These LGBTQ+ Movies Are Queering up the 2019 AFI Film Festival

The 2019 AFI Film Festival Is Premiering Some Stunning Queer Stories

Next week, the 2019 American Film Institute Festival presented by Audi is taking Hollywood by storm. Seventeen LGBTQ+ narratives will show at AFI’s annual celebration of cinema, and they shared descriptions of the "spectacular films that speak to the experiences of the LGBTQ+ community, and others that depict fully-realized LGBTQ+ characters" with PRIDE. 

Scroll down and read all about them!

AFI Fest takes place in Hollywood between November 14 -21. Learn more about the festival and passes here. 

And Then We Danced

World Cinema - While training at the National Georgian Ensemble, the arrival of preternaturally talented Irakli awakens a sense of friendly competition in Merab, along with more complicated feelings. This twirling, rhythmic romance sees the profundity of first love intensified by the risk that exposure could threaten career, familial and community support.

DIR Levan Akin. SCR Levan Akin CAST Levan Gelbakhiani, Bachi Valishvili, Ana Javakishvili, Giorgi Tsereteli, Tamar Bukhnikashvili. Georgia, Sweden, France

Carne

Shorts - Five women highlight the perverse way in which society looks at them.

DIR Camila Kater.  SCR Camila Kater, Ana Julia Carvalheiro. CAST Rachel Patricio, Larissa Rahal, Raquel Virginia, Valquiria Rosa, Helena Ignez. Brazil, Spain

Docking

Shorts - Trevor reflects on his fear of dating. 

DIR Trevor Anderson. SCR Trevor Anderson. Canada

Family Members (Los Miembros de la Familia)

New Auteurs  - After the death of their mother, siblings Gilda and Lucas reluctantly return to their quiet coastal hometown to scatter her remains in the ocean but are unable to make the quick retreat they had hoped for. With this sudden and unexpected reunion, they find boredom is more readily surmountable than grief and difficult conversations remain just out of reach.

DIR Mateo Bendesky. SCR Mateo Bendesky. CAST Tomas Wicz, Laila Maltz, Alejandro Russek. Argentina

Lingua Franca

New Auteurs - Olivia is an undocumented Filipina trans woman and the home health aide for Olga. Alex, Olga's grandson, is just back from rehab and trying to get his life together. The two have enough going on to need a budding relationship. But that’s not how fate works.

DIR Isabel Sandoval. SCR Isabel Sandoval. CAST Isabel Sandoval, Eamon Farren, Ivory Aquino, Lev Gorn, Lynn Cohen. USA, Philippines

Mack Wrestles

Shorts - Transgender wrestler Mack Beggs broke records and changed history by winning the Texas high school state title two years in a row. With college on the horizon, Beggs must grapple with what comes next.

DIR Erin Sanger, Taylor Hess. FEATURING Mack Beggs, Nancy Beggs. USA

Oliver Sacks: His Own Life

Documentary - Famed neurologist and best-selling author Oliver Sacks (The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat), who died in 2015, led an extraordinary life. Master filmmaker Ric Burns, granted intimate access in Sacks’ final months, paints a deeply moving portrait that captures his remarkable life and reveals the enormity of his spirit.

DIR Ric Burns. USA

Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Special Screenings - At a French villa, Marianne is charged with secretly painting Héloïse, a woman fresh from a convent and betrothed to a strange man. Spending days as Héloïse’s walking companion, Marianne paints her by memory at night. Filmmaker Céline Sciamma delivers a bold cinematic masterpiece about self-discovery, memory and freedom.

DIR Céline Sciamma. SCR Céline Sciamma. CAST Noémie Merlant, Adèle Haenel, Luàna Bajrami, Valeria Golino. France

Romantic Comedy

Cinema’s Legacy - Take a trip through your favorite Romantic Comedies with artist and writer Elizabeth Sankey as she examines the common tropes of the genre and how they have shaped not only cultural conversations but the actual psychological makeup of the filmmaker herself.  An outstanding intellectual and revealing debut, this film will be your next crush.

DIR Elizabeth Sankey. SCR Elizabeth Sankey. FEATURING Jessica Barden, Cameron Cook, Anne T. Donahue, Simran Hans, Brodie Lancaster, Charlie Lyne, Eleanor McDowall, Laura Snapes. UK. 

Take Me to Prom

Shorts - A colorful, celebratory intergenerational retelling of seven queer people’s prom experience.

DIR Andrew Moir. FEATURING Alf Roberts, Fontaine, Marcy Rogers, Alphonso King Jr., Marc Hall, Caroline Kan-Hai. Canada 

The Burning Bush (הסנה הבוער)

Shorts - Danny mourns the lost love to her ex-girlfriend, symbolized by a small plant. Danny's mother wants her daughter to bury the memories, but when the dust settles something more powerful remains, which will not die.

DIR Noam Greif. SCR Noam Greif. CAST Inbal Lehavi, Irit Sheleg, Na'ama Amit. Israel

Welcome to the USA

New Auteurs - After winning the US green card lottery, 36-year-old Aliya has to tell her family and friends. Director Assel Aushakimova’s Welcome to the USA is a quiet, powerful film that shares a slice of Kazakhstani city life and the semi-hidden existence of the LGBTQ community in Almaty.

DIR Assel Aushakimova. SCR Assel Aushakimova CAST Saltanat Nauruz, Aida Zhetpissova, Dinara Aliyeva, Daniyar Beisov, Kul-Sara, Sultana Bektasova. Kazakhstan. World Premiere

Searching Eva

Documentary - Famed neurologist and best-selling author Oliver Sacks (THE MAN WHO MISTOOK HIS WIFE FOR A HAT), who died in 2015, led an extraordinary life. Master filmmaker Ric Burns, granted intimate access in Sacks’ final months, paints a deeply moving portrait that captures his remarkable life and reveals the enormity of his spirit.

DIR Ric Burns. USA

Miller & Son

AFI Conservatory Showcase - A transwoman mechanic lives between running her family’s auto shop during the day and expressing her femininity at night, until an unforeseen event threatens the balance of her compartmentalized life.

DIRECTOR Asher Jelinsky. SCREENWRITER Asher Jelinsky. PRODUCER Kate Chamuris. CINEMATOGRAPHER Robert Nachman. EDITOR Selinda Zhou. PRODUCTION DESIGNER Robert Aguirre. CAST Jesse James Keitel, Ryan Cutrona, Travis Hammer, Alexandra Grey, Carter Ray. USA 

Saint Maud

Midnight - Maud, a reclusive nurse with a traumatic past, takes the task of hospice care for her new patient, Amanda, very seriously – she is determined to save Amanda’s soul from the devil. A sharp, striking debut, this psychological horror story of religious devotion will make you shiver long after leaving the theater.

DIR Rose Glass. SCR Rose Glass. CAST  Morfydd Clark, Jennifer Ehle Lily Frazer, Lily Knight, Marcus Hutton, Turlough Convery, Rosie Sansom, Carl Prekopp, Jonathan Milshaw, Noa Bodner, Rosie Sansom. UK

Knives and Skin

New Auteurs - A hit at the Berlinale and Tribeca Film Festivals, Jennifer Reeder’s electric feature debut Knives and Skin uses pop music and magical realism to tell the story of a missing high school girl and the quiet, suburban town thrown into disarray following her disappearance.

DIR Jennifer Reeder. SCR Jennifer Reeder. CAST Marika Engelhardt, Audrey Francis, Tim Hopper, Kate Arrington, James Vincent Meredith, Ireon Roach, Ty Olwin, Grace Smith, Kayla Carter, Robert T. Cunningham, Emma Ladji, Jalen Gilbert, Marilyn Dodds Frank, Tony Fitzpatrick, Raven Whitley. USA

Song Without A Name (Cancion Sin Nombre)

New Auteurs - Discouraged after attempting to engage the police, an indigenous woman whose newborn is kidnapped in a child-trafficking scheme persuades a journalist to investigate. An astoundingly assured debut, Song Without A Name’s meticulous black and white cinematography imparts a richness of texture and a luminescent glow, seeing an exquisite beauty in even the bleakest of realities.

DIR Melina Léon. SCR Melina Léon, Michael J. White. CAST Pamela Mendoza Arpi, Tommy Páraga, Lucio Rojas, Maykol Hernández, Lidia Quispe. Peru, Spain, USA, Chile