Debut (2018)

Felina

Felina, a woman capable of becoming a panther, or perhaps a panther capable of becoming a woman, lives in love with a blind pianist.

The Female Side Effect

After the death of a patient, Crimera Pharmaceuticals, assigns the task of finding out what happened to Dr. Elena Pizano, a clinical trial analyst. She must do this with the help of the efficient and reliable artificial intelligence entity: KODA. During her findings she will come across data gaps in one of the drugs being studied, uncovering a darker truth in the world of medicine. As the organizations try to hide the information, she must decide how to handle the secrets she's just uncovered.

Smog

Thick, deadly smog blankets the globe, reducing visibility to less than a few metres. In a secluded farmhouse, a woman and her overbearing husband attempt to find resources and survive using a series of walking trails crafted from ropes and stakes. One night, the woman is alerted to the presence of someone or something else deep in the smog. Desperate to escape the farmhouse, the woman attempts to meet the unknown and risk everything to leave her loveless and abusive relationship behind.

A Holiday I Do

When a small town single mom falls for her ex-husband's beautiful and sophisticated wedding planner, she'll need some Christmas magic to fix the chaos that ensues.

Brotherly Lies

Lex is staying at his family's house with best friend Kenny. The former is recovering from a recent suicide attempt, while the latter is trying to spend a summer apart from his husband. Screenwriter Shane is staying in the summerhouse, while Lex's overbearing actor brother and his girlfriend are staying too. Add their neighbour into the mix, who is in love with Lex, who is in love with Shane, who is in love with Kenny... and the pressure cooker is primed and ready to blow, especially with Shane writing about a family secret that Lex would much rather keep hidden.

No Hard Feelings

Parvis, the son of exiled Iranians, copes with life in his small hometown by indulging himself with pop culture, Grindr dates, and raves. After being caught shoplifting, he is sentenced to community service at a refugee shelter where he meets siblings Banafshe and Amon, who have fled Iran. As a romantic attraction between Parvis and Amon grows, the fragile relationship between the three is put to a test.

III

By a hot summer day on the lakeshore, three siblings face death for the first time through their contact with nature.

Raids

Based on the treatment of Pacific Island families during the New Zealand Dawn Raids of the 1970’s, this short is an intimate look into a police raid, as told through the eyes of a young girl Losa and her father Lupematasila.

The Acrobat

In an ever-expanding but nondescript North American city, Christophe, a middle-aged businessman, unexpectedly encounters Micha, a Russian acrobat recovering from an injury, while house-hunting. An instant attraction is quickly consummated and they embark on a torrid affair that helps each of them cope with their respective trials. A provocative, poignant drama about intimacy in an age of anonymity.

Why Won't You Dance?

Anna, a shy girl, sits alone at a party. Vasilis, a shy guy, also sits alone at the same party. Vasilis really doesn't want to talk to Anna. Anna is burdened by something. Their reluctant meeting will bring forth memories Anna would much rather ignore.

To Live, To Die, To Live Again

Emma loves Sammy, who loves Cyril, who loves her back. What could have been a love story at the end of the last century is blown apart by the arrival of AIDS. Expecting the worst, each character's destiny takes an unexpected turn.

DISC

The story of a hookup gone too far up.

Little Pains

Sophie, only 11, turns a day of mourning into a journey of discovery and connection. At her mother’s funeral, Sophie’s imaginative spirit leads her away from traditional grief rituals and toward an impromptu birthday celebration for a new friend who is also riddled with his own grief. Glitter, toy guns and fleeting friendships collide creating strange, messy beauty of connection. Sophie’s actions challenge the adults’ somber norms and tell a story of resilience, showcasing how children’s innocent play can transform pain into healing and forge unexpected friendships and meaning.

Ephemeron

A chance encounter with a neighbor helps a musician deal with his creative block.

The First Murder

Based on the novel "Šta bi učinio Zobec?" (What Would Zobec Do?) by Svetozar Vlajković. It's a short movie about a young man who is afraid of being turned down by a girl.

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.

Enclosed World

A short animation by Makoto Shinkai in Lightwave 3D. Inspired by Haruki Murakami's book "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World" with music by Tenmon.

Lonesome Cowboys

Five lonesome cowboys get all hot and bothered at home on the range after confronting Ramona Alvarez and her nurse.

When Night Is Falling

Camille is a professor at a Protestant college and is in a long-term relationship 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.

Beautiful Mystery

Shinohara, a young bodybuilder, joins a para-military sect in northern Japan. His instructor, Takizawa, takes a liking to the new recruit. After an early “special” training session the two develop a lasting and loving relationship.

Zurück

Lena returns to Germany after spending a year in Australia. Lena's mom and boyfriend are happy about she's home. Lena herself has mixed feelings. It is difficult to adapt to life in Germany again.

I Love You Phillip Morris

Steven Russell leads a seemingly average life – an organ player in the local church, happily married to Debbie, and a member of the local police force. That is until he has a severe car accident that leads him to the ultimate epiphany: he’s gay and he’s going to live life to the fullest – even if he has to break the law to do it. Taking on an extravagant lifestyle, Steven turns to cons and fraud to make ends meet and is eventually sent to the State Penitentiary where he meets the love of his life, a sensitive, soft-spoken man named Phillip Morris. His devotion to freeing Phillip from jail and building the perfect life together prompts him to attempt (and often succeed at) one impossible con after another.

The Tree of Life

The impressionistic story of a Texas family in the 1950s. The film follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship with his father. Jack finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith.

Visions of Europe

Twenty-five films from twenty-five European countries by twenty-five European directors.

Rhyme & Reason: BBC Introducing Arts

Lemn Sissay presents a selection of short films from a new generation of artists who are inspired by poetry and the spoken word. Dying to Live; Notes on Being a Lady; Other Voices; Raised by Queenz; Terra Firma; The Siren's Song; Alice_Alice; My Grandad; The Fall; When Will It Stop?; Backwards; Covering Scars with Summer Jumpers; Is Anybody Out There?

Screengrabbed: BBC Introducing Arts

Janina Ramirez presents a screengrab of inspiring, beautiful and urgent stories from emerging and established film-makers with their interpretations of life's big topics. A Fashion Show; Birdcage; Body to Body; Ffasiwn, The Film; Folk; Light Noise; Through a Screen Darkly; Be Different Today; Palm Tree; Shiner; Demons Before Breakfast; How Do You Know You're in Love?; Sensational Simmy; What Does It Mean to Be British?

Dance on Film: BBC Introducing Arts

Acclaimed dancer Carlos Acosta introduces a new generation of film makers who use b-boying, ballet and contemporary dance to tell their stories. Subjects range from dancing in a bingo hall, acid attacks, body image and wellbeing and the mystical world of baby eels. Each is a remarkable fusion of dance and film. Anatomy of a Crooked Spine; Blast; Elver; Full House; I Am Soldier; I Dance Best with You; Inside; Inside We Break; Manmade; Petals and Pain; Scapelands; We Are Ready Now; We Are Always Here; Do I Have Free Will?

Drama Shorts: BBC Introducing Arts

Actor, writer and producer Chizzy Akudolu presents a collection of dramatic short films from the best new filmmakers. Subjects include secrets, love and family, from awkward conversations about sausages to how to deal with zombies. Skinny Fat; Backbone; Expats; Finger Prick; Hold the Sausage; Jigging; Madly Involved; Nakato; Sentient; Voodoo in My Heart; Best Served Cold

Animated Shorts: BBC Introducing Arts

Explore exciting, strange and thought-provoking worlds with broadcaster, gamer and animation fan Elle Osili-Wood. Through abstract designs, 2D animation and stop motion techniques, Elle showcases the next generation of makers with this collection of new short films. Stories of wellbeing, grief, lockdown and climate change make us think about today’s society and find shared experiences in unexpected places. Feeding Grief to Animals; Bearly Functional; Birth of the Telephone; Blodeuwedd's Gift; Confessions of an English Ant-Eater; Everyone Has My Jacket; The Flood; Growing Plains; Mental Roots; Misophonia; Sensory Chaos; Silence and Her Roommate; Unbound; Urban Fox; wūûūwūûū; Rawr; Worlds Apart

Close The Last Door

After being best man at his best friend's (Saitou Toshihisa) wedding, Nagai Atsushi realizes that he might have fallen for him. Nagai, drowning in his sorrows and hatred for the new bride then meets Honda Kenzou, another guest at the wedding. Honda takes care of Nagai when he was dead drunk and now Nagai can't stop thinking of both Honda and Saitou.

Gunjou

An orphan girl on a solo journey met a fellow traveller abroad who took her on a life changing journey

A Call Above the Clouds

Recently separated Sally finds out that her husband Ashley has gone on an expedition to Mount Everest and that his life is in danger.

Stream of Consciousness

Follow along with Margo's internal dialogue as she struggles to find her self worth without the opinions of others admits a period of major self-reflection.

Fat People

Due to many reasons, ranging from insecurity to trauma, a group of people have gained a lot of weight in recent times.

The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love

An adventurous love story between two young women of different social and economic backgrounds who find themselves going through all the typical struggles of a new romance.

The Poet and the Boy

Trapped in routine, a Jeju poet finds himself drawn to a boy—and to emotions he’s never dared name.

Stand Up!

Irish anti-homophobic bullying advertisement, created as part of BeLonG To Youth Services annual Up! LGBT Awareness Weeks.

A Very Serious Person

Jan, an itinerant male nurse from Denmark, takes a new job with Mrs. A, a terminally ill Manhattan woman raising her parentless thirteen-year-old grandson, Gil. Spending the summer by the shore, the emotionally reserved Jan finds himself oddly cast as a mentor to Gil in having to prepare the sensitive boy for life with his cousins in Florida after his grandmother's death.

Drown

Len is a Surf Lifesaving champion, a legend in the cloistered surf club just like his father. When the younger, faster, and fitter Phil arrives at the club, Len’s legendary status starts to crumble. Then Len sees Phil arriving in the company of another man. Phil is gay.

Fögi Is a Bastard

15-year-old Beni falls in love with Fögi, a singer in a Rock band. As Fögi seduces him, he is only willing to follow him where ever Fögi wants to. But Fögi is a drug addict and pulls Beni deeper and deeper into the hell of drug addiction.

Margarita with a Straw

A rebellious young woman with cerebral palsy leaves India to study in New York. On her journey of self-discovery, she unexpectedly falls in love.

Shannon Amen

Shannon Amen unearths the passionate and pained expressions of a young woman overwhelmed by guilt and anxiety as she struggles to reconcile her sexual identity with her religious faith. A loving elegy to a friend lost to suicide.

Meatoo

A naive actor auditions for a film which could launch his career. The things he's asked to do make him more and more uncomfortable, until a choice remark from the director makes him see red.

National Theatre Live: Angels In America — Part One: Millennium Approaches

The National Theatre's live theatrical production of Tony Kushner's two-part play 'Angels In America' about New Yorkers grappling with the AIDS crisis during the mid-1980s.

National Theatre Live: Angels In America — Part Two: Perestroika

America in the mid-1980s. In the midst of the AIDS crisis and a conservative Reagan administration, New Yorkers grapple with life and death, love and sex, heaven and hell. This new staging of Tony Kushner's multi-award winning two-part play, Angels In America: A Gay Fantasia On National Themes, is directed by Olivier and Tony award winning director Marianne Elliott.

Vassalord.

Charley, a cyborg vampire who does the Vatican's dirty work, is the thrall of the local vampire playboy Johnny Rayflo. As the two fight crime—and each other—hilarity, violence and sacrilege ensue! But can Charley resist his own desperate cravings for blood? Find out as the devilish duo go up aginst a childlike vampire princess, a mysterious branch of the Unitarian Church...and one another.

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.

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.

7 Virgins

Tano is 16-years-old and is already sitting in jail. In 48 hours he’s a free man and off to the wedding of his brother. In the two days he recounts his neighborhood in a section of Sevilla.

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.

Chang-ok's Letter

Housewife Eun-ha is busy every day: In addition to taking care of her husband who doesn’t help out at all and her willful daughter and son, she has to care for her nagging mother-in-law, who is nearly bedridden.

Adjustment

Shahrokh, a nine-year-old effeminate boy who is humiliated and pushed away by his family and friends, makes up his mind to adjust himself to his new identity and comes out to the people of the village.

Plum

A kid runs off to the desert to clear his head after the death of his older brother. In an attempt to find clarity, he begins to feel the weight of his grief, the suffocation of sitting with himself, and the boiling heat of the sun. All while having only a stuffed bunny to keep him company.

Stanbrook

Spain, March 1939. The war is dying down. At the Port of Alicante thousands of people are piling, waiting for the arrival of ships that will carry them to exile. Moored, the freighter Stanbrook is witnessing the desperation.

Les Biches

A bored bisexual millionaire picks up a young destitute street artist and whisks her away to her villa in Saint Tropez. They meet a dashing local architect and both fall for him, setting in motion a ménage à trois of deception and betrayal.

Velvet Goldmine

Almost a decade since larger-than-life glam-rock enigma Brian Slade disappeared from public eye, an investigative journalist is on assignment to uncover the truth behind his former idol.

Nowhere

In Los Angeles, a colorful assortment of bohemians try to make sense of their intersecting lives. The moody Dark Smith, his bisexual girlfriend, her lesbian lover and their shy gay friend plan on attending the wildest party of the year. But they'll only make it if they can survive the drug trips, suicides, trysts, mutilations and alien abductions that occur as one surreal day unfolds.

A Chorus Line

A group of dancers congregate on the stage of a Broadway theatre to audition for a new musical production directed by Zach. After the initial eliminations, seventeen hopefuls remain, among them Cassie, who once had a tempestuous romantic relationship with Zach. She is desperate enough for work to humble herself and audition for him; whether he's willing to let professionalism overcome his personal feelings about their past remains to be seen.

Rent

This rock opera tells the story of one year in the life of a group of bohemians struggling in late 1980s East Village, New York, USA. The film centers around Mark and Roger, two roommates. While a tragedy has made Roger numb to new experiences, Mark begins capturing their world through his attempts to make a personal movie. In the year that follows, they and their friends deal with love, loss, and working together.