Queer

Locarno 2026 Review: “I Rarely Wake Up Dreaming”

© X Filme Creative Pool GmbH There is a cruel irony at the center of Isabelle Stever and Anna Melikova’s newest film: just as co-protagonist Oleh begins to embrace his masculinity on his own terms, war arrives to prescribe him what being a man is supposed to mean. For Oleh (Markus Bright), a transgender manContinue reading “Locarno 2026 Review: “I Rarely Wake Up Dreaming””

Cannes 2026 Queer Palm: Between Assimilation and Preserving Community (Club Kid, Elephants in the Fog, Dora)

Each year at the Cannes Film Festival, the Queer Palm is awarded to recognize LGBTQIA+ cinema across the festival’s official and parallel sections. The 2026 selection, consisting of a record-breaking 21 feature nominees, highlights the importance of queer stories in cinema. In Marie Madeleine by Gessica Généus, religion, sex work, and homosexuality clash in Haiti. In Queer Palm winner Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma by Jane Schoenbrun, the trashy slasher film genre of the 80s becomes a vehicle to rethink anti-trans scholarship through an examination of self-identification at the intersection of horror, sex and queerness. In Flesh and Fuel by Pierre Le Gall, the long-distance romance between two gay truckers is tested by the hardships of working-class labor. These films came together at Cannes to showcase the current concerns in global queer cinema.

IFFR 2026 Review: “Yellow Cake”

Yellow Cake is a bold yet uneven sophomore feature from Brazilian writer-director Tiago Melo, in which he blends eco-sci-fi, political satire and B-movie tropes. The film trakes place in the town of Picui, Brazil, rich with uranium, where a government-supported initiative promises to eradicate dengue fever by sterilising mosquitoes through controlled radiation.

Locarno 2025 Review: “Donkey Days”

Dutch director Rosanne Pel’s sophomore feature Donkey Days, a Dutch-German co-production filmed in Germany with a predominantly German cast, is an intense and ambitious film that examines the tensions within an all-female family of three, using both realism and surreal elements. It examines the power dynamics between two adult sisters and their mother, demonstrating how conditional affection and criticism can define relationships over a lifetime. Pel balances a detailed depiction of domestic conflict with a confident and unique style, resulting in an upredictable, intense, and occasionally funny work.

Cannes 2025 Review: “Love Me Tender”

Anna Cazenave Cambet’s Love Me Tender is a radical portrait of the extent to which one’s attempt to free herself from heteronormativity is punished by society. Drawn from Clémentine Autain’s autobiography, it holds onto long stretches of the source text, letting the film’s voice stay personal, reflective, and grounded in lived detail. Vicky Krieps empowers the masterfully written screenplay with a transformative, unshowy performance that registers every shift in power and loss.

Visions du Réel 2025 Review: “Afternoons of Solitude”

Albert Serra’s Afternoons of Solitude is a provocative, and unsettling documentary that explores the ‘art’ of bullfighting. While the ethicality of bullfighting hovers constantly over the film, Serra resists direct moralizing. He offers a raw, sensorial exploration of masculinity, performance, and spectacle, letting the audience sit with their own judgments. It becomes a strange, gorgeous character study of one man, bullfighter Andrés Roca Rey, and the hypermasculine, flamboyant culture that celebrates and consumes him.

Cinema du Réel 2025 Dispatch: Jessica Sarah Rinland, James Benning, Lee Anne Schmitt & More

Cinéma du Réel, the esteemed international documentary film festival held annually in Paris, France, has long been celebrated for its commitment to showcasing non-mainstream, intellectually, and artistically stimulating documentaries. The competition of the festival’s 2025 edition, running from March 21 to 30, continues this tradition by presenting a diverse program that blurs the lines between feature-length films and short shorts, treating each with equal reverence and attention. This egalitarian approach highlights the festival’s dedication to exploring the myriad forms and expressions within non-fiction cinema, providing a platform for both emerging and established filmmakers to present their unique visions.

Berlin 2025 Review: “No Beast. So Fierce.”

Burhan Qurbani’s No Beast. So Fierce. is a daring contemporary reimagining of Shakespeare’s Richard III, transforming the classic tale of ambition and treachery to the story of a woman among the gang-controlled streets of Berlin. The film centers on Arab lawyer Rashida York, portrayed with mesmerizing intensity by Kenda Hmeidan, as she maneuvers through a patriarchal underworld to seize power.

Rotterdam 2025 Review: “Blind Love”

IFFR Julian Chou’s Blind Love presents an affecting intersectional critique of patriarchal family structures, queerphobia, and the suffocating effects of societal expectations. Adapted from a short story by celebrated Taiwanese writer Essay Liu, originally centered on a daughter’s forbidden love with her father’s ex-boyfriend, Chou’s adaptation reimagines the narrative through a gender swap. By shiftingContinue reading “Rotterdam 2025 Review: “Blind Love””

Rotterdam 2025 Review: “Orenda”

IFFR Pirjo Honkasalo’s Orenda, which premiered at the 2025 International Rotterdam Film Festival, invites viewers into a world both intimate and wide in thematical scope. It’s a meditation on grief, guilt, faith, and identity, wrapped in a narrative that unfolds with deliberate pacing and quiet intensity. While it may not appeal to those seeking immediateContinue reading “Rotterdam 2025 Review: “Orenda””