The Queen of My Dreams

CompetitionShort

Hao Ling, an Asian American emergency doctor, struggles with his guilt and fear of ruining the relationship with his father after coming out. When a patient introduces him to the gaysian party scene, Hao reconnects to his true emotions and takes actions to reunite with his father while learning valuable lessons on relationships.

Made au CanadaDocumentary

Whether wowing 1960s nightclub audiences with her vocal prowess or vanishing from the scene in a haze of rumours, Jackie Shane never failed to leave her mark. Through recorded conversations with the boundary-bursting yet reclusive icon, and the magic of ghostly, gorgeous rotoscope animation, Jackie is restored to us. Encouraged to leave Jim Crow-era Nashville by Joe Tex so that her talent could soar, Jackie Shane brought her R&B sound and daring charisma to adoring fans everywhere from mafia-controlled Montreal to her beloved Toronto, getting kidnapped and turning down a transphobic Ed Sullivan Show offer along the way. Close friends with Little Richard and an opener for the likes of Etta James and Marvin Gaye, Jackie Shane was an It girl in a time when using “she/her” seemed unthinkable. So she had a choice: global superstardom or her own hard-earned authenticity. This is the story of that choice, told through Jackie’s own words, vibrant reenactments, and assessments by contemporary trans figures, with music as the film’s soul. Executive produced by Elliot Page, Any Other Way is a triumph of the documentary form—as polished and impressive as Jackie herself.

Made au CanadaShort

A male teenager planning to come out to his father imagines different outcomes while portraying them in different cinematographic genres in his mind.

Made au CanadaShort

A woman turning 30 impulsively gives herself a dramatic haircut moments before hosting her birthday dinner, and it’s fine—it’s totally fine! Bangs is a paranoia-fueled comedy about one woman’s need for recognition and what happens when that recognition never comes.

Made au CanadaCompetitionFeature

In the vein of the Tony award-winning musical Stereophonic, this must-see drama is a Behind the Music-style glimpse of a 2000s Toronto indie band with Fleetwood Mac-like flare ups. With a trans frontman and queer members, The New Normals break boundaries while breaking one another’s hearts. Building off the source material, the novel Heidegger Stairwell by Kayt Burgess, Karen Knox maintains balletic control of multiple perspectives and aesthetics, following how each of the five core members handles firsts: first music video, first phone sex job, first love triangle. Music saves this close-knit crew from quarrels when it’s not causing them, but it’s the in-fighting, the “threads of connection and tension” that keep their audience hungering for more. Will the trans frontman (Lane Webber) stay with his queer girlfriend and songwriting partner (June Laporte) or find a different tune with Lugh (Daniel Gravelle)? Will the band survive or live on only in tribute? These concerns converge in a film charged with envy, creative friendship, and reckless love, and chock-full of pedigreed talent, including co-writing credits from award-winning Canadian writer, Zoe Whittall and festival alumni, Pat Mills as well as original songs from Stars’ Torquil Campbell.

CompetitionFeature

PORTUGUESE • ENGLISH ST | Wellington (defiantly nicknamed Baby) trades his detention centre cell for the streets of São Paulo, absorbed into the life of an in-demand “escort” with old school methods. Torn between this erotic father figure, two chosen families, and the mother who left him, Wellington must discern which link is the strongest. Against a backdrop of corrupt cops, vengeful kingpins, and Brazilian ball culture, maybe-18-year-old Wellington (João Pedro Mariano) falls for 42-year-old sex worker cum drug dealer Ronaldo (Ricardo Teodoro), who has a son not much younger than Wellington being raised by lesbian mothers. The two share a charged, teasing bond with yo-yoing power dynamics. Wellington softens Ronaldo, schooling him in voguing’s ebullience and showing him his battle scars, while Ronaldo grounds his protege, giving him boxing lessons while doling out paternal advice and setting strict boundaries. Boundaries that Ronaldo is desperate to maintain and Wellington comes to resent when youthful potential and a biological parent draw him away. Propelled by Marcelo Caetano’s stylish direction, this gritty coming-of-age tale wrestles with themes of love and coercion, considering what’s still possible for a restless heart when a ‘baby’ becomes a man.

CompetitionShort

Albert and Sixten are getting married. Today. The only problem is that if they were completely honest with each other, they shouldn’t even be a couple anymore.

Made au CanadaShort

Infamous outlaws The Lily and The Scorpion are on the run after a bank job gone wrong, but as day turns into night, the partners’ trust in each other begins to fray.

CompetitionShort

This morning, Marina has an appointment with Charlie to sell her a mattress. This evening, she will cancel her plane for Reunion. But they don't know that yet.

CompetitionFeature

In a fraught exchange between Leipzig and Strasbourg, Fanny and Lena warm to each other while the situation around them heats up. As it gets harder to parse fact from fiction, too much trust and not enough, they look to protest movements to teach them what out-of-control adults cannot. Writer-director Claire Burger’s nuanced drama is bracingly of-the-moment, capturing topical issues with a foreboding sense of longing and imminent disaster, and inspiring fiery performances from her leads, including Nina Hoss as a mother undone. After an initially cold reception from Lena (Josefa Heinsius) when she arrives in Germany, 17-year-old Fanny (Lilith Grasmug) will do anything to ingratiate herself with her prickly pen pal. Chocolate-covered shrooms, sexual experimentation, bonding over Antifa and black bloc protest movements—each attempt at connection becomes more daring than the one before, their “Franco-German friendship” mirroring the heated clashes of our time. When the school exchange is flipped, and Lena is now the fish out of water in France, giving into the attraction sizzling under her animosity will mean coming to terms with a world tearing apart at the seams and the fantasies built up to survive it.