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NewFest · 2026

NewFest 2026

Features

Programme

34 films · 10 reviews

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Before I Do

Review preview for Before I Do

There’s an intelligent dissection of ideas going on here, and an acknowledgement of the frequent mismatch between ideals and emotions.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
A young man invites his closest group of gay pals to a remote cabin in the Berkshires to celebrate his upcoming marriage, but between the catching up, skinny-dipping, and Meryl Streep karaoke, old flames and new secrets start to come out.

(Country: US; Year: 2026; Director: Gary Jaffe; Writer: Gary Jaffe; Stars: Cole Doman, Michael Hsu Rosen, Nico Greetham, Robin de Jesús, Jared Reinfeldt)

Full review

Black Burns Fast

Adorkable Luthando is on track for an ordinary year at the prestigious boarding school she attends on scholarship – until the arrival of a new girl in her class ignites Luthando’s suppressed desires and threatens her self-image and relationships.

(Country: South Africa; Year: 2025; Director: Sandulela Asanda)

Corpus

Review preview for Corpus

Much more tightly structured than its style might suggest, and much, much darker.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
Three young men travel to a remote house on the promise of a party, to find just three women who have a secret and sinister agenda.

(Country: US; Year: 2026; Director: Corrin Evans; Writer: Lily Cowles, Corrin Evans; Stars: Jeff Wahlberg, Brodie Townsend, Michael Vlamis, Lily Cowles, Nuha Jes Izman, Ching Valdes-Aran)

Full review See: Interview with Corrin Evans, Lily Cowles, Jeff Wahlberg and Michael Vlamis about Corpus

Coward

Soldiers try to keep their hope alive on the frontline in the First World War.

(Country: Belgium, France, Netherlands; Year: 2026; Director: Lukas Dhont; Writer: Lukas Dhont, Angelo Tijssens; Stars: Valentin Campagne, Emmanuel Macchia, Jonas Wertz)

Chavela

The life of singer Chavela Vargas.

(Country: US, Spain, Mexico; Year: 2017; Director: Catherine Gund, Catherine Gund, Daresha Kyi)

Elephants In The Fog

In a small Nepalese village nestled in the heart of a forest populated by wild elephants, Pirati is the matriarch of a community of transgender women. But when one of her "daughters" disappears, she must choose between love and responsibility to her community.

(Country: Nepal, Germany, Brazil, France, Norway; Director: Abinash Bikram Shah; Writer: Abinash Bikram Shah)

Gabbeh

A nomad woman dreams of the day when she can matty the man she loves, who has been rejected as a suitor by her family but follows it on horseback.

(Country: Iran; Year: 1996; Director: Moshen Makhmalbaf; Stars: Rogheih Moharami, Hossein Moharami, Shaghayeh Djodat)

Gays Against Guns

Review preview for Gays Against Guns

There is throughout this film a driving positive energy, a commitment to turning frustration into action.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
Following the outrageous activist group Gays Against Guns, the film takes us on a rollercoaster through neon-splashed street protests and the ivory corridors of power.

(Country: US; Year: 2026; Director: Paul Rowley; Stars: John Waters, Kit Beane, Antonius Wiriadjaja)

Full review See: Interview with Paul Rowley about Gays Against Guns

La Gradiva

Review preview for La Gradiva

Pompeii becomes a place where fantasy is tested against historical violence, and where looking too closely can break the story one came to preserve.

Edin Custo · 4 out of 5
A group of French high-school students travel to Naples on a school trip to discover the ruins of Pompeii and the bodies petrified by Vesuvius. There, they are drawn into a dizzying descent.

(Country: France, Italy; Year: 2026; Director: Marine Atlan; Writer: Marine Atlan, Anne Brouillet; Stars: Antonia Buresi, Julie Sokolowski)

Full review

Gugu's World (Feito Pipa)

Review preview for Gugu's World

Deberton keeps the camera close and attentive to micro-gestures

Edin Custo · 3 out of 5
Drama revolving around a little boy, with a love of football who is living with his increasingly frail gran.

(Country: Brazil; Year: 2026; Director: Allan Deberton; Writer: Andre Araujo; Stars: Yuri Gomes, Lázaro Ramos, Teca Pereira, Carlos Francisco, Georgina Castro, Alda Pessoa, David Santos, Beatriz Carwile, Luan Vasconcelos, Nathyel Martins, Manuela Paulino, Pablo Vinícios, Enzo Uejo)

Full review

The Hidden Face Of The Earth

Dimitri loves photographing friends, strangers, lovers. Over the years, images have slipped away from his sight. Behind his camera, he gathers light and bodies, inviting us to gaze toward the hidden face of the Earth.

(Country: France; Year: 2026; Director: Arnaud Alain; Stars: Dimitri Jean, Pierre Marragou)

Hunky Jesus

Review preview for Hunky Jesus

Through archival material and present-day interviews, Kroot traces how the Sisters became a crucial presence in San Francisco, particularly during the AIDS epidemic, when joy, care, protest, and mutual aid were matters of survival rather than branding.

Edin Custo · 3.5 out of 5
The story of the wildly popular, annual Easter Sunday tradition in San Francisco known as Hunky Jesus.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Jennifer M Kroot; Stars: Sister Barbara Battista, Sister Shalita Corndog, Donal Godfrey, Honey Mahogany, Sister Roma, Sister Bella Donna Summer)

Full review

Indigo Elsewhere

Two unemployed, directionless trans lesbians connect in a reality-shifting way at the edge of an unnamed city.

(Year: 2026; Director: Willow Skye-Biggs; Writer: Willow Skye-Biggs; Stars: Aidan Powell-Croft, Serena Hommes, Francesca Ball, Taylor Nyx, Andrew Alba, Ariana Alba)

Iván & Hadoum

Review preview for Iván & Hadoum

Iván & Hadoum announces de la Rosa as a filmmaker with uncommon emotional precision.

Edin Custo · 3.5 out of 5
In a greenhouse in southern Spain, Iván falls in love with his newly hired co-worker, Hadoum. But his long-awaited promotion interferes with their relationship, forcing Iván to decide what kind of person he wants to be.

(Country: Spain, Belgium, Germany; Year: 2026; Director: Ian de la Rosa; Writer: Ian de la Rosa; Stars: Silver Chicón, Herminia Loh, Gregor Acuña-Pohl)

Full review

I Am Going To Miss You

Review preview for I Am Going To Miss You

Ribeiro finds something beautiful in fragility and rawness.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
When a transgender couple move in together, differences quickly surface. One seeks stability while the other seeks something more.

(Country: Brazil; Year: 2026; Director: Daniel Ribeiro; Writer: Alice Marcone, Daniel Ribeiro; Stars: Alice Marcone, Gabriel Lodi, Luca Scarpelli)

Full review

Karen Williams: I Had To Laugh

The year is 1983, and Karen Williams bursts onto the standup comedy scene as the first out Black lesbian to perform lesbian-specific material on stage.

(Country: US; Year: 2026; Director: Andrea Meyerson; Stars: Karen Williams, Kate Clinton, Marga Gomez, Diane Amos, Karen Ripley)

Madfabulous

Meet Toppy, a fabulously flamboyant aristocrat. Born in 1875, he inherited a fortune and promptly set about spending every last penny of it on jewels, theatre productions and scandalously lavish parties. While polite society clutched its pearls, Toppy became a beloved figure to the people of Bangor.

(Country: UK; Year: 2025; Director: Celyn Jones; Writer: Lisa Baker; Stars: Callum Scott Howells, Ruby Stokes, Rupert Everett)

The Man I Love

Musical fantasy set against the backdrop of New York's AIDs epidemic in the 1980s.

(Country: US; Year: 2026; Director: Ira Sachs; Writer: Ira Sachs, Mauricio Zacharias; Stars: Rami Malek, Rebecca Hall)

Masc

A young autistic man tries on different roles in search of belonging.

(Country: UK; Year: 2026; Director: Bertil Nilsson; Writer: Bertil Nilsson; Stars: Joshua Griffin, Tega Alexander, Reece King, Ed White, Robbie Bellekom, Hi Ching, Lincoln Conway)

Meanwhile

Review preview for Meanwhile

Gund’s poetic approach enables this documentary to go where others could not, to capture the existential effects on people of colour of day to day life in a white supremacist culture.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
A poetic, non-linear journey that explores the impact of white supremacy on connection, relationships, and life.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Catherine Gund)

Full review

Mickey

Trans YouTube personality Mickey has spent the last decade exploring her transition while living in conservative Sinaloa, Mexico. This documentary, a collaboration between friends, traces her memories and process of self-discovery

(Year: 2026; Director: Dano García)

Montreal, My Beautiful

Review preview for Montreal, My Beautiful

Desire does not arrive here as a clean break from domestic life. It appears as a tremor inside it.

Edin Custo · 3.5 out of 5
Feng Xia lives a life of dutiful servitude to her husband, children and community of Chinese ex-pats. When she finally decides to put herself first, and explore the sexuality that she has long concealed, she meets the free-spirited Camille.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2025; Director: Xiaodan He; Stars: Joan Chen, John Xu, Charlotte Aubin)

Full review

No Money No Honey

Dusting off old VHS tapes, travesti immigrant sex worker Máxima revisits a flow of memories from 1990s Buenos Aires to present-day NYC as they reconcile with and reclaim their past.

(Country: Chile, US; Year: 2026; Director: Nicole Costa; Writer: Nicole Costa, Daniela Camino, Melisa Miranda; Stars: Máxima Mauricio Rodas, Sebastian Quiencke a.k.a. La Baronesa Ditra, Antonia Martinez, Nellie Benittez, Mila Miller, Darius M. Curry, Nirvana Garcia, Iván Monalisa Ojeda)

On The Road (En El Camino)

A drifter forges a relationship with a long-distance trucker.

(Country: Mexico; Year: 2025; Director: David Pablos; Writer: David Pablos; Stars: Victor Prieto, Osvaldo Sanchez)

Out Of The Woods

Max is slowly losing her memory to Alzheimer’s. When a reunion with an old friend stirs up long-hidden feelings, she is forced to choose between her husband and the woman she’s always loved.

(Year: 2025; Director: Sal Bardo; Writer: Sal Bardo; Stars: Frances Fisher, Mimi Kennedy, Bruce Davison, Stefanie Estes)

Perfect

In a world devastated by a contaminated water supply, a woman living out of her car embarks on a passionate relationship with a wealthy pregnant woman living out an escapist fantasy.

(Country: US; Year: 2026; Director: Millicent Hailes; Writer: Millicent Hailes, Kendra Miller; Stars: Julia Fox, Ashley Moore, Lío Mehiel, Micaela Wittman, Ryder McLaughlin, Kate Moennig, Creed Bratton)

The Riverbank (A Margem do Rio)

Izaquiel works as a cleaner in Recife. At night, he dangerously ventures out in search of secret encounters in the mangrove forest. His world shifts when he crosses paths with Jeremias, an intriguing and magnetic fisherman.

(Country: Brazil, Germany; Year: 2026; Director: Matheus Farias, Enock Carvalho; Writer: Enock Carvalho, Matheus Farias; Stars: Caique Copque, Ítalo Martins, Artia Lauandah, Renna Costa, Robério Diógenes, Ísis Broken)

Sinner Supper Club

Relations between a group of friends begin to disintegrate at a gathering one hot night.

(Country: US; Year: 2026; Director: Daisy Rosato, Nora Kaye; Writer: Nora Kaye, Daisy Rosato; Stars: Ashil Lee, Elise Kibler, Genevieve Simon, Jayae Riley Jr, Nora Kaye, Sophie Sagan-Gutherz, Daisy Rosato)

Something You Should Know About Me

At an artists’ retreat, an insecure trans cartoonist is caught in a love triangle between his best friend and his creative nemesis.

(Year: 2026; Director: Andy Fidoten; Writer: Andy Fidoten; Stars: EJ Marcus, Morgan Sullivan, Sydney Mae Diaz)

Tangles

When Alzheimer's disease begins to strip away her mother's vibrant personality, a headstrong young woman is forced to return to her oddball family in the conservative small town she recently fled in order to care for her

(Country: US, Canada; Year: 2026; Director: Leah Nelson; Writer: Leah Nelson, Trev Renney; Stars: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Abbi Jacobson, Bryan Cranston, Samira Wiley, Beanie Feldstein, Seth Rogen, Wanda Sykes, Bowen Yang, Pamela Adlon, Sarah Silverman, Adam Shapiro, Fern Grandin)

Test

An amateur bodybuilder in rural Ohio must confront a dysfunctional family, substance abuse, and his own emerging sexuality on his quest to become a champion.

(Country: US; Year: 2026; Director: Sam McConnell; Writer: Brock Yurich; Stars: Brock Yurich, Tammy Blanchard, Mike Edward, Paloma Garcia-Lee, Matthew Morrison)

Tiger

Tiger works at a men-only massage shop and hops between gay porn auditions until his father falls critically ill, drawing him back to his hometown. Though his father intends to leave him the house, his sister denies his right to inherit and threatens to out him.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2025; Director: Anshul Chauhan; Writer: Anshul Chauhan; Stars: Takashi Kawaguchi, Maho Nonami, Kenzo Shirahama)

Two Mountains Weighing Down My Chest

A Chinese wannabe artist drifts between Berlin’s overwhelming alternative scene and her traditional family in Beijing. With wit and insight, the film follows her search for identity and belonging in a globalised but polarised world.

(Country: Germany, Netherlands; Director: Viv Li; Writer: Viv Li)

Uncle Roy

The filmmaker explores the life and legacy of renowned ice skater, gay photographer, and her uncle Roy Blakey, known to many as 'Uncle Roy' throughout his life.

(Country: US; Year: 2026; Director: Keri Pickett; Writer: Keri Pickett)