In this winner of the Teddy Award at Berlinale and feature length follow-up to her 2022 Outfest Los Angeles Grand Jury Prize for Short Documentary-winning Love, Barbara , Director Brydie O’Connor explores the life and work of pioneering lesbian filmmaker Barbara Hammer. From her early revolutionary film works (like Dyketactics ), which are among the first cinematic depictions of lesbian sex directed by a woman, Hammer was a monumental force in queer film. Producing nearly one hundred works of film and video art, such as her feature film masterpiece Nitrate Kisses , Hammer explored queer bodies, sexuality, history, and aging with a tenderness and intimacy that still feels hard to boundary-pushing. Executive produced by Christine Vachon and Kristen Stewart, O’Connor’s film grants extraordinary access to Hammer and her wife Florrie Burke’s archives, weaving together a portrait of the prolific artist that achieves something like Hammer’s own work. Simultaneously joyful, wistful, and sublime, Barbara Forever will stick with you like the treasured memory of a lost loved one.

Luthando may be a little boring, but that’s what makes her a model student and daughter; she keeps her head down, obeys her conservative mother, maintains her scholarship, and is well on her way of reaching her goal of being top of the class at her prestigious, Christian, all-girl boarding school in South Africa. Until she sees her . With literal cut-out paper hearts on her eyes, Luthando falls hard for the new girl in school: the unmistakably impulsive and confident Ayanda. Drenched in candy-colored video game aesthetics, playful 8-bit asides, and hand-drawn doodles, Luthando’s world suddenly becomes about navigating a new cool clique, clapping back at microagressions from the white students and faculty, her new ever-burgeoning sapphic awakening, and everything she thought she knew about herself. In their directorial debut, Sandulela Asanda injects this teen coming-of-age story with a palpable joy and refreshing specificity. Luthando’s journey is awkward, frustrating, euphoric, all-consuming, earth-shattering, and everything in between — just as it should be when you’re in high school.

Ever since she started playing in high school, Brittney Griner was on track to be one of the best women’s basketball players the WNBA—and the game, itself— had ever seen. That’s why the world should know Brittney Griner. But like any women’s basketball player, BG was sharing her talents with the world — because the players of the WNBA were (until recently) barely paid a living wage, she was playing off-seasons for the Russian team Ekaterinburg in the EuroLeague. But on February 17, 2022 — coincidentally, just before the Russian invasion of Ukraine — everything changed. When she arrived in Russia, she was arrested at the border with less than a gram of cannabis oil and, after pleading guilty, she was sent to a Russian penal colony for nearly a year. In this gripping and impassioned documentary, Alexandria Stapleton ( Pride ) reveals how BG’s family — especially her wife Cherelle Watson — her agents and attorneys, and the players of the WNBA advocated for her, first locally and then nationally, until then-President Biden could secure BG’s release. The Brittney Griner Story is an eye-watering story of survival and a clarion call for solidarity, that it is our differences that bind us together.

Navigating the ever-changing terrain of a long-term queer friendship can feel like thru-hiking the wilderness with only the pack on your back. Endurance (and proper hydration) is key to your survival. In writer/director Ethan Fuirst’s wry comedy of manners, doing both at the same time makes dodging passive aggressive digs as dangerous as a bear attack. Every summer since their twenties, Miller and Caleb (Broadway regulars Susannah Perkins and Tony nominee Taylor Trensch) hit the trails to camp and hike their way through the Adirondack Mountains. Now on the more settled side of thirty, they embark upon what may be their final excursion together – but before they’re even on the trail, it’s clear their relationship is on far shakier ground than in those greener days of youth. And for the next week, they’re stuck sleeping in the same tent. Shot entirely on location by an intrepid crew trekking alongside the actors – like some kind of gay Fitzcarraldo – Fuirst’s assured feature debut follows in the footsteps of Kelly Reichardt’s Old Joy by locating the precise pressure points in a broken friendship without ever pressing too hard. Blending observational wit with confident visual storytelling, this microbudget gem is one of the year’s great discoveries in queer cinema.

In her lush and sweaty horror-cum-erotic feature film debut that was until recently effectively banned by the Philippines’ motion picture review board, director Rodina Singh crafts an eye-popping, genre-blending ode to trans desire and sexuality and their power to sustain trans life. Life is not easy for a trans girl in Quezon City. Constantly pushed to the brink of breakdown — or worse — by the anti-trans violence and rhetoric of her daily life, Diwa has turned to a new obsession: the underground audio porn of a creator known only as Dreamboi (Tony LaBrusca). With his voice in her ear, Diwa can momentarily transcend the anxiety of daily life to access vivid fantasies of unabetted sexuality and desire. When she’s forced to head to the sixth sub-basement of her office to find a bathroom she can safely use and overhears a couple having sex, her fantasies and the reality of Dreamboi start to converge. Blending the cinematic styles of horror film and softcore pornography, Dreamboi heralds a major talent to watch in international queer and trans cinema.

In this Shanghai-set heart-stopper, twentysomething Asher finally musters the courage to ask out her dance teacher Tori on her last day in the city before flying home to Los Angeles. They hit it off so intensely that their impromptu coffee date morphs into an all-day marathon of walking, talking, and charged romantic yearning. As they wander together through the buzzing city streets, their magnetic connection grows closer with each side quest. But so too does their precious time draw closer to the inevitable parting they’re desperate to transcend. Reflecting the world-opening sensation of unexpected soul-to-soul ecstasy, director Shan Jiang fills the screen with an inventive formal imagination that overflows— and, at times, literally expands — from the frame. With a refreshing queer twist on Linklater’s Before Trilogy , this Tribeca-premiering love affair sparks to life with one swoon after another.

With his first feature film in over a decade, thank Goddess: Gregg Araki is back! But one need only look at the ubiquity of his influence in this newest generation of queer and trans filmmakers to know that not only did he never leave, he’s been busy cementing the legacy of the New Queer Cinema . Starring an unhinged Olivia Wilde as an art-world provocateur and Cooper Hoffman as her new Gen-Z assistant-turned-sex slave, Araki’s latest is a firebomb of free expression, a leather-and-latex fantasia, and a cri du coeur to loosen up! all wrapped up in a sex comedy for today’s day-and-age. Throw in his signature acid-laced candy colors, inimitable dialogue, and the radical spirit that has fueled his entire body of work — not to mention a murderer’s row supporting cast boasting Charli XCX, Chase Sui Wonders, Margaret Cho, Johnny Knoxville, and more — and you’ve got another Gregg Araki classic ready to dominate audiences into submission. (And you’re going to like it.)

Every winter, the small rural town of Penjamillo in Michoacán, Mexico, hosts its renowned jaripeo , a celebration of cowboy and bull-riding culture that brings hundreds of attendees from within and across the national borders. This annual event serves as the perfect backdrop for traditional masculinity and a thriving but latent queer subculture to emerge and blend together. In this acclaimed and highly stylized documentary that premiered at this year’s Sundance, filmmakers Rebecca Zweig and Penjamillo-native Efraín Mojica explore and dissect the dissonance between the machismo that dominates Mexican cowboy culture, and the dormant queerness bubbling right underneath the surface. Jaripeo is an often dream-like exposé of memory, eroticism, and identity that will have audiences straddling their saddles.

In late 19th century Wales, Henry Cyril Paget (Calum Scott Howells, It’s a Sin ) takes over his estranged father’s estate and fortune, much to the dismay of his newly acquired family and staff. Henry looks or behaves nothing like a Lord should; he covers himself in jewels, dresses in expensive gowns, and has a particular flair for theatricality and dramatics. But his presence will bring a much-needed jolt of vitality into the sleepy island community, for better and for worse. Featuring supporting performances by Ruby Stokes and a stoically moving Rupert Everett, and with a lush art direction and extravagant costume design, Madfabulous is a larger-than-life, loud and unapologetic period piece about a man living outside of his time, and his attempts to remain true to himself inside the rigid social manners of high-society England.

It’s never too late to start living out loud, a reality that seventy-six year old Vicente (a tremendous José Ramón Sorois) knows all too well after coming out at fifty, ending his marriage, and moving to the gay paradise of Maspalomas in the Canary Islands. But after suffering an unexpected stroke, his daughter moves him against his wishes to a more conservative nursing home on the mainland, testing his resolve and providing — once again — an opportunity to begin anew. Too often the phrase “coming of age” feels restricted to the under-twenty set, and too rare do seniors come alive onscreen while inhabiting their full spectrum of sexuality, but what directors Aitor Arregi and Jose Mari Goenaga understand and elucidate in their immensely moving character study is that our bodies and minds adapt, connect, and desire at every age. They locate surprising humor, frank insights about our society, and a disarming tenderness without ever pulling a punch.

In 1980, William Friedkin’s Cruising became one of the most prominent (and controversial) mainstream movies to depict gay life, and its place in its queer film canon has been equally celebrated and challenged through the years. But there’s a lot more to its story. Mineshaft: The Cruising Murders dives deep into the real-life killings that inspired the main narrative of Cruising , while at the same time exploring and questioning the legacy of the film in today’s culture. What was lost in the translation from true crime into narrative? Is the film still an accurate depiction of queer social dynamics? This gripping documentary is a reminder that our relationship with pop culture is an evolving document, and that time often gives the best perspective to our own representation in film.

In the desolate roads and highways of northern Mexico, young gay drifter Muñeco catches a ride with Veneno, an indecipherable trucker that awakens in him raw desire and passion. But as the two grow closer together, they delve deeper into the extremely toxic and violent world of long-haul truckers that will threaten not only their bond, but also their lives. Winner of the Queer Lion at last year’s Venice Film Festival and recipient of the Best Actor prize for both Osvaldo Sanchez and Victor Prieto at the Morelia Film Festival, On the Road creates a portrait of unfiltered eroticism blended with unrelenting violence that’s as hypnotizing as it is tragic.

The legendary Frances Fisher ( Titanic , Unforgiven ) owns every frame as Max — a Big Bear matriarch navigating the edges of dementia — in this tender tale of memory and reconciliation. As the winter months transform the landscape around her, she struggles to remain present in her marriage under the pressure of her encroaching illness and the knowledge that her good days may soon be behind her. A chance meeting with her old friend and pen pal Diana instantly thrusts her life into a new chapter, reawakening long-dormant feelings for this lost love. In his feature directorial debut, Outfest alum Sal Bardo summons a lifetime of welling emotions with a sensitive grace that grounds every scene in a communion of past, present, and future. Anchored by Fisher as the mesmerizing emotional core of the film — and aided by ace turns from Bruce Davison ( Longtime Companion, X-Men ) as her conflicted husband and Mimi Kennedy ( In The Loop , Midnight in Paris ) as the one who got away — Max must decide, once and for all, whether happiness can be found within faded photographs and yellowing letters or if following love will lead to a last chance at togetherness.

Meet Al. Al is an aspiring cartoonist. Al is insecure. Al has a mundane corporate job and a problematic boss. Al is a trans man who is secretly in love with his best friend Jesse. Who happens to also be attending the same weeklong queer artist workshop as Al. As Al nervously rides the “will they, won’t they” tension with a clueless and effervescent Jesse, another attending artist named Mason threatens to insert himself into the picture, leaving Al on the verge of crashing out. What Al has trouble articulating through words comes to vibrant life in his drawings. Al’s meek demeanor belies his hyperactive and raunchy interior monologue, interspersed on the screen, as he tries to connect the dots between his art and his feelings. Starring EJ Marcus and Morgan Sullivan, and executive produced by Lilly Wachowski, Andy Fioten’s rom-com pulses with trans joy, infusing an original soundtrack of indie melodies from Frankie Cosmos with a warm wash of nostalgia, perfectly encapsulating the anxiety of being so close to a truth you can’t express.

Soon after she moves to Sparks, Nevada with her mom, Cleo ( Eighth Grade ’s Elsie Fisher) spots an antique cigarette machine stranded on the side of the road. As she approaches, it spits out a worn-out copy of Jean-Luc Godard’s Notes on Cinema , and, from that, an obsession with the style and inventiveness of the French New Wave is born. When she befriends a group of local punks and misfits, Cleo learns of an urban legend that haunts the lonely desert blacktop of a local reservoir that—so the story goes—is a time-traveling portal. Desperate to get away from the life she’s afraid of inheriting, Cleo takes it to heart, and goes in search of Paris of the 1960s. Blending the anarchic and candy-colored style of early Gregg Araki with the formal boundlessness of the Nouvelle Vague, Sparks marks the arrival of a major new filmmaking talent in director Fergus Campbell, and will have you simultaneously misty-eyed for the lost hopes of a past self, and grinning from ear-to-ear.

Brock Yurich braces director Sam McConnell’s bruising drama about an amateur bodybuilder in working-class rural Ohio with aching sensitivity as both its screenwriter and star. Between clocking in at his service job, saving up cash, and navigating a daily minefield of co-dependence from his mother-manager (the great Tammy Blanchard), Eddie (Yurich) chips away in the gym to achieve his dream of becoming a champion. In order to afford the daily regime of medications required to bulk up, he also moonlights as a cam-boy for an audience of faceless men. All eyes are on his body, but underneath he wrestles to set free his dormant sexuality. Co-starring Glee ’s Matthew Morrison as his community pastor and Mike Edward as a new coach whose mentorship unlocks Eddie’s hidden potential, this journey of self-discovery in the heartland hits every authentic beat with muscular emotional embodiment.

Kenny Starling lives in the small, conservative town of Rock Springs, Wyoming. They are about to open the first ever drag and queer theater company with a shadow cast performance of The Rocky Horror Picture Show , facing a heated political climate and vocal protestors determined to suppress them. But Kenny, alongside an eclectic ensemble of small-town personalities, will fight to bring a small pocket of queer joy to life. Just in time to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary, Time Warp is a testament to how the cult classic continues to bring generations of outcasts together. But it also sheds light on the often overlooked queer stories being lived in rural areas. Nothing embodies the Rocky Horror spirit of resilience, liberation and joy better than those fighting in the sidelines.