LIST: Films and shorts you can catch at the 2025 QCinema International Film Festival

Asian Next Wave

• A Useful Ghost - This film by Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival where it won the Grand Prix. It's Thailand's entry for Best International Feature Film at the 98th Academy Awards. A Useful Ghost follows the spirit of a woman as she posseses a vacuum cleaner to protect her husband as he starts exhibiting symptoms of the same respiratory disease that she died from.
• Diamonds in the Sand - Directed by Janus Victoria, this film won the White Mulberry Award for Best Debut Film. In it, Yoji, a divorce and demoted Japanese man heads to Manila as he believes nobody is lonely in the Philippines.
• Family Matters - Directed by Pan Ke-yin, the film features four episodes—arranged in emotional order—that reveal the family's complex history, starting with eldest daugther Spring who learns that she was actually adopted at birth, her mother Autumn who struggled with conceiving her second child with her husband Winter, and their second child Summer, who learns of the family secrets.
• Ky Nam Inn - Leon Le's Ky Nam Inn, set in post-war Saigon, Vietman, follows a young translator and an older widow who find comfort in each other.
• Lost Land - This Special Jury Prize winner in the Vince Horizons section of the 2025 Venice Film Festival by Akio Fujimoto chronicles two children who leave a refugee camp in Bangladesh for Malaysia in the hope of reuniting their family.
• Luz - Luz by Flora Lau, a Grand Jury Prize nominee at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, tells the story of Wei in his search for his estranged daughter and Hong Kong gallerist Ren as they meet in a virtual reality world.
• Open Endings - This sapphic film starring Janella Salvador, Klea Pineda, Jasmine Curtis-Smith, and Leanne Mmonong won Best Ensemble Performance at the 2025 Cinemalaya Film Festival. Directed by Nigel Santos, Open Endings follows four queer women who are exes-turned-best friends as they navigate adulthood, love, friendship, chosen families, and everything in between.
• Renoir - This Japanese coming-of-age drama by Chie Hayakawa follows 11-year-old Fuki navigating adolescense in late 1980s Tokyo. It premiered at the 78th Cannes Film Festival.
• The World of Love - This 2025 Toronto International Film Festival-premiered film tells the story of 17-year-old student Ju-in navigating love, friendship, and a traumatic past.

RainbowQC

• 3670 - This South Korean film by Park Joon-Ho follows Cheol-jun, a North Korean defector living in Seoul, who conceals the fact that he's gay from his close friends. He soon summons the courage to explore the capital's gay community while keeping his two worlds apart.
• Bel Ami - Ina small, unknown border town, a middle-aged man decides to come out of the closet.
• Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingoes - An unknown, deadly disease spreads, with rumors saying it's transmitted between two men through a simple glance when they fall in love. Lidia must find out whether the myth is real or not.
• On the Road - This film won the Queer Lion at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival. It chronicles the story of Veneno, who trades sexual favors to gay men for money at a roadside diner. He meets an older truck driver Muńeco, and falls in love.
• Skin of Youth - in 1990s Saigon, trans woman San dreams of getting a sex-change operation. Her lover Nam works as an underground dog-cage fighter to make this a reality.
• Strange River - During a bicycle trip with his family along the Danube, young Didac meets a mysterious boy who appears and disappears in the water. 
• Summer's Camera - After her father's passing, Summer refuses to use his unfinished camera film until she meets her school's football star Yeonwoo.
• The Little Sister - Directed by Hafsia Herzi, this film won the Queer Palm and Best Actress prize at the 78th Cannes Film Festival. It follows 17-year-old Fatima as she balances the dictates of her religion with her sexuality.

New Horizons

• Amoeba - A tomboy schoolgirl persuades three classmates at an all-girls school to form a triad gang.
• Blue Heron - A film within a film, Blue Heron explores the internal dynamics of a family of six as they settle into their new home in Vancouver Island.
• Brand New Landscape - This Japanese title follows two siblings naivgating Tokyo in the absence of their mother. Their estrange father, a renowned architect, may be their last chance to reconcile.
• Chronology of Water - Directed by actress Kristen Stewart, this film follows a young scholarship swimmer who reconciles her turbulent upbringing and trauma by finding solace in literature.
• DJ Ahmet - This film tells the tale of a 15-year-old boy in a remote Macedonian village, who escapes into music amidst parental expectations and forbidden love.
• Lucky Lu - A delivery driver in New York City has his bike stolen the night before his wife and daughter's move from Taiwan.
• Manas - A 13-year-old girl from a riverside community on Marajó Island seeks to break the cycle that imprisons women around her.
• On Your Lap - This Indonesian drama follows a young woman who works as a waitress who sits on men's laps while they drink coffee, all in the hopes to provide a better life for her son.
• The President's Cake - This film is Iraqu's entry for Best International Feature at the Oscars. Set in the 1990s, 9-year-old Lamia must bake a birthday cake for the president.

QCShorts International

• Hoy, Hoy, Ingat! - The film follows a child who is determined to become famous and his beautiful, terminally ill brother who must rescue their beloved PUV jeepney—their last hope to fly home to the countryside.
• Ours Was A Timeless Night Burning - Two unacquainted daughters try to keep themselves occupied by playing a game of F-L-A-M-E-S and watching an adult sitcom as they await their father's return form a night of endless gambling.
• RUNO! - It tells the story of a silly Filipino stray rescue dog dead who strives to find her student owner through a long dangerous journey to defeat her worst enemy: an empty food bowl.
• Si Kara: Ang Babaye Nga Nag Daba-Daba - The sci-fi film takes place in Bacolod and follows its titular character as she feels a sudden surge of intense body heat, all while a distant rumble echoes from the mountains.
• Surface Tension - The drama film puts audiences into the shoes of a young swimmer named Bulet who finds herself drowning on the day of a small town wedding.
• Yelo - Set in a thrift shop in Cubao, Jessa and Candy are about to have their lives turned upside down by the arrival of a foreigner with promises of America.
• A Metamorphosis - This short shows what it's like to grow up with state television propaganda.
• Agapito - This short premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. It centers on the story of Mira, who works as the duckpin alley manager while at the same time taking care of his brother living with cerebral palsy and developmental delays.
• As If To Nothing - This film is directed by Singapore's Pek Jia Ho and Ang Jia Jung.
• Baby Fat - A Fil-Am tween spill ketchup on a traditional heirloom dress and now must restore it with her mother at a laundromat.
• Before the Sea Forgets - A gay tourist couple searches for a forgotten Vietnamese soldier's grave. 
• Grandma Nai Who Played Favorites - Dead grandma Nai sneaks away from her afterlife after overhearing that her queer grandson is about to be engaged to a woman.
• Honey, My Love, So Sweet - This short directed by JT Trinidad had its world premiere at Locarno Film Festival.
• In the Valley - 11-year-old Lei, who lives in a remote village, resents her mother's decision to move to the city for her education. Lei heads to her secret hideout where old murals that seem alive bring her comfort.
• Little Rebels Cinema Club - Set in Indonesia, 14-year-old Doddy and his friends film a famous zombie scene with his emo brother's camera.
• My Plastic Mother - Eki searches for a memento to honor his late mother.
• Please P(r)ay Attention by Vasupol Suwanjuta (Thailand) — World premiere at Busan International Film Festival;
• Sammi, Who Can Detach His Body Parts by Rein Maychaelson (Indonesia) — World premiere at Berlinale, Krakow Silver Dragon Award, NYAFF Honorable Mention, Concorto Jury Special Award;
• Visiting Heaven Gate - This short by Nghiêm Quỳnh Trang earned a Special Mention at ShorTS International Film Festival.
• Vox Humana - This short is set in a near-future world where strangers' lives intertwine as they grapple with technology's impact on relationships and identity.
• When the Blues Goes Marching In - Directed by Beny Kristia, this short won a Minikino Film Week Best National Competition Award.

Screen International

• Couture - Filmmaker Maxine arrives in Paris for Fashion Week where she faces challenges and self-discovery.
• Divine Comedy - A film within a film story of Bahram who has never screened his film in Iran due to censorship.
• Hamnet - Directed by Chloe Zhao, the film follows the love story that inspired the creation of Shakespeare's Hamlet.
• History of Sound - This period drama follows two young men set out to record their lives, voices and music amid World War I.
• Little Amélie - This animation tells the tale of Amélie, a Belgian child in Japan, as she turns three.
• Once Upon a Time in Gaza - As Hamas tightens control over Gaza, Yahia seeks revenge over his friend's murder. This film by Tarzan and Arab Nasser won Best Director at the Un Certain Regard section of the 78th Cannes Film Festival.
• Sirat - This film is a Jury Prize winner at the 78th Cannes Film Festival and Spain’s Oscar entry for Best International Feature Film. It follows a father and son looking for his missing daughter in North Africa.
• The Mastermind - Failed architect James Blaine Mooney and his cohorts wander into a museum and steal four paintings. 
• The Things You Kill - Canada’s Oscar entry for Best International Feature Film follows a university professor coercing a gardener to execute a cold-blooded act of vengeance after his mother's supsicious death.

Before Midnight

• The Garden of Earthly Delights  - Set in the slums of Manila, the film follows 11-year-old Ginto fighting for survival. He crosses paths with a troubled Dutch tourist.
• Rabbit Trap - Musician couple Daphne and Darcy Davenport moved from London to a cottage in Wales to complete their new album. They record a mystical sound nobody's ever heard before and gradually disconnect from reality.
• Ugly Stepsister - This film follows Elvira in a battle against her gorgeous stepsister where beauty reigns supreme.

Rediscovery

• Almost Famous - Cameron Crowe's 2000 film following a high school boy given the chance to write a story for Rolling Stone about an up-and-coming rock band.
• Linda Linda Linda - Nobuhiro Yamashita's 2005 film on a group of girls learning to play a song for a school festival.
• Showgirls - Paul Verhoeven's 1995 erotica following a young drifter hitching a ride to Las Vegas, where she finds work as a stripper. She has her sights set on becoming one of the top Vegas showgirls.

QC Selects

• Call My Manager - The first two episodes of Erik Matti's series set to stream on HBO Max.
• Human Resource - Fren, who works in HR, interviews new hires and is secretly one month pregnant.
• Lakambini: Gregoria de Jesus - The film tells the story of Gregoria De Jesus;s quest for justice.
• Rental Family - An American actor (Brendan Fraser) in Tokyo lands an unusual gig working for a Japanese "rental family" where he plays stand-in roles for strangers.
• Shadow Transit - A grieving photojournalist and troubled DJ flee through Manila and Hong Kong's criminal underworld as a syndicate chases them.
• The Richest Woman in the World - A woman in her 90s gifts millions to a young artist. Her daughter uncovers alleged political corruption involving a former president.

Dokyu Days

• Below the Clouds - Naples faces dual volcanic threats from Vesuvius and Campi Flegrei.
• 10s Across the Borders - Four queer pioneers grow flourishing communities in the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore.
• The Road to Sydney - Filipina dance master Sydney Loyola faces job loss and eviction after gender affirmation.
• Treasure Hunter - The documentary film follows a treasure hunter's pursuit of Yamashita's Gold.
• The Voice of Hind Rajab - A six-year-old girl is trapped in a car under IDF fire in Gaza, pleading for rescue as she calls Red Crescent volunteers.

Focus On: Sandra Hüller

• Requiem by Hans-Christian Schmid
• The Zone of Interest by Jonathan Glazer - Cannes 2023 Grand Prix, Best International Feature and Best Sound at the 2024 Academy Awards.
• Toni Erdmann by Maren Ade
• Two to One by Natja Brunckhorst
• Anatomy of a Fall - This film won the Palme d'Or and the Palm Dog Award Cannes 2023 and Best Original Screenplay at 96th Academy Awards.

QCShorts International (Exhibition)

• A Very Straight Neck - The film follows a woman with a painful kink in her neck. She revisits memories of her childhood friend.
• An Orange from Jaffa - Young Palestinian Mohammed desperately looks for a taxi to take him through an Israeli checkpoint.
• God is Shy - Ariel and Paul pass the time while on a train ride by sketching their deepest fears. Their game takes an unexpected turn when a stranger intrudes on their exchange.
• Razeh-del - Two girls sent a letter to the first-ever women's newspaper in Iran in 1998. While they wait to be published, they consider making an impossible film.
• We Were the Scenery - After fleeing Vietnam by boat, Hoa Thi Le and Hue Nguyen Che arrive in the Philippines and were cast as extras in Apocalypse Now.