Falena (2022)

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.

Together

Elisabeth leaves her abusive and drunken husband Rolf, and goes to live with her brother, Göran. The year is 1975 and Göran lives in a commune called Together. Living in this leftist commune Elisabeth learns that the world can be viewed from different perspectives.

Beyond the Blue Border

GDR, August 1989: Hanna and Andreas became a target of the secret police and had to give up their plans for their future studies and desired professions. Instead, they face arbitrariness, mistrust and reprisals. Their only chance for a self-determined life lies in fleeing across the Baltic Sea. Fifty kilometres of water separate them from freedom - and only a thin connecting rope around their wrists saves them from absolute loneliness.

A Truck Under Repair

Twenty-year-old Eugène is somewhat aimless and has not been doing well in university. He is staying in a small village for the summer. He awkwardly seduces Pierre, a slightly older man who is working for Mathilde as caretaker for the season. Pierre is initially open to the relationship, but quickly becomes reluctant to become too involved.

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.

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.

Gregoire

Loosely based on real life events, Gregoire follows four young adults and the choices they make when put at a crossroads of their life. As they struggle to make choices, their paths cross with one another and their choices affect not only themselves, but their friends, and their families.

A Girl Who Loves a Girl

Valerie has broken up with the love of her life. She begins a new existence of having to adapt to a single life and is not coping well. To help ease the pain, she has a string of one-night stands, indulges in drugs and self-mutilation.

Ella

Ella, a young aspiring actress, stands at a crossroads, pondering her journey on the day of a career-defining audition. her career. No matter how small, every decision can change the course of her day, illuminating the subtle battles of everyday life. In the heart-vibrant chaos of Paris, Ella navigates the complexities of her identity: a foreigner, a woman, and a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community.

Some of My Best Friends Are...

Regulars gather at The Blue Jay, a gay bar in Manhattan's Greenwich Village, to celebrate Christmas Eve 1971 with people they consider family.

I Don't Know Who You Are

Benjamin, a working class gay man living in Toronto, struggles to obtain expensive healthcare after being assaulted by a stranger.

Nothing Like The Sun

In 1949, Alice Mitchell works as a prostitute on the street. After her situation worsens, she unsuccessfully attempts to reconcile with her estranged family over her homosexuality. She grows infatuated the daughter of a Christian household, Annabel. But she ultimately decides to give up the relationship in order to make peace with her parents.

Falsettos

The 2016 Broadway revival of William Finn's Tony-winning musical tells the story of Marvin, a Jewish family man who leaves his wife and son for a male lover during the height of the AIDS crisis in 1980s New York City.

Exteriors

Three gay men each find themselves in modern relationship issues through three separate coincidences. Wyatt learns that his best friend Logan is unknowingly falling in love with his ex, while Jason is shocked to learn the owner of the pool he's cleaning is the man he fell in love with over a one-night stand eight years earlier. Finally, therapist Peter Lesh has become dangerously obsessed with his client Lex who tells him he's just met the man of his dreams.

Transparent: Musicale Finale

When the Pfeffermans face a life-changing loss, they begin a journey hilarious and melancholy, brazen and bold. As they face this new transition, they confront grief and come together to celebrate connection, joy, and transformation.

Mystic Pizza

Three teenage girls come of age while working at a pizza parlor in Mystic, Connecticut.

Cinema Paradiso

A filmmaker recalls his childhood, when he fell in love with the movies at his village's theater and formed a deep friendship with the theater's projectionist.

My Beautiful Laundrette

A Pakistani Briton renovates a rundown laundrette with his male lover while dealing with drama within his family, the local Pakistani community, and a persistent mob of skinheads.

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.

Mommy

A peculiar neighbor offers hope to a recent widow who is struggling to raise a teenager who is unpredictable and, sometimes, violent.

Dazed and Confused

The adventures of a group of Texas teens on their last day of school in 1976, centering on student Randall Floyd, who moves easily among stoners, jocks and geeks. Floyd is a star athlete, but he also likes smoking weed, which presents a conundrum when his football coach demands he sign a "no drugs" pledge.

Tama asobi

A man named Shiki has been sent to a company in Matsuyama. Since Shiki was famous as a baseball club member at a previous company, there is a story about baseball clubs in the company. Ken, who was a player in high school, participated without being reluctant, supported by his lover Michiko.

Marie

Due to her father’s death, Marie returns to the countryside after 15 years. Her childhood friend, Estêvão, is leaving with her on a trip to Crato, her father’s hometown.

Perfect Obedience

The fictional Father Ángel de la Cruz is based on Legion of Christ founder Marcial Maciel, whose long history of child abuse was not addressed until 2006 and only publicly acknowledged in 2009. But director Luis Urquiza chooses to structure his film through the largely uncomprehending, wondering eyes of 13-year-old Julián, who travels from the arms of his loving pastoral family into the austere, hallowed halls of the seminary. Singling out the boy as his intimate disciple, installing him in his palatial private quarters and redubbing him “Sacramento Santos,” Father Ángel begins Julian’s instruction into the mysteries of “perfect obedience,” whose cardinal rule is: Never question a superior’s actions.

Kids

A day in the life of a group of teens as they travel around New York City skating, drinking, smoking and deflowering virgins.

Risky Business

Meet Joel Goodson, an industrious, college-bound 17-year-old and a responsible, trustworthy son. However, when his parents go away and leave him home alone in the wealthy Chicago suburbs with the Porsche at his disposal he quickly decides he has been good for too long and it is time to enjoy himself. After an unfortunate incident with the Porsche Joel must raise some cash, in a risky way.

Crazy

Benjamin, a 16-year-old with lousy grades, switches to a boarding school in order to eventually reach grammar school. Adjusting to his new environment is difficult as he has to struggle with being a teen... specially when he falls in love to the school's dream girl, Malen.

Because You're Mine

Torn by the farewell letter of his boyfriend, Samuel tries to change his ideas in nature. The forest will bring him a strange and sensual consolation…

Freak Show

The story of teenager Billy Bloom who, despite attending an ultra conservative high school, makes the decision to run for homecoming queen.

Ride or Die

Rei helps the woman she's been in love with for years escape her abusive husband. While on the run, their feelings for each other catch fire.

Thanks to Her

Millie Blake, a high school senior soccer player, has her life turned upside down after an altercation with an out and proud classmate of hers, Andy Wellick. As punishment, the two girls get sentenced to a month of community service at a local nursing home. As she begins to not only bond with two of the residents, Jade and Pepper, but with Andy too, Millie begins to understand more about herself and becomes more confident in who she is.

Mermaids

Fifteen-year-old Charlotte Flax is tired of her wacky mom moving their family to a different town any time she feels it is necessary. When they move to a small Massachusetts town and Mrs. Flax begins dating a shopkeeper, Charlotte and her 9-year-old sister, Kate, hope that they can finally settle down. But when Charlotte's attraction to an older man gets in the way, the family must learn to accept each other for who they truly are.

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.

Juno

Faced with an unplanned pregnancy, sixteen year old high-schooler, Juno MacGuff, makes an unusual decision regarding her unborn child.

The Wedding Banquet

A Taiwanese-American man is happily settled in New York with his American boyfriend. He plans a marriage of convenience to a Chinese woman in order to keep his parents off his back and to get the woman a green card. Chaos follows when his parents arrive in New York for the wedding.

Now and Then

Waxing nostalgic about the bittersweet passage from childhood to puberty, four childhood girlfriends — Teeny, Chrissy, Samantha and Roberta — recall the magical summer of 1970. During their walk down memory lane, they reconcile experiences with boys, secrets, bullies and more.

Beautiful Girls

During a snowy winter in the small fictional town of Knight's Ridge, Massachusetts, a group of lifelong buddies hang out, drink and struggle to connect with the women who affect their decisions, dreams and desires.

A Trip Elsewhere

During the Covid-19 pandemic, four anxious strangers take a record-breaking dose of LSD, catapulting them into a shared psychedelic dream where they must find solace and redemption before they can return to the real world.

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.

Sixth Happiness

Waris Hussein’s acclaimed drama is based on the autobiography of Firdaus Kanga, who stars in the lead role of Brit, a young man born with brittle bone disease, which causes him to have never grown beyond four feet tall. The film follows his sexual awakening whilst his family simultaneously disintegrates all around him. An extremely moving drama confronting stereotypes around disability, sexuality and race, featuring a powerhouse performance from Kanga.

Wild Youth

Wild Youth is an ode to being young. A sensitive and intimate story of the first experiences of losing one's childlike innocence, questioning the imposed "masculinity" and (re)discovering yourself in the function of others.

Pretty Boy

Sean is taken to a motel and is given a prostitute for his 18th birthday by his father. He must sleep with her to "fix" his questionable homosexuality. "Pretty Boy" is a coming of age story of a young bullied teen, Sean, struggling with his sexuality and the hardships of high school. After his father finds some questionable magazines in his room, this devout Christian will go to any lengths to get his son to find the light and "perform" the way a man should. Sean is introduced to Katie, a prostitute that understands the stigmas of modern society and helps him see the true light that is within him.

Rift

Months after they broke up, Gunnar receives a strange phone call from his ex-boyfriend, Einar. He sounds distraught, like he's about to do something terrible to himself. Gunnar drives up to the secluded cabin where Einar is holed up and soon discovers that there's more going on than he imagined. As the two men come to terms with their broken relationship, some other person seems to be lurking outside the cabin, wanting to get in.

The Misandrists

In Ger(wo)many, when an army of radical females is preparing for a final revolution and a utopian world without men, a young male soldier arrives seeking refuge at the convent.

Carmín tropical

Mabel travels to her hometown to find the murderer of her friend Daniela. A journey through nostalgia, love and betrayal in a place where transgenderism once took on an unusual dimension.

Boys on Film 23: Dangerous to Know

Boys on Film presents ten encounters from across the globe, where the dangerous allure of a risky attraction yields emotional results — proving that the age-old adage of taking the plunge is as relevant — and sexy — as ever before. The 10 short films are: My Uncle's Friend [O Amigo do Meu Tio] (2021); Budapest, Closed City [Budapest, zárt város] (2021); Eden (2020); Chaperone (2022); Break Me [Knus meg] (2018); By His Will [שעשני כרצונו] (2021); Red Ants Bite (2019); Jim (2022); Hornbeam (2022); Too Rough (2022).

Longing Nights

Aitana, Pierrick, Rita and Jorge are all in their twenties and all look for ways to make their nights in the city of Madrid a little less lonely. Aitana is a sweet girl trapped in a men’s body; Pierrick is a cute French gay; Rita doesn't much care about her partner, Carolina, and walks through life with no expectations; Jorge is trapped in a relationship with no future: the one he has with Maria. Set against a background of drugs, sex, multiple partners and differing sexualities, Longing Nights follows the individual stories of these young people. A candid portrait of four relationships highly loaded with eroticism from beginning to end. Four stories told without no borders between fiction and reality.

Le Crime d'amour

To emerge from anonymity, a young man assumes responsibility for a crime he did not commit.

Alexander

Alexander, the King of Macedonia, leads his legions against the giant Persian Empire. After defeating the Persians, he leads his army across the then known world, venturing farther than any westerner had ever gone, all the way to India.

Paranoid Park

A teenage skateboarder becomes suspected of being connected with a security guard who suffered a brutal death in a skate park called "Paranoid Park".

Persepolis

In 1970s Iran, Marjane 'Marji' Satrapi watches events through her young eyes and her idealistic family of a long dream being fulfilled of the hated Shah's defeat in the Iranian Revolution of 1979. However as Marji grows up, she witnesses first hand how the new Iran, now ruled by Islamic fundamentalists, has become a repressive tyranny on its own.

Synonymous With

A student's increasingly intimate line of questioning causes his interview with a local horror host to take a vulnerable turn.

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.

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.

Chasing Amy

Holden and Banky are comic book artists. Everything is going good for them until they meet Alyssa, also a comic book artist. Holden falls for her, but his hopes are crushed when he finds out she's a lesbian.

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.

Parallel Lies

Dirk Bridle has just been released from prison after 8 years for good behavior. He has always maintained his story of falling asleep at the wheel and not drunk driving that caused the death of a teenager. While in prison, Dirk had an affair with a prison officer, Josh Cummings. Josh has been persistent in tracking down the person who mixed up the lab results in the case against Dirk while Dirk is hellbent on finding the dirty cops who he thinks framed him.

Kiskisan

A steamy tale of love, lust, and betrayal. When Adele's sister Bea returns with her girlfriend Cheska, a secret affair begins between Cheska and Adele's boyfriend, Rener, leading to a climactic ending when they're caught.

Mischief

Sex and rumors abound in this erotic story about high school student Jules, who won’t stop at anything to get back best friend Dahlia from new student Nessa, even if it means making up stories of illicit affairs with teachers.

Undergrads

Sexy sirens Athena Red and Rica Gonzales star in a coming-of-age tale that delves into the complexities of sexuality and its big impact on their young lives.

Halinghing

Steamy story about a photojournalist assigned to cover the story of an award-winning actress who is accused of killing her businessman husband.

1992

It's 1992. Martin is 17 and he films his daily life with his Hi8 camera. He films anything and everything—his room, the world around him... But never his father, the thought doesn't occur to him. One day he meets Dominique. He's 23 and works as a student monitor at Martin's high school.

Buddies

David, a naive graduate student, has volunteered to work as a 'buddy' for people dying of AIDS. Assigned to the intensely political Robert, a lifelong activist whose friends and family have abandoned him following his diagnosis, the two men, each with notably different world views, soon discover common bonds, as David's inner activist awakens and Robert's need for emotional release is fulfilled.

Beyond the Walls

This 1985 Spanish film reveals one of the many terrible aspects of 16th century Spain, still plagued by the radical Christian Inquisition, one of a plethora of difficulties Spaniards faced at the time. Spanish super star Carmen Maura plays a nun who agrees to a selfless scam, a fake stigmata, only to avoid separation from her lover, another nun. It's a serious and passionate work, highlighting the theme of outspoken women-against-repression, seen in other good gay and lesbian films. This is not a lesbian "Nun sense" or another "Dark Habits" (by Almodovar, which also starred Carmen Maura, and also set in a Spanish convent, with some lesbian nuns). Perhaps, best of all, 'Extramuros' is realistic and frank. It isn't shy about its characters' sexuality. Their sexuality, and the film as a whole are genuine.

The Sympathy Card

When Emma's cancer takes a turn for the worse, she presents her new wife Josie a deathbed order: find someone new while Emma is still around to approve of her choice.

We Grown Now

In 1992 Chicago, a story of two young legends in their own right begins. As wide-eyed and imaginative best friends Malik and Eric traverse the city, looking to escape the mundaneness of school and the hardships of growing up in public housing, their unbreakable bond is challenged when tragedy shakes their community just as they are learning to fly.

Your Mother's Son

Sarah, a middle-aged woman who hustles as the sole breadwinner of her family of two, scrambles to teach online courses and meet her food orders to provide for her delinquent son Emman. One day, Sarah brings home Oliver, one of her students, to give him refuge from his violent father. Oliver's presence will have an unimagined impact on Emman.

Clothes & Blow

An American voice-over artist in London finds himself questioning his life of hookups and emotional avoidance when he receives an unexpected visit from his mother.

Engaged

Darren keeps trying - and failing - to propose to his boyfriend Elliot. When their relationship is called into an uncomfortable spotlight during someone else's outrageous engagement party, Darren realizes he actually might be self-sabotaging himself due to unresolved insecurities about his sexuality.