Starring: Chumisa Cosa, Nosipho Mtebe, Kamvalethu Jonas Raziya, Sanda Shandu, Khanyiso Kenqa, Sizwe Ginger Lubengu, Siya Sikawuti, Peggy Tunyiswa, Chris Gxalaba

NY premiere

Tsidi, a single mother grieving over her beloved grandmother’s death, moves back into her childhood home in the well-off suburbs of Cape Town with her young daughter. It’s there where her estranged mother still lives, working diligently as the caretaker for her white, bedridden “Madam,” Diane. Tensions mount as Tsidi becomes increasingly critical of her mother’s unwavering obedience towards Madam and odd happenings begin to emanate around the house, at first mere changes in everyone’s personalities but gradually evolving into supernatural dangers. Keeping horror’s tradition as film’s great social commentary genre alive, Jenna Cato Bass examines the lingering pains and nightmares of South Africa’s apartheid through a psychological horror lens, and the results are excellent.

The stories in SHORTS: WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND? prove that caring is sharing and show the immense value in listening to the people you love, or even those you’ve just met.

THE FIRST TIME
Dir. Soleil Burgess & Camille Ora-Nicole, USA, 2 mins
After dating for 6 months, Kat finally builds up the courage to tell Joey she loves her… for the first time.

I IDENTIFY AS ME
Dir. Tina Colleen & Monick Monell, USA, 3 mins
A chorus of gender-diverse women and queer, trans Black, Indigenous, People of Color (QTBIPOC) whose stories reflect that intersectionality is infinite.

BETWEEN US
Dir. Cailleah Scott-Grimes, Canada, 17 mins
Kei longs for a “normal life” in rural Japan. But for a transgender man facing unemployment in his hometown, getting to normal is one steep climb.

THE BEAUTY OF BEING DEAF
Dir. Chella Man, USA, 3 mins
A short film shot underwater and featuring an all-BIPOC, deaf cast performing a poem in American Sign Language.

LITTLE MX. SUNSHINE
Dir. Alessandro Nori, USA, 11 mins
Jordan, a transfemme non-binary person and Taz, a semi-closeted/figuring-it-out bi/pan dude, hash out what it might mean for them to date in public.

CLOSE UP
Dir. Benett Holgerson, USA, 15 mins
Join Moses on a three-part journey of self-reflection as he discusses sex, love, and life in New York City.

A SIGNIFICANT NAME
Dir. Diane Russo-Cheng, USA, 5 mins
The story of Ban’s journey as a child of Taiwanese immigrants raised in the American South, focused around Ban’s name.

MORE HAPPINESS
Dir. Livia Huang, USA, 13 mins
A woman asks her mother for relationship advice.

PINK & BLUE
Dir. Carmen LoBue, USA, 13 mins
After a surprise first-time pregnancy, a trans couple wrestles with the impact of the new baby on their relationship and how to raise a child in a binary world.

Awaken your imagination, travel through time and be flung into space with SHORTS: THE FUTURE IS QUEER, an eye-popping program that looks beyond the present world and places queer folks at the center of new frontiers.

WITNESS
Dir. Joie Lou Shakur, USA, 5 mins
A Black, gender-free being looks for the key to combat Black Trans erasure in order to archive the community’s history for the future.

LOVE U CUZ
Dir. Eric Pumphrey, USA, 15 mins
Two cousins bond over the course of a night on the town as their relationship is tested in more ways than one.

RED STRING OF FATE
Dir. Lovina Yavari & Lance Fernandes, USA, 10 mins
In the year 2090, a robotics engineer tries to bring her love back to life as an android.

THE FAMILIAR
Dir. Julian Quentin, Germany, 11 mins
An alien figure sees human behavior through its own eyes.

FLORA BOREALIS
Dir. Casey Friedman, USA, 10 mins
Two gay men struggle with depression in a ruined environment as a botanical glassblower mourns the loss of his wife.

FRIEND OF SOPHIA
Dir. Alden Peters, USA, 6 mins
A woman attempts a discrete encounter in a not-too-distant future where attraction to androids is punished as a crime.

JUPITER & EUROPA
Dir. Milo Ferguson, USA, 2 mins
Life on Jupiter’s moon feels stagnant for Owen until he finally breaks free of his routine with someone who makes outer space feel a little warmer.

ESCAPING THE FRAGILE PLANET
Dir. Thanasis Tsimpinis, Greece, 17 mins
A few hours before the world ends, as a strange pink fog spreads, two men have an unexpected encounter.

Institutional religion and the LGBTQ+ community are often treated as oil and water, but this collection of short films throws those preconceived ideas out the window. Featuring a blend of narratives and documentaries about gay angels, inclusive mosques, and an intersex rabbi, SHORTS: SENSE & SPIRITUALITY emphasizes that there’s room for all of our connections to spirituality.

UNITY MOSQUE
Dir. Nicole Teeny, USA, 7 mins
The story of a life-saving, Queer-affirming and gender-equal mosque.

FREELY WE SERVE
Dir. Anna White & Emily Kaye, USA, 12 mins
Two disgraced angels come up with a plan to overthrow The Almighty and take his place.

IN THE IMAGE OF GOD
Dir. Bianca Rondolino, USA/Italy, 15 mins
Rabbi Levi’s journey to becoming a religious leader and intersex activist.

THE LOVE SPELL
Dir. Jane Stiles & Meryl Jones Williams, USA, 19 mins
A young boy and his babysitter cast a love spell.

SHEER QORMA
Dir. Faraz Arif Ansari, India, 30 mins
A non-binary Muslim person introduces their partner to the family.

An Uber ride. A camping trip. A first date. These could be sites of terror for anyone, but, in these films, they are particularly scary for our queer protagonists. Showcasing a diverse assortment of styles, tones, and subject matter, SHORTS: QUEER FEAR is peak adrenaline fuel for the horror fan looking for something new (and very gay) to munch on — a truly terrifying and one-of-a-kind LGBTQ+ viewing experience!

YOUNG DIEGO
Dir. Osama Chami & Enrique Gimeno Pedrós, Spain, 7 mins
Diego considers having his first sexual encounter with a stranger.

NEW FLESH FOR THE OLD CEREMONY
Dir. Elizabeth Rakhilkina, USA, 13 mins
A lesbian reverie comes to a twisted end.

WANNA GO CAMPING?
Dir. Zach Siegel, USA, 10 mins
A date goes from sweet to sinister as secrets surface in the woods.

THE DEMONS OF DOROTHY
Dir. Alexis Langlois, France, 29 mins
A young queer screenwriter is put to the test when her insecurities and fantasies come crashing together.

GRIFFICA
Dir. C.J. Arellano, USA, 11 mins
A gay man becomes convinced his all-too-perfect boyfriend is a demon in disguise.

KWÊSKOSÎW (SHE WHISTLES)
Dir. Thirza Cuthand, Canada, 12 mins
En route to her girlfriend’s place, a 2-Spirit nêhiyaw woman becomes increasingly concerned about her cab driver’s intentions.

It starts with a look across a crowded cafe or inside a train cabin — the encounters in this collection of shorts might be brief, but they leave an indelible mark. These prospective lovebirds flirt, fight, and f*ck, but mostly they open their hearts to each other. Connections, both fleeting and permanent, are made and the promise of romance is in the air, so invite your crush and prepare to swoon together.

THE NIGHT TRAIN
Dir. Jerry Carlsson, Sweden, 15 mins
On a night train, Oskar makes eye contact with Ahmad, meeting the gaze of someone who feels the same desire as he does for the very first time.

POOL BOY
Dir. Luke Willis, USA, 10 mins
College jock Austin unexpectedly develops feelings for his parents’ non-binary pool cleaner and struggles to hide this from his straight friends.

LOVE IS A HAND GRENADE
Dir. Jessica Benhamou, UK, 13 mins
Besties Gabby and Alexis hook up after a messy night out, forcing them to question the nature of their relationship, sexuality, and the limits of love.

TWO MEN BY THE SEA
Dir. Gabriel Motta, Brazil, 17 mins
After leaving Brazil, César meets Martin at an empty cafe in Tallinn, Estonia. They talk and flirt in front of the sea.

OF HEARTS AND CASTLES
Dir. Ruben Navarro, USA, 15 mins
A man struggling emotionally after a breakup meets another man for just one night.

BLUE MOON
Dir. Emily Ruhl, USA, 13 mins
Two young women explore each other and themselves over the course of a day in Los Angeles.

We’re back with another year of trans shorts by trans filmmakers with SHORTS: BEYOND THE BINARY! From futuristic media therapy to impossible decisions about what to wear, this stunning selection of short films offers up a wide variety of stories, conceptions, and experiences with gender that are just as entertaining as they are explorative.

ENVIAR Y RECIBIR
Dir. Collins Salovaara, USA, 9 mins
Rafa’s boss at a fast fashion warehouse asks him to dispose of a ripped, pink spaghetti strap dress, but he struggles to do so.

ARE YOU STILL WATCHING?
Dir. Alex Cardy, Tali Polichtuk, & Kitty Chrystal, Australia, 6 mins
Jamie’s therapy session takes an odd turn as the media they’ve watched during lockdown intrudes.

THE MORE THINGS CHANGE
Dir. Debra F. Simone, USA, 16 mins
Dana thought transition would change everything, but she’s still grinding at work and struggling to make any time for family, friends, or fun.

PRINCESS
Dir. B Gosse & Jason Vu, USA, 8 mins
Non-binary Vietnamese-American dancer Jason Vu revisits memories of desire from childhood.

VESTIRSE
Dir. John E. Kilberg, USA, 9 mins
Jacky is trying to get dressed to meet their mother one late afternoon.

PITOC E ICINAKOSIAN
Dir. Jos-Onimskiw Ottawa-Dubé & Gerry Ottawa, Canada, 6 mins
Gerry and their big brother Jos show us that there is more to being different than bullying, discrimination, and harassment.

SHIMMER SUMMER
Dir. Tong Mao, China, 25 mins
Ou Yuan hopes that his new friend Xu Duo can join him to watch the once-in-a-decade total solar eclipse.

Starring: Liv Hewson, Alex Russell, Bobbi Salvör Menuez, Alexis Denisof, Chloe Freeman, Lex Ryan

Despite their obvious differences, Denny and Ryan — an eccentric musician and a straight-laced lawyer — are drawn to each other like magnets. But when Denny begins to question their gender, sexuality, and relationship with Ryan, the two discover opposites might no longer attract.

An incomparable and wholly new vision for non-binary representation onscreen, David O”Donnell’s breakthrough feature debut casts four non-binary actors (Liv Hewson, Lex Ryan, and local NYC talents Chloe Freeman and Bobbi Salvör Menuez) in the role of Denny, demonstrating the many layers and multitudes we can hold within ourselves at one time.

Starring: Betsey Brown, Madeline Quinn, Dasha Nekrasova, Mark Rapaport

While out apartment hunting, college pals Noelle and Addie stumble upon the deal of a lifetime: a posh duplex on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. But soon after moving in, a more sinister picture of the apartment emerges when a mysterious woman arrives and claims the property used to belong to the infamous and recently-deceased Jeffrey Epstein.

With this news, Noelle becomes obsessed with the visitor—to the point of infatuation. As the pair plunge deeper into the conspiracies of the Epstein case, Addie falls into her own bizarre state: a pseudo-possession complete with inexplicable fits of age-regressed sexual mania. As they peel back on these strange occurrences, the truth reveals itself to be more twisted than they could have ever imagined.

Starring: Colby Minifie, Tre Ryder, Maria Dizzia, Whitmer Thomas, Jasmin Walker, Purva Bedi, Julian Cihi, Zoe Chao

Melanie’s last afternoon babysitting 9-year-old gender-questioning Johnny takes an inexplicable, unpredictable, and absolutely hilarious turn – her body is inhabited by Johnny’s spirit. Now, Johnny gets to live as Melanie for a day, which seems fun at first but soon becomes a rollercoaster of emotions as Johnny navigates the NYC subway system, prospective boyfriends, and delivering a baby.

Featuring indelible comic performances by Colby Minifie (The Boys) and newcomer Tre Ryder, as well as a laugh-out-loud script, Homebody subverts the playful structures of Freaky Friday and Big, crafting something entirely new and affirming in the process.