“I love watching time unfold.” Amy muses as she watches a caterpillar form into its chrysalis. Always with a camera, Amy has been documenting time unfolding as her transgender child, Adam, grows up – even more so over the last eight years while the two have been filming this documentary together. This beautifully intimate film is the story of three characters: a trans kid, a mother, and the ever-present march forward of time.

Star student Luthando’s world is turned upside down when the charismatic Aydana arrives at her elite all-girls boarding school in this delightfully inventive coming-of-age debut feature from director Sandulela Asanda. Able to bring its protagonist’s comic book-loving inner world to life, this comedy portrays girlhood and first love in all their awkward sweetness.

When a grieving young woman is sent to a camp for troubled youth, she is welcomed by the outcasts and screw-ups into their literal coven. With their help, Emily discovers the dark and light, ominous and ecstatic magic that her grief can create. This sophomore feature by Avalon Fast (frequent collaborator of Alice Maio Mackay and Louise Weard) is an operatic and landmark new work of queer horror.

Argentine auteur Lucio Castro explores four chapters in the life of handsome art student Adnan (Laith Khalifeh), each depicting his intimate encounters at the height of summer with a stunning dose of magical realism. Trysts with delivery boys, moonlit cruising, and the awakening of new sexual desires transpire over a cat-sitting stint in New York City.

16-year-old Enzo rejects a sun-drenched summer in his family’s villa and joins a construction crew, defying his father’s loftier expectations and bringing him into the magnetic presence of Vlad, a handsome Ukrainian fleeing his country’s battlefront. Enzo must confront the complex realities of class, exile, war, and what courage really looks like, in this insightful coming-of-age film by the director of BPM (Beats Per Minute).

Writer/director Hayley Kiyoko adapts both her hit single and best-selling young adult novel of the same name in this charming directorial debut about Coley (Maya da Costa), the new-to-town girl who falls in love with the ever-magnetic Sonya (Myra Molloy). Sun-drenched, heartfelt, and bolstered by new music from Kiyoko, this coming-of-age story aptly captures the complicated swirl of highs and lows that come with loving someone who might not be ready to love you back.

Sometimes there’s nothing better — or more cathartic — than films that hit you in the feels.

Caught between a magical upbringing with his grandmother, Dilma, and an uncertain future, 11-year-old Gugu plays soccer fabulously — glitter and all. But when Dilma’s Alzheimer’s disease worsens, Gugu tries to hide signs of Dilma’s illness from the disapproving outside world in this award-winning feature from Brazil.

A group of tangentially-connected gay teenagers in the remote coastal town of Geraldton encounter the thrills and devastations of first love and sexual discovery set against the backdrop of Australia voting to legalize same-sex marriage in 2017. Catch the first 5 episodes of your next gay TV obsession — a YA limited series chock-full of hot sex, high drama, and plenty of Aussie charm.

A group of tangentially-connected gay teenagers in the remote coastal town of Geraldton encounter the thrills and devastations of first love and sexual discovery set against the backdrop of Australia voting to legalize same-sex marriage in 2017. Catch episodes 6 through 10 of your next gay TV obsession — a YA limited series chock-full of hot sex, high drama, and plenty of Aussie charm.

This queer coming-of-age horror film is what happens when the star-crossed passion of Heated Rivalry and the unsettling atmosphere of It Follows collide. In Adrian Chiarella’s haunting-yet-sensual debut feature, teenagers Naim and Ryan live in an isolated and conservative small town that tries to “cure” them of their queerness. Forced to go on the run, the boys are stalked by a violent entity that takes the form of the person its victims desire most.

“I was born a good story,” announces Henry Cyril Paget, the next Marquess of Anglesey, as the opening credits roll in this fizzy historical biopic. Director Celyn Jones makes good on that promise in this drama starring Callum Scott Howells as the real-life figure whose flamboyance and determination to be his extravagant self creates a stir when he takes over his father’s Welsh estate.

Accustomed to enjoying the debaucherous queer enclave of Maspalomas, 76-year-old Vicente (José Ramón Soroiz) finds himself at a crossroads when he must trade the intoxicating pleasures of his Canary Islands retreat for a conservative retirement community. Anchored by a strong central performance, Maspalomas is a life-affirming, tender portrait of what it means to stand firm in your identity — no matter your circumstances.

This shorts block centers on queer folks grappling with life-altering decisions, both big and small.

Joan Chen delivers a powerful performance as Feng Xia in this romantic drama about a woman exploring her queer desire later in life. As she falls in love with a free-spirited younger Québécoise woman, Feng Xia grapples with the terrifying-yet-beautiful freedom of finally putting herself before others. A coming-of-age-at-any-age story rife with slow-burn sapphic yearning, Xiaodan He’s sophomore feature is a showcase for Chen.

Androgynous teen Malou lives in a small town and idolizes her older brother, Max — though things all start to change when she develops a crush on Nouria, Max’s girlfriend. Although initially invigorating, this secret relationship stirs up a complex swirl of emotions for both teens. While Nouria struggles with the weight of betraying Max, Malou navigates newly unearthed feelings of gender dysphoria in this striking, beautifully acted coming-of-age film.

Like an uncanny fairy tale — by turns thrilling, mysterious, and erotic — Strange River casts a marvelous spell as it unfolds a transformational week in the life of a 15-year-old boy on a family camping trip in Germany. Disturbed by strange dreams (or are they apparitions?) of a beautiful boy water nymph, the teen’s river journey promises both the wonder and fear of sexual awakening.

Long unavailable, this newly restored period drama by writer/director Srđan Karanović — made during the outbreak of the Yugoslavian civil war in June 1991 — depicts the travails of a girl raised as a boy in early 19th-century Serbia.