SHORTS: AVANT QUEER

These bold films offer inventive visions that expand the possibilities of cinema while illuminating the spectrum of queer experience. Through experimental narratives, striking aesthetics, and complex queer characters, each work pushes the medium forward with daring originality. Themes of family, connection, and transformation are woven throughout, showing how emotion and innovation can converge to reimagine both storytelling and queer life.

Two Black Boys in Paradise
Dir. Baz Sells, 9 min, UK
A movingly tender animation, based on Dean Atta’s eponymous poem, sees Edan (19) and Dula (18) on a journey of self-acceptance and love — for each other and themselves. CW: Explicit sexual situations

Strawberry Shortcake
Dir. Deborah Devyn Chuang, 21 min, Taiwan
Fantasy bleeds into reality when 16-year-old Lolo becomes entangled in a Freudian loop centered around a strawberry shortcake and Lolo’s mother, Norma.

Spa Night
Dir. Jeremy Feight, 7 min, USA
When a lonely heart seeks solace at a luxe Manhattan spa, a night of steamy glances and awkward encounters spirals into a surreal blend of lust, longing, and unexpected chaos. CW: Explicit sexual situations

Grandma Nai Who Played Favorites
Dir. Chheangkea, 19 min, Cambodia/France/USA
During her chaotic family’s Qingming visit, dead Grandma Nai sneaks away from her peaceful afterlife after overhearing that her queer grandson is about to get engaged to a woman.

Houston, We Have a Crush
Dir. Omer Ben Shachar, 10 min, USA
After finding a phone accidentally left behind by an astronaut, a lonely alien develops an all-consuming crush that tests his hold on reality.

The Immaculate Honey
Dir. Mauricio Calderon Rico, 18 min, Mexico
Chucho is taken care of by his mother Alma for a few days, during which they will grow closer.

One Day This Kid
Dir. Alexander Farah, 17 min, Canada
In a world that’s never made room for him, a young brown man contends with desire, shame, and the quiet weight of his father’s expectations—seeking a self he’s never been shown how to become.

“The filmmakers in this shorts program playfully engage with narrative, aesthetics and genre. They push boundaries and provoke the audience. They are the future of queer filmmaking. Don’t wait, come watch their marvelous work today.” – Murtada Elfadl, Senior Programmer