Eight Genre (and) Queer Recommendations, with Pride

On June 28th, we will be celebrating International LGTBIQ+ Pride Day, a day to raise awareness of, vindicate, and also, why not, enjoy films that love without labels. In Sitges, where genre is our home, we have always celebrated everything that shakes things up, defies the norm, and dares to be different. And this fits in perfectly with queer stories, which often find an ideal space in horror, science fiction, and fantasy to let loose and transform everything.

This is why, taking advantage of the occasion, we would like to share eight LGTBIQ+ themed films with you that have been screened at our Festival and that, in one way or another, have deeply moved us. So, get your popcorn ready, but also prepare to rethink everything: identity, your body, love, and fear.

1. Thelma (Joachim Trier, 2017)

A story of self-discovery with supernatural powers as a metaphor for an identity that flourishes despite repression. Thelma is a disturbing and delicate tale about female desire and fear of one's own power, where the protagonist struggles to reconcile her sexual orientation with an oppressive religious upbringing. A psychological thriller with a queer undertone that turns repression into a literally devastating force.

2. Knife + Heart (Yann Gonzalez, 2018)

Yann Gonzalez pays homage to giallo and gay porn films of the 1970s with this vibrant, erotic film full of feathers, blood, and broken hearts. Vanessa Paradis plays a queer X-rated film producer caught up in a spiral of crime and passion. Knife + Heart is a cry of love that goes out to the LGBTQ+ community and marginalized bodies, offering a heartbreaking and radically beautiful queer aesthetic.

3. Saint-Narcisse (Bruce LaBruce, 2020)

Bruce LaBruce continues to shatter taboos with this provocative satire about identity, religion, and desire... directed towards oneself. Saint-Narcisse plays with Catholic iconography and the literally incestuous relationship with the double as a metaphor for a search for love and acceptance. An irreverent and subversive film that takes the celebration of the queer self to the extreme.

4. Titane (Julia Ducournau, 2021)

Palme d'Or winner at Cannes and pure identity-defining dynamite. Titane is a genre-bending explosion, both literally and figuratively, that explores gender, body, transformation, and family through an extreme, visceral, and beautiful story. Julia Ducournau created a film that defies categorization, addressing toxic masculinity and the right to be reborn in a new skin. A radically queer and groundbreaking work.

5. Darlin' (Pollyanna McIntosh, 2019)

Halfway between social criticism and savage horror, Darlin' continues the story begun in The Woman, but this time with a female and political perspective. The protagonist, wild and indomitable, is taken in by a religious institution that wants to “re-educate” her. The film denounces the domestication of differences and the imposition of normative roles, especially on female and dissident bodies. Brutal, direct, and very relevant.

6. Rabid (Jen & Sylvia Soska, 2019)

The Soska sisters reinvent Cronenberg's classic from a queer and feminist perspective, turning bodily mutation into a metaphor for identity transformation and aesthetic pressure. Rabid is a love letter to body horror and to all those who have been told that their bodies don't represent them. A dark and heartbreaking manifesto about beauty, difference, and the right to rewrite oneself.

7. After Blue (Bertrand Mandico, 2021) 

Imagine a planet inhabited only by women, where the sand glitters, hair blows in the wind, and desire permeates everything. This is After Blue: a queer odyssey with psychedelic aesthetics and a punk heart. Mandico creates a world where gender is blurred, strangeness flourishes, and every image looks like a mutant work of art. It's not a movie to simply watch; it's a movie to lose yourself in.

8. Neptune Frost (Anisia Uzeyman, Saul Williams, 2021) 

An Afrofuturist revolution sung in free verse. Neptune Frost is a techno-poetic opera where the margins become the center. With brutal aesthetics and a bold commitment to diversity, the film invites us to imagine a world where dissent is highly creative. For those looking for a film with a different beat that makes your brain cells dance.