Category: Award Winner

Director Sergio de León gets surreal in the unique coming-of-age drama ‘Keep Coming Back’

Keep Coming Back stars newcomer Bruce Pintos as Emilio, an eighteen-year old who can hardly keep his hormones under control.

Emilio is suddenly, unexpectedly faced with handling the cursed inheritance of a rural dovecote for carrier pigeons following the death of his mother. Looking to settle her debts, he and his mother’s boyfriend Juan uncover a legacy of local bird racing championship prizes in their pigeon coop, inspiring them to begin training their feathered flock for an upcoming race.

As Emilio navigates a weighty cocktail of new, all-consuming sensations – including grief, lust and romantic longing – he discovers the local community’s gay orgies.

Deliberately surreal and packed with offbeat humor, this fascinating debut feature from South American writer-director Sergio de León is one of the most vivid and original queer coming-of-age films in recent memory.

Watch the trailer for Keep Coming Back below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

‘The Mouth of the Wolf’ is an intimate documentary hybrid with evocative atmosphere

Vintage images of a city on the decline are woven into the story of one queer couple separated for decades by prison bars in The Mouth of the Wolf, a hauntingly beautiful film from Italian director Pietro Marcello.

Vincenzo returns to Genoa after many years away, some spent in prison. He tours the city searching for the places of his childhood and the Genoa idealized in his father’s stories.

Although the reality of the city has changed, waiting for him in the small house in the ghetto is Mary Motta, his lifelong companion and a trans woman. Through material ranging from 1920’s home movies to scenes of massive ship launches and dynamited machinery, Marcello pays a mournful tribute to Genoa’s degeneration. Its fortunes are compared with those of shipwrecked survivors – as well as the two lead characters.

An intimate work with an evocative atmosphere told using a hybrid narrative structure that blends fiction and documentary The Mouth of the Wolf won the Teddy Award at the Berlin Film Festival when it was first released in 2009.

Watch the trailer for The Mouth of the Wolf below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.

Short Film Spotlight: Boychick

In sunny suburbia, a loud-mouthed Jewish mother (Andrea LaBella) incessantly nags and humiliates her shy, gay, teenage son (Ben Lang) – who she calls her Boychick.

Meanwhile, in the classroom, Boychick can’t seem to stop ogling a hunky male classmate. If only Boychick had the courage to face up to his desires.

As if by magic, along comes his idol, a pop star by the name of Ashley Hart (Lindsey Girardot). She arrives just at the right time, ready to give our lonely, long-suffering protagonist the hip-strutting, hair-flicking confidence he desperately craves.

Originally released in 2001, this crowd-pleasing 12-minute comedy from writer, director and producer Glenn Gaylord won over 14 different awards at LGBTQ+ festivals.

Boychick is finally back to slay once again! The short film is now streaming on Dekkoo!

Tsai Ming-liang’s ‘Days’ is one of the decade’s best and most underseen gay films

For decades, the great Taiwanese filmmaker Tsai Ming-liang has been directing exquisite examinations of alienation, isolation and the fleeting beauty of human connection – often in collaboration with his muse, actor Lee Kang-sheng.

His award-winning, critically acclaimed 2020 film, Days, undoubtedly stands as one of his best, sparest and most intimate works.

Lee once again stars as a variation on himself, wandering through a lonely urban landscape and seeking treatment in Hong Kong for a chronic illness. At the same time, a young Laotian immigrant working in Bangkok goes about his daily routine.

These two solitary men eventually come together in a moment of healing, tenderness and sexual release.

Among the most cathartic entries in Tsai’s filmography, Days is a work of longing, constructed with the director’s customary brilliance at visual composition and crafted with a profound dose of empathy.

Watch the trailer for Days below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Short Film Spotlight: My Name is Love

Love and Sebastian (Adam Lundgren and Jonas Rimeika) meet each other by chance during a romantic summer night in Sweden.

Though the two men share the same secret, their encounter is going to cause severe consequences for both of them as their innocent flirtation soon turns into a dangerous liaison.

From award-winning Swedish filmmaker David Färdmar, the director behind Are We Lost Forever and No More We, both of which are also currently available on Dekkoo, My Name is Love is an unsparing 20-minute short film explores the dark side of anonymous sex.

Originally released in 2008, the film screened at LGBTQ+ film festivals all around the globe and earned numerous awards. It also earned controversy over its hard-hitting subject matter. Viewer discretion is strongly advised.

Watch a clip from My Name is Love below. The short film is now available on Dekkoo.

Short Film Spotlight: Utopia

Thomas and Julien, two boys from different social backgrounds, decide to meet in person after first connecting over the internet. Together, the pair embark on a dreamy adventure through the Parisian suburbs.

Lost among architectural projects, they begin an on-going conversation about the concept of utopia, and begin to nourish ideas about what their own personal utopia might look like.

Lead actors Pierre Elliott and Romain Poli deliver tender performances as two romantic young men who form a much-needed connection in this 22-minute short film from director Manfred Rott, originally released in 2012 to great acclaim at queer film festivals around the globe.

Gorgeously shot on 16 millimeter black and white film, Utopia is quietly moving and feels timeless in both vision and theme.

Watch a teaser trailer for Utopia below. The short film is now available on Dekkoo.

A mother and her gay son seek out a better life in the comedy ‘Potato Dreams of America’

Obsessed with old Hollywood movies and concerned for her son’s future in 1980s USSR, Lena becomes a mail-order bride and moves to the United States.

Though she hopes to give her son, Potato, a better life, things veer off course when his burgeoning sexuality and love of New Queer Cinema clash with his new father’s political and religious points of view.

Stylized and deliriously campy, Potato Dreams of America conjures a portrayal of the American dream that is as hopeful and hilarious as it is dizzying.

Featuring a star-studded LGBTQ+ cast – including Lea DeLaria and Jonathan Bennett – this autobiographical crowd-pleaser from writer/director Wes Hurley, a major hit with audiences at film festivals all around the world, is designed to make you laugh and spark some whimsical wonder along the way.

Watch the trailer for Potato Dreams of America below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.

‘Block Pass’ is a sensitive, deeply felt and quietly profound queer motocross drama

A breathtaking drama that was shown during the Critics Week at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the Queer Palm award, Block Pass, director Antoine Chevrollier’s first feature-length film, explores masculinity and sexuality in rural France.

Sayyid El Alami and Amaury Foucher star as Willy and Jojo, best friends who share a joint passion for motorcycles. Jojo is a skillful young driver who is well on his way to becoming famous in the local racing scene while Willy is there primarily for moral support, helping his closest friend to live his dream.

When Jojo’s secret desires are revealed, his fast track to fame begins to crumble. The two friends soon find themselves embarking on a rocky journey that neither of them wanted while navigating grief, toxic masculinity and unspoken desires along the way.

Sensitive, deeply felt, quietly profound and featuring impressively authentic performances from the young ensemble cast, Block Pass is a queer coming-of-age sports drama that establishes Antoine Chevrollier as a notable up-and-coming filmmaker.

Watch the trailer for Block Pass below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.

Short Film Spotlight: One Day This Kid

As told by filmmaker Alexander Farah through a deftly composed array of small yet pivotal moments, the 17-minute short One Day This Kid follows a first-generation Afghan-Canadian man as he struggles to come to terms with being gay against the disapproval of his immigrant parents and takes steps toward establishing an identity of his own under his father’s shadow.

Inspired by the work of renowned artist David Wojnarowicz, the film uses gorgeous cinematography and emotional precision to tell the story of one gay boy growing up in a society that rejects him at all costs.

Delicate and poised, yet deeply powerful, this is the kind of heart-wrenching storytelling that should not be missed. Marking Farah as a filmmaker to watch, the film won the Narrative Short Competition at the 2025 South by Southwest Film Festival and has earned great acclaim at some of the world’s most prestigious cinema forums, including TIFF, the AFI Fest, Slamdance, Festival du Nouveau Cinema and many more.

Watch a teaser trailer for One Day This Kid below. The short film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

‘Fashion Victims,’ a 2007 comedy crowd-pleaser from Germany, makes its debut on Dekkoo!

Wolfgang (Edgar Selge) is a middle-aged traveling ladies’ fashion salesman. Persnickety, humorless and self-absorbed, he’s alternately inattentive and insensitive toward wife Erika (Franziska Walser) and their teenage son Karsten (Florian Bartholomäi).

At the start of Fashion Victims, a 2007 comedy from German co-writer and director Ingo Rasper, Wolfgang finds himself in dire straits. His rival is threatening to steal his best customers and he’s also lost his driver’s license.

Desperate to stay one step ahead of his young enemy salesman, he cancels his son’s vacation plans and employs him as an unwilling chauffeur. Things soon go from bad to worse – the bank is after him, the taxman catches up with him, he’s on the outs with his wife, and, perhaps most surprisingly, his son announces that he’s gay… and has fallen in love with his father’s dreaded rival!

Both bullets and misunderstandings start flying once family and foe collide in this sexy screwball comedy.

Watch a short clip from Fashion Victims below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.