Bruiser

Sons of Caribbean immigrants, Francis and Michael face questions of masculinity, identity and family amid the pulsing beat of Toronto's early hip-hop scene. A mystery unfolds when escalating tensions set off a series of events which changes the course of the brothers’ lives forever.

Soft boys by day, kings by night. The film follows a group of young Bulgarian Roma who come to Vienna looking for freedom and a quick buck. They sell their bodies as if that's all they had. What comforts them, so far from home, is the feeling of being together. But the nights are long and unpredictable.

Jaime and Pablo explore and work on their identity by telling us about their experiences and participating in a masculinity theatrical laboratory where we will discover the conflict that led them to question their masculinity. This conflict forced them to question the games they taught us as boys, proposing different games where we learn to care for the people we love.

Ramin flees from persecution in Iran and ends up living in the limbo of exile, far from everything he knows, in the tropical port town of Veracruz, Mexico. There his nostalgia and melancholy are confronted with new friendships, while he starts to rediscover his own desires.

In a family of sheep rustlers, a 15-year-old must go up against his domineering father to help his younger brother keep the lamb left orphaned by their latest slaughter. Rustling touchingly presents an alternative masculinity instilled not with machismo, but with empathy.

Panchos

The impressionistic story of a Texas family in the 1950s. The film follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship with his father. Jack finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith.

Masculinity, race and boyhood simmer in this stylish slow-cinema debut about a Filipino-Australian father and his six-year-old son, who are navigating a family divorce. Exploring the complexities of family, society and culture that shape young Filipinos, this feature debut from rising filmmaker Caleb Ribates depicts the tender relationship between an immigrant father and his young son as they deal with being abandoned by the boy’s mother. With its evocative black-and-white cinematography, long takes and naturalistic dialogue, Anak follows in the footsteps of slow-cinema masters like Lav Diaz and Apichatpong Weerasethakul, while finding an intimacy and tonal register that is all Ribates’ own.

Wild Youth is an ode to being young. A sensitive and intimate story of the first experiences of losing one's childlike innocence, questioning the imposed "masculinity" and (re)discovering yourself in the function of others.

Manuel is 23 years old, he is independent and his only company is his pitbull dog. One morning he meets Margarita, a woman twice his age and with whom he sleeps in a nearby motel, receiving the first anilingus of his life. Confused between pleasure and fear, Manuel reflects on his prejudices, his masculinity and his identity.

A look into the life of someone with a masculine disposition who faces backlash in their household but finds joy when one of their siblings offers support and kinship.

During summer break, 14-year-old Darious explores the boundaries of his manhood through tumultuous interactions with Malcolm his strict father and a burgeoning mentorship with mysterious drifter Porter.

During the final games of his high school basketball season, Tom Irvin is faced with an encounter of sexual misconduct. An affair that leaves Tom losing grip with reality and struggling to regain his self-identity.

In the brutal battlefield of junior high, Sam has always tried to stay below radar — but all that changes when he discovers he has super powers.

It's an ordinary winter's day when disillusioned Police Inspector Azaad Singh is tasked with delivering a very important file to his superior. Traversing expanses of rural and urban Punjab along the way, he reckons with the state's past and present realities, and faces an untimely existential crisis as a result.

Manuela and her mother have different ways of perceiving the world they live in. They discuss masculinity, love, and, as if that were not enough, the importance of a sofa.

Foreign Legion officer Galoup recalls his once glorious life, training troops in the Gulf of Djibouti. His existence there was happy, strict and regimented, until the arrival of a promising young recruit, Sentain, plants the seeds of jealousy in Galoup's mind.

Carl is forced to confront his idea of masculinity when an obsession with a mysterious member of his badminton club spirals out of control.

A domineering but charismatic rancher wages a war of intimidation on his brother's new wife and her teen son, until long-hidden secrets come to light.

All filmed from the warped perspective of a doll, Black Daruma is a dark-humoured psychological horror film about an unemployed man who buys a Japanese 'luck doll' to improve his fortunes, only for his life to unravel in disturbing ways.