Category: Award Winner

Don’t miss the gripping, layered and beautifully honest award-winning drama José

Winner of multiple awards, including the Queer Lion from the 75th Annual Venice Film Festival, José is a gripping, layered and beautifully honest story about one working class young man’s struggle to find himself. Made in the neorealist filmmaking tradition, the film delivers a nuanced and vivid look at being gay in Central America.

José (played by magnetic newcomer Enrique Salanic) lives with his mother (Ana Cecilia Mota) in Guatemala City, where they survive on her selling sandwiches at bus stops and with him working at a local restaurant. It is a poor and sometimes dangerous country where, dominated by conservative Catholic and Evangelical Christian religion, living one’s life as an openly gay man is hard for José to imagine.

His mother has never had a husband. And though José is at the edge of manhood at 19-years old, he is her youngest and favorite child and she is determined to hold on to him.

Reserved and private, José fills his free moments playing with his phone and random sex with other men arranged on street corners and dating apps. When he meets attractive and gentle Luis (Manolo Herrera), a migrant from the rural Caribbean coast, they pursue an unexpected relationship with more emotion than José has ever felt. He is quickly thrust into new passion, pain and self-reflection that push him to rethink his life even as he is reluctant to take a leap of faith.

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

Xavier Dolan’s sensational feature debut I Killed My Mother hits Dekkoo

Released in 2009, I Killed My Mother was the semi-autobiographical debut feature film by then 20-year-old Xavier Dolan – who quickly became a breakthrough star director on the international film scene.

Focusing on the relationship between Hubert Minel (Dolan), a 16-year-old Quebecois living in suburban Montreal, and his single mother Chantale (Anne Dorval), I Killed My Mother beautifully captures the anxieties of a mother-son relationship.

While he gauges her with contempt, only seeing her out-of-date sweater and kitschy decor, the ingrained mechanisms (i.e. manipulation and guilt) of their relationship beautifully (and tragically) unravel on the big screen.

After the film’s debut, I Killed My Mother was nominated for dozens of film festival awards all over the globe and quickly became a sensation. Dolan has gone on to make many more features, often with major Hollywood stars. He has also had some other big acting opportunities in films like Bad Times at the El Royale and It: Chapter Two.

Watch the trailer for I Killed My Mother below. The film is available now on Dekkoo.

Now Available: Parallel Sons

A gay indie classic and film festival favorite from 1995, Parallel Sons follows the relationship that develops between a white teen who identifies as black and a young black man who has been wounded while escaping prison.

Seth (Gabriel Mann) is a youth with artistic leanings, a fascination with Black pop culture and a dead-end life in an Adirondack village. He’s alternatively sensitive and brutal with Kristen (Heather Gottlieb), who wants a sexual relationship that he explosively rejects.

Late one night, as he’s closing the cafe where he works, a young Black man attempts to rob him at gun point but faints from illness. Seth takes the man, Knowledge (Laurence Mason), an escapee from a nearby prison, to a family cabin where he nurses him and they begin a tentative friendship. When the sheriff learns of Seth’s harboring a fugitive, a major confrontation looms.

Watch the original trailer for Parallel Sons below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.

Don’t miss this award-winning biopic about one of the past century’s most celebrated gay artists

Award-winning filmmaker Dome Karukoski brings to screen the life and work of one of the most influential and celebrated figures of 20th century LGBTQ life.

Known to the world as Tom of Finland, artist Touko Laaksonen shaped the fantasies of a generation of gay men with his proudly erotic and taboo-shattering drawings of testosterone-filled, muscle-bound men. But who was the man behind the leather?

This stirring biopic follows his life from the trenches of WWII and repressive Finnish society of the 1950s through his struggle to get his work published in California, where he and his art were finally embraced amid the sexual revolution of the 1970s.

Tom’s story is one of love, courage and perseverance, mirroring the gay liberation movement for which his leather-clad studs served as a defiant emblem.

Watch the trailer for Tom of Finland below. The film is available now on Dekkoo.

Don’t miss the charming and unusual LGBTQ rom-com Straight Up

A major hit at film festivals when it first premiered in 2019, writer-director James Sweeney’s Straight Up is one of the best gay rom-coms of the past several years.

Sweeney himself stars as Todd, a hyper-articulate and obsessive compulsive twentysomething whose frustration over the gay dating scene leads him to a baffling conclusion: maybe he’s actually straight?!

When Todd meets Rory, a witty and equally whip-smart young actress played by Katie Findlay, the two form a strong connection and try to enter into a hetero relationship together – one that turns out to be all talk and no sex.

Can the two get past their hang-ups and make a real go at a loving and committed asexual relationship? Or are they just good friends who are fooling themselves?

Featuring razor-sharp dialog that evokes classic Hollywood, but with distinctly 21st century references, Straight Up is a deeply funny and charming crowd-pleaser that explores just how elastic our definitions of love and sexuality can get.

Watch the trailer for Straight Up below. The film is available now on Dekkoo.

Short Film Spotlight: To (10) Centimeters

When Christophe (Otman Salil), a soft-spoken violinist studying at a music conservatory, moves in with Jerome (Thomas Alden), his almost instant attraction to the young and handsome up-and-coming journalist is palpable.

Unfortunately for Christophe, Jerome is seemingly straight. When he also learns that Jerome has a girlfriend (Océane Dailly), any romantic hopes he had are quickly dashed. His infatuation, however, grows deeper. He borrows Jerome’s clothes and even crosses a line while he’s sleeping.

Facing agonizing longing, their new living arrangement seems untenable. But before Christophe leaves for good, he devises an unusual way to tell Jerome how he really feels.

To (10) Centimeters, a new 25-minute short from Paris-based Japanese filmmaker Masaya Matsui, has style to spare and is packed with intriguing mystery. Watching the film, you’re never quite sure where your allegiance should lie. Is there a real simmering connection between the new roommates or is Christophe projecting and creating a gender-flipped Single White Female scenario? You’ll have to watch and decide for yourself.

Watch a short trailer for To (10) Centimeters below. The full film is available now on Dekkoo.

Director Eytan Fox follows up with one of his most beloved characters in the gay drama Yossi

Released in 2002, the beloved gay romance Yossi and Jagger followed the romance that developed between two soldiers stationed in an Israeli outpost on the Lebanese border. Ten years later, award-winning director Eytan Fox decided to follow up with one of his most cherished characters.

Dr. Yossi Hoffman (Ohad Knoller) has become a valued and dedicated cardiologist, often using his work as a way to escape from dealing with his anguished life. He lives alone, still closeted, unable to break through the walls and defenses built around him since the death of his lover. Even his co-workers a recently divorced doctor, who tries to sweep Yossi into his world of women and drugs, and a lonely nurse, who is secretly in love with him find it almost impossible to get close to him.

Yossi’s daily routine at the hospital is shaken up by the arrival of a mysterious woman. He follows her, and through the surprising connection they make, receives a rare opportunity to deal with his trauma. Yossi then travels to the southern city of Eilat. Surrounded by the sea and sand dunes, he meets a group of young Israeli officers, among them Tom (Oz Zehavi), a handsome and self confident openly gay man, who represents a new world, different from the one that shaped our lead character.

An emotional, critically-acclaimed sequel, Yossi is now available on Dekkoo. Watch the trailer below.

Now Available: Dream Boat

While it’s certainly not advisable to set sail on a cruise ship during a pandemic, this colorful and wildly entertaining documentary invites you aboard from the safe comfort of your home.

Once a year, during normal times, the “Dream Boat” sets sail for a cruise exclusively for gay men – where most passengers, from all corners of the world, are united by the wish to live life authentically as themselves in a protected place. The men have seven days to enjoy their freedom and to love openly. But also on board are their personal stories, their doubts and uncertainties.

Dipankar from India escaped an arranged marriage and now throws himself into action to find the man of his dreams; Ramzi was persecuted by the police in Palestine for being gay and had to start a new life in Europe; Frenchman Philippe was let down by his family when he was bound to a wheelchair, but found a new family with his partner; Martin from Austria enjoys the hedonism and abundant choice of men on the ship and gives his perspective on how to deal with HIV today; and Marek from Poland has everything he needs to stand out on the men’s market, thanks to his trained body.

Watch the trailer for Dream Boat below. The film is available now on Dekkoo.

Short Film Spotlight: Plantonic

A wildly inventive short film romance, Plantonic follows the unique relationship that grows (literally) between a young aspiring artist and the incredibly attractive half-man/half-plant that seems to have grown from a garden.

Originally from Bangkok, writer-director Krit Komkrichwarakool earned a degree in Communication Design, then moved to Canada to pursue a career in film. Integrating his knowledge of design with his approach to filmmaking, Krit brings a unique point of view to his storytelling.

His short film Freefall won “Best Director” at Moscow Shorts and was nominated for “Best Short Film” at the 2018 Leo Awards. Plantonic, recently premiered at Inside Out and won “Outstanding Short Film” at the Reelworld Film Festival and “Best Screenplay” at the Vancouver Short Film Festival.

“Film is a great medium to explore the reflections of our own existence, and the ultimate question of why each of us is here. It is why I do what I do. To speak with my own subconscious. To find a trace of the answers that connect us all,” said Komkrichwarakool.

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

The beloved comedy series Where the Bears Are has a new home on Dekkoo!

From the creative team of Rick Copp (The Brady Bunch Movie), Joe Dietl (Mom, Maron) and Ben Zook (Jack and Jill) comes Where the Bears Are, a comedy mystery web series that has accumulated over 40 million loyal viewers since it first premiered in 2012 and won the “Best Gay Web Series” award from After Elton.

What would you do if you found a dead body in your bathtub the morning after a wild party at your house? That’s the dilemma facing three gay bears in this hair-raising comedy-mystery series – a hilarious romp through one of L.A.’s hippest neighborhoods that will have you laughing out loud and gasping in surprise!

Watch the trailer for Where the Bears Are below. The full first season is now available on Dekkoo.