Before the screening – saying goodbye to Yair Hochner, Founder and Artistic Director of TLVfest.
Colin, a timid man, meets Ray, a confident biker gang leader, who initiates him into a submissive relationship, challenging Colin’s mundane existence and prompting personal growth through their unconventional dynamic.
Based on a novel by Adam Mars-Jones – “Box Hill: A Story of Low Self-Esteem”.
Viewing is 18+.
“Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day” – Croatia’s official nomination for Best Foreign Film in the 2025 Academy Awards, is an historical epic and an ode to love, loyalty and the power of friendship and art.
The film that spans over decades, follows lovers Lovro and Nenad and their long-time friendship with Steven and Ivan, all of them were part of a gay group turned filmmakers while navigating their lives through communist, post-war Yugoslavia.
The film studio they run gains world fame, but they are forced to compromise their arts and beliefs to produce propaganda for the communist regime. The more success they gain the more the fascism of the government seeps into their studio and they suddenly find their lives in danger despite being Nazi fighting heroes.
“Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day” is a luscious, intimate and politically charged cinema and the result is a heartbreaking piece on resistance. This is a film that is crying against oppression, against silencing and for the freedom to live, love and create art without fear.
Talented filmmaker and director Ivona Juka says this film was inspired by a relative of hers that was forced to hide his sexual identity for most of his adult life (homosexuality was still a crime in Croatia up until 1990’s).
Warning: This film contains explicit sex scenes and graphic violence.
This movie is eligible for a special “Monthly TLVfest” price:
4 Tickets – special price 160 NIS (40 NIS per ticket) – purchase here
6 Tickets – special price 225 NIS (37.5 NIS per ticket) – purchase here
12 Tickets – special price 360 NIS (30 NIS per ticket) – purchase here
In association with the European Union
Lucas is a young police officer whose main job is to haunt known gay cruising sites and arrest whoever he catches red-handed.
When he comes across Andrew, an older man who falls into Lucas’ trap, an unexplained feeling is stopping him from arresting Andrew and Lucas finds himself dealing with feelings he is used to bury.
The two embark on a secret relationship, a series of intimate and emotional meetings will lead them to a boiling point.
Director Carmen Emmi’s debut film, which won the Ensemble award of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival is a thrilling, smart and moving drama starring Russell Tovey and rising star Tom Blyth in an impressive role.
Donna Deitch, an awards winning documentarist was also the first out lesbian director who paved the way for many others with her debut feature film “Desert Hearts”. The film is based on a novel by Jane Rule written in 1964.
Helen Shaver is starring as Vivian Bell, a 35 years old professor from Columbia University who’s going to Reno to get divorced. She arrives at the farm of Frances Parker (Audra Lindley) in order to stay the required 6 weeks before she can become a Nevada resident and get her divorce.
In the farm Vivian catches the attention of Frances adopted daughter Cay (Patricia Charbonneau) an out and confident lesbian. Cay works at a casino and is a decade younger than Vivian. At first Vivan is trying to stay strong against Cay’s shameless flirting but when the emotions flood over she cannot resist anymore and the two end up in each other’s arms.
Already as its debut release back in 1985 “Desert Hearts” delighted audiences in the most prestigious film festivals around the globe- Locarno, Toronto and Sundance and now you have a chance to get swept into the romance set against the desert backdrop and the country soundtrack that accompanies the film in an original and high quality 35mm version.
Arthur J. Bressan, Jr.’s low budget masterpiece from 1985 is still as effective and moving as it was 40 years ago.
David (David Schachter) is a 25 years old yuppie who volunteers to be a “Buddy” to an AIDS patient. The LGBTQ community center teams him with Robert (Geoff Edholm), a 32 years old gay gardner from California, with very sharp political views, who had been abandoned by his friends and loved ones.
This is a lyrical cinematic piece for two actors (the rest of the cast is only heard, not seen) of the relationship between a young man who’s got his whole future ahead of him and who becomes best friends with a man who is dying of a then incurable disease. Aided by an elegant and meticulous script the result is rare perfection that is immortalising in a real moment a whole period of LGBTQ history.
“Buddies” is the first feature length film about the AIDS pandemic. It made its international debut on September 12 1985 in the Castro Theatre, with director Bressan and his two actors present. Five days later on September 17 1985 the US president Reagan finally uttered the word AIDS in public for the very first time. Sadly, Brassen himself died of AIDS in 1987 as did his actor Geoff Adholm in 1989. David Schachter still lives in New-York.
Anna (Academy Award Winner Olivia Colman) takes her non-binary teenager, Frances, to Amsterdam to visit their gay grandfather Jim- nicknamed Jimpa (Academy Award Nominee John Lithgow), an elderly decadent patriarch who’s having a hell of a time in Amsterdam. Frances (Aud Mason-Hyde) wants to stay with Jimpa for a year and experience the big queer city to the fullest. This will force Anna to reconsider her beliefs regarding parenthood and eventually face her past and her complex relationship with her own father.
In 2014 we screened Sophie Hyde’s phenomenal debut film “52 Tuesdays”, in the time that passed she directed Emma Thompson in the comedy “Good luck to you, Leo Grande” and now she returns with a personal queer film. “Jimpa” is a loving and thorough look on complex inter-generational relationships in family, friends and lovers.
A successful transgender actress (Camila Sosa Villada), known for her promiscuous and wild lifestyle, which defies every expectation set for her by her friends and the conservative Argentinian society, surprises her friends when she decides to settle down and start a family with a new husband (Alfonso Herrera “Sens8”, “Ozark”), will she be able to navigate between the mis-matched worlds she lives in? Moving between the wild nightlife she blossomed in, as a successful theatre actress in a demanding cultural world and the seemingly normal family life.
Director Javier van de Couter’s film (“Mía”- 2013 TLVFest closing film starring Camila Sosa Villada as well) is a steamy adaptation to a novel by the same name written by Camila Sosa Villada. This is a brave cinematic piece that gives us a strong and complex transgender heroine that is navigating between sexual fantasies, complicated personal history, social expectations and the want to create a family unit she never had. Can she have everything or will she have to give up some things in order to have the bourgeois family dream?
This film is limited to 18 years old and above due to explicit sex scenes.
In association with the Instituto Cervantes
Saigon, the 90s. San is a sex worker at a night club trying to save enough money for gender affirming surgery in order to achieve her dream of living in a woman’s body. San’s lover, Nam, works as a wrestler in an violent and bloody underground wrestling ring, fighting caged matches to help his lover’s dream come true.
Their young and fiery romance will stand in question as dark forces penetrate their intimate world, which the two lovers will need to deal with as all chances are against them. This conflict could be both catastrophic for their relationship, and also tests the limits of their humanity. “Skin of Youth” is the first Vietnamese film starring a transgender actress in the leading role. Be noted that this film is only permitted for viewers over the age of 18 due to explicit sexual scenes.
Please be aware – the screening at 29/10/2025 is NOT in Tel-Aviv Cinematheque.
Marko lives in a Croatian village with his parents and beloved little brother Fico. Despite being a gifted athlete Marko plans to follow his father’s plan and become a mechanic after he graduates high school.
Two events upset the balance of Marko’s life- his village is being threatened by floods and Selvan, his first and forbidden love, comes back home for his funeral.
The closer the floods come to the village, Marko’s emotional turmoil grows. While the villagers are working tirelessly to build walls of sandbags around their homes, Marko is building his own wall- one intended to keep his emotions at check. But just like water, emotions have a way of bursting through all obstacles.
Straight from the official competition of the Berlin Film Festival comes the debut directorial of the excellent screenwriter Rebecca Lenkiewicz who wrote the Oscar winning screenplay for “Ida” and the lesbian drama “Disobedience”.
“Hot Milk” is a story of a mother and daughter unfolding during a hot Spanish summer and is based on the critically acclaimed novel by Deborah Levy. Sofia (Emma Mackey, star of “Sex Education”) is taking care of her demanding mother Rose (veteran actress Fiona Shaw) who is wheelchair bound. They come to Spain to meet with a local doctor (Vincent Perez) who is known for his unconventional treatments to find a potential medicine for the mother’s mysterious illness.
The visit takes a turn when the young girl meets a German woman on the beach (Vicky Krieps “Love Me Tender”) and allows herself for the first time to test her boundaries and experience sexual enjoyment for the first time on her way to unshackle herself from her mother and towards self-fulfillment and adolescence.
In her debut directorial Rebecca Lenkiewicz explores the interpersonal relationships between a mother and her daughter and creates a thrilling psychological drama that burns itself under the skin. Mackey and Shaw are excellent in the leading roles.
