Category: Short Film

Short Film Spotlight: Johnny

A provocative 19-minute short from director Micah Stuart and screenwriter/lead actor Brandon Crowder, Johnny follows a lonely and conflicted older man named Sam who hires a young male sex worker named Johnny to spend the night with him in a motel room and provide his first gay sexual experience.

A devoted husband and father, he has has spent his entire life trying to outrun his sexual attraction to other men, carefully constructing a heteronormative life he hoped would make him happy. But the harder Sam tries to force himself to be the man he believes he should be, the harder it is for him to resist becoming the man he’s secretly always been.

As it turns out, Sam is not the only one with a secret – and the intimate night the two men share forces Johnny to come face-to-face with a haunting moment from his past that he thought he’d left behind.

Tense, well-acted and thought-provoking, Johnny is a story about finding the strength and courage it takes to accept responsibility for the choices you have made… and the person you have become.

Watch a short teaser clip from Johnny below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Short Film Spotlight: Tomorrow

Set in a Southern California suburb, the 13-minute short Tomorrow focuses on a small crowd of high schoolers as they celebrate the final sunset of the old millennium.

It’s New Year’s Eve, 1999, but all is not well within their small circle of friends. Along with this once-in-a-lifetime milestone comes the pressure to redefine oneself, a pressure that will test and transform the bonds of friendship.

Trevor (Zachary Roozen) wants to use the occasion as an opportunity to win a midnight kiss from his crush, the vivacious Sarah (Katie Baker). He enlists Clark (Daniel Rashid), his sensitive and introverted best friend, as a wingman in the effort. Clark, however, is secretly considering whether or not he should finally express his long-concealed love for Trevor.

Screenwriter Joshua Paul Johnson and director Leandro Tadashi craft a gorgeous and all-too relatable coming-of-age drama wherein the silences between the dialog are louder than words.

Watch the teaser for Tomorrow below. The short film is now available exclusively 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.

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.

Gay guardian angels Joey and T.J. return in the short film sequel ‘(Un)Free Will 2: The Confession’

Writer-director Robby Kendall returns to Dekkoo with an unexpected follow-up to his short 2024 afterlife comedy (Un)Free Will.

Lead actors Derek DeVault and Brent Roberts reprise their roles as bickering former lovers and full-time angels Joey and T.J.

In (Un)Free Will 2: The Confession they’re tasked by God herself with eliciting a confession from a brokenhearted young man named Ben. Grieving over the recent loss of his mother and racked with guilt after making a promise he was unable to keep, Ben turns to the church.

With a little help from a compassionate priest, a trio of guardian angels, a few divine interventions and an adorable puppy named Darcy, he’s finally able to unburden himself and find the solace he so desperately needs.

Prepare to have your spirits lifted with this warmhearted 15-minute comedy – and be sure to watch the first installment, also on Dekkoo, in what is shaping up to become a “heavenly” on-going series.

Watch the trailer for (Un)Free Will 2: The Confession below. The short film is now available.

Short Film Spotlight: Impulses

Two very different individuals settle into one romantic unit in the sexy new short film Impulses, a visually striking work from Argentine filmmaker Juan Mirarchi.

Playing out like a dark tone poem, the film follows a writer named Joaquin, who, burdened by anxiety and self-doubt, struggles to embrace the romantic and emotional vulnerability that presents itself when he starts living with Gabriel, his seemingly perfect new boyfriend.

What, at first, seems like it may be a case of obsessive interpersonal attachment soon reveals itself as simple post-commitment jitters blown way out of proportion.

The actors bare both body and soul in this tender and thought-provoking short relationship drama.

Watch a short teaser for Impulses below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Short Film Spotlight: Many Happy Returns

André (Vitor Rocha) is about to turn twenty-five years old. Extremely worried about his future – and about the uncertainties of life in general – he’s not even able to celebrate.

At his birthday party, before blowing out the candles, he wishes for time to stop passing. To his great surprise, his wish comes true. The next morning – and over the next several – he finds that the day has repeated. It’s still, perhaps always, his twenty-fifth birthday once again.

Suddenly André finds that he has eternal youth, the absence of problems and the liberty to do just about anything he wants without the fear of consequences. When he learns, however, that time has stopped passing only for him, what seemed to be a dream come true morphs into a nightmare.

Now he must go back in time – one last time – and correct his past while learning how to enjoy the present without worrying too much about the future.

Taking obvious inspiration from Groundhog Day, Many Happy Returns is a clever short musical comedy about learning to appreciate the time you’re in – no matter how old you may be.

Watch the trailer for Many Happy Returns below. The short film is now available on Dekkoo.

Check out the short works of filmmaker Tristan Scott-Behrends this month on Dekkoo!

This month, we’re shining a much-deserved spotlight on the short film work of auteur writer/director Tristan Scott-Behrends.

His films – funny, eclectic and packed with bold visual style – have been making a splash on the queer film festival circuit since the debut of Curtain Down in 2017. A 25-minute short, he wrote, produced and stars alongside Margaret Cho in this love story from director Emett Casey. The film takes a surreal but tender look at gender, identity and aging as our lead character is forced to choose between art and love.

Only Trumpets, his directorial debut, following an outsider navigating love and sex in the digital age, made it’s world premiere at the 2018 Outfest Film Festival, where it was selected as ‘Best of the Fest.’

Our four-film collection also includes The Man of My Dreams, which follows two gorgeous, magnetic male lovers as they traipse around the streets of New York City enmeshed in a dreamy romance.

Finally, Lilac Lips, Dutchess County, a reimagining of Jean Cocteau’s Orpheus, stars Joey Hardy Gray as nymph-like protagonist, navigating the complexities of relationships in a maze of his own making.

Exploring themes of identity, gender, isolation and sexuality in the most delicious ways possible, Tristan Scott-Behrends is a filmmaker worth keeping an eye on. While he’s currently hard at work developing a script for a feature film version of Only Trumpets, you can now enjoy some of his most stylish and provocative shorts right here on Dekkoo.

Short Film Spotlight: The Blue Angel

Set in the 1990s, director René Pereyra’s 35-minute short The Blue Angel tells the story of a nightclub that is on the brink of disappearing.

Porfirio, an HIV positive man, returns home to run the night club, when he meets a fortuitously-named patron that will alter the course of his life forever.

Part drama, part dark comedy, the film takes place in a small, turbulent Mexican town full of insecure men and tells a poignant story about homophobia and machismo posturing that conceals a burgeoning homosexuality.

Inspired by director Peter Bogdonovich’s 1971 classic The Last Picture Show, Pereyra made the film to shine light on what he sees as a very real and continuing problem in Mexican society.

Watch the trailer for The Blue Angel below. The short film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Short Film Spotlight: Never Too Old

Directed by Morgan Martini and written by Rolando Zee, the 17-minute short Never Too Old is a life affirming testament to love

Florio and Jesse (Gregory Niebel and screenwriter Rolando Zee) have lived together as lovers for over 45 years. Florio had expressed a desire to get married once same-sex marriage had been legalized, but Jesse held firm to his decision never to tie the knot.

Jesse’s mind starts to change when the law does, however, and he proposes. A small, intimate wedding follows. In their married life they will, of course, face the challenges that come with old age, but they will do so as a committed couple.

Entering marriage in their eighties, the two men offer up a testament to hope and a statement of courage and love.

Watch the trailer for Never Too Old below. The short film is now streaming on Dekkoo.