Current Queer Cinema
The Panorama section will once again bring the best of current queer cinema to audiences in Bratislava. A wide selection of some of the newest stories of love, identity, loss, and self-discovery – from deeply intimate dramas to popcorn fantasy flicks.
Internationally awarded titles
Panorama will provide a showcase of some of the most interesting queer films that have captivated audiences and critics alike at leading international festivals like Cannes, Berlinale, Sundance, and the Toronto International Film Festival.
From the Cannes festival, several titles sharing the common focus on female characters, motherhood, and the desire for freedom. Love Letters (Alice Douard, France, 2025) follows Céline, a woman expecting the birth of her wife’s child, who in the process of adoption is confronted with the expectations of what being a “good mother” means. The film offers an authentic dive into the everyday life of lesbian parents. Another French film, Love Me Tender (Anna Cazenave Cambet, 2025) tells the story of a woman who, after confiding about her lesbian identity to her ex-husband, loses custody of her son, setting off a years-long fight for her right to motherhood and personal dignity.
Little Sister (Hafsia Herzi, France/ Germany, 2025) combines the topics of identity, sexuality, and family loyalty in the story of a young girl striving to balance her family’s expectations with her own desires. The Film received the Queer Palm as well as the Best Actress prize for Nadia Melliti.
Several films that share a sensitivity to adolescence, imagination, and the courage to explore the boundaries of reality were successful at this year’s Berlinale. Foreign Language (Claire Burger, France/Belgium/Germany, 2024) depicts a shy teenager Fanny who gets caught up in a web of her own lies during a language study trip and comes to discover new feelings. Other Berlin representatives come from the opposite end of the genre spectrum: the exuberant, visually extravagant animation Lesbian Space Princess (Emma Hough Hobbs, Leela Varghese, Australia, 2025) won the prestigious Teddy Award at the Berlinale.
The Sundance Film Festival brings us films exploring the darker, more personal aspects of the queer experience. Danish Sauna (Mathias Broe, 2025) offers a harsh yet tender portrait of Johan, a young gay man who discovers the boundaries of love and his identity in a gay sauna, and whose relationship with a transgender man becomes a test of intimacy in a society that is still learning to understand. American film Twinless (James Sweeney, 2025) offers a melancholic look at the friendship between two men who meet in a support group after the death of their twins; Dylan O’Brien won the Sundance Acting Award for his role. Finally, the powerful debut Plainclothes (Carmen Emmi, USA, 2025) explores topics of guilt and desire in the story of a young police officer who, during an undercover operation, falls in love with the man he is supposed to arrest.
From Toronto, the festival will feature Erupcja (Pete Ohs, USA/Poland, 2025), a poetic drama about two women whose relationships are torn apart by an unexpected volcanic eruption. Toronto has long supported unconventional author voices, and Ohs’ film confirms this tradition with its combination of romance, ecological themes, and existential humour. Singer Charli xcx appears in one of the leading roles.
Full spectrum of the queer experience
Several films from Spain and Latin America combine passion, melancholy, and big life questions. Away (Gerard Oms, Spain, 2025) follows a man who decides to leave home after a soccer game and leave everything behind, while Who Wants to Marry an Astronaut? (David Matamoros, Spain/Uruguay/Argentina, 2024) relies on humor and romance when a breakup in Las Vegas turns into a desperate but funny search for a new groom.
Among the documentary titles, worth mentioning are The 34th: The Story of Marriage Equality (Linda Cullen, Vanessa Gildea, 2017), which chronicles a decade-long struggle for marriage equality in Ireland, and the Canadian documentary Pride Vs. Prejudice: The Delwin Vriend Story (Darrin Hagen, 2024), which recounts a real-life case that changed the history of LGBTI+ rights in Canada.
Further in the section, you can find titles that transcend genre boundaries – from the Belgian-Dutch Skif (Cecilia Verheyden, 2025), a sensitive drama about adolescence and forbidden love, to the horror-tinged Queens of the Dead (Tina Romero, USA, 2025), in which drag queens fight against a zombie apocalypse. Among the new releases from the USA, the black comedy Honey, Don’t! (Ethan Coen, 2025) stands out in particular: a noir film starring Margaret Qualley and Chris Evans about a detective who becomes involved in the investigations of strange deaths in a small town.