Teddy Award Berlin - Der queere Filmpreis

At a new school Leandro meets the lively Jefferson. They form an instant attachment and soon realise that theirs is no ordinary friendship. But Jefferson has to tell Leandro something and he is clearly struggling to get it out. Leandro enquires further, hoping it’s some kind of a joke. Except Jeff doesn’t look like he’s joking. If they want to be together there's one irreversible thing Leandro must deal with: Jeff is HIV positive. more

Lara is Palestinian. She left Ramallah thirteen years ago to begin a new life in London where she married Michael and had a child. She, her husband and her seven-year-old son James lead a pleasant, albeit somewhat dispassionate life in one of the city’s better districts. But there’s nothing that a good slug of vodka won’t help her to cope with. But then, one day, Inam turns up at Lara’s front door. She is a childhood friend from Ramallah. No sooner does Inam surge [...] more

When it’s cold – breathe. It’s November and 26-year-old Lukas is not so much living as floating. His dream of making it as a musician is on the wane and his great passion – rap – has also past its heyday. Lukas lives with his producer, 46-year-old Mischa, in an old loft where they cultivate cannabis. They have been having a turbulent affair for years – but this is a closely guarded secret. Lukas has grown cold inside and only really feels himself in moments [...] more

OLHE PRA MIM DE NOVO is a road movie that whisks us away to the wild, semi-arid expanse of north-eastern Brazil. Our tough, cool travelling companion is Silvyo Luccio (‘..I was born a woman, became a lesbian and am now a man’), a thinker in the throes of transition and transformation who finds himself on a journey back into his religious-fundamentalist, deeply prejudiced, traditionalist past. At the heart of old wounds, humiliation and trauma lies an anxiously awaited encounter with [...] more

The Yacoubian Building in Cairo is still an eye-catching construction. Built in 1934 and named after the leader of the Armenian community, it was long regarded as the last word in comfort and elegance. Loosely based on a highly popular novel by Egyptian writer Alaa Al Aswani, this film portrays episodes in the lives of the people who live here. One of the building’s inhabitants is the aristocratic Zaki El Dessouki. A playboy for whom women are still his great weakness, the elderly man [...] more

In an institute for violence studies, Tracey Niles struggles to reconnect with her lost memory. She is haunted by a silhouette. The image of a perpetrator? To whom she fell victim? The current institute director, Reena Chandrakali, is leading a "self-defense against hate violence" campaign for the distribution of firearms throughout "sexual minority" communities. Faith Eatherton is developing a philosophical treatise: "Dissipated: Reaching for the Bodyless." Her discovery [...] more

The young hermaphrodite Cynthia (Gaea Gaddy) meets Gen (Tempest Crane) and Jay (Jendeen Forberg), a couple recovering from plastic surgery. She learns of Pandrogony, in which two people merge their facial features making one unified entity from separate ones. Inspired by this, Cynthia abandons her husband and suburban life to embark on a road trip with Gen through the remnants of 20th century America. Simultaneously, a young transman meets a young punk, Nick (Daniel Luedtke), and they fall in [...] more

Winter’s end, travelers are waiting in Paris airport Orly. A woman, who accidentally left her wedding ring at her mother’s, falls in love with a stranger. A young man lost his love in the much too close relationship that he has with his girlfriend (Lina Falkner), and discovers the woman of his dreams. At the cusp of adulthood, a beautiful youth is traveling with his mother. For the son, it’s time to speak plainly. He tells her the story of him and his friend being at the river [...] more

Mr Tambourine Man is the name adopted by a sixteen-year-old boy living in a Brazilian village who is a great Bob Dylan fan. His taste in music, his style and his habits make him an outsider at school. He publishes gloomy texts on his blog, smokes grass and, together with his only friend, Diego, dreams of one day seeing Bob Dylan live. Mr Tambourine Man lives in a world of his own. He’s always looking at images of the same girl on his computer, images in which a man also appears. In his daydreams [...] more

A young zombie named Otto appears on a remote highway. He has no idea where he came from or where he is going. After hitching a ride to Berlin and nesting in an abandoned amusement park, he begins to explore the city. Soon he is discovered by underground filmmaker Medea Yarn, who begins to make a documentary about him with the support of her girlfriend, Hella Bent, and her brother Adolf, who operates the camera. Meanwhile, Medea is trying to finish “Up with Dead People,” the epic [...] more

Unlike the Federal Republic, by 1968 homosexuality was already de-criminalised in the German Democratic Republic’s penal code. But the ‘workers’ and farmers’ state' did not exactly welcome its gay and lesbian citizens with open arms; their sexuality was taboo and they were often marginalised from public life. The ‘bewitched’ generation that had seen the war and were now trying to live lives of inconspicuous normality felt threatened by younger homosexuals [...] more