Breaking up is hard to do, but it is not impossible. So says Elsie, a "not so square" Toronto lesbian on the next big cusp of her life. Leaving her girlfriend and facing a corporate takeover at work, Elsie navigates the uncertainty of her future in the shadow of her disapproving mother; disapproving not because…

   

Who remembers being seventeen? The angst, the despair, the ecstasy and the sublime, all boiling in a sea of hormones and insecurities. Sangaile is seventeen and locked away in her fear, shame and rebellion, miserably vacationing with her parents at their modern lake house. The summer is long and introspective until she meets Auste, who…

   

Claire and David bond over the loss of Laura, Claire’s best friend and David’s wife. As they grieve together, they help each other become their more authentic selves. Like a French perfume, this psychological bender of a romantic comedy has crisp, floral head notes, heavy heart notes, and dramatic base notes. Prolific French director Ozon’s…

   

Two Muslim teens living in post 9/11 Brooklyn balance their mutual romantic attraction with their small-time scheming operation. Reserved Naz and outgoing Maalik have recently taken their relationship to a new level, though the teens have not declared their sexuality to family or friends. After a run-in with an undercover cop selling guns, they are…

   

Taiwanese-American Danny and his partner Tate live in West Hollywood and they want to have a baby. Danny's mom, Mrs. Lee, (expertly played by The Wedding Banquet's Gua Ah-leh) travels from Taipei to oversee the proceedings and ensure the surrogate mother is exactly right. She has a vested interest, as she has no other grandchildren…

   

You know it is going to messy when a woman professes, “I love my husband” and then lunges into a mind-blowing kiss with the woman her husband fantasizes about… and, unknown to him, is her ex-lover. Marital bliss takes an unexpected turn on Love Island, a steamy vacation spot teeming with intrigue and not so subtle…

   

For better or for worse, in sickness and in health, till death do you part … are you sure? This middle class family consists of mom and dad and two teen-age kids trying to, "just blend in with everybody else," while coming to terms with the truth that dad would be more comfortable being mom.…

   

“While you weren’t looking, I had an affair, our daughter grew up and began to explore her identity and sexuality, my politics swung a wide right, my value system changed and I lied myself into believing my capitalism is not incongruent with my activism.” Dez doesn’t actually say these things, but this is certainly what…

   

Rejected by Hollywood, Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein travels to Mexico to shoot a new film funded by author and socialite Upton Sinclair. Eisenstein travels among Mexico's elite, including Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, but his greatest enlightenment comes from his guide Palomino Cañedo. Eisenstein follows as Palomino leads him into a world of pleasure and…

   

When Mom Visits (Chiung-Wen Chang, 2015, Taiwan/USA, 19 min) Surprise! Cue complications. The First Session (Ryan Logan, 2015, USA, 6 min) Therapy is a great place to meet chicks. Pepper (Patrick Aubert, 2014, Canada, 7 min) Three is sometimes, for some people, a crowd. Moonlight (Janella Lacson, 2015, USA, 12 min) Memories can seem so…

   

“There’s a feeling here inside, that I cannot hide and I know I’ve tried. But, it’s turning me around.” The Wiz’s version of “Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore” is just the beginning of this beautifully crafted film by Sidney Lumet, with a who’s who of 1978 cast. These songs have become classics, from “Ease on Down…

   

Oat, a young man in Bangkok, remembers the turning point in his life. At eleven, his idolized older brother, Ek, must participate in Thailand’s bizarre military draft lottery. Cards are drawn and the color of the card decides the fate of the young men. Working class, Ek and his affluent boyfriend are up for the lottery and Oat…

   

In a darkly beautiful Argentinian estate, Virginia waits at home alone. Her father, a doctor, has gone to help a sick cousin. Meanwhile, another cousin, the broodingly stunning Anabel, arrives and the two huddle in remote isolation as stories of a local rabies epidemic circle around them. Anabel too suffers from a mysterious illness, sleeping…

   

Death is God's greatest betrayal. Who is innocent? No one. Patricia Velasquez, (“The L Word” and The Mummy) “the world’s first Latin supermodel” and recently out lesbian is the beautiful Liz, who loves women with a passion and lives life the same way, even when both are slowly moving out of her grasp. The steamy…

   

Every person has a unique story and shares that with the world accordingly. Stories of individuals transitioning their gender can also be told in vastly different ways. They can be lived in the limelight like Caitlyn Jenner or they can be quietly heroic like our protagonist Stephanía. Born Roberto in Nicaragua where he supported the Sandinista…

   

Sex, drugs, disco, and at the center of it all, a bisexual anti-hero (Ryan Phillippe as Shane O’Shea)… Sounds perfect for 2015, or an underground movie from the 1960s. But in 1998 when the film was originally released, some felt it might be too edgy for a wide audience. And so it was recut –…

   

Henry Gamble wakes up next to his close friend on the morning of his 17th birthday and, as boys his age do, they talk about sex. After their morning rituals, the boys prepare for the big birthday party later that day. Guests show up, and they all take their traditional positions, kids in the pool…

   

When your S&M pseudonym is Sally, you are obviously not a top! Even if you want to be the butchest, badass in the room, you are in for a world of hurt as Sally. Sally aka Jamie’s new paramour is the lovely Jill who, much to Jamie’s chagrin, knows a thing or two about being the top…

   

Filmmaker Stu Maddux wants to bring us out of the closet, again. This delightful documentary explores the films, tapes and videos that are languishing in the closets and attics of so many LGBT people and their families. Reels and reels of home movies are showcased, from as early as the 1930’s, and they chronicle LGBT…

   

Benny and Christopher are young freshmen at their rural Ohio college when they meet playing football and begin to fall for each other--hard. But when Christopher's mother reveals a tragic past event shared by the two boys, their young love must endure an unexpected test. Will love be able to conquer their families' mutual pain? This sweetly…

   

Closets (Lloyd Eyre-Morgan, 2015, UK, 19 min) The ultimate queer time machine is a life saver. Vagina Is the Warmest Color (Trailer) (Anna Margarita Albelo, 2015, USA, 2 min) Sound familiar? Heavenly Peace (Andreas Wessel-Therhorn, 2014, USA, 5 min) A celestial Rolf König animated mediator. Tomgirl (Jeremy Asher Lynch, 2014, USA, 14 min) Everybody loves…

   

Adam is rationing his testosterone while saving up for genital reconstruction surgery when an unexpected and complicated fling with his ex-girlfriend Miriam leads to them both getting pregnant. As if parenthood weren't complicated enough already. Maureen Bradley’s heartfelt comedic debut film delves into issues of masculinity, love, and what it means to be a parent.…

   

When Adam, an average Joe car mechanic from Anytown, America finally comes out to his best buds on his 24th birthday, they struggle to understand the surprising news. Ultimately, dudes will be dudes, and loyalty in friendship prevails. They man up, and get behind Joe’s mission, teach him how to use apps to pick up…

   

Olivier Ducastel et Jacques Martineau, 2016, France, 97 mins. Sponsored by:  Paul Sponseller, CFP, Raymond James An orgiastic opening scene lures the viewer into an erotic hypnotic state. Eighteen minutes later, two men, Theo and Hugo, leave behind the heady electronic beat of a Paris club’s sex-for-sex’s-sake soundtrack and begin pursuing each other singularly, as…

   

Tor Iben, 2015, Germany, 79 mins. In this sweet coming out story a young Turkish man living in Berlin is outed by his spiteful sister and subsequently kicked out to live on his own. All is not lost, as he finds acceptance from one of his uncles and falls in love with a blond-eyed German…

   

Alden Peters, 2015, USA, 72 mins. Queer Youth Celebration! - Free Admission Filmmaker Alden Peters is coming out of the closet to his friends and family...on camera. Their filmed reactions range from happy tears to denial, but the overall result is acceptance of Peters’ formerly painful secret. As his story unfolds, Peters investigates his new…

   

Tim Kirkman, 2016, USA, 90 min Sponsored by TransAmerica After Alex and Dean's great love slipped away in a New York studio apartment fifteen years ago, they never spoke again. That is, until now. Finding each other again on the internet, they decide to rekindle their long-lost love in the middle of the Mojave during…

   

Carlo Lavagna, 2015, Italy, 84 mins. Coming of age almost always involves a treacherous journey into grasping how those we have depended on our entire lives have violated and failed us. Eventually those murky waters of confusion and shame give way to truth as Arianna, bereft by the ignorant betrayal of her parents and her…

   

Adam Garnet Jones, 2016, Canada, 96 mins. Filmmaker Adam Garnet Jones says that, "Two-Spirited" is a category that is intended to capture a spectrum of Queer Indigenous people, and one that acknowledges the male and female spirits that Queer Indigenous people carry with them." Jones’s film tackles this and so much more. Fire Song is…

   

Ester Gould & Reijer Zwaan, 2016, Netherlands/Belgium, 85 min When it comes to Madonna, the male dancers who vogued and let their bodies move to the music (move to the music!) are just as iconic as her cone bra.  When it was released, Truth or Dare offered a daring message entangled in their backstage shenanigans:…

   

Catherine Corsini, 2015, France, 105 min Sponsored by JPMorgan Chase & Co. “You’ve changed.  More Parisian, maybe.” So says Antoine after Delphine returns for the summer to help her mother run the farm when her father has a stroke.  Delphine had been in Paris attending the university, a bastion of feminism and change in the…

   

Rob Williams, 2016, USA, 75 min Sponsored by Hyde Park Dental Prolific storyteller Rob Williams' latest festival hit returns to Tampa after the special sneak preview this past May. SHARED ROOMS follows the stories of three interrelated groups of friends and their unique holiday traditions. Two roommates are forced to share a bed when Dylan's…

   

Amy Geller & Allie Humenuk, 2016, USA/Italy, 74 min.   The Guys Next Door is an intimate portrait of a real “Modern Family:” Meet Erik and Sandro, a gay married couple whose friend Rachel is a surrogate for their two daughters. Rachel, who is in her 40s, is married to Tony and they have three…

   

Julio Hernández Cordón, 2015, Mexico/Germany, 100 min Middle-class skateboarder Miguel is having a torrid love affair with Johnny, the son of the family's maid. Johnny is bisexual and also has a girlfriend that Miguel is jealous of causing heightened tensions between them. The couple make their living in the gritty underbelly of Mexico City wrangling…

   

Shaleece Haas, 2016, USA, 72 min – DOCUMENTARY SPOTLIGHT When you’re coming out as a trans boy, it can feel like opening a door to nowhere.  Despite a family that misunderstands Bennett, a community of transitioning men offers support, through the internet.  He finds friends who Skype their testosterone injections and mentors who teach him…

   

Nathan Adloff, 2016, USA, 90 min. Sponsored by Tampa Hillsborough Film & Digital Media Commission Sometimes a film doesn’t have to bang a loud drum. Sometimes it is enough to enjoy a pleasing production, talented actors (Molly Shannon, Missi Pyle & Paul Reiser) and a charming, sweet, good looking gay kid with a dream. Miles…

   

Deb Shoval, 2016, USA, 85 min Sponsored by Bright House Networks In rural poor Northeastern Pennsylvania a young lesbian has limited options. Falling for a capricious, straight, young mother whose trucker husband is out on the road a lot, our protagonist, Joey, is up against bad odds. As she plans for her future, enlisting in…

   

Nick Corporon, 2016, USA, 98 min Sponsored by Watermark Magazine Not your typical road trip movie, in this dramatic journey a man who is broken by regret hires a young prostitute to help him relive the past by retracing a route he took with a former lover. The two worn souls dance between hope and…

   

Stephen Dunn, 2015, Canada, 90 min. Fantasy sequences, a talking hamster, and sometimes violent imagery sprinkle the film debut from director Stephen Dunn. Closet Monster follows Oscar from boyhood and his parents’ messy divorce to adulthood and sexual urges toward his coworker, aptly named Wilder. As a boy, Oscar witnesses three kids attacking another for…

   

Clay Liford, 2016, USA, 100 min. The Bronte sisters wrote erotic fantasy fiction! At least that’s what Neil tells his high school peers when they confiscate his own fan fic. Neil’s stories are erotic, or as erotic as a 15-year-old virgin can imagine. Neil is an introvert and finds his voice through writing. Julia, a…

   

Maura Anderson, 2016, USA, 100 min. Sponsored by Creative Loafing Heartland is wonderfully engaging story combined with the star power to make it a TIGLFF favorite. Lauren (Velinda Godfrey) is a young, beautiful artist who has moved back home with her mother to regroup after her partner dies. Navigating a bible belt Oklahoma town is…

   

Händl Klaus, 2016, Austria, 114 min. In German with English subtitles.– DRAMATIC CENTERPIECE Sponsored by The Tampa Club In this Austrian domestic drama, winsome tomcat Moses lives a perfect little life. Orchestra musicians Stefan and Andreas love their cat with as much intensity as they do each other. In their impeccable home, Moses enjoys food…

   

Andrea Meyerson, 2015, USA, 96 mins. Sponsored by:  ProSuzy Provincetown!  Women’s Week!  It didn’t just happen.  It was a planned, entrepreneurial strategy by a group of motivated, brilliant women innkeepers in Provincetown 32 years ago. Clambake is a celebration of the “pushy innkeepers” who found a way to bring thousands of women to the cold…

   

He is a HOOT!Leslie Jordan will be live at the Tampa Theatre as part of our 27th film festival. Join us for a great night celebrating CommUNITY and diversity on October 5th! Enjoy Leslie's unique style of entertainment for a night you won't forget. TICKETS: ***Simpley Fabulous or Visionary Level or Higher only need to…

   

Carly Usdin, 2016, USA, 78 min A macabre comedy about hot new lesbian love and long term commitment that makes fun of some of the sad but true dysfunction involved in both stages of relationships. The plot revolves around the discovery of a “suicide note” that creates a socially awkward dynamic between two couples and…

   

André Téchiné, 2016, France, 116 min Famed director Andre Techine's (WILD REEDS) latest coming-of-age masterpiece is an intimate portrayal of the 17 year old psyche. Thomas lives on the family farm and longs to be a veterinarian.  His trek to school is a three-hour round trip adventure by bus and on foot through the visually…

   

Ana María Hermida, 2013, Colombia, 88 min. In Spanish with English subtitles. Sponsored by St. Petersburg/Clearwater Film Commission Lucia and Mariana have a common bond – Andres, Lucia’s brother and Mariana’s - fiancé. When Andres dies on the day of his wedding, Mariana falls into an inevitable pit of grief and despair. Lucia - whom…

   

Ana María Hermida, 2013, Colombia, 88 min. In Spanish with English subtitles. Sponsored by St. Petersburg/Clearwater Film Commission Lucia and Mariana have a common bond – Andres, Lucia’s brother and Mariana’s - fiancé. When Andres dies on the day of his wedding, Mariana falls into an inevitable pit of grief and despair. Lucia - whom…

   

Kerem Sanga, 2016, USA, 91 min Sponsored by Equality Florida Do you remember her?  Is someone remembering you as their first love?  Surely, it wasn’t as hard as we remember.  News flash – if it was in high school, it was definitely as hard as you remember.  Bigger news flash – it is still that…

   

Aaron Brookner, 2016, UK/USA, 97 min Sponsored by The UPS Store — Downtown St. Petersburg Howard Brookner was just camera-toting “Uncle Howard” to his nephew Aaron Brookner, until Aaron rediscovered reels of unused footage from his uncle’s first film about William S. Burroughs and other tapes and photos his late uncle left in storage.  Through…

   

Golden Golden Erica Cho, 2016, USA, 15 min Vanilla Juan Beiro, 2015, Spain, 10 min 1985 Yen Tan, 2016, USA, 9 min Balcony Toby Fell-Holden, 2015, UK, 17 min Thanks for Dancing Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken, 2015, Norway, 19 min Mukwano Cecile McNair, 2016, Denmark, 20 min

   

Sponsored by Punky’s Bar & Grill and Gay St. Pete House More Than God Kev Cahill, 2016, Ireland, 9 min MeTube 2: August Sings Carmina Burana Daniel Moshel, 2016, Austria, 6 min The Candidate Michael Hilf, 2016, USA, 6 min Tri-Curious Matt Guerin, 2016, Canada, 8 min The Second First Date Raquel Barrera, 2015, Spain,…

   

Ingrid Jungermann, 2016, USA, 93 minsMetaphor, twisted queer humor, a morbid curiosity, or all of these? Commitment phobic Morgan and her ex-girlfriend Jean, locally famous true crime podcasters, suspect that Morgan’s new love interest is a murderer. Common lesbian relationship dynamics such as living with exes, premature commitment, softball, co-ops, and ignoring one’s friends during…

   

Ray Yeung, 2015, USA, 87 min Sponsored by Macy’s Getting the coveted front cover is every stylist's goal, and Ryan is on track for the following issue.  His dream gets delayed when Ning, a Beijing movie star hoping to crossover to US audiences, specifically requests a Chinese-American stylist for his next photo shoot. Already disgruntled…

   

Jennifer Abod, 2016, USA, 76 min Sponsored by Metro Wellness & Community Centers Athlete. Dancer. Leader. Wife. Queer. Radical Activist. Angela Bowen comes of age in the 1950’s. Angela’s marriage to Ken Peters and to dance is radical by any standards - they form a dance company, they empower countless Black children to express themselves…