The season will bring many new queer films

by Kaizaad Kotwal

In the year following Brokeback Mountain, Capote and Transamerica it is good to see that there are many, many movies that have queer stories, characters, actors and other points of interest for GLBTQ audiences.

Here is a quick preview of what?s worth looking out for at the multiplex, art house or, in one or two instances, a DVD player in the next few months as the awards season gets underway.

Broken Sky features two university students who fall in love on campus. Gerardo and Jonas? lives are intruded upon by Sergio. This triangle of love, seduction and intrigue promises steamy romance with some substance.

Candy has no overtly gay content but it features Heath Ledger in another noteworthy performance following Brokeback. In a love story set against the backdrop of heroin addiction, Ledger is trying to prove he wasn?t a one-Oscar-nomination wonder.

For Your Consideration is a hilarious movie about movies that troll for awards. From the same people that brought us the gay hits Waiting for Guffman and Best in Show, queer audiences will love this very quirky and outrageous film about one of the most favorite gay pastimes--film awards shows.

The History Boys by out writer Alan Bennett and queer director Nicholas Hytner comes to the big screen after sweeping the theater awards in London and New York. It is a tale that touches on the homoeroticism of an all-boys school and that very touchy issue when a male teacher shows undue attention to his male students.

This could be the Brokeback Mountain of 2006 in terms of critical and aesthetic acclaim.

The Masseur, set in Manila in the Philippines, tells the story of Iliac, a masseur at a gay brothel who must juggle his chaotic life with a frigid girlfriend and a grieving mother to his recently dead father. A huge winner at this year?s Turin Gay and Lesbian Film Festival and the 2005 Locarno International Film Festival.

Paper Dolls also features Filipinos, this time immigrants to Israel. This documentary feature tells the stories of men in various stages of transitioning to other genders who come to Israel to be caretakers for elderly, Orthodox Jewish men. The film explores what it means to be family, given the disparate worlds of these two groups forced to live with one another.

In Soap, Charlotte and her transsexual neighbor Veronica are forced into some pretty interesting situations that make for the core of a new bond between them.

Sweet Land is a simple love story set in Minnesota. It stars queer darling Alan Cumming and has been getting much critical acclaim for its simple yet moving storytelling.

3 Needles is a trilogy of AIDS-related stories, from rural China and Africa to the urban streets of Montr?al. Gay faves Stockard Channing, Chloe Sevigny and Sandra Oh star.

20 Centimeters is a fabulously colorful and moving tale of a narcoleptic transsexual who is longing to get rid of her lingering eight inches. It is Transamerica meets My Own Private Idaho with hints of Almodovar and Lars Von Trier. A doozy of a film that is as haunting as it is entertaining.

Volver, from gay superstar director Pedro Almodovar, is about three generations of women who must contend wit the past, the present and the future. The buzz on the film is amazing and could bag him some more Oscar nominations this year.

Wrestling with Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner is a documentary by Oscar-winner Frieda Lee Mock. She explores the life and work of the playwright who has been called one of the best of the last century. An unabashed gay activist and social critic, Kushner?s life promises to be even more layered and interesting than his brilliant plays. Step into the mind of this very accomplished genius.

Zerophilia is a romantic comedy with a twist. Luke has a rare condition called zerophilia, which is slowly transforming him into a female. As a man Luke is attracted to Michelle but as Luca he finds himself attracted to Michelle?s brother Max. The film speaks to the inability of love being able to be boxed in by labels, assumptions and stereotypes of love and sexual attraction.