10 Must-Sees at the Provincetown International Film Festival

The Provincetown International Film Festival (PIFF) turns 25 this year and is unspooling a fabulous lineup of narrative and documentary features, numerous shorts, and honorees for this year's Filmmaker on the Edge, Excellence in Acting, and Next Wave Awards. The Fest runs from June 14-18 in Provincetown, MA.

Celebrated filmmaker Bruce LaBruce ("Gerontophilia," "Saint-Narcisse") will be named 2023's "Filmmaker on the Edge."

"If anybody deserves the Filmmaker on Edge Award, it's this year's honoree Bruce LaBruce," said John Waters. "He's been pushing the limits of gay correctness, punk attitude, and political mayhem for about forty years and has somehow managed to keep his celluloid troublemaking spirit intact both above and below the limits of underground and commercial filmmaking. Filth followers everywhere - we honor you, Bruce LaBruce."

"Our Son" co-star Billy Porter ("Pose," "80 for Brady") will receive this year's Excellence in Acting Award. Filmmaker Julio Torres ("Problemista") and actor/writer Megan Stalter ("Cora Bora") will both attend to pick up the Next Wave Award. "Problemista" screens as the Spotlight selection, and "Cora Bora" is the Opening Night film, with Molly Gordon's "Theater Camp" closing the Fest. Vuk Lungulov-Klotz's debut film "Mutt," and Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman's electrifying doc "Taylor Mac's 24-Decade History of Popular Music" round out the Spotlight slots.

And this year's "John Waters Presents" selection, Lars von Trier's "Antichrist," is a film that shocked and traumatized the 2009 Cannes Film Festival audiences and prompted headlines like "a work of genius or the sickest film in the history of cinema?" Not for the light-hearted, many cinephiles believe it's a masterpiece. Count me among them.

PIFF is presenting over 100 films, showcasing a slew of LGBTQIA talent that include Georgia Oakley's powerful "Blue Jean," Daishi Matsunaga's beguiling "Egoist," Christophe Honoré's penetrating "Winter Boy," and Andrew Durham's intense "Fairyland."

For more info and tix visit the festival website.

Here are 10 terrific PIFF films EDGE recommends.

'Taylor Mac's 24-Decade History of Popular Music'

Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, who gifted us the Oscar-winning documentaries "The Times of Harvey Milk" and "Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt," now take us into the daring, audacious, and euphoric milieu of one of the most significant theatrical/artistic events of this millennium. "Taylor Mac's 24-Decade History of Popular Music" was a highly ambitious performance art-esque drag-stravaganza that was five years in the making and resulted in a 24-hour audience-attended concert at St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn in October of 2016. Now, thanks to HBO and Epstein and Friedman, viewers get a taste of the provocative, queer-positive, glittery deconstruction and queer appropriation of American music from the birth of this country right through 2016. It's an astonishing, breathtaking, and significant addition to the queer canon. One can only hope we get to see the entire creation one day.

'Passages'

In Ira Sach's "Passages," charismatic film director Tomas (Franz Rogowski) portrays an unapologetic egotist who basks in his own self-created drama – much like auteur Rainer Werner Fassbinder did. "I had sex with a woman," Tomas brags to his husband, Martin (Ben Whishaw), the morning after Martin dares to leave him alone at a party. The woman is Agathe (Adèle Exarchopoulos), a schoolteacher who falls under Tomas's spell. "Passages" is a challenging, penetrating look at three lonely and damaged/damaging people. In addition to giving us a complex character study, Sachs has crafted one of the most realistic and intense gay sex scenes in recent years. The mesmeric Rogowski, unsurprisingly, dives headfirst into the mind, body, and spirit of Tomas, never courting audience sympathy but winning over our empathy with his honest fragility. Whishaw vacillates perfectly between his love/lust for Tomas and his anger/self-protected snippiness towards him. Exarchopoulos is stunning in the difficult role of interloper.

'Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed'

Stephen Kijak's "Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed," makes the bold move of starting his film from the vantage point of Hudson's queerness, and dives in from there. He delves into the actor's admitted bumpkin beginnings to his signing with the notorious predator agent Henry Willson to his meteoric rise, Oscar nomination, and, consequently, his necessity to keep his sexual orientation a secret – in the deeply damaging homophobic land of Hollywood – to his ultimately succumbing to AIDS-related complications and the world discovering his secret. Kijak does not shy away from Hudson's promiscuous sexual antics or his real relationships. In the end, Hudson changed the course of the national dialogue around AIDS, which makes him a queer hero, but he also left us with several underrated cinematic performances, some celebrated ("Giant") and some forgotten ("Seconds"). This is, by far, the best doc yet about this intriguing, queer Hollywood star.

'Egoist'

Daishi Matsunaga's adaptation of the late Takayama Makoto's autobiographical novel, "Egoist," centers on Kosuke (Ryohei Suzuki), a well-off fashion magazine editor who hires a twink of a personal trainer, Ryuta (Hio Miyazawa), and then falls in love with him. The feelings are mutual, but Ryuta moonlights as an escort se he can support his ailing mother (Sawako Agawa). The two come to an arrangement, but fate soon steps in. "Egoist" is a stunning and truly haunting work, and all three performances are rich and nuanced. The film's title had me constantly going back to whether Kosuke was acting in a purely selfish manner or not, and if it mattered, which I'm guessing was the filmmaker's intention. Is he responsible for the tragic turn things take in the second half of the movie? Or is he a savior of sorts? In Japanese with English subtitles.

'Winter Boy' ('Le Lycéen')

Out director Christophe Honoré's latest work, "Winter Boy" ("Le Lycéen") focuses on openly gay 17-year-old Lucas (an extraordinary Paul Kercher) who, along with his close-knit family, must deal with the sudden death of his father. Honoré delves deep in his examination of the psychological effects of grief on a young boy, and newcomer Kercher anchors the film in a risk-taking turn that is grounded in feelings of pain, confusion, anger, and heartache at a time when the character is becoming a sexual being. Juliette Binoche is poignant and heartbreaking as Lucas' mother, and Vincent Lacoste is spot on as his frustrated brother. "Winter Boy" is a beautiful, deeply personal film about loss seen through a queer lens and presented in an authentic manner. In French, with English subtitles.

'Cora Bora'

"Dreams are pointless and stupid" is a typical lyric written by hot mess, bisexual artist-wannabe Cora ("Hacks'" Megan Stalter), who basically steamrolls through her life, seemingly not caring much who she fucks up. Later, in Hannah Pearl Utt's funny and poignant feature, "Cora Bora," we are finally privy to why the titular character is so flip and self-destructive. Or maybe she was always that way? But it doesn't matter, because despite her irritating manner and wrecking ball nature, we still want to follow her on her journey. This is mostly due to Stalter's refreshing and deliberately chaotic turn. Manny Jacinto is too sweet as a boy crushing on her. Jojo T. Gibbs does great work as Cora's open relationship girlfriend, and Thomas Mann is hilarious in his two scenes. "Cora Bora" is an indie that manages to move and provoke you at the same time.

'Hidden Master: The Legacy of George Platt Lynes'

One of the glories of 21st century documentary cinema is discovering an innovative artist who somehow slipped through the cracks of reported history, usually because they were part of a marginalized group (in this case, queer), and restoring their reputation – and, in doing so, allowing a new generation to appreciate said artist's true and lasting legacy. Such is the case with filmmaker Sam Shahid's captivating chronicle of the life and work of celeb and fashion photographer George Platt Lynes. "Hidden Master: The Legacy of George Platt Lynes" pulls no punches, depicting the man's artistic ambitions, his desire to only photograph beautiful subjects, and his insatiable quest for sexual pleasure, creating a fascinating portrait of a true pioneer– especially when it came to his photographs of male nudes. One more lost gay icon is found.

'The Lesson'

Why must all great writers be depicted in films as tortured and horrid? In the case of J.M. Sinclair (Richard E. Grant), the iconic novelist and patriarch of a deeply damaged family, he has good reason (which I will not reveal here), as portrayed in Alice Troughton's lyrical, disturbing, and slyly satiric new film "The Lesson." Sinclair and his brooding wife Hélène (Julie Delpy) hire a young scribe (Daryl McCormack, so good in "Good Luck to You, Leo Grande") to tutor their unfocused son Bertie (Stephen McMillan). True natures are revealed and mysteries are uncovered as the saga takes on an almost Southern Gothic tone. The entire ensemble does outstanding work in this engrossing and disturbing film. Special mention to Isobel Waller-Bridge's haunting score.

'Rotting in the Sun'

The first 20 minutes of Sebastián Silva's cinematic mind-fuckery "Rotting in the Sun" contains a multitude of cocks and asses – and gay sex. This biting meta queer satire on class, social media, queer life, and fucking then ambles along at a sexy pace until it takes a completely unexpected dark turn, metamorphosing into something quite different – a turn that goes on slightly too long, but still fascinates. Silva plays a depressed version of himself who thinks about suicide and, on a getaway at a nude resort, meets over-the-top social media influencer Jordan Fistman (based on Silva's real encounter with Fistman). Things get hair-raising from there. "Rotting" is unique, deceptive, surprising, and irresistible.

'Our Son'

In Bill Oliver's impressively directed feature "Our Son," Gabriel (Billy Porter), an artist and stay-at-home dad, makes the difficult decision to leave his ambitious workaholic husband, Nicky (Luke Evans). But they have a young son, so a queer "Kramer vs. Kramer" fight for custody seems inevitable. A fully committed Porter unearths the complexities of a rather enigmatic character. Evans is masterful here in a revelatory performance that should get him awards attention. The script (by Oliver and Peter Nickowitz), however, too often insists on facile presentations. "Our Son" is a very good film; its main flaw is a necessity to play things safe and eschew nuance for positive messaging. See it for Evans and Porter.