Since they were both five, Ryosuke has been stalked by Momoko – the ugliest girl in the village. Her love for Ryosuke is so boundless that she has her face surgically altered to suit his taste – but still he wants nothing to do with her. Ryosuke goes in for fleeting romance – for example, with the girlfriend of a gangster boss. But when he finds out about their affair, he has Ryosuke’s little finger hacked off. Magically, the finger falls into Momoko’s hands, and she uses it to clone Ryosuke, so she can finally have him (or almost him) for herself. And this is just the first five minutes of Lisa Takeba’s short-but-powerful feature debut. Just like in her previous short films, the director – who cut her teeth in the advertising world and as the writer of a video game – throws a lot of genres and techniques into the mix: from science fiction to gangster films, from hospital eroticism to animation. Hectic and absurd, but with its heart in the right place. © IFFR

Philip Van Horn, who left his small town a long time ago to become a Hollywood actor and hasn’t had any success at that, returns to the town for a visit. There he is uniformally met like some kind of celebrity and movie star. He uses it to impress his (and everybody’s) school love Dorothy, her life now a grey boring experience.

Al McCord is hanging out at his favourite restaurant when he meets an attractive young woman (Ellie) who is looking for a ride from the city out into the Mojave Desert, where her mother lives. Little does he know that while Ellie is falling in love with him, he is falling for her mother (Julie), despite the nearby presence of Julie’s boyfriend who seems likely to go berzerk at any moment. Even more strange, hilarious events follow and it’s up to Al to find some explanation. His life may never again be the same.

Of all the great ballerinas, Tanaquil Le Clercq may have been the most transcendent. With a body unlike any before hers, she mesmerized viewers and choreographers alike. With her elongated, race-horse physique, she became the new prototype for the great George Balanchine. Because of her extraordinary movement and unique personality on stage, she became a muse to two of the greatest choreographers in dance, George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. She eventually married Balanchine, and Robbins created his famous version of Afternoon of a Faun for her. She had love, fame, adoration, and was the foremost dancer of her day until it suddenly all stopped. At the age of 27, she was struck down by polio and paralyzed. She never danced again. The ballet world has been haunted by her story ever since.

Like many couples, April and Derrick feel like the spark is missing from their marriage. With the demands of work and their hectic schedules, they find themselves in a six-month dry spell. Desperate to shake up their love life and rekindle their passion for each other, they decide to share a steamy night with their free-spirited friends, Christy and Matt. Soon after, April and Derrick find themselves dealing with unexpected feelings and must find a way to let go of the mistrust and fall in love with each other all over again.

Mia, Lukas and Jonas always where like one heart and soul since their earliest childhood. Until three years ago when everything changed. Friendship became love that is well beyond all conventions. A Part of the society feels provoked by such kind of companionship and meets them with some lack of understanding to say the least. Even their parents aren’t really fond of the situation. Once a year, the trio makes a trip. During which they try to let emotion flow as they come, not having to fear the reactions of others. Now there is the time again for such a trip. And that is where the film starts. After renting a mobile home the journey starts as usual. Only one thing different this time, Jonas was diagnosed with cancer in terminal state a few months ago. The three of them know that this might very well be the last trip they will ever make. Regardless, Mia and Lukas try their best for Jonas not to think of the inevitable. Sadly the vow to spend the last trip only in joy, fails.

Sexy. Style-conscious. Extreme love affairs. Complicated friendships. Life happens all too quickly when Cloey is reluctantly plucked from her comfort zone and complete reliance on others is overturned – a secure relationship with her boyfriend unravels, her childhood best friend is moving away and daddy’s (Daniel Baldwin) checkbook closes. City Baby comments on the ladder-climbing mentality of always reaching for the next bigger, better thing – relationship, city, job – when sometimes what’s right in front of us is just fine. Scattered with cameos from Portland musicians like Stephen Malkmus of Pavement, live musical performances by Glass Candy and Starfucker, and a thoughtful soundtrack featuring all Portland bands and musicians, City Baby depicts a playground for semi-adults, revolving through the lives of cool kids.

When James met Penelope at a club, it took all of three weeks before they were married. But after the marriage, other women became attracted to James and he kept getting promoted, which took him away from Penelope. So Penelope puts on a disguise and robs her husband’s bank. Her psychiatrist, Greg, believes that this condition is caused by James being over worked and under romantic with Penelope. She also tells Greg that she robs the business associates of James. But Greg is in love with Penelope – in fact everyone likes her. The problem is when she confesses to her crimes, no one believes her.

A magician competes in an international magic competition where he goes head to head with a female street magician he has fallen in love with. This film shows great magic performed by a cast of professional magicians. Like a great musical where the songs and the story are seamlessly intertwined, Desperate Acts of Magic does the same, mixing story and magic as one.

Twenty five years after Miguel died from AIDS, his niece, filmmaker Cecilia Aldarondo, embarks on an excavation into a quagmire of unresolved family drama. Like many gay men in the 1980s, Miguel moved from Puerto Rico to New York City; he found a career in theater and a rewarding relationship. Yet, on his deathbed he grappled to reconcile his homosexuality with his Catholic upbringing. Now, decades after his death, Cecilia locates Miguel’s lover Robert, who has been shunned and demonized by the family, in order to understand the whole story.

Seven-year-old Danny Parker is a good kid who loves his parents. But they have to go out on business dinners all the time, leaving him stuck with a sitter. It’s not so bad when it’s his favorite babysitter, Janelle but he also gets stuck with sitters like Ms. Greene who won’t let him have any fun. Danny just wants to spend more time with his Mom and Dad.

By his dying father’s last wish Joe is sent to the Wild West to become a real guy. The dreamy young man despises guns and fights likes poems and prefers bicycles to horses. Now his three teachers footpads all of them shall teach him otherwise. This doesn’t work until Joe has to defend himself against gunman Morton who’s jealous of Joe’s love to rancher Ohlsen’s beautiful daughter.

Monty is a mechanic struggling to make ends meet as he raises his three young daughters. When the court awards custody of his daughters to his shady ex-wife, Monty desperately tries to win them back with the help of Julia, a beautiful, Ivy League-educated attorney. Monty and Julia couldn’t be less alike, but a flame is ignited…touching off a firestorm of love and conflict.

Marisa Paredes is Leocadia (“Leo”) Macias, a woman writing “pink” romance novels under the alias of Amanda Gris that are very popular all across Spain. Unlike her romantic novels, her own love life is troubled. Leo has a less than happy relationship with her husband Paco, a military officer stationed in Brussels then later in Bosnia, who is distant both physically and emotionally.

Stupid Young Heart is a story about the first love of lightly built, carefree Lenni and gorgeous and popular Kiira. Not yet even properly in a relationship, they discover that they are expecting a baby, and decide to keep it – partly as a statement to their families who have lost touch with what goes on in the teenagers’ lives. Lenni then has nine months to become a man. Having grown up without a father figure, Lenni receives some yearned for adult attention from an unlikely friend; 40-year old Janne, a member of a right wing activist group. After taking part in a scrambled attack on a local Mosque, while Kiira is rushed to the hospital to give birth, Lenni realises that he can be a man in his own way, even if he never had a chance to be a child himself.

1999, Serbia is bombed and Kosovo region is left for plunder by bandits under command of Albanian warlord, Smuk. The removal of the human organs take place within the territories bandits have taken, the robberies, mass assassinations and genocide. Russian intelligence officer Bek Ethoev and former paratrooper turned mercenary Andrey Shatalov head a small detachment tasked with the dangerous mission to stop the terrorism, recapture the airfield used by the bandits and rescue Shatalov’s love interest Yasna, who was captured to be harvested for organs, like the rest of the Serbian prisoners.

In 1992, a heavy rainstorm caused massive power outage in Hong Kong. At that night, two young astrology enthusiasts, Moon and Sun, met under the starry night by the seaside. When their affection to each other grew, Sun was admitted into a boarding school and would move to another country in a few months under his father’s plan. Like the sun and moon, the couple could hardly see each other despite that they were living in the same city, but their love endured amidst the separation and opposition from Moon’s mother. Overcoming the challenges from teachers, friends and family, time has come for Sun to depart…

The bumpy little van was snowing outside, letting passenger Zhang Zhongqing remember the day when he first came to Yanshou Village 30 years ago. That day was the beginning of love and sin in his life… Thirty years ago, he and Lin Hanxue of Yanshou Village had a private life. On the way to elopement, the lover is willing to be arrested in order to save him, to complete his escape. However, this scene of leaving alone in the eyes of Lin Shiying is more like an irresponsible abandonment. He separated his daughter from the world and separated the rumors of outsiders.

TUCKED is a raw and tender drama about an aging 80 year old drag queen who forms an unlikely friendship with a younger queen, both struggling with their own issues of gender identity and mortality. As they discover more about each other, they realize how to truly be themselves. It’s a ‘slice of life’ drama about love, loss and friendship; a feel good film with a great charm and sense of humour.
Tucked was screened at Outfest Los Angeles in July 2018 and won two awards – AUDIENCE AWARD – BEST NARRATIVE FEATURE
GRAND JURY PRIZE – INTERNATIONAL NARRATIVE FEATURE

Concerned her widowed mother Tracy will be lonely when she leaves for college, kind-natured Ashley secretly creates an online dating profile for her mom and meets Jared, who seems like the perfect match. When Tracy “accidentally” meets Jared and they fall in love, Ashley is comforted to see her mother happy until Jared moves in and begins doing whatever he can do to shut her out of their new life. It quickly becomes apparent that Jared’s hold on Tracy will lead to devastating consequences if Ashley doesn’t do something about it and must find a way to take Jared down.

The Lapland tundra. Rupi is a young miner who fills his days by traficking in illegal pills, drinking, and dropping coins in a slot machine. After his friend is murdered, Rupi realises that he loves his friend’s widow. But the mine owner wants her too. The violence becomes a spectacle, the tragedy comic, the tundra cold, the people degenerate and hope ephemeral, like a star shooting through the sky. But even in this world, hope briefly rears its head.

A modern take on the classic fairytale, Alice in Wonderland, set in South East England.An American law student in London. Knocked down by a black cab, she wakes with amnesia in a world that’s a million miles from home – Wonderland. We follow her adventures as she’s dragged through an underworld filled with twisted individuals and the lowest low-lifers, by the enigmatic cab driver, Whitey. She needs to find out who she is, where she’s from and use what wits she has left to get back home in one piece. As her journey progresses she discovers nothing is what it seems, realizes that fate and life are terminally entwined, and finds true love lurking in the unlikeliest place.

Desire and greed intertwines the lives of a Bollywood star, his chauffeur, a prostitute and her pimp in an unlikely love story.

What if life blindsided destiny? What if happiness was found in the unlikeliest of places? When do we allow ourselves to embrace the new without fear of letting go of the past? Gil is a twenty year old young man that questions himself and the world. He is an orphan, raised by his aunt Leila and his uncle César. His lifestyle is fulfilled by his guitar, poetry and alcohol, generating a family war that causes Gil to run away from home causing him to leave behind all his belongings, security and the only love that he had till then, the love of his aunt Leila. With his guitar on his back, without a destiny, money or the support of friends, Gil meets Otávio, a music producer that will change his destiny forever.

A young man, Pat, visits the clan of gypsy-like grifters (Irish Travellers) in rural North Carolina from whom he is descended. He is at first rejected, but cousin Bokky takes him on as an apprentice. Pat learns the game while Bokky falls in love and desires a different life. Written by Jeff Hole