FILM FESTIVALS IN FOCUS 2026

5+1 GLOBAL QUEER CINEMA GEMS AT FRAMELINE50 

17–27 JUNE｜SAN FRANCISCO, USA

UN CHANT D’AMOUR (1950) France｜dir. Jean Genet

A must-see short for queer cinephiles, this black and white ode to homoerotic longing was banned in France before becoming an iconic work or queer cinema. Two prisoners in isolation separated by thick walls, improvise sensual means to communicate their desires. OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: BANNED RETRO SHORTS

DREAMBOI (2025) Philippines｜dir. Rodina Singh

A candy-colored, neon-lit journey of self-discovery, Dreamboi explores the sexual desires of trans women.  A bold fever dream of trans sexuality, it follows a trans woman as she becomes entranced by the voice of an audio porn star. QUEER PREMIERES AT FL50 

MAKING IT FIT (2026) UK｜dir. Mariana Leal 

This visually compelling animated short is an original take on queering grief. It reflects on the experience of death and mourning in the LGBTQ+ community and how it has reinvented remembrance rituals to navigate convoluted family traditions. DOC SHORTS

IFÉ (1993) USA｜dir. H. Lenn Keller

A newly restored gem by filmmaker and Bay Area Lesbian Archives co-founder H. Lenn Keller, this black and white short follows a charming Black French lesbian cruising the streets of San Francisco in her vintage Buick and sharing her butch Casanova philosophy: "You can never experience too many women." .99 CENT QUEER VIDEO FEST

AT THE PLACE OF GHOSTS (2025) Canada, Belgium｜dir. Bretten Hannam 

Two-Spirit Mi'kmaq filmmaker's third feature is a supernatural trauma horror that follows two estranged brothers who in order to exorcise a demon, venture deep into the Place of Ghosts -- a dark wilderness where the ghosts of the past warp time and mind. TRANS NEW WEIRD

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BARBARA FOREVER (2026) USA｜dir. Brydie O’Connor

Teddy Award winning archival exploration of the life, loves, work, and legacy of pioneering lesbian filmmaker Barbara Hammer whose groundbreaking works like Dyketactics (1974) and Nitrate Kisses (1992) paved the way for queer cinema. LOOKING BACK ON 50

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Image ©  UN CHANT D’AMOUR (1950) dir. Jean Genet

5 GLOBAL QUEER CINEMA GEMS AT ALT* FILM FESTIVAL 

28-31 MAY｜CDMX, MEXICO

IMPULSE, SWEAT AND ECSTASY (2025) Ecuador｜dir. Luisin Ponce 

An immersive experience of queer identity and community, this documentary is an ecstatic glimpse into the ballroom culture of Guayaquil, Ecuador. SHORTS SELECTION 1

THE SOCIAL SIN (2024) Peru｜dir. Juan Carlos Goicochea

A gay man seeks justice for himself and his trans sister kidnapped and murdered by the guerrilla army during the turbulent times of the 1990’s in Peru. 

WHAT WE DID IN THE SHADOWS (2025) Spain｜dir. Sara Moralo 

A group of LGBTQ+ elders come together to talk about persecution under Franco’s dictatorship and their journey from silence to visibility.

PARADISE (2023) South Korea｜dir. Minki Hong

In search of queer history, this doc maps Seoul’s vibrant gay underground culture of the 1970’s and 80’s: cruising in second-run movie houses, gay bars and other popular sites of queer liberation and same-sex connect. SHORTS SELECTION 1

LOVERS IN THE SKY  (2025) Argentina｜dir. Fermin de la Serna

Two transgender cooks who have worked for decades on cargo ships in the Peruvian Amazon navigate personal, religious and social pressures while trying to stay true to themselves. 

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Image ©  IMPULSE, SWEAT AND ECSTASY dir. Luisin Ponce

5+1 GLOBAL QUEER CINEMA GEMS AT SUNNY BUNNY 

17-24 APRIL｜KYIV, UKRAINE

BEAUTIFUL EVENING, BEAUTIFUL DAY (2024) Croatia, Bosnia And Herzegovina, Poland, Canada, Cyprus｜dir. Ivona Juka

In post-WWII Communist Yugoslavia two filmmakers navigate love and fear and the absurd rules of a forbidding regime while trying to hold on to each other and their artistic freedom. COMPETITION

UNTIL WE RETURN (2025) UK, Egypt｜dir. Huss Al-Chokhdar

A queer immigrant dreamscape caught in the nostalgic space between memories and dreams. 

SHORTS 

PROSECUTION (2026) Germany｜dir. Faraz Shariat

When a queer German-Korean state prosecutor becomes the target of a racist attack, she decides to put the German myth of institutional fairness to the test uncovering a structural bias that ignores right-wing extremism. OPENING

SUCH FEELING (2024) Poland｜dir. Alex Baczyński-Jenkins

Intimate documentary about a group of Warsaw-based queer artists navigating life in queer-divided Poland. They work, hang out with friends, go to protests and find family in each other. NEIGHBORQUEER

THE MYSTERIOUS GAZE OF THE FLAMINGO (2025) Chile, France, Germany, Spain, Belgium｜dir. Diego Céspedes

A queer family in a dusty Chilean desert town, a mysterious illness that spreads with a single gaze (caused by men who fall in love with men) and the quest of an eleven-year-old girl to save the only family she has. NEW COLORS

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THE WONDERFUL YEARS (2018) Ukraine｜dir. Svitlana Shymko, Galina Yarmanova

An archival research documentary which explores the lives of queer women in Ukraine in the Soviet Union. LGBTQ+ histories from behind the Iron Curtain. UA RETROSPECTIVE

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Image © 1BEAUTIFUL EVENING, BEAUTIFUL DAY (2024) dir. Ivona Juka

5 GLOBAL QUEER CINEMA GEMS AT BFI FLARE

18-29 MARCH｜LONDON, UK

10S ACROSS THE BORDERS (2025) Philippines, Singapore, Germany｜dir. Sze-Wei Chan

An uninhibited documentary across the ballroom scene of Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand. BODIES

BABY (2024) Brazil｜dir. Marcelo Caetano 

Recently released from juvenile prison and nowhere to go, a young man finds love and family in the company of an older hustler and São Paulo’s vibrant queer scene. BEST OF THE YEAR

KANEKALON (2025) Colombia

dir. Sara J Asprilla

A young trans girl absorbs the sounds and rhythms of her hometown  in Quibdó, Colombia, on her last day before going off to her new all girl school. (WHEN THE RAINBOW IS ENUF)

WOUBI CHÉRI (1998) Ivory Coast, France｜dir. Laurent Bocahut, Phillip Brooks

Africa’s first transgender film, this documentary gives a rare insight into the lives of transgender Ivorians in Abidjan in the 1990s. TREASURES

HUNKY JESUS (2026) USA｜dir. Jennifer M. Kroot 

Documentary about the riotous annual Easter contest for the hottest Jesus lookalikes organized by The San Francisco’s Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a group of queer drag nuns/ artists/ activists fighting for LGBTQ+ rights. OPENING NIGHT

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Image © 10S ACROSS THE BORDERS dir. Sze-Wei Chan

5 GLOBAL QUEER CINEMA GEMS AT MARDI GRAS FILM FESTIVAL 

12-26 FEBRUARY｜SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

A USEFUL GHOST (2025) Thailand, France, Singapore, Germany

dir. Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke

Retro-futurist romance horror about ghosts, the spirit of a vacuum cleaner, convoluted family dynamics and queer relationships. QUEER ASIA

MASPALOMAS (2025) Spain｜dir. Aitor Arregi, Jose Mari Goenaga

A senior queer man's vibrant life in Gran Canaria turns into a disillusioned déjà vu when he suffers a stroke and wakes up in a nursing home - and back in the closet. OUT IN EUROPE

INHERITANCE (2025) Australia dir. Mohammad Awad 

After the death of his father, a queer man returns to the family home he was kicked out of as a teenager. MY QUEER CAREER: AUSTRALIAN SHORTS

BETWEEN DREAMS AND HOPE (2025) Iran｜dir. Farnoosh Samadi

An intimate story inspired by the resilience of Iran’s young queer generation, Farnoosh Samadi’s feature follows a trans man and his partner navigating love, tradition and a forbidding socio-political reality. QUEER ASIA 

NIGHT STAGE (2025) Brazil｜dir. Filipe Matzembacher, Marcio Reolon

A seductive thriller about an actor and a politician trying to keep their secret affair hidden yet upping the ante of  their risky encounters. SPECIAL PRESENTATION

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Image © A USEFUL GHOST (2025)

dir. Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke

5 GLOBAL QUEER CINEMA GEMS AT THE TEDDY AWARD @BERLINALE

12-20 FEBRUARY｜BERLIN, GERMANY

CONSTELLATIONS OF QUEER MEMORY

40 Years of the TEDDY in the Short Film Form

575 CASTRO ST. (2008) USA dir. Jenni Olson 

Shot on the set of Gus Van Sant’s film Milk (2008), this visual poem for a historic record features Harvey Milk’s “in case”recording on November 18, 1977 (to be played, ‘in the event of my death by assassination’), after his election to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, which made him one of the first openly gay elected officials in the United States. WATCH HERE

MORE HERE

The TEDDY AWARD is the LGBTQ+ film award of  the Berlin International Film Festival (The Berlinale). In 2026, the TEDDY AWARD celebrates its 40th anniversary with a highlights program of queer cinema luminaries from four decades and a special short film selection Constellations of Queer Memory: 40 Years of the TEDDY in the Short Film Form. The 2026 TEDDY AWARD honoree is Céline Sciamma. 

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Image ©  575 CASTRO ST. dir. Jenni Olson 

5 GLOBAL QUEER CINEMA GEMS AT SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL

22 JAN- 1 FEB 2026 ｜PARK CITY & SALT LAKE CITY UTAH, USA

JARIPEO (2026) Mexico, USA, France

dir. Efraín Mojica, Rebecca Zweig

A vibrant documentary about “jaripeos” or rural rodeos - a world of machos, performative masculinity, and queer desire in Michoacán, Mexico. NEXT

SACCHARINE (2025) Australia

dir. Natalie Erika James 

Body horror about a young woman who, after experimenting with a weight-loss craze involving eating human ashes, ends up being terrorized by the ghost of the person she's eating. Midnight

GENDER STUDIES (2026) USA｜dir. Jamie Kiernan O’Brien 

A moving short about femininity, the ideals of beauty, and the fantasy vs reality of belonging explored via an altercation between a trans college student and the girl she idolizes. Short Film Program

THE INCOMER (2026) UK｜dir. Louis Paxton

A Scottish comedy about two siblings living on a remote island whose lives turn upside down when an awkward official shows up to relocate them. Mistrust, curiosity, and desire arise as three humans connect. NEXT

THE BRITTNEY GRINER STORY (2025) USA

dir. Alexandria Stapleton

An intimate look at the journey/ ordeal of Brittney Griner, one of the best US basketball players, from her career abroad to her harrowing detainment, eventual release and determined work to support the release of other wrongful detainees. Premieres

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Image © JARIPEO  dir. Efraín Mojica, Rebecca Zweig

5 GLOBAL QUEER CINEMA GEMS AT QUEER FILM FESTIVAL KATHMANDU

15-24 JANUARY｜KATHMANDU, NEPAL

QUEER AS PUNK (2025) Malaysia, Indonesia｜dir. Yihwen Chen 

A punky documentary about Shh..Diam!, an openly queer punk band in Malaysia who use their music to fight for LGBTQ+ rights in a conservative Muslim society. Documentary feature

SILENT FLOW (2024) Nepal｜dir. Pushpa Joshi

A poignant documentary about two trans men navigating the emotional and physical realities of menstruation across gender norms and identities. Documentary feature

THE MARTIAL FOREST (2025) Taiwan｜dir. J Triangular

A dystopian queer kung fu flick about a secret training ground (the Martial Forest) for trans and queer fighters for survival, resistance, and chosen family.  Narrative shorts

GRANDMA NAI WHO PLAYED FAVORITES (2024) Cambodia, France, USA｜dir. Chheangkea 

An endearing comedy about a dead grandmother who sneaks back from the afterlife to help out her queer grandson who is about to get engaged to a woman. Narrative shorts

MY CHEST IS FULL OF SPARKS (2025) Mexico｜dir. Gal Castellanos

An intimate account of the journey of the filmmaker and their mother reinventing themselves after the loss of the father/ husband and becoming their new selves worlds apart via video messages: one in Turkey experiencing new love, the other in Mexico, transitioning into a new body and identity. Documentary feature

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Image © QUEER AS PUNK dir. Yihwen Chen