Athlete

It's been one year since Xander was dealt a sudden and tragic loss - the loss of his friend Tobin. Now, he must confront the people from his life he has since pushed away.

In times of strife it's important to have someone by your side. Whether it is a shoulder to cry on or a source of confidence, an imaginary friend or a distant lover, these six tales from Mexico, Brazil, France, the UK and the Netherlands prove that the search for companionship is a journey worth taking. The short films are: My Mother's Lovers [Los novios de mi madre] (2020); Bootyful (2019); Only What You Need to Know About Me [Apenas o Que Você Precisa Saber Sobre Mim] (2018); Junk (2011); High Tide [Stille Dorst] (2018).

Liam, crippled by his fear of intimacy, remedies his hunger for touch through trips to the beach where he fantasizes a life of connection. His voyeuristic daydream is challenged by a young man, Brayden, who decides to pursue him.

Touko Laaksonen, a decorated officer, returns home after a harrowing and heroic experience serving his country in World War II, but life in Finland during peacetime proves equally distressing. He finds peace-time Helsinki rampant with persecution of the homosexual and men around him even being pressured to marry women and have children. Touko finds refuge in his liberating art, specialising in homoerotic drawings of muscular men, free of inhibitions. His work – made famous by his signature ‘Tom of Finland’ – became the emblem of a generation of men and fanned the flames of a gay revolution.

Two different moments in his life. The first love and the real love. Traumas from the past stick like chlorine in water.

Ewa and Halina are forcibly separated from each other by Ewa’s father in their youth because of their love for each other. When Ewa’s father dies 13 years later, the women meet again through the initiative of their husbands, who want to make a deal with each other. Ewa and Halina can no longer hide their love, which they thought had been forgotten, from themselves and from each other.

A rebellious young woman with cerebral palsy leaves India to study in New York. On her journey of self-discovery, she unexpectedly falls in love.

Over the course of one night, the trivial squabbles of five couples from the same apartment building escalate into potentially relationship-ending rows.

17 year old Pauly is a closeted high school kid who wants it all. His dad wants him to make the track team, his mom wants him to do well in band, and Pauly just wants to get closer to the new student teacher doing the school play.

Being gay-bashed and left in a corn field in rural America takes an unusual turn when one of the bashers returns with remorse and a secret.

Conrad Veidt plays a famous musician who is blackmailed for being gay. Eventually he stands trial and is convicted. At the end the film pleads for the abolition of §175 (the paragraph which punishes homosexuality).

Son of a viscount and a Roma prostitute (both deceased), Serge is intelligent, sweet, talented, and alienated by his family due to his heritage. Upon being sent to his new school, he rooms with Gilbert Cocteau, a gorgeous loner of a boy who sells his body for reasons unknown. Serge's attempts to reach out to Gilbert fail spectacularly, and yet there is something in both of them that attracts them to each other.

Nineteen year old Imri, a handsome ex-soldier, suffers from “Yellow Fever”. He was born in Israel but yearns to live in Japan.

A young black lesbian filmmaker probes into the life of The Watermelon Woman, a 1930s black actress who played 'mammy' archetypes.

For the first time since taking possession of the family cabin, Vaughn has invited his best friends up for a winter weekend of hunting and drinking. But the arrival of unexpected visitors turns a simple getaway into two days of life-changing turmoil.

Chuck and Buck are childhood best friends whose lives have taken very different paths. While Chuck moved away and now has a real life, Buck stayed behind and developed a dangerous fixation—on Chuck's life.

Just as the young members of the swimming team spend another day training in the pool, the cusp of early puberty threatens to turn innocent friendship and camaraderie into something much more. Sixth-grader Yu-Hsuan has a closely guarded secret, but this tide of feelings inside is brewing into a storm…

In the cold light of his computer, a young man makes dozens of nude photos of desire and sends them to anyone, in order to share his body and his solitude.

England, 14th century. King Edward II falls in love with Piers Gaveston, a young man of humble origins, whom he honors with favors and titles of nobility. The cold and jealous Queen Isabella conspires with the evil Mortimer to get rid of Gaveston, overthrow her husband and take power…

In 1970s Britain, 18-year old Dean feels hampered by his working-class background and his family. In order to make something of himself, he assumes another identity and manages to enter high society.