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image caption Filmstill "Who's The Top?"

Who's The Top?

United States | Directed by Jennie Livingston

Gwen loves Alixe and has every reason to be happy with her except that Alixe, a young poet, often seems distracted. At times like these Alixe is either dreaming of Cymon Blank, a dark poet and adventurer, or her mind is drifting away to certain leather-clad girl gangs. When Alixe sets off for San Francisco to interview Cymon, Gwen starts to worry – with good reason... Making use of two dozen Broadway dancers - male and female - the film tries to ...
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image caption Filmstill "Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell"

Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell

United States | Directed by Matt Wolf

American cellist Arthur Russell (1952–1992) made a name for himself as a singer, composer and producer. His music was where dance floor met the avant-garde; the musicians he worked with included the likes of Philip Glass and David Byrne. He created disco hits, but also left behind meditative sounds.
Russell was born and grew up in a small town in Iowa named Oskaloosa. As a teenager he was a fan of Timothy Leary, John Cage and the beat poets – which w...
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image caption Filmstill "Wild Side"

Winner

Wild Side

(german) Wilde Seite

France | Directed by Sébastien Lifshitz

Sylvie is a 32-year-old transsexual prostitute.Sylvie feels that her life is somehow wasting away. Often suffering from depression, the desire to end it all sometimes becomes overpowering. In spite of this, she does manage to enjoy a brief moment or two of happiness here and there, such as when she goes out dancing or spends time with her friends, most of whom are also transsexual. One night she meets Mikhail, a Russian immigrant without a reside...
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Wilde Maus

(english) Wild Mouse

Austria | Directed by Josef Hader

Georg feels confident and at ease in his position as a member of a Viennese newspaper’s editorial staff. He is both loved and feared – as befits an established music critic who wields a sharp pen. But then he is suddenly made redundant. A cost-cutting measure, he is told – before being shown the door. But instead of telling his young wife Johanna, whose thoughts currently revolve around her desire for children and her next ovulation, Georg is ou...
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image caption Filmstill "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?"

Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?

(english) Will You Still Me Tomorrow?

China | Directed by Arvin Chen

Introverted Wei-chung has been married to Feng for nine years. They have one son together, and Feng would like to have another child with him. One day Stephen, an old friend who now organises weddings, appears and encourages Wei-chung to return to the gay life he had previously. Anxious not to lose his wife, Wei-chung tentatively begins seeing a flight attendant behind Feng’s back.Wei-chung’s impulsive sister Mandy dumps her fiancée San San in th...
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image caption Filmstill "Welcome to the Dome"

Willkommen im Dom

(english) Welcome to the Dome

Germany | Directed by Jochen Hick

A rare record of the German Act-Up (Aids Coalition to Unleash Power) movement. At the closing prayer of the German Bishops’ Conference on 26 September 1991, the Frankfurt action group came together in a spectacular protest to demonstrate against the Catholic Church’s - and in particular Fulda cathedral’s Archbishop Johannes Dyba’s - discrimination of HIV-positive people and AIDS patients. The protest made it onto Germany’s nationwide 8 pm news s...
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image caption Filmstill "Wish You Were Ear" © Mirjana Balogh

Wish You Were Ear

Hungary | Directed by Mirjana Balogh

In a world where ex-partners have to swap a chosen body part after breaking up, someone rediscovers their former ear on someone else. A journey towards self-acceptance begins.
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image caption Filmstill "With Gilbert & George"

With Gilbert & George

Great Britain | Directed by Julian Cole

Filmmaker Julian Cole has known the artists Gilbert & George for over twenty years – since 1986, to be exact, when he posed for the pair as a model. Some time after they photographed him he decided to take up the camera himself and make a film about them. And so, eighteen years ago, he began filming the footage that now appears in this cinematic portrait describing the duo’s career over the past four decades – from its modest beginnings to their cu...
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image caption Filmstill "Wittgenstein"

Winner

Wittgenstein

Great Britain | Directed by Derek Jarman

"It is well known that after his lectures, Wittgenstein was in the habit of dashing off into the cinema to indulge in Westerns. We are not in a position to say wether this detail has been taken into account in Derek Jarman's film." (Jill Feming for JBG Networks, Three Owls, Monument Valley)
"Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent." (Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus logico-philosophicus, London 1022)
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image caption Filmstill "Our Story - 10-year "guerrilla warfare" of Beijing Queer Film Festival"

Wo men de gu shi

(english) Our Story - 10-year “guerrilla warfare” of Beijing Queer Film Festival

China | Directed by Yang Yang

In 2001 three students of Peking University in Beijing held the first gay and lesbian film festival. The festival was brought to a halt by the university authorities during the opening event. This was a foretaste of what was to follow during the next ten years, in which the festival has battled against the oppressive vagaries of the authorities, homophobia and discrimination. Under the aegis of its founding director Cui Zi’en, the Beijing Queer F...
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image caption Filmstill "Wonderful World End"

Wonderful World End

Japan | Directed by Daigo Matsui

In her Gothic Lolita guise 17-year-old Shiori attracts a lot of followers for her blogcast. Whenever she can she talks about herself, offers make-up tips and is delighted at the growing number of visitors to her site. After a music video shoot, confident Shiori meets a strange young girl named Ayumi. The girl is a big fan of Shiori’s and tries to copy her style. She also seems to be rather distracted and monosyllabic, as if she had nothing of her...
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image caption Filmstill "Word is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives"

Word is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives

United States | Directed by Rob (Robert) Epstein, Peter Adair, Veronica Selver, Andrew Brown, Lucy Massie Phenix, Nancy Adair

WORD IS OUT: STORIES OF SOME OF OUR LIVES (1978) presents a mosaic of interviews with 26 gay and lesbian individuals who describe their experiences of coming out, falling in and out of love, and struggling against prejudice and discriminatory laws. These interviewees – who range in age from 18 to 77, and in type from bee-hived housewife to sultry drag queen. Together they deliver their testimony with extraordinary intelligence, grace, honesty, an...
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image caption Filmstill "Soundless Wind Chime"

Wu Sheng Feng Ling

(english) Soundless Wind Chime

(german) Das stumme Spiel des Windes

Switzerland, Hong Kong, China | Directed by Kit Hung

The two young men Pascal and Ricky are both foreigners living in Hong Kong. While Pascal, a Swiss, ekes out a living from street theater and petty crime, Ricky, who comes from Beijing, is a dependable helper in a humble restaurant. One fateful day their paths cross and they fall head over heels in love with each other and boldly decide to move in together. But their love is soon put to the test – the fickle Pascal makes high demands on gentle Ric...
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image caption Filmstill "Night Flight"

Ya Gan Bi Haeng

(english) Night Flight

South Korea | Directed by Hee-il Leesong

After a tryst with a lover in a derelict, condemned building housing the ‘Night Flight’ gay bar, Yong-ju roams the streets of night-time Seoul and bumps into his ex-best friend, Gi-ung. They were once in the same class but have long since gone their separate ways. Having become embroiled in a fight, Gi-ung snatches Yong-ju’s bicycle in order to escape and doesn’t give it back. Yong-ju threatens him, but Gi-ung is impervious to his warnings – his ...
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image caption Filmstill "The Night"

YE

(english) The Night

China | Directed by Hao Zhou

A young man stands in front of a mirror. The night belongs to him. Every evening, he appraises his appearance, attired in a new shirt, leaves his apartment and waits in a poorly lit alleyway for his johns. One night he meets a female prostitute of his age who’s new in this part of town. They flirt and wander the streets, toy with the idea of renting their bodies out to each other and name themselves after flowers: he calls himself Tuberose and sh...
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image caption Filmstill "Yolanda and the Thief"

Yolanda and the Thief

United States | Directed by Vincente Minnelli

A con man eavesdrops on young, beautiful, and wealthy heiress Yolanda as she prays for a guardian angel to help her manage her financial affairs. The following morning, he introduces himself to her “Mr. Brown”, guardian angel at your service. He manages to swindle Yolanda out of millions in bonds, but when he tries to pass the money to his accomplice, a certain Mr. Candle gets in the way … Set in a fictional South American country, this MGM musical ...
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Young Hearts

(german) Junge Herzen

Belgium, Netherlands | Directed by Anthony Schatteman

Fourteen-year-old Elias increasingly feels like an outsider in his village. When he meets Alexander, his new neighbour of the same age, Elias is confronted with his burgeoning sexuality.
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image caption Yours_in_Sisterhood_filmstill

Yours in Sisterhood

(english) Yours in Sisterhood

United States | Directed by Irene Lusztig

A petrol station at an Atlanta intersection. A private estate in Bowling Green, Kentucky, complete with a perfect lawn. The front yard of a family home in Connecticut. At first glance, the places Irene Lusztig chose to visit on her two-year journey through the United States seem unremarkable. At each stop, Lusztig had local women read out and comment on letters from the archive of liberal feminist magazine “Ms.”. These letters were originally se...
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image caption Filmstill "Hold You Tight"

Winner

Yue kuai le, yue duo luo

(english) Hold You Tight

Hong Kong | Directed by Stanley Kwan

Hong Kong, 1997. A mainland-born computer software designer and his wife. A Taiwanese boy who feels a strong and inexplicable attraction to the programmer but ends up making love to his wife. Then there is an affable gay Hong Kong-born real estate agent. The Taiwanese boy returns to Taipei and meets a woman who looks exactly like the programmer's wife. All these lives intertwine. Images as fragments of lives are freed from melodramatic chrono...
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image caption Filmstill "Yulia & Juliet"

Yulia & Juliet

Netherlands | Directed by Zara Dwinger

At first it seems like Yulia and Juliet are meeting in the school corridor, but then we notice the ventilation grilles in the image, through which the two lovers have to talk to each other. Yulia and Juliet are in prison. Worse still, Juliet will soon be released. But what will happen to Yulia? The emotionally charged drame takes a radical and brave turn. Zara Dwinger once again tells a brief, intense story about self-determined female protagonis...