Synopsis

As Pablo falls in love with the altar boy Sebastián, he finds that God has become an obstacle to their relationship in more ways than one.

This film screens as part of the Best of CineYouth 2024 program.

Synopsis

CineYouth is Cinema/Chicago’s annual festival for filmmakers aged 22 and younger. This “best of fest” program showcases eight award-winning shorts from CineYouth 2024, and includes surrealist comedies, touching dramas, and boldly crafted stories from young people with impressive visions. Featuring work by Caroline Bates, April Aquino, Mitch Davila Armendano, Roso Pérez Bueno, Raine Yung, Nathan William Frost, Olivia Huilin Gao, and Ángel Villahermosa.

A group of friends come to terms with the end of childhood in a dying tourist town in Space Coast (United States). In Trigonometry’s Ultimate Method to Putting the Fun Back in Your Own Funeral (United States), a character’s untimely death inspires him to go out with one last hurrah by crashing his own funeral. Mitch, Jaden, and Stevie, three students with visual impairments at the Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind, detail common misconceptions and their struggles for accurate representation in Blind Sighted (United States). As a toxic substance slowly ravages a celebrity’s body, he has to decide how far he will go for the advertising money in Too Much Sand (Sweden). I Can No Longer See (United States) is a self-portrait of trauma, objectification, and relief told through a collection of experimental shorts. Artist On The Go! (DS Advanced Unreleased Gameplay) (United States) is a surreal, nightmarish game in which the player (or viewer) is charged with completing abstract and frightening tasks. In The Damp Season (United States), a young girl comes across the teenaged version of her estranged immigrant mother. And as Pablo falls in love with altar boy Sebastián, he finds that God is obstructing their relationship in more ways than one in Body of Christ (Mi primera comunión) (Spain).

Learn more about CineYouth…

Synopsis

Seville, summer 1984. Seven-year-old Rita lives in a humble working-class neighborhood with her parents and little brother. Through the sensorial experience of the textures of everyday life, Rita experiences the world around her: the oppressive heat, the tense air in the apartment, her father’s anger, a crash from the next room, her mother’s hushed phone calls in the kitchen, the strange purple marks around her mother’s eye. As Rita begins to sense the rising danger at home, she retreats farther into her imagination — until she is forced to awaken from her innocence.

Legendary Spanish actress Paz Vega (Sex and Lucía) lends a powerful performance as Rita’s mother, and also emerges as a director to watch through her delicate and poignant portrayal of the young girl’s interiority. Rita is a deeply personal and moving exploration of domestic violence as experienced through the eyes of a child.

Synopsis

In celebrated Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar’s first English-language film, Julianne Moore stars as Ingrid, a best-selling writer who reconnects after many years with her close childhood friend Martha — a war journalist played by Tilda Swinton. As the two reunite and rekindle their relationship, Martha makes a request of Ingrid that will test their newly reforged bond.

Like his acclaimed films Parallel Mothers, Talk to Her, and Volver — to name a few —The Room Next Door is a beautifully crafted drama that continues Almodóvar’s perceptive, emotional exploration of women’s inner lives. Featuring luminous performances by Moore and Swinton and his signature saturated color palette, Almodóvar’s latest masterwork is an exquisite and heartbreaking story of life, death, and friendship.

Synopsis

After 15 years together, Ale and Alex decide it’s time to peacefully part ways. Inspired by Ale’s father’s philosophy that separations, not unions, should be celebrated, they decide to throw a party to commemorate their breakup. When they start to tell close friends and family about their plan, they are met with worry and skepticism at the seemingly absurd idea. The two continue to insist that this is a happy affair, but as the preparations advance and the party nears, they too begin to question if their breakup is sound enough to celebrate. Is this idea something that could only ever happen in the movies? Festival alum Jonás Trueba (The August Virgin) crafts a playfully woven narrative in this earnest and utterly charming look at the trials of modern love.