In honour of Pride Month, festival director Grainne Humphrey has created this list of 17 global LGBTQIA+ films previously screened with us in Dublin. From heartwarming coming-of-age stories to tragic tales of hidden love, each of these films can and should be celebrated all year long.

Beyond the Horizon

Switzerland, 2019, Delphine Lehericey

In the summer of 1976, sweltering heat plagues rural Romandy, Switzerland, where 13-year-old Gus lives on his family farm. When seemingly carefree Cécile, a new friend of Gus’s mother, arrives, she brings life to their family dinners. But not everyone in the family is as smitten with Cécile as Gus’s mom. (Cleveland IFF)

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Departure

France, 2015, Andrew Steggall

15-year-old Elliot, who is confused about his sexuality, and his mother Beatrice, who is struggling to cope with the end of her marriage, find themselves attracted to the same young Frenchman.

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Jonathan Agassi Saved My Life

Israel, 2018, Tomer Heymann

One of the world's most successful gay porn stars provides a glimpse into his life. Splitting his time between Berlin and at home with his mother in Israel, Jonathan is followed closely as he comes to terms with the extreme life he is living.

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José

Guatemala, 2018, Li Cheng

A gay 19-year-old Guatemalan living in poverty with his doting mother is forced to consider his life of secrecy in a new light when he falls in love with a young construction worker.

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Handsome Devil

Ireland, 2016, John Butler

Handsome Devil tells the story of two boys in a rugby-obsessed boarding school – bullied outsider Ned and ‘macho athlete’ Conor. Though they appear to be complete opposites, they develop a friendship after being forced to share a dorm room. (Valerie Loftus, Daily Edge)

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Moffie

South Africa, 2019, Oliver Hermanus

A fiercely engaged, complex drama of sexual identity and suppressed yearning in apartheid-era South Africa – a film with a humid intensity. (Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian)

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Olivia

France, 1951, Jacqueline Audry

French filmmaker Jacqueline Audry’s classic tells of three women in a dramatic love triangle at a French finishing school. Adapted from Dorothy Bussy’s novel, it centres on one girl’s intense crush on a teacher, to the chagrin of one of her peers.

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Our Ladies

UK, 2019, Michael Caton-Jones

A group of Catholic schoolgirls take a walk on the wild side in a raucous comedy of gals behaving badly. The students are in Edinburgh for a choir competition, but they’re more interested in hooking up, drinking and partying. The Times’ Kevin Maher said it features five of “the most compelling, neatly drawn and slightly terrifying female protagonists committed to film.”

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Papi Chulo

Ireland, 2018, John Butler

Cast adrift in Los Angeles, Sean — a lonely TV weatherman — drives past a middle-aged Latino migrant worker standing outside a hardware store looking for work.  He decides to hire this kind-looking man — to be his friend.  Sean is young, gay and white; Ernesto, portly, straight and married.  Despite having nothing in common and the language barrier, they build a sort of friendship until Sean becomes consumed with a deeper obsessive need. (Screen Ireland)

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Rafiki

Kenya, 2019, Wanuri Kahiu

A lesbian romance set in a place where such love stories, in real life and onscreen, are forbidden by law. Sparkling with effervescent colour and crackling with palpable chemistry between the two leads, this trailblazing film is a vital burst of energy, urgency and, perhaps most importantly, hope. (Roger Ebert & BFI)

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Rialto

Ireland, 2019, Peter Mackie Burns

Tom Vaughan-Lawlor plays Colm, a man struggling with the death of his destructive father and other personal crises. Unable to confide in loved ones, he seeks solace in the arms of a young male prostitute (Tom Glynn-Carney), putting family life at even greater risk.

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Saint Maud

UK, 2019, Rose Glass

Described by Collider as “riveting” and “a carnal crisis of faith,” this award-winning psychological horror marks an impressive debut from writer/director Rose Glass. It tells of a young, extremely religious carer who becomes obsessed with saving the soul of her charge in a tale of trauma and control.

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Sequin in a Blue Room

Australia, 2019, Samuel Van Grinsven

Following a chance encounter at a sex party, a teenage boy aims to track down the man he is fixated with Samuel Van Grinsven’s Lynchian-style feature. Until now, Sequin has favoured no-ties hook-ups over relationships – and this decision sets him on a thrilling but dangerous path.

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Summertime

Italy, 2016, Gabriele Muccino

A gay couple living in San Francisco take in two strangers travelling from Italy to start a new life in the US, discovering each other and forming the most unlikely of relationships along the way.

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Two of Us

France, 2019, Filippo Meneghetti

For decades, two retirement-age women living in the same apartment building have been keeping a huge secret – they are passionately in love. Nina (Martine Chevallier) is a free spirit but Madeleine (Barbara Sukowa) has been hiding her relationship from her adult children. Their love is truly tested when dramatic events change their lives.

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Tell it to the Bees

UK, 2018, Annabel Jankel

In 1952, Dr. Jean Markham returns to her Scottish hometown to take over her late father's medical practice. She soon becomes ostracized by the community when she begins a passionate romance with a woman who has a young son.

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Viva

Ireland, 2015, Paddy Breathnach

Ireland’s official entry to the 2015 Golden Globes, but set in Cuba and spoken in Spanish. The film transcends genres with a story that focuses on an 18 year-old Cuban named Jesus who works at a local Havana drag club but has bigger dreams. He also wants to be on that stage as a performer. But his desire is in conflict with his father, who was recently released from prison. (Rocío Ayuso)