All films

ShortIN-CINEMAVIRTUAL

Haunted by violence and prejudice, Nereu dials 145 and slips anonymously into the charged intimacy of Brazil's notorious hotline. Between desire and dread, pleasure and pain, his experience gradually dissolves the fragile boundaries separating reality, fantasy and dream.

ShortIN-CINEMAVIRTUAL

When two ball girls lock eyes on the court of a prestigious tennis tournament, their initial rivalry slowly transforms into a magnetic passion.

ShortIN-CINEMAVIRTUAL

Blending Super 8, 16mm film, digital animation, and personal reflection, A decade revisits the artist's life through the 1980s. Moving between punk rebellion, gay discos, friendship, and loss, it becomes a poetic elegy to a transformative era.

MADE AU CANADAFeatureIN-CINEMA

Superstar director Andrew Haigh (Weekend, I+N24) adapts Colm Tóibín’s beloved, 1950s-set novella about a savage snowstorm that strikes a dead-end mountain town, a troubled mother who goes missing, and a son dedicated to her retrieval. This seemingly unchangeable saviour fathoming that not even tragedy can stop one’s evolving desires. When the investigation cools on the disappearance of his mother (Caitríona Balfe), Mike (The White Lotus’ Fred Hechinger) must supersede his aggrieved father (Marvel stalwart Ebon Moss-Bachrach in a heartrending performance). Can her departure be chalked up to alcoholic cravings? A death wish? An escape? And has she somehow withstood the ravages of winter or, come spring, will she emerge from beneath the snow? A blizzard of questions consumes Mike until the arrival of an industrious stranger (Reservation Dogs’ D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai) cuts through the white noise. The talented leads are joined by a stacked cast that includes Heartstopper’s Kit Connor and The Hobbit himself Martin Freeman. Shot in the Canadian Rockies, the film has the sublime, towering splendour of Albert Bierstadt’s Romantic landscapes. The grandeur humanized by Haigh’s ability to wring subtleties from every gesture in this ever-shifting character study.

FRISSONS QUEER: FANTASIA x IMAGE+NATIONMADE AU CANADAFeatureIN-CINEMA

A stunning film set in the Canadian wilderness by award-winning director Gloria Mercer. Thrill-seeking in every sense, and especially bold in its critique of patriarchy out in the wild, A Safe Distance examines the idea of what survival can mean, putting a refreshingly feminist twist on a lovers-on-the-run tale. Yellowjackets fans, get ready, this one’s for you. There is no place for fragility in this film-viewing since gore and guile mark the characters’ journey as they stray far from their comfort zones, sometimes intentionally, and other times, by chance. When a marriage proposal goes awry, an abandoned woman named Alex finds herself in the company of two intriguing strangers whose rejection of societal norms draw her in and away from the mundane reality of her own life. One psychedelically-induced night of mayhem later, Alex has uprooted her entire system of values, and on levels that she never imagined possible. Fluid and kinetic, with the use of long-lens photography and zoom lenses, A Safe Distance is a rare cinematic sight to behold.

COMPETITIONFeatureIN-CINEMAVIRTUAL

A Second Life follows a day in the life of Elisabeth as she scrambles to meet Airbnb guests visiting Paris for the Summer Olympic Games. Battling both depression and hearing loss, she makes for a rather inhospitable host, but also meets a new and most unexpected friend at exactly the right moment in time. Agathe Rousselle and Alex Lawther glow as a platonic duo, riffing off of each other’s polar opposite personalities on screen. The urban rumblings of Paris are swathed in—and then stripped of—sound, plunging us deep into the protagonist’s plight of impaired hearing, as well as work visa precarity, with the constant feeling of uneven ground captured through handheld camera techniques and the crowded visual frames of a hurried city. A theme of escape permeates the film, whether by the removal of hearing aids, the contemplation of too many pills, or a spontaneous night out, blowing off steam with friends and beer. A sudden sapphic kiss under watchful eyes and a panic attack in the metro are just a few small moments of an eventful evening that culminate in poignant memories of connection alongside the Olympics opening ceremony.

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Atmospheric tension imbues À voix basse: a family mystery that follows Lillia (in the magnetic debut performance of Eya Bouteraa) as she leaves Paris, where she works as an engineer, to return to her hometown in Tunisia for her uncle’s funeral. Upon arrival, there is another recent death in the family to contend with, adding to the list of reminders to not be forward, in any way, with any orientation besides heterosexual. Comic relief lightens the mood when Lillia makes a half-hearted attempt to introduce her beautiful girlfriend—who has joined her all the way from Paris—to her family as merely a concerned and loyal roommate. In parallel to the discovery that Lillia’s uncle (who was also gay, but as an open secret), died under mysterious circumstances, Lillia and her girlfriend’s sapphic love is either dismissed as ‘not to be taken seriously’, or met with cold disapproval; particularly by her mother Wahida (played poignantly by Hiam Abbas). Fluid time transitions create a seamless journey between past and present as the family history unfolds, piecing together tales of heartbreak, betrayal, and the courage needed to overcome it.

ShortIN-CINEMAVIRTUAL

Named after the ancient ordering of the Arabic alphabet, Abjad Ḥawaz embodies each letter through Salma Zahore's dancing body in the ruins of Barcelona. Fashion, music, poetry and performance reclaim a language often feared, transforming it into a celebration of identity and freedom.

QUÉBEC EN VUEShortIN-CINEMAVIRTUAL

A 2-minute video essay that playfully uses performance-based methods of re-enactment to attempt to enter the frame and material conditions of anti-aging cream commercials and other beauty ads to critique their construction while showcasing their artifice.

FeatureIN-CINEMA

Winner of the Ottavio Mai Award for Best Feature Film, and the Young Lovers – Libere Gabbie Award, Another Man follows Marc and Eudald six years into their monogamous relationship. Will they dive into the deep end of commitment together, or jump back into the dating pool? David Moragas’ Catalan film, set in Barcelona, serves up an aesthetically pleasing slice-of-life portrait of a devoted couple: capturing the highs, lows, and ordinary moments that lay the foundation of a relationship. After the sudden loss of Marc’s mother, he and Eudald find themselves at a crossroads. When an irresistible neighbour catches Marc’s attention, he immerses himself in a fantasy while Eudald strives to keep him from drowning in it. With striking cinematography, light is shed on the effort needed to wrestle free from the emotional deadlock of a strained relationship as temptations and resentments are presented with a refreshing subtlety, depicting realism while offering tenderness and humour to liven up the minutiae of everyday life. Loyalty and choice permeate every interaction between family members, friends, and lover(s), making for a profound and honest exploration of queer love and the human condition.