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.
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‘It’s not just a love story about a teacher—it’s about a person with queer desire going through this world’: Angelica Ruffier on ‘La belle année’
SAN SEBASTIÁN 2026: The Swedish-French filmmaker talks queer (re)discovery, acknowledging both past and present selves, and cinematic inspirations that sink deep into the soul and linger through time.
‘I wanted to give a body and existence to love between two women in Tunisia’: Leyla Bouzid on ‘In a Whisper’
SARAJEVO 2026: The filmmaker shares her approach to crafting complex family dynamics and reflecting Tunisia’s forms of social legitimacy onscreen.
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.
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.
‘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.
Retracing Our Steps: ‘In a Whisper’ (2026) by Leyla Bouzid
FRAMELINE50: A young sapphic Tunisian woman living in Paris returns home for her uncle’s funeral, both entangling and disentangling the complexities of a familial diorama when she learns her uncle, too, was queer.
In the Mundanity of Understanding: ‘A Woman’s Life’ (2026) by Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet
CANNES 2026: Léa Drucker and Mélanie Thierry are fleeting lovers in this sophomore feature that rejects the manic trope of irresistible sapphic passion.
‘I think identification is the only way we reach the other’: Alice Douard on ‘Love Letters’
FRAMELINE50: The French filmmaker talks to us about staying in the realm of questions, awkwardness, and misunderstandings while building a family in her first feature.
‘I want to change the way mainstream media sees queer women and queer Black people’: Sandulela Asanda on ‘Black Burns Fast’
FRAMELINE50: The South African filmmaker shares her no-holds-barred approach to making films, knowing what her audience wants to see, and bringing portrayals of Black girls back to a genuinely recognisable reality.