CompetitionFeature

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.

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.

Feature

Frances, feeling boxed in by their Australian high school, plunges into their self-centred grandpa Jim’s queer milieu in Amsterdam. There, with their mother’s strained attempts at soft counsel, they face unfamiliar experiences and Jim’s prodding to both justify themselves and evolve, learning that what is brave is invariably uncomfortable. Jimpa (John Lithgow) may be a grandpa, but he’s also a gay activist who loves getting naked; someone who believes conversation is a “collision of opinions”; a man who needs to feel useful but keeps loved ones at arm’s length. And Hannah (Olivia Colman) is more than just his daughter. She’s a filmmaker; a mother of a non-binary 16-year-old (Aud Mason-Hyde); a woman who some consider conflict-averse. But is she? Or is Hannah’s radical acceptance and belief in “working towards agreement” a healthy approach to complexity? A way of rejecting a culture that stews in its traumas? This stance will be tested by unlikely desires and inflections of the past, which soak into the fabric of the present. Dynamized by stellar performances, Jimpa is an empathetic masterpiece that subverts expectations and cliches, illuminating the pleasures and pain points of intergenerational attachment.

FeatureVIRTUAL

PORTUGUESE • FRENCH ST | In the year 1984, Antonio lives a quiet life tending to his cattle ranch in the rural Batalha dos Neves region of Brazil. One day, he rescues Marcelo—an injured motorcyclist—and from there, a series of events unfolds that will come to define both men’s lives in irreversible ways. As an older and still very eligible man, Antonio looks back to the year 1984, but one can never be sure of what he’s truly feeling (perhaps, not even Antonio). Daniel Nolasco, director of Dry Wind (I+N32, 2020), plays with time in a mind-bending story that explores the irresistibly damaging construct of masculinity and the strength and vulnerability of erotic passion between men that sometimes prevails over intolerance—though the devastating and often violent effects of social repression do not wash away so easily. The tension simmers as a fatherly feud and dangerous rival linger at the edge of Antonio’s near paradise on the ranch, a home he longs to rightfully protect. Enigmatic and captivating, as well as sensual, hot and heavy, Only Good Things moves in leaps and bounds, rising to a fever pitch, and leaving you wanting more.

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.

Feature

Lionel and David have a mutual passion for music and an abiding affection. Their love story, one of parting and reuniting, of the frigid Maine wilderness and the hot cobblestone streets of Rome. The two chasing down scraps of sound and fleeting moments of connection before they may disappear altogether. When vocalist Lionel (Paul Mescal) hears composer David (Josh O’Connor) playing the piano in a Boston pub—a song he knows from back home in Kentucky—it transports him, and the two experience a crackling chemistry. A synesthete, Lionel can “see music,” taste it too. While David has a photographic memory, a thousand songs in his head. Armed with these skills and a case of wax cylinders, the two eventually embark on a trek to capture old folk songs in Maine’s remotest places, including Malaga Island as its Black and Irish residents face eviction. The men pass happy, hardscrabble weeks—though they will have to stray much farther afield before they can complete the song their hearts are singing. Directed by Queer Palm Award-winner Oliver Hermanus (Beauty, I+N22, 2011), The History of Sound is a stirring, tuneful historical drama that will leave you forever moved.

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Toni, a successful architect, sees her world collapse when her wife Olivia falls gravely ill. Torn between her career ambitions and caring for the woman she loves, she faces an impossible choice that forces her to confront the true meaning of love and sacrifice.

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When Vidya, a recently widowed 62-year-old Indian woman, rents a room in her home to a 19-year-old Black gay man, she rediscovers her sense of self and her love of makeup, despite complications from her family.

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This documentary explores Indigeneity in prairie settings, highlighting feelings of disconnection and the desire for kinship with the Land. Through contrasting experiences and landscapes, it reflects on cultural dispossession and the ongoing journey to reconnect with one’s roots.

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During a late-night drive, Sean and Louis reflect on their shared journey through surrogacy.

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João and Vitor, former lovers estranged for 30 years, reunite at 70 after Vitor's wife passes. Together, they reconcile past and present, contemplating a possible future as they face the final chapter of their lives.

Made au CanadaShortVIRTUAL

When a mother visits her son, a drag performer, a night of raw confessions forces them to confront the unhealed wounds of their past.

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.

Made au CanadaDocumentaryVIRTUAL

Celestial Queer celebrates James MacSwain, Nova Scotia's beloved and beguiling queer artist, animator and gay-rights activist who passed away this past September 2025. Born and raised in the “backwater” of Atlantic Canada, MacSwain has been making ground-breaking experimental films, animations and provocative art performances for more than half a century. A quietly outspoken feminist, naturalist, and gay rights activist, Celestial Queer introduces audiences to a charmingly obscure and prolific Canadian artist. Through a combination of playful verité and rarely seen footage from his archive, Celestial Queer accompanies MacSwain and a revolving cast of characters as he revisits everything from the sites of some of his most recognized works to the rocky tidal shores of Nova Scotia. The film also includes rarely-seen footage from the infamous 1984 rooftop ‘Phallus Performance’ during which MacSwain was almost both arrested and charged with obscenity. Jim’s effusive character, prolific work, and community organizing have inspired generations of artists to fearlessly be themselves. Celestial Queer now introduces audiences to one of Canada’s best kept secrets, an artist who is effortlessly charming, engagingly prolific, and subversive to his surrealist core.

DocumentaryVIRTUAL

Take a peek behind the curtain of Richard O’Brien’s (in)famous stage play The Rocky Horror Show–the British rock ‘n roll musical that took the world by storm in the 1970s and through the film, has continued to shake things up while touching the hearts of fans worldwide. The Rocky Horror Picture Show is often a rite of passage for queer youth–and whether queer means gay or eccentric, it always means fabulous. See the trajectory of Richard O’Brien’s quirky brainchild–from its humble beginnings as a scrappy passion project bursting the seams of repurposed cinemas (which would set the stage for future shadowcasts), and follow the show’s journey through a Broadway blunder, an awkward stumble onto the silver screen, and at last, its refuge at weekend midnight screenings. No detail is spared, with lore straight from some of the show’s original performers, as well as producers and promoters who not only marvel at the lasting significance of their work, but who also give credit where long (over)due. Be sure not to miss this 50th Anniversary tribute to Rocky Horror, the queerest and campiest cult phenomenon–deemed also a ‘beautiful accident’–of our century.