No Shame, No Gain: Queer(ed) Shorts at Sundance 2025
SUNDANCE 2025: In this report, we highlight five interesting Sundance short films of different styles that we found memorable across the festival’s LGBTQIA+ offerings this year.
Sapphic Love in a Changing Taiwan: ‘Blind Love’ (2025) by Julian Chou
ROTTERDAM 2025: Julian Chou’s sophomore feature presents a meandering look at the state of queer acceptance in Taiwan through the conceit of an unexpected love triangle.
‘The way to get there is to have an emotional approach to your intimacy scenes’: Mathias Broe on ‘Sauna’
SUNDANCE 2025: The director of this new gay love story speaks about collaborating with a Copenhagen porn collective and drawing from real-life trans experiences in the Danish healthcare system.
Queering the Divine Comedy: ‘Rains Over Babel’ (2025) by Gala del Sol
SUNDANCE/ROTTERDAM 2025: It’s colourful, it’s counterhegemonic, it’s the coolest club inspired by those in Cali, Colombia—it’s Babel, where you can gamble with Death and order drinks from the Devil.
‘This is what we thought was necessary in Latin American cinema’: Gala del Sol on ‘Rains Over Babel’
SUNDANCE 2025: The young Colombian-born filmmaker speaks about finding inspiration in traditions of Latin American magical realism and creating her stylish debut feature in collaboration with local theatre actors and her family.
‘There’s another way possible’: Gianluca Matarrese on ‘GEN_’
SUNDANCE 2025: The Italian documentarian shared his insights into the making of his new film, who traverses a huge spectrum of patient cases to showcase the very real examples of a more compassionate healthcare system.
What is Obsession, If Not Grief Persevering?: ‘Twinless’ (2025) by James Sweeney
SUNDANCE 2025: The Alaska-born writer-director’s sophomore feature is just as playful as it is devastating, also featuring a very versatile Dylan O’Brien.
Emancipatory Road-Tripping: ‘Where the Wind Comes From’ (2025) by Amel Guellaty
SUNDANCE/ROTTERDAM 2025: Two young Tunisians set off on a cross-country journey with the end goal of escaping their systemic social conditions in this genuinely sincere, vibrant, and hopeful debut from Tunisian writer-director Amel Guellaty.
You Are Being Watched: ‘Plainclothes’ (2025) by Carmen Emmi
SUNDANCE 2025: In this stylistically creative debut feature, a young police officer in ‘90s upstate New York tasked with entrapping gay men must decide between staying true to himself and his rising career.
There is Hope, I Think: ‘Trans Memoria’ (2024) by Victoria Verseau
TROMSØ 2025: The Swedish filmmaker offers a raw and personal collage of her medical transition by returning to the treatment centre where her gender-affirming surgery took place in 2012, accompanied by others preparing to do the same.