K25 Films in Competition

BABY
Director: Marcelo Caetano
107 min | 2024 | Netherlands | Portuguese

São Paulo’s streets can offer danger or opportunity, and for Baby, they deliver both. After being released from a juvenile detention center, 18-year-old Wellington (Baby) finds himself alone and adrift on the streets of São Paulo, without any contact from his parents and lacking the resources to rebuild his life. He encounters Ronaldo, a mature man, who teaches him new ways of surviving. Gradually, their relationship turns into a conflicting passion.

When two childhood friends get an unexpected opportunity to keep their fish restaurant open all year round, one of them comes out of the closet as a trans woman, putting a strain on their friendship and they see their lives in a new light.

When CASS (they/them) is asked by an alluring woman they’ve hooked up with to watch her 11-year-old daughter while she goes out of town, Cass is eager to impress their new crush. But when the woman disappears leaving Cass as a caretaker, Cass is forced to confront the truth of their own tumultuous childhood and the pain they’ve been running from.

A dystopian-future immigration thriller directed by Patricia Ryczko. Synopsis: Set in the near future, Sonja, 41, is a dedicated housewife raising her 10-year-old daughter, Mia. She has kept her civil partnership with Adela, 27, hidden from everyone out of fear. One day, Sonja’s Citizen Pass suddenly stops working, stripping away all her freedoms. Unbeknownst to her, this glitch will unveil her past, a past she desperately concealed from the state to avoid persecution as a terrorist.

Mariano and Juan have been dating for several years, they have a dog and a quiet life. Mariano always wanted to have a plant nursery away from the city and now that Juan’s work as a writer is more established due to the success of his latest novel, they decide to make that change. While they adjust to their new space and their new routines, they receive a visit from Juan’s best friend, who has news to tell them.

Neil, an open-hearted Hip-hop dancer, and Javed, quietly guarded, hit a crossroads when Neil’s mother wants to meet him. Javed, afraid to come out, pulls back. But at a café, Neil’s idea turns looming heartbreak into unexpected hope.

Two women fall in love at a decrepit old-age home in the autumn of their lives. Both are aware of the repercussions of such a revelation in a society proscribing homosexuality; therefore, they exchange messages and gifts in secret. For most of her melancholy life, Indira has unwillingly played the role of an archetypal Bengali bride in a flagrantly patriarchal family. Such novel feelings are an uncharted realm of rhapsody and solace for her. Meera, on the other hand, is comfortable with her sexual identity.

When a wounded rebel accidentally takes refuge in the home of a tribal villager, both the men’s lives spiral into a tense interplay of politics and forbidden love.

Against the sensory landscape of central Kerala, Johnny, a soon-to-be priest must navigate his way out of his dissonant life towards self-discovery. The film reanimates Malayali gay desire through an expressionistic use of Christian music, intimate tastes and unabashed touches, while depicting delicate specifics of same-sex fondness. Resisting the popular narratives, the film discusses plural possibilities of romantic relationships.

A former dancer returns to her hometown, encountering an unexpected heartwarming connection with a girl who has Down syndrome.

In between prejudiced gazes, Margarita, a free-spirited woman and salsa music lover, walks away from her marriage searching for her own identity. At night Margarita finds refuge in a seashore kiosk, where improvised salsa parties occur. Her path crosses with Liana’s, a deaf tourist who arrives at the party’s peak.

A transsexual teenage boy named Abraham was murdered and burned in a cave out of a small village. The main suspect is his religious father who prays in a small mosque every day.

A young Asian man grapples with his emotions, concealing his homosexuality to safeguard his family at his own expense. “The closet is Ali’s refuge, but it’s a prison for Oliver – can love break through?”

A late-blooming trans woman grapples with a life-altering, assigned-male-at-birth Trans specific dilemma and, with the help of her besties, navigates the complexities of this debacle as she determines her path on her own terms.

During the pandemic, Bhola and Abbas, two young labourers returning to Bangladesh by cycling 1500 km, quarantine in a jungle. Their elderly fellow traveller is hospitalized in critical condition. On the final day of isolation, they both are anxious about their only ally who understood them, find themselves strangely wishing the solitude could last forever.

Naho and Hitomi are a high school girl couple living in a rural town in Japan. Naho wants to be a K-POP idol in Korea, and Hitomi supports her devotedly despite never believing such a dream to be a reality. When Naho passes one of the auditions for being Kpop Idol, Hitomi decides to collect empty plastic bottles to take unexpected action.

Luca, a young photographer, arrives in the Asturian village in search of inspiration and his roots. He stays at the home of Xuan, a cheesemaker and former teacher, a reclusive man living in isolation and socially shunned under the shadow of old sexual rumors. Despite the initial tension between them, distrust gives way to an unexpected connection: Luca’s camera focuses on Xuan’s work, and Xuan begins to rekindle a lost enthusiasm for life.

Lourdes and Lana met telepathically using “sensory pills”, a technology that allows access to other people’s sensations from a distance. After months of relationship, Lourdes decides to visit the country house of her parents, Vicente and Carl, and introduce them to her girlfriend.

Year 2000. Maya, a young Londoner, travels to the small village of her Spanish girlfriend, Ruth, who has passed away in an accident. She wants to bid her farewell, but the harsh blow, along with the anxiety of presenting herself as the «foreign girlfriend» in front of unknown family and friends who speak another language, turns into confusion when she realizes that nobody knows who she is, and she will find herself completely out of place.

During the lunch break of what seems like an interminable corporate picnic, Anju stumbles into a hole in the ground and finds herself terrified inside a 15th century subterranean step well. Namita her colleague, comes looking for her. As they navigate different levels of the well, they encounter different levels of intimacy: a different way of looking, teasing, testing, and flirting. It’s all fun and games until Anju accidentally drops her phone inside the well. Panic turns to contrition when she realises it is Namita’s phone that’s missing. Namita’s reaction opens up for Anju a new way of seeing herself.

Sole, a veteran embalmer, has two goals: the first is to honor the deceased’s wishes, and the second is to facilitate peace for their families in moments of grief. Preparing the body of a transgender young man makes things complicated for Sole. With a breached secret of her own, she faces the dilemma of dressing him as he would have wished or as his family wants.

Two incarcerated women in a secured forest of the North of Quebec are subjected to hard labour of reforestation. Confronted to their body’s instrumentalisation and its underhand control, they enjoy a little area of freedom they managed to create thanks to a prison guard particularly empathetic towards them.

Frustrated sci-fi writer Julian is facing a slump in his relationship. So will his fiancé Leo’s trip into orbit with the world’s first ever low-cost alternative spaceline provide them with just the space they need to get back on track?

In 1945, beneath the oppressive shadow of the Francoist dictatorship, Juan, a university assistant, meets Manuel during a chance encounter at night in a park. With their initial reservations, a complex love story unfolds between them, shaped by the turbulent political climate and the misunderstanding of those around them.

ZARI
Director: Shruti Parekh
19 min | 2024 | USA, India| English, Hindi

American teen Neelu feels like a fish out of water amidst preparations for her sister’s wedding in Delhi until she forges a brief and unexpected connection with Zeyb, a quiet sari store clerk who moonlights as an internet drag queen.

Link: https://vimeo.com/909132612
Password: zarisilks

FATHERHOOD (Tre Fedre)
Directors: Even G. Benestad, August B. Hanssen
75 min | 2024 | Norway | Norwegian

Three men are expecting their first child. Kristopher, David, and Sindre are all in their early thirties and live together in a multi-partner relationship. Kristopher is the birth father, as one of the first trans men in Norway. They are about to face the everyday challenges in the extraordinary experience of establishing a family. Are they ready for what awaits them?

GOD’S OTHER PLAN
Director: Moritz Mueller-Preisser
79 min | 2024 | USA, Germany | English

What happens when the adult son of a Mormon family realizes that the meticulously planned life dictated by his religion is wrong for him? Riley is gay; he suspected this earlier and prayed it would disappear. By now, he is divorced from his wife, married to a man, and no longer a Mormon. He now lives in a blended family with his biological daughter and an adopted son. How does his Mormon family, especially his ex-wife, deal with this profound change?

QUEENS IN FINISTÈRE
Director: Vanessa Le Reste
63 min | 2025 | France | French

15 cm high heels, false eyelashes, and a sharp tongue—follow Britany Hart, the Queen of Brittany, and her girls through the wild Breton nights and, more importantly, their daily lives! Drag show, Parties, Friendship, and Commitment. A dive into the heart of the Hart family and the Drag Queens at the edge of the world, in a small town in France. Where they are redefining new ways to live together.

SALLY!
Director: Deborah Alice Craig
90 min | 2024 | USA | English

Sally Gearhart was a lesbian-feminist firebrand, professor, and fantasy author who helped transform the world for gay people — but too few folks know of this “hidden figure.” Our film celebrates Sally’s dynamism and complexity, as well as the collective (if chaotic) nature of revolutionary movements and their icons.

WARM FILM (Topli film)
Director: Dragan Jovićević
90 min | 2025 | Serbia | Serbian

Two young actors receive an offer to play in a movie with homosexual love scenes. Torn between the desire of become famous and the fear of being labeled, they begin to explore how this topic was portrayed throughout the history of Yugoslav cinema. What did the presence of queers in cinema, through the decades, actually mean?

ARTISTS AT THE EDGE
Director: Patrick A Riviere
38 min | 2024 | USA | English

A short documentary film about “otherness” and two remarkable queer artists continuing to create at a moment when hard fought freedoms are being threatened in a polarized society. The heart of the film highlights the lives and works of these Provincetown artists who each found themselves six feet from stardom: Kenny Lockwood (a senior LGBTQ+ identifying painter, musician and herbologist) and Darlene Van Alstyne (a BIPOC LGBTQ+ identifying woman and singer, dancer and actress). The film, shot entirely in Provincetown, embraces creativity, equality and action at a time when our democracy stands on a precipice.

B AND S
Dir: Lipika Singh Darai
30 min / 2025 / India / Odia

A personal essayistic documentary that explores the beauty and depths of friendship between B and S—two trans women. While going through corridors of loneliness, as they struggle with their immediate world that refuses to see them for who they are, friendship becomes the idea of home and family, where the deepest connections and belongingness are found. The filmmaker, a dear friend of theirs, introduces this tender friendship to her late grandaunt through imaginary conversations in a letter that carries fragments of shared love and longings, drawing intimate connections between human and non-human worlds.

BECAUSE OF YOU: A HISTORY OF KILAWIN KOLEKTIBO (Dahil Sa ‘Yo: Ang Storya Ng Kilawin Kolektibo)
Directors: Barbara Malaran, Desireena Almoradie
22 min | 2025 | United States, Canada, Philippines | English, Tagalog

This archival documentary traces the history of Kilawin Kolektibo, a pioneering collective of Filipnxs who came together in NYC in the mid-nineties. Having experienced marginalization in Filipino culture because of their queerness and in mainstream gay culture because of their race,
language, and gender, the members of the group sought political empowerment and increased visibility.

EXILE (يا ريت)
Directors: Yesmine Fersi, Lina Hamouda, Minyar Mrabti
45 min | 2024 | Tunisia | Arabic, English, French

In Tunisia, a silent HIV epidemic spreads within the country’s repressed queer community, hidden beneath layers of societal stigma and discrimination. The film tells the stories of two individuals who navigate the harsh realities of living in a country where their identities are illegal, and healthcare is inaccessible due to fear and shame. As the virus spreads, so does the isolation, forcing the community to confront not only the epidemic but the deep-rooted prejudice and neglect that fuels it.

SEAT 31: ZOOEY ZEPHYR
Director: Kimberly Reed
15 min | 2024 | USA| English

A short documentary goes behind the scenes with the state representative from Montana as she made international news fighting for trans medical care-and making a momentous decision in her own life.

A LITTLE BIT OF GLITTER
Director: Siddharth Menon
24 min | 2024 | UK | English, Hindi | London Film School

When Vidya, a 62 year old recently-widowed Indian woman sublets a room in her house to a 19 year old black gay man, she re-discovers her sense of self and her love for make up, despite complications from the family.

AFTER ALL (Shì guò fāng jué) ( 事过方显)
Director: Chongyan Liu
25 min | 2024 | France, Germany, UK | English, German | Le Fresnoy – Studio national des arts contemporains

A therapist at a Berlin university navigates delicate emotional terrain as she provides solace to a grieving student grappling with the suicide of a trans woman on campus.

AND THE WHITE WALL (והקיר הלבן)
Directors: Inbal Selah, Adar Perlman
20 min | 2024 | Israel | Hebrew |The Steve Tisch School of Film and Television

In the future state of Israel where a dictatorial regime exists, homosexual relations are illegal. Tomer, a released prisoner, performs service work as a whitewasher. He is about to finish his duties to the state and go free, when an encounter with a person from his past overwhelms him with old feelings and jeopardizes the terms of his release from prison. When the citizens of the country are filmed 24/7 one step in the wrong direction could be devastating.

FAR BETWEEN US
Director: Vojtěch Javůrek
12 min | 2024| Czech Republic, Slovakia | Czech, Slovak |Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava

Alone, surrounded by deep forests, little boy Vašek sees something strange in the sky. His biological mother Iveta’s unexpected request catches his adoptive parents Jan and Pavel by surprise. Can the adults understand the young child’s emotions, or will Vašek have to face his fears all by himself? The dense film tells a story in an almost apocalyptic tone about the destructive power of fear and the painful path to mutual closeness.

I AM
Director: Tony Dia
19 min | 2024 | USA | English |University of Hawaii at Mānoa, Hawaiʻi

Ethan lives separate lives as a socially awkward college student by day and a fearlessly glamorous drag queen by night. That is, until his life is turned upside-down by Kekoa, his school crush. As his two worlds collide, Ethan is forced to confront his fear of change in order to win the boy of his dreams.

LAND/WATER (Dongar/Pani)
Director: Sanjivani Kamble
25 min | 2024 | India | English, Marathi | MIT Institute of design, Pune

This is the story of two friends standing at a crossroads, where growing up means making difficult choices and prioritizing what matters most. Savi is leaving her life in Bombay for a new job in Alibaug, while her roommate, Anu, grapples with feelings that go beyond friendship. As Savi prepares to move on, Anu faces the painful reality of change, silently fearing the loss of a bond she holds dear. It’s a poignant story of growth, unspoken emotions, and the hard choices we must make as we evolve.

RAFU
Director: Arnav Utmani
93 min | 2024 | India | Hindi | Annapurna College of Film and Media, Hyderabad

The film revolves around a queer man in his twenties who comes to terms with his sexuality and childhood trauma through a fictional character of a queer deity, who comes alive into the contemporary world and chooses not to be worshiped.

TWO TRAVELLING AUNTIES
Director: Christine Seow
22 min | 2025 | Columbia, UK| English | National Film and Television School, Beaconsfield, UK

Two spirited Singaporean seniors ditch conventional living for van life, embracing adventure, newfound freedom, and the joy of living on their terms.