Festival du Nouveau Cinéma de Montréal

A lively, bold, popular, innovative event!

Fierté Montréal has partnered with Festival du Nouveau Cinéma for the third year in a row to celebrate the creativity and talent of 2SLGBTQIA+ creators, The Fierté Montréal Awards recognizes the best 2SLGBTQIA+ film among the long films selection.

Jury:
Florence Blain Mbaye, a multidisciplinary artist and graduate of the Conservatoires de Montréal who excels in film, television, and voiceover.
Jérémie Battaglia is a director and producer. His films explore themes of the body, performance, and identity through intimate and engaging narratives.
Chris Ngabonziza, programming director of Fierté Montréal and a multidisciplinary artist, has been active in the Montreal scene for over 15 years.

Films competing for the Fierté Montréal Award:

-A USEFUL GHOST (International Competition)
by Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke. Thailand.
March is having a difficult time grieving the death of his wife, Nat, who was poisoned by polluted factory dust. This first feature by Boonbunchachoke offers a highly original take on the ghost romance genre.

-DUAS VEZES JOAO LIBERADA (International Competition)
by Paula Tomás Marques. Portugal.
How can we deconstruct the biopic genre? The gender-nonconforming and fictional figure of João Liberada, persecuted by the Spanish Inquisition, seems ideally suited for this exercise. The film eloquently and creatively asserts the importance of the queer community reclaiming the legacy of its heroes and heroines, far from normative narratives.

-LA MISTERIOSA MIRADA DEL FLAMENCO (Panorama international)
by Diego Céspedes. Chile, France.
Chile, 1982. Eleven-year-old Lidia finds refuge with Mama Boa and her "daughters," Leona, Estrella, Aguila, and Piraña. But it is Flamenco, the most protective, who forms the most meaningful bond with her. This community of trans women lives on the margins, in the heart of the desert, rejected by the men of the region. Between atmospheric western and surreal drama, this first feature film tells the coming-of-age story of a child forced to assert her place in a hostile and ignorant world, where the very real epidemic of AIDS is beginning to wreak havoc. Winner of the Un Certain Regard Prize at Cannes.

-LA TOUR DE GLACE (Les essentiels)
by Lucile Hadžihalilovi?. France, Germany
A neurotic movie star; a teenage runaway; A meeting point: Hans Christian Andersen's Frozen. Twenty years after Innocence, Lucille Hadžihalilovi? reunites with Marion Cotillard in a dual role as magnetic as it is chilling, blending dreamlike poetry and a fantastical coming-of-age tale against a cinematic backdrop.

-LITTLE TROUBLE GIRLS (Panorama international)
By Urška Djuki?. Slovenia, Italy, Croatia, Serbia.
Lucia joins her school choir. During an intensive three-day workshop at a convent, she meets Ana Marija, a lively teenager who seems at odds with her reserved temperament. With this feverish coming-of-age tale, the Slovenian director takes a sensitive look at the emotions linked to the discovery of sexuality, but also of faith, all without judgment and in the wonderful summer light.

-MONTRÉAL, MA BELLE (Special Presentations)
By Xiaodan He. Canada.
Feng Xia has always been a model wife, entirely devoted to her husband and two children. While her relationship is going through a crisis, she meets Camille, much younger, rebellious, and uninhibited. After A Spring from Elsewhere (2018), Xiaodan He delivers a poignant family drama and dares to portray an intergenerational and intercultural lesbian love story.

-O RISO E A FACA (International Competition)
By Pedro Pinho. Portugal, France, Brazil, Romania.
Sergio, a Portuguese engineer, is sent to Guinea-Bissau to supervise the construction of a road connecting the desert and the jungle. There, he bonds with Diara and Gui, two city dwellers with whom he forms a love triangle as intense as it is tumultuous. Driven by a fluid and vibrant direction, O riso e a faca (Laughter and the Knife) acutely questions what it means to "meet" the other.

-PILLION (International Panorama)
By Harry Lighton. United Kingdom.
Colin, a shy and reserved young man, still lives with his parents and graces a pub choir with his angelic voice. He falls under the magnetic spell of Ray, a seductive biker leader: Ray is dominant; Colin, madly in love, is submissive to his master's will. Fiercely explicit, but also incredibly moving, this BDSM romance is carried by the vulnerable performances of Harry Melling (Dudley Dursley in Harry Potter) and the poisonous performances of Alexander Skarsgård.

-QUE MA VOLONTÉ SOIT FAITE (International Competition)
By Julia Kowalski. France, Poland.
Nawojka tirelessly helps her brothers and father with the farm chores. Trapped in a strictly male world, the young woman is both a substitute maternal figure and a scapegoat. But while the cows mysteriously die one after the other, the arrival of a sulphurous neighbor awakens unsuspected powers in the one whose diabolical lineage seems to be awakening.

For over 50 years, the FNC has made national and international auteur cinema accessible, treating audiences to works of diversity and originality by emerging and major filmmakers. Our focus on the NEW is threefold: new creators, new approaches and new technologies. Dean of Canadian film festivals and a major Quebec event, the FNC presents over 200 works from 60 different countries to celebrate the best of today’s cinema!

54th Edition - From October 8 to 19, 2025