CompetitionFeature

The protean central character of Queerpanorama has built a sex life for himself as an unreliable narrator. Curious about Hong Kong’s international tourists and struggling immigrants, this native Hongkonger briefly infiltrates their bubbles in the guise of other men he has bedded. In an open relationship with an American boyfriend—who, like his other writerly conjurings, may or may not exist—the anonymous ‘I’ (Jayden Cheung) uses his freedom to educate himself on the “complicated universe.” From vast urban spaces to remote beaches, and many a quiet restaurant and architectural marvel in between, ‘I’ bumps up against vastly different lifestyles and circumstances. Copulating and conversing with men who, like him, are searching for grounding or simply to lose themselves. For everyone seems to have reasons to be someone else—even if just for the length of their next encounter. Actor-turned-writer-director Jun Li renders his sexual odyssey in silky black and white, lending its contemporary subject matter a timeless, heightened air. With the noirish romanticism of In the Mood for Love and the beautifully framed melancholy of Lost in Translation, he depicts shifting ideas of normalcy and the burdens we bear or share.

Feature

Seaside La Ciotat, its cicadas droning, is a far cry from the battlefields of Ukraine. A distance that vexes 16-year-old Enzo, who is drowning in ennui. Drawn to danger, cavalier about consequences, he is convinced a dashing Ukrainian bricklayer is his ticket to a more audacious future. Enzo (Eloy Pohu) makes for an irksome masonry apprentice: he slacks off, scoffing at superiors. He seems engineered for his privileged life at his parents’ hillside villa, cooling off in the pool under an unrelenting sun. But, he bucks his parents’ high aspirations and boss’ low expectations, determined to be part of something that lasts. Equally determined to insinuate himself into the trajectory of his 20-something colleague, Vlad (Maksym Slivinskyi). While Enzo must debate which vacation to take, Vlad is torn epically between a newfound Frenchness and wartorn Ukraine. Vlad becoming a romantic and narrative ideal Enzo will do anything to attain. Dying in the midst of Enzo’s creation, auteur Laurent Cantet passed the baton to longtime collaborator Robin Campillo (120 BPM), who encapsulates the fascinating ambiguities of sexuality, class anxiety, and valour. Situating them amongst the half-built shelters and ineffable ruins of our time.

Feature

Two working-class Montrealers yearn to feel themselves fully—one a closed-off Chinese immigrant and depanneur co-owner in her early 50s, the other a spirited 30-year-old Québécoise cafe worker. Their attraction fostered by Montreal in all its summer splendour, its Chinatown streets, chic Village restos, and backyards bursting with life. In a deeply personal role, legendary actress Joan Chen (The Wedding Banquet, Saving Face) plays Feng Xia. Struggling with a physical and familial dry spell, she ditches language classes to turn French into her language of new love when, through a dating site, she meets Camille (award-winning Quebecer Charlotte Aubin). They stroll through jewel-like parks and attempt intimacy. But touch seems to scald Feng Xia, as if every fibre in her body believes herself to be unworthy. And feeling the pull of her old life in China, she must decide to connect or wither. Montréal, ma belle is a tale of first loves—past and present—from Chinese-Canadian director Xiaodan He, the first Chinese immigrant to receive grants from Quebec and Canada for a feature. A poignant, gorgeously shot film that, for the first time in the Asian diaspora, centers a Chinese lesbian protagonist longing to cast off repression.

CompetitionFeature

A stroke upends 76-year-old Vicente’s recently charmed life in the Canary Islands, forcing him to trade his queer eden for a restrictive care home in San Sebastián—and to consider how essential his sexuality is to his identity. Among the nude forms dotting the Maspalomas dunes is Vicente (Jose Ramón Soroiz), a young man giving him pleasure. After 50 closeted years, this sensual existence is to be his reward. But three months later, he finds himself in a long-term care facility with neither income nor his beloved dog, minded by his estranged daughter (Nagore Aranburu). Paired with a motormouthed roommate (Kandido Uranga) with far right sympathies. Anonymously messaging his carer Iñaki (Kepa Errasti) but rejecting him in person. Camera sweeps and choral flourishes encapsulating a world that moves while he sits still. Then, a new manager brings changes just as he’s assimilated to the pale ghost of his days, dangling the hope of a “real home.” Taking us from 2018 Pride to the 2020 pandemic, directors Aitor Arregi and José Mari Goenaga honour those affected by health crises and the inexorable fact of time’s passage, which alters us in unpredictable ways.

CompetitionFeatureVIRTUAL

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.

CompetitionFeature

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.

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I watch tv so you don't have to. Like the short description summaries that often accompany tv programs though an on-screen cable guide, Don't Ask Don't Tell Gay, Gay, Gay is a jump-cut/short-cut edit that summarizes the content of Season 4, episode 4 of Boston Legal. All excess footage has been removed to capture the mainstream reflection and tone of American discourse around DADT.

Made au CanadaShortVIRTUAL

When the church forces a choice between authenticity and acceptance, one person decides to carve out a new path.

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A museum worker tries to convince a co-worker that two visitors are flirting, using six scientifically recognized signs of attraction to make her case.

Queerment QuébecShortVIRTUAL

A poetic exploration of Black womanhood, race, place, and identity, delving into the double-voiced discourses of a particular Black literary tradition concerning the complexities faced by enslaved people learning their captor’s language.

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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.

Queerment QuébecShortVIRTUAL

I am near-sighted. When I see a potentially beautiful boy at a distance, I perceive him as perfectly beautiful. Gradually, as he approaches, he begins to accumulate defects which detract from his overall beauty; sometimes to the point where he ceases to be attractive at all.

CompetitionDocumentaryVIRTUAL

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.

DocumentaryVIRTUAL

Army of Lovers tells the untold epic saga of the Sacred Band, an elite force of 150 pairs of male lovers who became the most formidable warriors of the ancient world. This Greek army was formed inThebes in 379 BCE to end Spartan domination. Fighting undefeated for four decades and finally annihilated at the Battle of Chaeronea. Buried on the battlefield where they fell, the 300 were forgotten by history, until a Greek archaeologist discovered the mass grave in 1880. The discovery was never made public and the grave covered up, leading some historians to claim that the Sacred Band never existed. It was only in 2019 that a missing skeleton was found in the basement of the Athens Archaeological Museum, as well as excavation logs with detailed drawings of the grave: it depicted an army of 300 men lying in pairs, their arms linked together. A team of international archaeologists and historians is re-examining the newly uncovered evidence, gaining unprecedented insight into the story of the Sacred Band. Their findings challenge us to rethink our understanding of Ancient Greece and our perceptions of heroism and masculinity across time.

CompetitionDocumentary

Executive produced by Elliot Page and Bob the Drag Queen, this on-the-couch and in-the-spotlight documentary charts the rise ’n grind ascent of a drag superstar. Through sweat and vocals, Peppermint trades relative Harlem obscurity for Drag Race glory as its first openly trans contestant, all while slaying society’s strictures. Whether vibing with famous friends like Laverne Cox and Sasha Velour or entering the dating scene while feeling devalued and pressured to pass, Peppermint lays out her truth. And regardless of the many obstacles littering her runway—personal and professional—she pursues her craft, knowing her “spirit belongs on the stage.” We are with Peppermint in the operating room during breast augmentation surgery, as a headliner on Broadway and during an historic pride celebration in Berlin, and in rehearsals as she prepares for sold out Nubia shows starring and produced by all Black queens. Then, as COVID hits and her tour is shut down, Peppermint’s resolve is put to the test as the career she so painstakingly constructed faces huge global shifts. Glammed up, laid low, ready for a fight for trans rights—this is Peppermint unfiltered and compelled, always, to create.