Ammonite

Francis Lee : 2020

A raw love story between a solitary palaeontologist and a wealthy, grieving wife. In 1840s England, acclaimed but overlooked fossil hunter Mary Anning works alone on the rugged Dorset coast. With the days of her famed discoveries behind her, she now searches for common fossils to sell to tourists to support herself and her ailing mother. When a wealthy visitor entrusts Mary with the care of his wife Charlotte Murchison, she cannot afford to turn his offer down. Proud and relentlessly passionate about her work, Mary initially clashes with her unwelcome guest, but despite the distance between their social class and personalities, an intense bond begins to develop, compelling the two women to determine the true nature of their relationship. Francis Lee's second feature premiered in the Gala Presentations at Toronto International Film Festival 2020.

I Am Greta

Nathan Grossman : 2020

In August of 2018, Greta Thunberg, a 15-year-old student in Sweden, starts a school strike for the climate. Her question for adults: if you don't care about her future on Earth, why should she care about her future in school? Within months, her strike evolves into a global movement. Greta, a quiet Swedish girl on the autism spectrum, is now one of the world's most recognisable activists. The team behind Greta has been following the young activist from her very first day of school strike. Their film perceives the world as she does, creating a story about her world. Nathan Grossman's documentary premiered out of competition at Venice International Film Festival 2020.

Once Upon a Youth

Ivan Ramljak : 2020
O jednoj mladosti

Thirteen years after the unexpected death of his one time best friend, Croatian filmmaker Ivan Ramljak tries to reconstruct his life and their relationship, using just the photographs and video materials which his friend shot back then. Consisting entirely of still images and videos it is the story of Marko Čaklović who died under tragic and never completely resolved circumstances in 2006. A film about the lost generation of inspired and dynamic young people at the end of the 1990s, who are trying to find their identity and an escape from a country in the aftermath of a devastating war. Ivan Ramljak's first feature-length documentary was winner of the Balkan Doc award at DokuFest 2020.

Laila in Haifa

Amos Gitai : 2020
A Night in Haifa

Over the course of one fateful night, we witness the interweaving stories of five women through a series of encounters and situations, defying all categories and labels in their relationships and personal identities. A sensitive and distinctly humanist reflection of life in the region. With an ensemble cast of both Israeli and Palestinian actors, the film presents a candid snapshot of contemporary life in one of the last remaining spaces where Israelis and Palestinians come together to engage in face-to-face relationships. Amos Gitai's feature premiered in competition at Venice International Film Festival 2020.

Cigare au miel

Kamir Aïnouz : 2020
Honey Cigar

Paris, 1993. Selma, 17, lives in a bourgeois and secular Berber family. When she meets and is strongly attracted to Julien, a dashing young man, she realises for the first time the heavy rules of her patriarchal family and how they affect her intimacy. As Islamism takes over her country of origin and her family crumbles, Selma discovers the power of her own desire. She must resist and fight. Through the strength of her people, she starts walking down the path of what it means to become a free woman. Kamir Aïnouz's directorial debut premiered in competition at Venice Days 2020.

The Book of Vision

Carlo Hintermann : 2020

Eva, a promising young doctor, leaves her brilliant career to study History of Medicine in a remote university. Now is the time for her to call everything into question: her nature, her body, her illness, and her sealed fate. Johan Anmuth is an 18th century Prussian physician in perpetual conflict between the rise of rationalism and ancient forms of animism. "Book of Vision" is a manuscript that sweeps these two existences up, blending them into a never-ending vortex. Far from a proper scientific text, the Book contains the hopes, fears, and dreams of more than 1800 patients. The patients' spirits still wander through the pages. The book hides a mystery. Life and death are both part of a continuous flow. Nothing expires in its time. Only what you desire is real, not merely what happens. Carlo Hintermann's first fiction feature premiered as the opening film at Venice International Film Critics' Week 2020.

Nightwalk

Małgorzata Szumowska : 2020

It's nighttime in Warsaw, Poland. Two very different homes. In one, a father is slovenly stretched out on a sofa, watching sports, expecting his son to be everything he is. In another apartment, all clean modern, an affluent mother sits to have dinner with her daughter, who isn't like her at all. Simultaneously, both the boy and the girl embark on a night journey of transformation, where they shed their inherited gender layers. The city streets become a catwalk of liberation. When they meet, by chance – face-to-face, body-to-body – they wordlessly mirror each other with comfort and assurance. The nineteenth commission from designer Miu Miu as part of "Women's Tales", a series of short films by women who critically celebrate femininity in the 21st century. Małgorzata Szumowska's film screened at Venice Days 2020.

Lacci

Daniele Luchetti : 2020
The Ties

Naples, early 1980s. The marriage between Aldo and Vanda begins to break down when Aldo falls in love with young Lidia. Thirty years later, Aldo and Vanda are still married. A mystery about feelings, a story of loyalty and faithlessness, of resentment and shame. Betrayal, pain, a secret box, a home laid waste, a cat, the voice of people in love and that of people out of love. Adapted from the novel by Domenico Starnone, Daniele Luchetti's feature premiered out of competition as the opening film at Venice International Film Festival 2020.

Don't Forget to Breathe

Martin Turk : 2019
Ne pozabi dihati

Fifteen-year-old Klemen lives with his elder brother Peter and single mother in a small and remote rural town. He adores his brother, so when his well-established routine of spending time with his beloved brother on the tennis court and by the nearby river gets interrupted by Peter's sudden and passionate love affair with beautiful Sonja, their relationship causes a whirlwind of conflicting emotions for Klemen. Angry at Sonja for pulling Peter away from him, Klemen also cannot resist the attraction he feels for her. Confused by his feelings, he starts behaving erratically. Martin Turk's third feature premiered in competition in the Alice nella Città section at Rome Film Festival 2019, and screened in competition in the Croatian Programme at Pula Film Festival 2020.

Where the Road Leads

Matīss Kaža : 2020
Kur vedis cels

The story of Eva, a sixteen-year-old aristocrat who goes missing from the Baron's manor on the day of her arranged wedding. When the Baron's head servant, Magda, is found murdered in the manor's stables, an investigation starts where everyone is a suspect. The Baron's henchmen, local law enforcement and other involved parties set out to find the girl who has chosen to set her own destiny in a time of great social imbalance. But Eva will do everything it takes to secure her freedom.

Love Affair(s)

Emmanuel Mouret : 2020
Les choses qu'on dit, les choses qu'on fait

Vacations in the French countryside. Daphne, three months pregnant, finds herself alone to welcome Maxime, her boyfriend François' cousin. François had to leave in a hurry for Paris to cover for a sick colleague. For four days, while waiting for his return, Daphne and Maxime get to know each other and share very intimate stories that bring them closer. A contemporary star-crossed love affair, where no partner is more at fault than the other. Multiple love triangles seen with authenticity, elegance and compassion. Emmanuel Mouret's feature premiered in the Marché du Film event as part of the Official Selection at Festival de Cannes 2020.

Under the Skin

Robin Harsch : 2019
Sous la peau

Three transgender teenagers, Soän, Effie Alexandra and Logan take the long path of physical transformation to finally arrive at their perceived gender identity, supported by parents and counsellors. They undergo radical physical changes caused by hormone therapy and surgery. This is the external metamorphosis that finally brings their appearance into line with their long-felt gender identity. Behind them lie desperate years in which they had to struggle not only with themselves but also with their family and school environments. This continuous experience of rejection and harassment has made them vulnerable. They long for the day when they don't have to explain themselves all the time. Robin Harsch's documentary premiered in the Next Masters Competition at DOK Leipzig 2019.

In the Dusk

Šarūnas Bartas : 2020
Sutemose

Lithuania, 1948. The war is over, but the country is left in ruins. Untė is 19 years old and is a member of the Partisan movement resisting Soviet occupation. They do not fight on equal terms, but it is on this desperate struggle that the future of an entire people depends. At the age of discovery of life, Untė will also discover violence and treachery. The lines are blurred between the burning passion of his own youth and the cause for which he is fighting. He will invest himself wholeheartedly, even if it means losing his innocence and his life. Šarūnas Bartas's feature premiered in the Marché du Film event as part of the Official Selection at Festival de Cannes 2020.

Spring Blossom

Suzanne Lindon : 2020
16 Printemps

Suzanne is sixteen. People her own age bore her. Every day on her way to high school, she passes a theatre. There, she meets an older man, who becomes obsessed with her. Despite their age difference, they find in each other an answer to their ennui and fall in love. But Suzanne is afraid she's missing out on life – that life of a 16-year-old, which she had struggled so much to enjoy in the same way as her peers. Suzanne Lindon's feature debut premiered in the Marché du Film event as part of the Official Selection at Festival de Cannes 2020.

Inga

Dato Abramishvili & Giorgi Gogichaishvili : 2020

Inga is my name. I've just turned 18. Which means I have no right to stay at the orphanage any longer. This is the law. I've married a man whom I'd never met before. This is my choice. My husband appears to be mentally disabled. I stay with him. This is love. We live with my husband's relatives. This is family. Worst thing about this family is to be female in this family. In this country. In this world. But I'm not just female. I'm an 18-year-old woman named Inga. Raised in an orphanage, at eighteen years old Inga is in danger of becoming homeless. As she has no idea how to live outside by herself and cannot thus risk her life being independent in society, she takes the offer from the orphanage director to marry an autistic man from a male-dominated family whom she sees for the first time on their wedding day. Inga can't imagine that the house where she will move to is controlled by strictly defined rules which destroy everyone who decides to rise against this family system.

La nova escola

Ventura Durall : 2020

What is the purpose of school today? This question led to an educational revolution launched by the Escola Nova 21 programme. "Lessons for a new school" (La Nova Escola) follows the programme, which is based on the learning of skills and which has generated an educational revolution in Catalonia, during the three years of its existence. Observing the phenomenon from the perspective of our species and analysing its historical and scientific context by listening to the most qualified voices in science, the film delves into the adventure of its promoters and those who have been at the heart of this experiment when the new methods were implemented. Can an education system be successfully changed from the bottom up? Only time will tell, but the seed for rethinking the education of the citizens of the future has come to stay. And it is unstoppable. Ventura Durall's documentary premiered at DocsBarcelona 2020.

The Castle

Lina Lužytė : 2020
Pilis

Monika, a thirteen-year-old Lithuanian girl, arrives in Dublin. She is a passionate singer who has come along with her mother Jolanta, once a professional pianist, who had to take a job in a local fish factory alongside many others in the neighbourhood. They are accompanied by her grandmother who suffers from dementia and requires 24/7 care. Monika dreams of becoming a famous musician and sees a concert taking place at The Castle as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Jolanta is sceptical and reluctant to support her daughter's dreams, and so she sells their keyboard and forbids Monika from attending the concert. Nevertheless, her decision does not stop Monika, who cooks up a scheme involving the grandmother to get €100 in order to hire the keyboard.

Bergman Island

Mia Hansen-Løve : 2020

An American filmmaking couple, Chris and Tony retreat to the mythical Fårö island for the summer to each write screenplays for their upcoming films. In this wild, breathtaking landscape where Ingmar Bergman lived and shot his most celebrated pieces, they hope to find inspiration for their next features. As days spent separately pass by, the fascination for the island operates on Chris and souvenirs of her first love resurface. As the summer and their screenplays advance, the lines between reality and fiction will then progressively blur against the backdrop of Fårö's wild landscape and tear the couple even more apart.

Le Grand Viveur

Perla Sardella : 2020

Mario Lorenzini is a mystery of cinema. Dying suddenly, he left behind him an unprecedented and secret cinematographic body of work, filmed in Super 8, chronicling the daily life of an Italian village. He was a farmer, a hunter, and a film buff. He lived in Rimasco, a small community in the Piedmont mountains. At the end of the 1960s, Lorenzini bought a Super 8 camera and became an amateur filmmaker. A man of passion, a great pleasure-seeker, he then dedicated himself to filmmaking. He filmed the day to day of mountain-dwelling life, his neighbours, the slaughter of pigs, the passing of the seasons, and the scenery of a territory that subtly changes with every take. Perla Sardella's documentary of Lorenzini's archives premiered in competition at Visions du Réel 2020.

Sisters with Transistors

Lisa Rovner : 2020

Think of early electronic music and you'll likely see men pushing buttons, knobs, and boundaries. While electronic music is often perceived as a boys club, the truth is from the very beginning women have been integral in inventing the devices, techniques and tropes that would define the shape of sound for years to come. As one of the film's subjects, Laurie Spiegel explains: "We women were especially drawn to electronic music when the possibility of a woman composing was in itself controversial. Electronics let us make music that could be heard by others without having to be taken seriously by the male-dominated establishment." Sisters with Transistors is more than just the history of a music genre: it's the story of how we hear and the critical but little-known role female pioneers play in that story. With the wider social, political and cultural context of the 20th century as a backdrop, this all archival documentary reveals a unique emancipation struggle, restoring the central role of women in the history of music and society at large. Lisa Rovner's documentary was selected to premiere at SXSW 2020.

Darkness

Emanuela Rossi : 2019
Buio

Stella, a 17-year-old, and her younger sisters, Luce and Aria, are locked inside their secluded, dark mansion with bars on the windows. Out there the Apocalypse: two thirds of humanity is dead since sunlight has become too strong and men only can go outside, women can't stand it. Their claustrophobic life is brightened up by special games, such as the Air party or the picnic by the lake. These games, usually led by Stella, are aimed at reimagining the past they shared with their late mother. But their father gets angry – he would like them to completely erase the past. Things break down when Luce, the second daughter, who is by now a teenager, starts asking about the outside. After an incident where Aria leaves the house and Stella goes to fetch her, and after a couple of days of the father's continuous absence, Stella decides to go out into the world. As she finds out, the stories the father has been telling are a far cry from the truth. Emanuela Rossi's feature debut premiered in the Alice nella Città section at Rome Film Festival 2019.

Gunpowder Heart

Camila Urrutia : 2019
Pólvora en el corazón

Claudia and María have fallen in love. They roam the streets of the city of Guatemala. Claudia works at a call centre and is uninterested in the world around her. She lives with her activist grandfather, who tries to persuade her to join his cause. María unlike Claudia, is more spontaneous and lives with her mother in the outskirts of the city. The chaotic streets are filled with common stories of abuse, unforgiving police officers, and charming secret corners. Everything changes one night when they are attacked by three men. Although they manage to escape, Claudia is faced with the dilemma of choosing revenge or listening to her grandfather's advice. Camila Urrutia's feature debut premiered in competition at Huelva Ibero-American Film Festival 2019, and was selected to have its North American premiere at SXSW 2020.

Amor Fati

Cláudia Varejão : 2020

Amor fati could be translated from the Latin as love for one's destiny, but also as the love that is destined for us. Two twin sisters, a master and his dog, lovers who look like each other – all doubles are possible in this simultaneously poetic and hyper-realistic universe. Here, love comes in all shapes and sizes, building a choreography of visual resemblances, while also questioning what makes a couple in the contemporary world. Amor Fati seeks out parts that complete each other. These are portraits of couples, friends, families and pets and their owners. They share the intimacy of daily life, habits, beliefs, tastes and even some physical traits. From their faces, from the choreography of their gestures, is unveiled the story that binds them. Drawn from everyday life, right before our eyes the film portrays a chorus of affection and the collective memory of a country. Cláudia Varejão's documentary premiered in competition at Visions du Réel 2020.

She Paradise

Maya Cozier : 2020

Sparkle is a naïve 17-year-old girl seeking community and excitement when she stumbles upon a free-spirited dance crew who invite her to their next audition. Welcomed into the sisterhood despite her lack of street smarts, she soon meets Skinny, a rapper who's immediately taken with Sparkle's wide-eyed innocence. Navigating this thrilling yet sinister new world that revolves around nightlife and cash, Sparkle finds her fate in the hands of those with power in this seemingly postcard-perfect setting, with misogyny brewing beneath the surface. An authentic and reverent exploration of female friendship, sexism, and the ways in which music and dance shape communities in the Caribbean. Maya Cozier's feature debut premiered in competition at Tribeca Film Festival 2020.

Asia

Ruthy Pribar : 2020

Asia and Vika, a pair of Russian immigrants in Israel, are more like sisters than mother and daughter. Young mom Asia hides nothing about her work-hard, play-hard lifestyle, and expects the same openness and honesty from teenage Vika. But Vika is at an age where privacy and independence are paramount, and inevitably begins to rebel against her mom's parenting style. With two stubborn and opinionated women under one roof, Asia finds herself in new territory and stumbles to achieve a balance between asserting her parental authority and respecting her daughter's point of view. When health issues lead Vika to be confined to a wheelchair and her need for romantic experiences and sexual exploration becomes more urgent, Asia must step in and become the mother Vika so desperately needs. Vika's illness turns out to be an opportunity to reveal the great love within this small family unit. Ruthy Pribar's feature debut was winner of the Nora Ephron Award, and the awards for Best Actress and Best Cinematography in the International Narrative Competition section when it premiered at Tribeca Film Festival 2020.

Wake Up on Mars

Dea Gjinovci : 2020
Réveil sur Mars

Two teenage sisters, Ibadeta and Djeneta, lie in a vegetative state in the small Swedish home of their Kosovar family. They fell into a coma three years ago. The cause of their mysterious malady is known as Resignation Syndrome, a phenomenon attributed to their violent psychological trauma experienced as refugees shuttled between two countries. In Sweden, hundreds of children have been affected by this enigmatic illness, which can occur when their residency permits are denied. As their devoted parents work to keep their daughters alive while awaiting updates on their immigration status, their youngest son, Furkhan, imagines a life beyond the snowy expanse of his temporary backyard – and into the far reaches of space. Furkhan's desire to build his dream ship to the stars, escaping the unimaginable reality of his sisters' illness, serves as a powerful, visually arresting metaphor for the contemporary refugee experience. But will Furkhan and his family be forced to return to Kosovo before he finishes his masterpiece and his sisters return to consciousness? Dea Gjinovci's documentary feature debut premiered in competition at Tribeca Film Festival 2020.

Beyond the Visible: Hilma af Klint

Halina Dyrschka : 2020

Hilma af Klint (1862-1944) was an abstract artist before the term existed, a visionary, trailblazing figure who, inspired by spiritualism, modern science, and the riches of the natural world around her, began in 1906 to reel out a series of huge, colourful, sensual, strange works without precedent in painting. Although af Klint created thousands of paintings and drawings during her lifetime, she directed her abstract pieces to be kept under wraps until 20 years after her death. The subject of a recent smash retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum, af Klint was for years an all-but-forgotten figure in art historical discourse, before her long-delayed rediscovery. The film describes not only the life and craft of af Klint, but also the process of her mischaracterisation and erasure by both a patriarchal narrative of artistic progress and capitalistic determination of artistic value. Halina Dyrschka's directorial feature documentary debut is the first and only film on the Swedish artist Hilma af Klint.

Pyrale

Roxanne Gaucherand : 2020

In the middle of summer 2016, the box tree moth takes over the Drôme Provençale region. Accidentally introduced into France, this moth forces inhabitants, virtually forsaken by the authorities and helpless faced with the scale of the phenomenon, to improvise defensive systems to fight the invasion of their houses and businesses as well as the devastation of their lands. In this apocalyptic climate, 18-year-old Lou spends her last summer in the South and discovers her feelings for her childhood friend, Sam. As their relationship gradually develops into a love affair, the urgency and upheaval that she feels echo her environment; an ecosystem subverted by an unexpected invasion. Roxanne Gaucherand's short premiered in the Burning Lights International Competition section at Visions du Réel 2020.

Själö – Island of Souls

Lotta Petronella : 2020

Själö is an isolated island in the Baltic Sea, off the coast of Finland near Turku. Its name means island of souls. For centuries, a closed institution served as a final destination for socially transgressive women at Själö. Finally, in 1755, it was fully turned into an asylum and functioned as such until 1962. The outcast women were kept there in detention, to be observed, studied and measured – in much the same way as the surrounding nature is by scientists at the now converted Centre of Environmental Research of the University of Turku. While a young scientist is collecting samples around the island, the past emerges in the whispers of the unsent letters and empty rooms of the hospital, writing the unknown history of the nameless women. The space fills up with hidden memories as the invisible archives come alive. Whose stories are remembered and whose are forgotten? Lotta Petronella's documentary received the F:act Award Special Mention when it premiered at Copenhagen International Documentary Festival 2020.

Debout sur la montagne

Sébastien Betbeder : 2019
Up the Mountain

Stan, Hugo and Bérénice are three childhood friends who grew up in the mountains. They were inseparable but then grew apart. 15 years later, as adults somewhat damaged by life, they find themselves in the village of their childhood, having returned to bury Hugo's brother. The reunion marks the beginning of an adventure and a new life. Will it allow them to reconnect with the fantasy, the carefree and the joy of their first years? It seems it's not so easy to leave behind the place where everything started and where everything is still possible. Sébastien Betbeder's feature premiered at Lyon 2019.

L'échappée

Mathias Pardo : 2019
The Escape

Barely of age but not quite adults, Tess and Anatole still know nothing about love. Anatole sleeps where he can while waiting for a stable job to come along, whereas Tess is about to start preparatory classes in Paris. They first meet in the surroundings of a port in decline, like a symbol of a country that is suffocating but which still has something to say. He has a tent, she has a car: together they will criss-cross the country's roads and draw out the summer, to ensure they never forget. Mathias Pardo's feature debut premiered in competition at Saint-Jean-de-Luz International Film Festival 2019.

Legacy

Dorian Boguţă : 2019
Urma

Anton, a famous pianist, is missing. Nicoară, the police officer in charge of the investigation, gradually learns about the artist's troubled destiny, his bizarre relationships and the decisions that triggered a whirl of surprising events. Also, that he suffered from a nervous breakdown and had left the world of music. After the death of his parents, Anton had become obsessed with the happiness of his sister Ana, beyond the confines of brotherly love. It doesn't take long for Nicoară to realise that there is more to this case than meets the eye. Dorian Boguţă's feature directorial debut premiered in competition at Festival International du Film Francophone de Namur 2019.

We Are the Radical Monarchs

Linda Goldstein Knowlton : 2019

Queer besties and community activists Anayvette Martinez and Marilyn Hollinquest wanted to empower the young women of colour in their Oakland neighbourhood, by setting up a youth group. Instead of selling cookies and learning to sew, these girls march on LGBTIQ+ Prides and meet activists from Black Panthers. They earn badges for units on social justice, such as Black Lives Matter, Radical Beauty, Disability Justice, and being an LGBTQ ally. We Are the Radical Monarchs follows the creation of this social justice radical troop and the blossoming of self-love. We also follow Martinez and Hollinquest as they struggle to keep Radical Monarchs alive alongside full-time jobs and limited funding. This joyous film is full of hope and inspiration to see the next generation of fierce, confident young women more than ready to take on the world. Linda Goldstein Knowlton's documentary premiered in competition at SXSW 2019, and was selected to have its UK premiere at BFI Flare 2020.

Caught in the Net

Vít Klusák & Barbora Chalupová : 2020
V síti

A documentary on what can happen to young girls when left at the mercy of the uncontrollable virtual world. Everyone knows something like this is happening. But this is the only experiment to fully demonstrate what excessive openness on the internet means. Hiring three actresses who are over 18 but who look much younger, the filmmaking couple created fake profiles of 12-year-old girls on Facebook and other platforms. The production team built an actual film set consisting of three young teenage girls' rooms, complete with plush toys, pink bedsheets and posters. The actresses, pretending to be these prepubescent girls then communicated with strangers who approached them based on their fake accounts. They attracted dozens of men in the first ten days, then hundreds, and finally thousands. The numbers of those looking for sexual satisfaction from the interactions are shocking. Most of the middle-aged men stopped at nothing to lure the supposed children into sending them photos or videos. The production doctored pictures of the girls with nude images of models, and then when an actress declined to take her clothes off in a live chat, the man would threaten to share the pics online. After weeks of online communication, there was even a personal meeting, and hidden cameras and microphones, along with undercover bodyguards, were placed in a Prague patisserie. A social experiment that turns into an interventionist documentary, the materials from which have been forwarded to the police who are starting official investigations. Barbora Chalupová and Vít Klusák's film won the Best Film award when it premiered in the Czech Competition section at Prague One World International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival 2020.

Caught in the Net – trailer (cineuropa)

Transkids

Hilla Medalia : 2019

Four Israeli teenagers undergo the process of life-and-identity-saving gender transformation in a country where military service is mandatory and Orthodox Jewish religion is the law. Sixteen is a riotous age – full of promise and excitement, riddled with hormone explosions and petulance. Four teens let the cameras in to share a crucial juncture in the formation of their identities. Romy is a typical beauty queen, whose secular single mum tried to steer her away from femininity with orthodox school. Liron tried hard to be super girly before realising it was completely wrong for him. Noam is born into a religious family and wants to become a rabbi. And Ofri is a regular tomboy scout who always knew he was different. Delving into its subjects' lives as they divulge the turning points in their transitions, the film examines the impact upon them of the society they live in. Hilla Medalia's documentary was selected to have its UK premiere at BFI Flare 2020.

Isabella

Matías Piñeiro : 2020

Mariel wants to play the role of Isabella in Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure". She has already prepared for an audition, but she is distracted by money problems. In the hope of receiving financial support from her brother, with whom she has had no contact for a long time, Mariel turns to his lover, Luciana, who is also an actress, albeit a more successful one. Luciana agrees to convince him, but only if Mariel goes ahead with the audition. However, luck is seldom on Mariel's side. Time after time, she tries to win this role that persistently eludes her. And time after time, she encounters Luciana, a sort of more successful doppelganger, who leads Mariel to doubt her own ambitions: to act or not to act. Mariel's dilemma intertwines her idea of success with her experience of friendship, motherhood and pursuing a career. Matías Piñeiro's feature premiered in the Encounters section at Berlin International Film Festival 2020.

Really Love

Angel Kristi Williams : 2020

Set in a gentrifying Washington DC, a rising Black painter tries to break into a competitive art world, while balancing a whirlwind romance he never expected. Isaiah is on the brink of giving up when he meets Stevie, an intelligent and intriguing beauty. Isaiah's creativity flows with Stevie in his life. They fall in love, but his work remains overlooked, bruising his ego. When Isaiah convinces a gallerist to take a chance on him, he pours himself into his art, which catapults his career, but doesn't leave room for love. Frustrated, Stevie accepts a dream job in Chicago, breaking Isaiah's heart. A year passes without communication until Isaiah sees Stevie at his group show in Chicago. Though Isaiah's life seems to have improved, it isn't what he imagined without her. Angel Kristi Williams's feature directorial debut was selected to premiere in competition at SXSW 2020.

Aviva

Boaz Yakin : 2020

Aviva is the story of a couple and their complicated relationship in trying to balance both sides of their respective characters; the masculine and feminine. Aviva and Eden as with all new relationships are facing conflict within their partnership. These conflicts extend outward, touching everything, resulting in disruptive behaviour that challenges their very real connection. Aviva and Eden, in the story of their journey as a couple from courtship to marriage, to a divorce and finally into deep loving friendship. It is a theme of the masculine/feminine duality in each of them and how that balance or imbalance affects the relationship between them. For the purposes of this story, each character is played by a man and a woman to reflect the conflicting sides of our own inner male and female perspectives. Aviva is the unique exploration of gender within ourselves, told through the lens of a modern-day romantic relationship from Paris to New York. Boaz Yakin's narrative feature was selected to premiere at SXSW 2020.

Summerland

Jessica Swale : 2020

Secluded in her picturesque countryside cottage, Alice toils away at her academic thesis on pagan myths while the rest of the world is in turmoil. The Second World War rages, yet its impact is barely felt by the solitary and prickly writer. Unmarried, she attracts the consternation of local villagers and is tormented by their children. Nursing a heartache from her past, Alice would quite like the world to leave her alone, but it has very different plans for her – in the form of Frank, an evacuee from London. Initially determined to be rid of this interloper, the guilelessness of youth soon breaks though Alice's tough exterior. The boy opens old wounds with innocent questions about Alice's past. Flashbacks reveal an all-consuming love affair with the decadent Vera, which unfolded when both women were barely out of their teens and everything seemed possible. Jessica Swale's directorial debut was selected to premiere at BFI Flare 2020.

Las niñas

Pilar Palomero : 2020
Schoolgirls

"I'm here to confess, Father, for I have sinned. – What sins have you committed, my child? – I don't know." In the Catholic girls' school choir, Celia's voice must not be heard. But her mute acceptance of the conservative dictates of an environment utterly bereft of colour and individuality is soon shaken up by the arrival of a new classmate, Brisa. Standing on the threshold of adolescence, Celia discovers a thirst for life in all its multifaceted glory. A bond quickly develops between the two girls, and together they rail against the authority figures and their rigid rules. In small acts of rebellion, Celia finds the courage to express her growing distrust of the value system governing her world in 1990s Spain, as questions start to form about her own family background – a topic on which her mother has always kept silent. Pilar Palomero's feature debut premiered in the Generation Kplus section at Berlin International Film Festival 2020.

Petite fille

Sébastien Lifshitz : 2020
Little Girl

When she grows up, she will be a girl. This is something Sasha has dreamed of since childhood. Her family soon realises how serious she is. In addition to interviews with the parents, who acknowledge their daughter as such without hesitation, the film depicts the family's tireless struggle against a hostile environment as well as their everyday lives. We see Sasha at play, practising ballet and during a visit to a therapist specialising in gender identities. At school, Sasha is not allowed to appear as a girl but must wear gender-specific boys' clothes. Tenderly filmed images and close-ups of Sasha's face create a gentle intimacy. Sometimes, it is as if she does not understand why everything is so complicated and why she cannot simply be what she is and wear what she wants. A touching portrait of an eight-year-old who questions her gender and who, in doing so, provokes some disturbing reactions from a society still stuck in a biologically deterministic boy-girl way of thinking. Sébastien Lifshitz's documentary premiered in the Panorama Dokumente section at Berlin International Film Festival 2020.

The Roads Not Taken

Sally Potter : 2020

Leo lies in bed. He is confused and lost in his thoughts. People around him no longer take him seriously. With the proverbial tender loving care, Molly, his daughter, accompanies him through New York. Even though her job is on the line, she sticks with this mentally impaired man who no longer knows her name, but whose head is filled with wanderings into parallel versions of his life. The life of a man. Leo with Dolores in Mexico: scenes from their passionate marriage; Leo as a lonely writer on a Greek island. These encounters steer him towards unpleasant truths – and back to Molly. The film explores the many lives a man carries inside him, even when reality seems to be fading away. In the end, it is his daughter's unconditional love that holds together the threads of Leo's hallucinatory trips. Sally Potter's feature premiered in competition at Berlin International Film Festival 2020.

Walchensee Forever

Janna Ji Wonders : 2020

The story of the women in the director's family over the last century. The film's unifying element and silent chronicler is Lake Walchensee in Bavaria, where the family opened a café in 1920 which still exists today. Its impressive founder Apa bequeaths the business to her first-born Norma who continues to run it, even in her advancing years. Norma's daughters Anna and Frauke leave the lake to liberate themselves and travel the world as musicians – only to return to live in a commune set up by Rainer Langhans. Frauke pines for the love of her life, dies mysteriously and becomes a shadowy figure for those left behind. Restless Anna moves to the USA, where she unexpectedly falls pregnant and gives birth to a girl. Summoned by the shadows of her past, she returns with daughter Janna to Walchensee where Grandma Norma becomes an important figure for her granddaughter. Filmmaker Janna is searching for answers to questions like: What is the meaning of home? To what extent am I shaped by my origins? What really counts in the end? She finds clues in the bond between four generations of women and their very different approaches to life. Janna Ji Wonders's documentary premiered in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section at Berlin International Film Festival 2020.

Always Amber

Lia Hietala & Hannah Reinikainen : 2020

At the age of 17, Amber opted for the gender-neutral Swedish pronoun "hen" and began consulting a therapist specialising in gender identities. Together with best friend Sebastian, the two queer youngsters share a world far away from the judging eyes of society. When they are together, anything feels possible. We get to hang out with Amber and Sebastian during this identity building period, when they share everything from dreams and parties to new friendships. But when Amber falls in love with Charlie, something starts to challenge their utopian world. Trust issues begin to emerge, and in the midst of it all Amber has to face going through their transition alone. Possessed of a pop icon-like sense of style, Amber's social-media-savvy circle of friends celebrates a spectrum of fluid identities and the value of the close ties that can only emerge from this freedom. Lia Hietala and Hannah Reinikainen's observational documentary premiered in the Panorama Dokumente section at Berlin International Film Festival 2020.

La déesse des mouches à feu

Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette : 2020
Goddess of the Fireflies

"It sounds like waves. Listen. Waves pushing a boat against a dock. Beautiful, isn't it? Like a tsunami. A giant tsunami." When Cat is high, life becomes a warm, poetic rush. First love, first sexual experiences and her parents' scorched-earth divorce combine to bring the 16-year-old to a turning point. In her new circle of friends, she encounters mescaline, which is known for inducing ecstatic states and soon rules Cat's everyday routine. Such deep intoxication helps to liberate her from the verbal and emotional brutality of conflicts at home, while her clique provides her with support and diversion. It's the mid-90s in provincial Canada – punk rock, Kurt Cobain's suicide and the Mia Wallace look are animating teens to try to get free themselves. An unflinching portrait of a maturing rebel, as strong and as weak as a lost goddess. Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette's feature premiered in the Generation 14plus section at Berlin International Film Festival 2020.

The Trouble with Being Born

Sandra Wollner : 2020

Somewhere in Central Europe, perhaps in the vicinity of Vienna, in the near future. Ten-year-old Elli is an android, as we soon learn. She takes shape through programming and this turns her into a fantasy figure. Firstly for a man she calls "Daddy" with whom she lies by the pool and for whom she dresses up in the house at the edge of the forest. Elli is the vessel for his memories, which mean nothing to her, but everything to him. Together they drift through the summer. One day he runs after a strange echo and gets lost in the darkness while Elli, who follows him, is picked up by strangers. A new identity awaits her, a new ghostly existence – as a blank screen onto which others can project their loss of the paradise that is childhood. The story of a machine and the ghosts we all carry within us. Sandra Wollner's second feature, her graduation film, was winner of the Special Jury Award when it premiered in the Encounters section at Berlin International Film Festival 2020.

Las Mil y Una

Clarisa Navas : 2020
One in a Thousand

Clad in sportswear, 17-year-old Iris dribbles her basketball through the wide courtyards of her social housing estate somewhere in Argentina. She has been expelled from school and spends the warm days and nights with her two best friends – her cousins – in cramped rooms, fiddling with her mobile phone, or on the empty streets of the town. While playing hide-and-seek, the boys disappear with other boys, they strip off in front of the webcam and write passionate texts in which they rail against a heteronormative society. There is a deceptive lightness in the air and the promise that, when it comes to love and sex, anything is possible. When cool and self-confident Renata enters the scene, Iris is fascinated, and it is not long before they begin flirting. But on the estate, the rumours about Renata's past are getting louder and louder. Caught between coming out and cyberbullying, community life and poverty, love and violence, the film captures the transition between the tenderness of childhood and the bitter reality of the adult world. Clarisa Navas's feature debut premiered in the Panorama section at Berlin International Film Festival 2020.

Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen

Sam Feder : 2020

An unprecedented, eye-opening look at transgender depictions in film and television, revealing how Hollywood simultaneously reflects and manufactures our deepest anxieties about gender. Leading trans thinkers and creatives, including Laverne Cox, Lilly Wachowski, Yance Ford, Mj Rodriguez, Jamie Clayton, and Chaz Bono, share their reactions and resistance to some of Hollywood's most beloved moments. Grappling with films like A Florida Enchantment (1914), Dog Day Afternoon, The Crying Game, and Boys Don't Cry, and with shows like The Jeffersons, The L-Word, and Pose, they trace a history that is at once dehumanising, yet also evolving, complex, and sometimes humorous. What emerges is a fascinating story of dynamic interplay between trans representation on screen, society's beliefs, and the reality of trans lives. Reframing familiar scenes and iconic characters in a new light, the director invites viewers to confront unexamined assumptions, and shows how what once captured the public imagination now elicit new feelings. Disclosure provokes a startling revolution in how we see and understand trans people. Sam Feder's documentary premiered at Sundance Film Festival 2020, and was selected to have its UK premiere at BFI Flare 2020.

The Calming

Song Fang : 2020
Ping jing

Lin only talks of the break-up once, at lunch with her friend in Japan, where her installation is being shown. It goes unmentioned when she visits her parents back in China or stays with her friend in Hong Kong, even though the removal company has taken her things to the new apartment already. Most of the time she's alone though. Lin is a filmmaker and often on the move, each trip blurring into the next. Her gaze is inquisitive wherever she goes, as if collecting material for a film: looking out of the window of the new apartment, observing the girl in the same hospital ward, examining light and foliage in the parks she hikes through. On trains, in cars, on boats, she watches different landscapes pass before her, snowy mountains, neon cityscapes, misty plains, as long as her eyes stay open. The hushed portrait of a woman alone in which looking and feeling go hand in hand. Song Fang's feature premiered in the Forum section at Berlin International Film Festival 2020.

Le sel des larmes

Philippe Garrel : 2020
The Salt of Tears

Driven by his desire to become a cabinet maker, Luc arrives in Paris. Lost in the banlieues, he asks Djemila for directions. In the girl's shyness, Luc glimpses the chance of an adventure. The two meet again but then Luc has to return home to his father, who is also a carpenter. There, he meets Geneviève, whom he knows from the past, and begins a romance with her. When Luc is offered a place at the renowned furniture-making school École Boulle, he follows his dream and moves to Paris, leaving Geneviève behind. Soon, a third young woman enters his small apartment, bringing the freedom of the big city with her. Time and again, Luc succumbs to glittering appearances, but with each conquest he loses something, the value of which he only realises later. Philippe Garrel's feature premiered in competition at Berlin International Film Festival 2020.