Queer Lion 2021

Out of competition

La scuola cattolica by Stefano Mordini (Italy, 106’, 2021)
In a residential area of Rome, there is a well-known Catholic school for boys, where children from the cream of the crop of upper-middle class are educated. Their families feel that in that context, children can grow up protected from the turmoil that society is going through, and that that rigid education will open the doors to a bright future for them.
Presented in Fuori Concorso

Ariaferma by Leonardo Di Costanzo (Italy, Switzerland, 117 ‘, 2021)
An old nineteenth-century prison, located in an inaccessible and unspecified Italian area, is about to be closed. Due to bureaucratic problems, transfers are blocked and a dozen of prisoners await for their new destination, along with the few agents left. In a suspended atmosphere, the rules of separation are loosened and new forms of relationships seem to blossom among the men.
Presented in Fuori Concorso 

Bodeng sar (White Building) by Kavich Neang (Cambodia, France, China, Qatar, 90 ‘, 2021)
Growing up in Phnom Penh’s historic White Building, 20-year-old Samnang, along with two friends, Tol and Ah Kha, dreams of becoming a dance star thanks to a TV contest. All changes when, unexpectedly, Ah Kha reveals that he will soon be leaving Cambodia.
Presented in Orizzonti

Nuestros días más felices by Sol Berruezo Pichon-Rivière (Argentina, 100′, 2021)
Agatha, 74 years old, and Leonidas, 36, maintain an absorbing mother-son relationship: Agatha never fell in love again and Leonidas does not dare to build a life outside the doors of the family home. A totally unexpected twist in Agatha’s life will persuade Leonidas to spread his rainbow wings and find happiness.
Presented in Biennale College

Isolation by Michele Placido, Julia von Heinz, Olivier Guerpillon, Jaco Van Dormael, Michael Wintebottom (Italy, Uk, Germany, Belgium, Sweden, 88’, 2021)
A collective documentary film, from five european directors asked to witness the revolutions and dramas caused in their own Countries by the pandemic; among them, “Two Fathers”, directed by Julia von Heinz (20’). After the death of his father, Hans-Michael von Heinz, the director finds out the truth about her parent true sexual identity. In order to know more, she starts emailing persons who got to know him over the last years, among them his closest friend, director Rosa von Praunheim.
Presented in 18. Giornate degli Autori

Caveman – Il gigante nascosto by Tommaso Landucci (Italy, Switzerland, 91’, 2021)
It has been almost thirty years since Filippo Dobrilla started to sculpt a giant male nude inside a cave 650 metres deep in the Apuan Alps. This almost inaccessible place has jealously protected his secret: his youthful passion for a fellow climber, a passion Filippo was only able to indulge in here in the intimacy of this cave. Even after it was over and ever since then, Filippo has been returning regularly to the cave to work on the most important sculpture of his life, a masterpiece no one will see.
Presented in 18. Giornate degli Autori

Techno, mama by Saulius Baradinskas (Lithuania, 18’, 2021)
Nikita loves to listen to techno music and dreams to go to Berlin and visit the famous club “Berghain”. His mother Irena doesn’t know about his son’s dreams and soon enough their mutual expectations will clash.
Presented in Orizzonti

In The Mist by Tung-yen Chou (Taipei, 15’)
Theater and new media director Chou Tung-Yen touches on the unspeakable life experience of the gay community culture, exploring a male sauna through poetic lenses to take a peek into something that’s hidden under the desire—the love without love.
Presented in Venice VR Expanded

Era ieri (It Was Yesterday) by Valentina Pedicini (Italy, 14’, 2016)
13-year-old Giò and Matteo are best friends. A small strip of land between the sky and the sea in Southern Italy is their kingdom. They head a group of boys, they do some petty thefts to feel grown up in an age of hope and childish games.
Presented in 36. Settimana Internazionale della Critica

Futhermore:
Spencer by Pablo Larraín (Germany, Uk, 111′, 2021), with an unexpected, surprising coming out;
Halloween Kills by David Gordon Green (Usa, 105′, 2021), among the supporting characters, a gay couple living in the infamous house that belonged to Michael Myers.