Dragfox

Short

A masculine-presenting young woman travels back to her rural hometown to care for her estranged father, a former rancher, after a car accident. She soon realizes that mending their relationship is complicated when her sense of identity challenges her father's understanding.

Short

Exploring gender identity and societal expectations, the film follows non-binary lesbians navigating acceptance, cultural pressures, and homophobia. Through dance and costumes as symbols of liberation, it celebrates diverse identities, challenges societal norms, and portrays the ongoing quest for selfhood and recognition of varied gender expressions.

Short

After yet another after-party, Mia faces an identity crisis. With the support of her two best friends, she navigates a pivotal moment in her life, confronting herself and finding the courage to embrace who she truly is.

Short

Axis, an anxious enby, faces a supernatural surge of fears during a late-night walk home alone.

Short

A radiant superhero faces off against a MAGA mob while navigating personal struggles. Alongside a group of youth, they embody trans joy, resistance, and chosen family, using courage and connection to build community and confront adversity.

Short

A film celebrating the resilience of queer people of colour, reflecting on the journey to nonbinary identity and the courage to embrace oneself fully.

FeatureVIRTUAL EXCLUSIVE

DANISH • ENGLISH ST | With In Ashes, writer-director Ludvig Christian Næsted Poulsen grippingly toys with genre. He inflects one Danish collegian’s immersion in frantic hook-up culture amidst a relationship mysteriously ended with elements of psychological horror and the tension of a spy thriller. In 2017 Copenhagen, baby-faced Christian (Rex Leonard, a nervy knockout) is glued to his camera, determined to capture every giddy moment he spends with his long-distance boyfriend Aske (Lior Cohen). Flash forward to 2022 Aarhus, “the most wonderful city in the world,” and a scruffier Christian seems less than content. He interrogates his schoolmate’s perspective and confronts strangers over assumed slights. He’s plagued by an unspoken ailment. And Aske seems nowhere to be found. With each empty tryst, each hungrily inhaled cigarette, Christian descends into a type of madness. Or is it clarity? Aske’s reappearance, arriving with the jolt of a jump scare, may hold the key to that question, as desperation congeals into starry-eyed determination. For those drawn in by the enigmatic pull of All of Us Strangers, In Ashes will have you guessing ‘is this a romance or a tragedy’ until the very last second—perhaps, even, long after.

DocumentaryVIRTUAL EXCLUSIVE

Of the 8.7 million living animal species on Earth, thousands defy our expectations. Inspired by trans evolutionary biologist Dr. Joan Roughgarden’s groundbreaking work, narrator Elliot Page and preeminent queer, BIPOC, and immigrant scientists transcend well-trod narratives, revealing how survival hinges on being the most open to change. The scientific establishment has long been stymied by suppression and resistant to evidence debunking the primacy of three rigid categories: “insatiable” males, “coy” females, and “maladaptive and unnatural” others. But, from university labs to the forests of Costa Rica, that picture is changing, opening our eyes to a nature teeming with variations: polyandrous tamarins and polygamous Capuchin monkeys, “very gay” water fowl and sex-role reversed species like seahorses. We are guided through this diversity by sweeping footage, Caitlin Craggs’ delightfully quirky animations, and mind-blowing facts (for example, did you know 50% of fish on a coral reef are members of a sex-changing species?). In a political present where truth is under attack, Second Nature follows the trailblazers who are shifting the consensus from “sometimes this happens” to a codified science, leaving the “quaint myth” of the binary in the historical dust.

Feature

CROATIAN • FRENCH ST | Marko, slight but mighty, seems always in control, always a champion—but what happens when he slips his banks? As “unstable air” portends torrential rains for a small Croatian village, the return of Marko’s former neighbour is the rush that might pull him under. Marko (Lav Novosel in a natural, understated performance) has a full life: a brother with Down syndrome (Leon Grgić) who he treats with a soft attentiveness; learning discipline from his father (Filip Šovagović) in the lead up to an arm-wrestling competition; chanting about female anatomy with his buds before pestering his girlfriend Petra (Franka Mikolaci) for sex. But there’s another side to his even-keeled bravado. For, as he tells his brother in the guise of a story, “the boy and the bunny” were once “inseparable,” with a secret hiding place of their own. And now that “bunny” is back. Home from cosmopolitan Berlin for his father’s funeral, Slaven (Andrija Žunac) catches Marko off guard. Despite training constantly as if to outrun his feelings, Marko returns again and again to the river, again and again to Slaven. An imported joint is shared, affections are renewed, and temperatures—and waters—rise.

Short

A dancer struggles to break free from the hold of his choreographer, now drawn to another. This silent film explores power, inspiration, and replacement within the LGBTQ+ dance community through body language and music.

Short

A masculine-presenting young woman travels back to her rural hometown to care for her estranged father, a former rancher, after a car accident. She soon realizes that mending their relationship is complicated when her sense of identity challenges her father's understanding.

FeatureVIRTUAL EXCLUSIVE

FRENCH + FLEMISH • ENGLISH ST | Fifteen-year-old Malou is a competitive rower living in a tiny Belgian village with her brothers and divorced mother. A shy tomboy, Malou’s teammates bully her for her non-conforming gender identity, but she’s accepted by her brother Max—until he finds himself in competition with her over his girlfriend Nouria. Skiff is the sweet sixteen and summer fling story that we have been waiting for. Forget cars, pink dresses, and pining over boys—how about scooters, polo shirts, and … falling for your brother’s girlfriend? Director Cecilia Verheyden delivers a poignant coming-of-age story about first love with its many risks and dilemmas, on top of questioning sexuality and gender identity while dealing with a familial love triangle and a sense of social alienation. Though lighthearted with plenty of laughs, especially for the oblivious heteronormativity of small-town life, Skiff is a film that moves you, makes you remember, shows you how despite all of the world’s social progress of the twenty-first century, some things never change—gender will always define who we are and our humanity. It is anything but trivial. Also, the importance of a young person’s right to define their gender for themselves.

Short

After yet another after-party, Mia faces an identity crisis. With the support of her two best friends, she navigates a pivotal moment in her life, confronting herself and finding the courage to embrace who she truly is.

Short

Axis, an anxious enby, faces a supernatural surge of fears during a late-night walk home alone.

Feature

With the verve of a Guy Ritchie caper and the popping-hearts swoon of Heartstopper, writer-director-actor Lloyd Eyre-Morgan brings us a tale of troubled men and a soured affair. When two frequent flyers from the north of England cut ties, one sifts through the past to master his heartbroken present. According to “fit AF” Jake (David Tag), his sexuality is 70/30—the 30% of himself set aside for men. With one weekend a month in Amsterdam saved for sweet, searching Benji (Lloyd Eyre-Morgan), who he meets after a cancelled flight. The two seeming opposites wade through emotional and societal baggage to find the sweet spot: a short-term rental in Amsterdam where they can meet away from homegrown obligations. But the closer Benji gets to Jake’s gooey center, the more Jake approaches romance with the bumper rails up, flip-flopping between encouraging and squashing Benji’s vulnerability—and his own. In addition to its sex-soaked escapades and visual flair, Departures is written with care and complexity, peeling off layer after layer of what builds bonds, only to have them break. Self-funded by a collective of working-class LGBTQ+ filmmakers, this Manchester-made feature is confident, can’t-miss filmmaking.

Short

Frustrated sci-fi writer Julian is facing a slump in his relationship. So will his fiancé Leo's trip into orbit with the world's first ever low-cost alternative spaceline provide them with just the space they need to get back on track?