SANDBAG DAM (ZEČJI NASIP) (EN)

Short

In a rigid manor where everyone conforms, a woman receives an orange, a fruit she has never seen before. This discovery transports her into a forested world of sensual fluidity where she must choose between returning to her old life or embracing a new, transformative way of being.

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.

Feature

Based on Fleur Pierets’ memoir of the same name, Julian tells the heart-wrenching love story between the author Fleur and Julian Demoor and Project 22—their international LGBTQ+ marriage campaign of 2017 that was brought to an abrupt halt by tragic circumstances. In 2017, it was legal for same-sex couples to get married in twenty-two countries worldwide, hence the birth of the performance art piece: Project 22. Fleur Pierets, a Belgian journalist and LGBTQ+ activist, came up with the idea to travel around the world and marry Julian—her partner in life as well as business (as co-founders of Et Alors? Magazine)—and not only once, but in every country where it was possible. The goal? To raise awareness on how few places same-sex couples could legally marry. Director Cato Kusters provides a fictionalized account spanning the campaign, from the years 2017–2019, with home-movie-esque film segments that provide an immersive peek into this courageous couple’s experience, both behind the scenes, on the road, and after the fact—moments of joy and silliness, as well as the intimacy, doubt, uncertainty of fighting for one’s rights while also fighting for one’s life.

Feature

Passionate, provocative, and powerful—it’s easy to see why Bearcave was awarded the Europa Cinema Label at the 2025 Venice Film Festival. Set in a fictional remote village in the Balkan Mountains of Greece, a love story between two lifelong friends unfolds—but will their relationship survive the call of womanhood? Argyro is a farm girl—hard-working, unpretentious, and wholesome while Anneta is … in a bit of trouble. Whisked away by her law enforcement beau (and carrying his child) Anneta’s move to the city threatens to sever her friendship with Argyro for good, but their understated glances from across the crowd at a party one night tells a different story. The whisper of sweet nothings and foggy windows in Argyro’s pickup truck soon fade to memory, leaving behind a cloud of confusion and heartbreak, that is—until Anneta’s side of the story unfolds. Set against a backdrop of sweeping landscapes, a mystical cave, and nettle bushes, Bearcave is a film that’s steeped in tradition, then abruptly subverted, and not only by a sapphic love story, but a hybrid soundscape of folkloric and contemporary music, as well as ethereal sequences of cinematographic magic.

Short

Determined to prove to his father that he is the city's most feared gangster, Alessandro sets out to rob a bar with his friend Joe. However, when they discover that it is a drag queen bar and that the star performer is Alessandro's father in drag, the night takes an unexpected turn.

FeatureVIRTUAL EXCLUSIVE

Karun, a kindly border guard, finds himself in “paradise” among Bandipora’s soaring peaks, though religious and cultural resentments simmer and scald. Jolted by Faheem’s gorgeous face revealed from behind a helmet visor, Karun is drawn into a romance with indelible repercussions in this first queer film in the Kashmiri language. Wooed by an apple and a warm ripple of attraction each time Faheem (a subtle yet potent Mir Tawseef) passes his checkpoint, Karun (Akash Unnimenon) ventures into Gurez to seek out further encounters. Gurez, a remote Kashmiri village near the border between India and Pakistan, speaks with the voice of soft lullabies and bleating sheep, of a flowing river indifferent to divisions, though that tranquility is soon replaced by distant gunfire. Determined to drop the veil of shame that partitions their lives, Faheem and Karun’s restless hearts pine for one another from a distance, the two praying to separate deities but sharing an equal desire. Wanting, so passionately, to be one. When terrorist infiltrators and a homegrown street gang make a volatile situation worse, can love bind as society breaks?

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.

Short

When Victoire, a young trans judoka, reaches the finals of a local competition, her opponent Sonia refuses to face her. A confrontation that transcends sport, questioning prejudice, courage, and the right to simply exist.

DocumentaryVIRTUAL EXCLUSIVE

Uniting from across continents to bring representation to the sport they love, Indigenous Rising laces up their skates to claim their space on the roller derby track. Indigenous Rising is the first team in roller derby history to break the barriers of representing a single country at the Roller Derby World Cup—igniting a movement that pulsates throughout the sport and within each other. Rising Through the Fray follows the team as it welcomes a new generation of players determined to change the face of roller derby—an inclusive, female-empowering sport still lacking diversity. With a compassionate, candid lens, Courtney Montour weaves energetic on-track game play with tender moments in teammates’ daily lives as skaters from over 30 Indigenous Nations navigate and learn each other’s play styles at tournaments and find strength within each other to compete and skate onto the track with pride. Intimate portraits of teammates Sour Cherry, Krispy and Hawaiian Blaze reveal stories of displacement and disconnection from their culture and identities and the journey of finding belonging within team Indigenous Rising. Rising Through the Fray offers a poignant exploration of resiliency, healing and reconnection of a roller derby family with a bond that goes beyond sport.

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.