Honouring the Inevitable: ‘Tangles’ (2026) by Leah Nelson
SAN SEBASTIÁN 2026: The Canadian filmmaker adapts Sarah Leavitt’s autobiographical novel to create what is undoubtedly one of the best queer animated features of recent years.
debut feature
‘I lean toward the dark and twisted, and I hope we are allowed to have more narratives in that space’: Rhys Marc Jones on ‘Black Church Bay’
ZURICH 2026: The Welsh-Irish filmmaker discusses his dark debut feature, which entangles a complex set of moral and personal grey areas with questions about the biases of our social institutions.
Our Shared Reality: ‘Will You Still Be My Friend?’ (2026) by Lu Po-shun
SAN SEBASTIÁN 2026: The Taiwanese director’s solo feature debut is a subtle story on the complexity of queer childhood, all carved into an impressive piece of Taiwanese realism.
A Longing for the Upcountry: ‘Fruit Gathering’ (2026) by Aung Phyoe
KARLOVY VARY 2026: The Burmese director’s prize-winning debut feature traces the friendship and increasingly ambiguous relationship between two young women in the capital of Myanmar.
This Paradise Built in Hell: ‘Animol’ (2026) by Ashley Walters
KARLOVY VARY 2026: This directorial debut of the British TV star brings an unexpectedly queer story to the fore of a prison drama.
The Trespass of Intimacy: ‘Petty Thieves’ (2026) by Mate Ugrin
KARLOVY VARY 2026: The Berlin-based filmmaker transgresses the boundaries between closeness, seduction, fixation, and intrusion in his debut feature, set in a town overrun by tourism on the Croatian Adriatic.
The Gaze Always Leads: ‘Love Letters’ (2025) by Alice Douard
FRAMELINE50: With her feature debut, the César-winning French filmmaker makes her mark: rhythm, a camera that follows, and a story that’s close to home.
‘People who do not eat well are not to be trusted with artwork’: Viv Li on ‘Two Mountains Weighing Down My Chest’
KARLOVY VARY 2026: The China-born, Berlin-based director dishes up East and West without ever tasting resolution.
‘I believe there is something special about queer desires, whether tenderness or brutality’: Aung Phyoe on ‘Fruit Gathering’
KARLOVY VARY 2026: The writer-director shares his conscientious approach to a debut feature focused on desire, intimacy, and economic reality of working women in contemporary Myanmar.
‘While we were exploring the characters, we also found space for a bit of ambiguity’: Mate Ugrin on ‘Petty Thieves’
KARLOVY VARY 2026: Between public spaces and private encounters comes the Croatian director’s debut feature, which trades in different forms of intimacy through all that is left unspoken.