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

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.

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.

COMPETITIONFeatureVIRTUAL

DANISH • FRENCH 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.

Feature

A lavish 16th-century epic shot through with erotic energy, The Captive is a retelling of the Don Quixote author’s real-life captivity in Algiers. An alternatingly cruel and alluring place where Miguel de Cervantes finds himself enriching a rich governor with tall tales and, perhaps, something even more sensational. Captured by pirates after battling the Turks, Cervantes (a tantalizing Julio Peña) is faced with the prejudices of Christian compatriots and the openness of Moorish overlords, pressed to decide where his faith lies as, one by one, those around him are put to death. Cervantes’ name is sullied by “past sins,” a fact that intrigues the openly queer bey (Alessandro Borghi), who literally holds his life in his hands. Thrust into an Arabian Nights-like scenario, Cervantes stays in the bey’s good graces by reading him stories and spinning his own yarn about undying love across cultural boundaries. Is Cervantes falling for his captor, for the bustling market town where corsairs stroll the streets with their young boys “like it’s nothing”? Moreover, drawn by dreams of the blanched white windmills of his La Mancha home, which does he ultimately favour: comfort or freedom?

FeatureVIRTUAL

Get ready for Amantes, a sexy trope-bender that defies love triangles, calling for a new shape to lesbian relationships and in a softer tone of feminist discourse. Set in romantic Paris, this series of intertwined stories from an all-female cast is sure to open minds just as much as hearts. Ruby, podcaster for Everybody Wants to Say I Love You is driven by psychological feminist theories as she explores the complexities of relationships between women—although her devotion to work leaves her wife Gabrielle wanting. Then there’s Nour, a fun and passionate singer who cannot resist the level-headed, down-to-earth Camille; and let’s not forget the gorgeous throuple: Rebecca, Laura, and Ophelie whose polyamory puts a delightful spin on relationship milestones like meeting the parents and having children. More women surround these relationships—friends, exes, and interested parties—all of whom are navigating the “unconscious contract of commitment.” More than your typical rom-com, Amantes delivers a refreshingly light-hearted and vulnerable narrative that bears resemblance to The L Word when she meets Sex and the City and invites Vicky, Cristina, Barcelona to tag along for an hour and a half of steamy sapphic fun.

QUEERMENT QUÉBECCOMPETITIONShortVIRTUAL

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.

ShortVIRTUAL

A 32-year-old gay artist flees repressive laws and war in Russia for Berlin, leaving his boyfriend behind. They try to sustain their relationship across the distance, but their realities quickly diverge, and life in Berlin proves less "rainbow-coloured" than expected.

MADE AU CANADACOMPETITIONShortVIRTUAL

In a dystopian future, two women flee exploitation and find love in a remote cabin, only to face relentless pursuit and a tragic fate.

ShortVIRTUAL

Najib, a reserved 16-year-old, spends his summer alone, absorbed in video games. When his elderly Algerian neighbor disappears, he secretly takes her apartment keys and uncovers traces of a vanished world. Through this quiet exploration, he begins to open himself to others and to islands on the verge of disappearing.

QUEERMENT QUÉBECShortVIRTUAL

“It is not about rebuilding the mythical place called home but about perpetually deferring the homecoming itself.” – Moyra Davey. In a living room, two people slow dancing become a landscape for (re)connection. A Slow Dance attempts to materialize the monolithic gesture that is longing, one that takes its roots in lifelong household transgressions and collective myths

ShortVIRTUAL

Organza, a broke artist in a distant galaxy, travels across the stars to seek revenge on her ex-lover in an attempt to cure her mysterious illness.

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.

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.

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.