Firsts

When Gabriel, a 7-year-old Chinese kid who loves ballet, becomes friends with Rob, another Chinese kid from school, Rob’s dad gets suspicious about Gabriel's feminine behavior and decides to intervene.

A Brooklyn teenager juggles conflicting identities and risks friendship, heartbreak, and family in a desperate search for sexual expression.

A group of bored, disaffected New York City teenagers spend a day skating, smoking, drinking, partying, deflowering virgins, and getting into fights.

Young teen girl Xiu Xiu is sent away to a remote corner of the Sichuan steppes for manual labor in 1975 (sending young people to there was a part of Cultural Revolution in China). A year later, she agrees to go to even more remote spot with a Tibetan saddle tramp Lao Jin to learn horse herding.

Nothing is as it seems when a woman experiencing misgivings about her new boyfriend joins him on a road trip to meet his parents at their remote farm.

In a forgotten pocket of Southern Ohio where American manufacturing and opportunity are drying up, a determined young woman finds a ticket out when she is accepted to college. Alongside her older brother, Ruth Avery joins a dangerous scrap metal crew in order to pay her way. Together, they spend one brutal winter working the scrap yards during the day and stealing valuable metal from the once thriving factories by night. With her goal in sight, Ruth finds that the ultimate cost of an education for a girl like her may be more than she bargained for, and she soon finds herself torn between a promising future and the family she would leave behind.

After he refuses to disavow his faith, a devout Christian student must prove the existence of God or else his college philosophy professor will fail him.

Fourteen-year-old Mo is a lonely, sensitive boy whose hunger for the rant and banter of buddies makes him prone to tread dangerous territories. He idolizes his handsome older brother, Rashid, a charismatic, well-respected member of a local gang, whose drug dealing enables “Rash” to provide for his family. Aching to be seen as a tough guy himself, Mo takes a job that unlocks a fateful turn of events and forces the brothers to confront their inner demons. It turns out that hate is easy. It is love and understanding that take real courage.

A man reflects on the lost love of his youth and his long-ago journey from Taiwan to America as he begins to reconnect with his estranged daughter.

In a seemingly perfect community, without war, pain, suffering, differences or choice, a young boy is chosen to learn from an elderly man about the true pain and pleasure of the "real" world.

An outrageous erotic poem focusing on the daydreams of a beautiful boy prostitute who, from the seclusion of his ultra-kitsch apartment, conceives a series of interlinked narcissistic fantasies populated by matadors, dancing boys, slaves, and leather-clad bikers.

A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.

Three British teenage girls go on a rites-of-passage holiday—drinking, clubbing and hooking up, in what should be the best summer of their lives.

Ming Wang is an impoverished Chinese prodigy who flees Communist China to become a pioneering eye surgeon in America. When tasked with restoring the sight of an orphan in India, who was blinded by her stepmother, Wang must confront the trauma of living through the violent uprising in his youth, the Cultural Revolution.

Set in South Carolina in 1964, this is the tale of Lily Owens a 14 year-old girl who is haunted by the memory of her late mother. To escape her lonely life and troubled relationship with her father, Lily flees with Rosaleen, her caregiver and only friend, to a South Carolina town that holds the secret to her mother's past.

While serving life in prison, a young man looks back at the people, the circumstances and the system that set him on the path toward his crime.

A young heroin addict roams the streets of New York to panhandle and get her next fix, while her unstable boyfriend drifts in and out of her life at random.

Aspiring bodybuilder Killian Maddox struggles to find human connection in an exploration of celebrity and violence. Nothing deters him from his fiercely protected dream of superstardom, not even the doctors who warn him of the permanent damage he causes to himself with his quest.

When 13-year-old Tracy befriends Evie, the most popular girl in school, her life is turned upside down as Evie introduces her to a world of sex, drugs, and money. But it isn’t long before Tracy’s new lifestyle begins to take a heavy toll on her and her family.

Feeling awkward and isolated, an imaginative and strong-willed teenage girl runs away from home with an older punk rock drifter.

In the city of Cajamar, in the middle of ruined nature, lonely characters deal with the police, rodeos and mysterious fires.

Golden boys, teen lust, self-conscious dolls, chance encounters, a vengeful creature, holiday romance, hidden sexuality — Boys On Film celebrates it's (not so) sweet sixteen with an astonishing selection of the latest international gay short films. Volume 16: Possession features ten complete films: Kai Stänicke's "Golden" with Christian Tesch and Maximilian Gehrlinger; Christopher Manning's "Jamie" starring Sebastian Christophers and Raphael Verrion; Kai Stänicke's "B." starring Susanne Bormann and Andreas Jähnert; Blake Mawson's "PYOTR495" starring Alex Ozerov; Charlie Francis's "When A Man Loves A Woman" starring Tommy Jay Brennan, Jemima Spence, and Diane Brooks Webster; Anthony Schatteman's "Follow Me" starring Ezra Fieremans and Maarten Ketels; Jake Graf's "Chance" starring 'ABS' and Clifford Hume; Andrew Keenan-Bolger's "Sign" starring John McGinty and Preston Sadleir; Oliver Mason's "Away With Me" starring Chris Polick and Lee Knight; and "We Could Be Parents" by Björn Elgerd.

An offbeat love story about campus life around the An Zi Yan and Mai Ding who start military training as college acquaintances, Mai Ding was the one who made the first move to An Zi Yan, they have a good relationship and gradually felt sparks. After their relationship strengthens, their relationship is obstructed by their family and friends, like An Zi Yan’s sister Ansul who has a difficult attitude. An Zi Yan secretly asks help from his ex-girlfriend Bai Xiao Si. Based off the best-selling novel of the same name by Angelina.

Shannon Amen unearths the passionate and pained expressions of a young woman overwhelmed by guilt and anxiety as she struggles to reconcile her sexual identity with her religious faith. A loving elegy to a friend lost to suicide.

Roberto separates from his wife and needs a place to stay. When he moves in with gay Marcelo, he is clueless about Marcello's sexuality and the two become close friends. One night after many drinks Roberto has sex with Marcelo and must confront his feelings and the potential ridicule of his family.

Guttman's best short film, Afflicted tells the story of a young, closeted Israeli man who visits a drag bar one night in search of sexual expression.

When the 26-year-old Civics teacher, Kevin, openly voices his stance on marriage equality at school, he stirs up a storm. His being madly in love with an HIV positive man doesn't sit well with all the people around him. When a rumour breaks out about his HIV status, he is forced to make choices no one should have to.

Robin Hood and his followers aid the poor and oppressed from their hideout in Sherwood Forest, pursued by the Sheriff of Nottingham.

A young man gets caught up in a conflict between his friends, a skinhead and a gay anarchist.

An upper-class family who wants to have a picture of their family made meet with a famous painter. In this process, the painter, who witnessed the inner dynamics of the family, helps these people to face their own reality through painting.

A jazz bassist who surveys a beautiful girl at a gig decides to try to get her home. But the devil is getting into the game too.

16-year old Jan is absent-mindedly strolling through the streets when he's run over by roller-skating Nina. As fast as she has stormed into his life, however, she rushes off again. Nina is 15 years old and full of crazy ideas. She lives together with her brother, her father and his new girlfriend. Her mother isn't in touch much. That's why there is the unconventional Angel whose own daughter disappeared years ago and who is Nina's best friend and substitute mother.

The short tracks the tense fifteen minutes before Marion's – France's only female bull jumper – first performance in a packed French arena. As she prepares, being the only woman in the team, the film explores her battle against misogyny and prejudiced attitudes. A journey of one woman through an all-male world – juggling motherhood and the contentious pursuit of her passion.

After a fight with her mother, six year old Clara decides to run off to be with her father. But she falls asleep on the way on the bus and somehow ends up with the Wagner family. When Julia Wagner discovers bruises on Clara's body, she feels compelled to act.

A succesfull busninessman who has it all is looking for a new challenge and decides to hire a contract killer to assassinate him.

Short gangster film based on a novella by Belgian writer Hugo Claus.

A retirement-home newcomer resembling a superhero inspires hope in those around him, while trying to maintain his own. A tale of forgotten heroes.

Cyriel has died. Leonie and a few relatives are standing in the hospital room around the bed on which the bodie lies. At Cyriel's death, there won't be no more tears from Leonie, but rather one simple and pleasant memory that expresses Cyriel's unspoken love for her.

This short film centers around a high school student whose declaration of love to another boy leads to hostile reactions from his classmates.