fictional character is introduced in the form of a young conservatory student and aspiring composer named Anna Holtz. The mercurial Beethoven is skeptical that a woman might become involved in his masterpiece but slowly comes to trust in Anna's assistance and in the end becomes quite fond of her. By the time the piece is performed, her presence in his life is an absolute necessity. Her deep understanding of his work is such that she even corrects mistakes he has made, while her passionate personality opens a door into his private world.

Nowhere in Africa

A Jewish woman named Jettel Redlich flees Nazi Germany with her daughter Regina, to join her husband, Walter, on a farm in Kenya. At first, Jettel refuses to adjust to her new circumstances, bringing with her a set of china dishes and an evening gown. While Regina adapts readily to this new world, forming a strong bond with her father's cook, an African named Owuor.

Population 436

A census-taker is sent to investigate why a certain small town has had the same population -- 436 residents -- for the last 100 years.

When Saturday Comes

Jimmy Muir comes from a typical gritty, northern town where there are only two options: working down the pit or in a factory. But Jimmy has other ideas - he dreams of becoming a professional footballer. Confronted by a bitter and unsupportive father, hard drinking friends and a lifetime of bad habits...has Jimmy the will to achieve his ultimate goal?

A Real Young Girl

Bored and restless, Alice spends much of her time lusting after Jim, a local sawmill worker. When not lusting after him, Alice fills the hours with such pursuits as writing her name on a mirror with vaginal secretions and wandering the fields with her underwear around her ankles. And, in true teenaged tradition, she spends a lot of time writing in her diary.

I Want You Inside Me

A tale of all-consuming desire.

When You Hear the Bells

In Afghanistan, "batchas" are young male prostitutes who live under the protection of a master in a house where they are trained to dance dressed as girls for a men's audience. Veteran dancer Saman starts worrying when he sees Bijane, the new recruit, who has been chosen to replace him. Despite his jealousy, he must initiate Bijane into the art of the Batcha dancing.

TSUNAMI

A normal day at school. Nina and Ruby have an argument in the bathroom. Fed up with Ruby, Nina enters a cubicle to be alone. Moments later, Nina hears a shot being fired. Whilst hiding, she becomes witness to an unfolding school shooting and soon needs to fight for her and her friend's survival.

ABCs of Death 2 1/2

An anthology of 26 fan entries submitted for inclusion in ABCs of Death 2, each offering various takes on the letter "M".

A Different Tree

An eight-year-old girl tries to build a relationship with her absent father through a class-assigned family tree.

Mars at Sunrise

A conflict between a Palestinian artist and an Israeli soldier is told in a surrealist style.

Stray

Set in a parallel universe where the sexual bias favors homosexuals, Eric, a struggling heterosexual, admits himself into a straight conversion camp. What begins as a cure to his deviant lifestyle, becomes a journey of self acceptance.

Last Summer

A park bench plays stage to the meeting between two people - Emma and Ben. Here we see them in present day and we learn that they once spent three years very much in love.

Helen

On the outside, Helen has it all – a loving family and a successful career – but when her suppressed mental illness resurfaces, the world crumbles around her. Crippled by depression, Helen finds solace through her friendship with Mathilda, a kindred spirit struggling with bipolar disorder.

Neon Lights

In 2053, amidst a devastating pandemic, an old gravedigger from Elementar Corporation insists on burying his wife with just a shovel, rejecting the corporation's new burial technology, the "Cube Of Miracles." Conflict arises when a young gravedigger armed with the "Cube of Miracles" challenges the old gravedigger's traditional methods at the cemetery. The film explores the clash between tradition and innovation, delving into broader themes of man versus machine in a society grappling with AI and automation.

The Secret Life of Words

A solitary nurse bonds with a badly burned patient who survived an accident on an oil rig.

La Cura

Plot unavailable

Little Accidents

In a small American coal town living in the shadow of a recent mining accident, the disappearance of a teenage boy draws three people together—a surviving miner, the lonely wife of a mine executive, and a local boy—in a web of secrets.

Laggies

Overeducated and underemployed, 28 year old Megan is in the throes of a quarterlife crisis. Squarely into adulthood with no career prospects, no particular motivation to think about her future and no one to relate to, Megan is comfortable lagging a few steps behind - while her friends check off milestones and celebrate their new grown-up status. When her high-school sweetheart proposes, Megan panics and- given an unexpected opportunity to escape for a week - hides out in the home of her new friend, 16-year old Annika and Annika's world-weary single dad Craig.

Studies on Hysteria

Short film about a young man discovering pants in a nudist world. A parable of the societal intolerance to anything different.

Insects in the Backyard

In the absence of their parents, Johnny and Jennifer are being brought up by their sister Tanya, an overdressed transvestite. Both kids mess up their pursuit of romance, and both look for ways to break away from the family home and become independent.

Cellar Door

When a teenage girl goes missing in the woods, it's up to an aging sheriff to find her. With his deputy questioning his every move, this small town sheriff will have to face the wrath of the girl's abusive father in order to bring her home safe before it's too late.

Ladyboy

Kristian, who is a transvestite, still lives at home with his mother Emma, because she loves him just the way he is. Life as a transvestite offers many humiliations from the outside world, but with his mom, Kristian feels that he can be himself. Until one day when Emma meets the alcoholic Søren, who does not have the same tolerance...

The Grub Stake

A young woman is lured to the Yukon by a gambler with promises of marriage and a grubstake for a gold mine. She takes her ailing father with her, only to discover when she gets there that the gambler was lying to her and actually planned to sell her to a dance hall. She gathers her father and an old miner she has met, takes a dogsled and supplies from the gambler and the three of them head for the wilderness to look for a lost gold claim the old miner has been looking for.

Sanctuary Population One

A young idealist, Ethan, is left searching for his family while fighting the infected, Med-Ex militia and bloodthirsty marauders, and the ghosts of his past.

Annaluise & Anton

Luise, called Pünktchen, and Anton are closest of friends. Being the daughter of a wealthy surgeon, young Pünktchen lives in a great house. Her mother, who always travels through the world more for public relation reasons than for the social tasks she pretends to fulfill, is never available to her as a mother. Anton, son of a single and sick mother in financial trouble, does his best to help her out of it by working late. Pünktchen decides to help her only friend (as nobody else would anyway) and starts singing in public places. Trouble arises when Anton can't resist stealing a golden lighter and Pünktchen's secret life is discovered by her parents. Two troubled families finally can see the need for actions to be taken.

Sleepless in Seattle

After the death of his mother, a young boy calls a radio station in an attempt to set his father up on a date. Talking about his father’s loneliness soon leads to a meeting with a young female journalist, who has flown to Seattle to write a story about the boy and his father.