This Year’s Queer Cinema Selection
NZIFF Team
This year’s NZIFF line-up dives into queer lives with heat, heartbreak and humour. From tender crushes to messy breakups, bad decisions to moments of bold clarity, these are the stories that make us feel seen, understood, and maybe just a little exposed.
The Sundance breakout that went viral after a leaked sex scene forced the festival to pull it from online. It starts as a deadpan comedy about twin grief but quickly spirals into something stranger, darker and way more erotic, as a support group connection turns into obsession. Smart, sexy and unforgettable.
Brazilian director Marcelo Caetano captures São Paulo from all angles in Baby, the tale of a tumultuous partnership in love and business between a young offender fresh out of youth detention, and an older sex worker with a side hustle in drug dealing and pick-pocketing.
Sensual, tender and beautifully filmed, Cactus Pears tells the story of two childhood friends who reunite at a funeral and soon realise they want to share a future together. It also marks the first Indian film to win the prestigious World Cinema Dramatic Competition at Sundance.
Sick of academia, bougie Enzo decides to try his hand as a mason’s apprentice, but it’s soon clear to everyone he’s crap at the job. Awash with family money among workmen who don’t come from wealth, he’s stuck between two worlds without fitting into either, and his crush on a handsome older workmate leads to a tale of teen infatuation and discovery.
In this sultry queer take on the erotic thriller, a one-night stand between an ambitious theatre actor and a closeted politician opens a Pandora's box of power play and a penchant for sex in public places. As the dares escalate, the pair find it harder to balance their wholesome public personas with their secret identities.
Part of Norwegian trilogy, Dreams, Sex, Love, (all three screening at this year’s festival), Dreams is a queer coming-of-age tale about a 17-year-old with an intense crush on her French teacher. A tender recollection of the unforgettable rush of first love, the story unfolds through voiceovers as the now older narrator reads the diary she penned as a teen.
The lurker is Matthew, a twentysomething retail worker and desperate wannabe who weasels his way into the inner circle of rising music star, Oliver, after a chance meeting in the shop. It’s not long before Matthew’s cringy behaviour goes from bad to worse and he overstays his welcome, but as the mask starts to drop, it’s clear he’ll do anything to keep up with the in-crowd.
Take an inter gay-lactic tour of the galaxy with this candy-coloured adult animation, packed with dodgy jokes, musical numbers, glitter, space goo, and a reluctant heroine on a mission to save her kidnapped ex-girlfriend. Queer sci-fi comedy at its weird and wonderful best!
A tense, atmospheric queer thriller set in 1997 upstate New York, Plainclothes follows an undercover cop assigned to entrap gay men in public restrooms. When he meets Andrew, his mission spirals into forbidden desire. Shot on grainy Hi‑8 style and pulsing with ’90s nostalgia - the film builds to a New Year’s Eve reckoning that confronts desire, duty, and shame.
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