Welcome to Love, Sex & Cinema
Submissions for the inaugural Love, Sex & Cinema Film Festival are now closed.
This year’s festival will take place in Berlin, Germany, from the 15th to the 18th of September at various venues, including Il Kino as our main cinema. Il Kino is known for its intimate atmosphere, thoughtful programming, and dedication to cinema that challenges, provokes, and connects. It’s a space designed for close viewing, conversation, and films that benefit from being experienced together.
Love, Sex & Cinema was created to address a specific curatorial gap. We found that films dealing openly with intimacy often fall between categories: too explicit or emotionally exposed for mainstream sex, primarily through kink, erotic spectacle, pornography or other niche, subculture-specific approaches.
There is a vast middle ground where intimacy is narrative, emotional, political, and deeply human. This festival exists for that space.
Festival Extended: Initially Love, Sex & Cinema was planned as a two night event, but due to the quality of films we are receiving and our partnership with XO Sex School we have extended the festival to four nights, giving us a chance to run workshops and screen more of your films.
The festival is run by Ivan Malekin and Sarah Jayne, Berlin-based filmmakers whose own work frequently explores intimacy, relationships, and the private moments that mainstream cinema often avoids. Together, they also run the Shorts In Season Film Festival in Berlin and previously founded the Made In Melbourne Film Festival.
Love, Sex & Cinema is not a competition. It is a curated, welcoming environment for filmmakers who are exploring closeness, desire, vulnerability, and connection with intention and care. We encourage filmmakers to attend whenever possible, and we host Q&As with all filmmakers in attendance to foster conversation, reflection, and genuine exchange.
Above all, this is a festival built by filmmakers, for filmmakers – one that takes intimate cinema seriously, with openness and respect.
PROGRAM
We're starting our film program news with a bang by bringing Modern Whore to Berlin on September 15 at IL KINO Berlin as our opening night film!
MODERN WHORE | DIR NICOLE BAZUIN | 80 MIN
Modern Whore is a hybrid documentary that reimagines popular depictions of sex work through the lived experiences of writer, performer, and sex worker, Andrea Werhun. Based on her book Modern Whore: A Memoir, Andrea grapples with social stigma and reclaims her narrative in a series of funny, heartbreaking, and surprising stories.
Our full program will be announced soon… check back on this page shortly.
Partners
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Sex School is committed to normalizing our right to access honest, unbiased sex education resources. We believe in the importance of creating resources that are accurate and trustworthy. It’s also crucial for us to deliver this knowledge in ways that are approachable, relatable and that celebrate diversity as a fundamental value for a healthy, pleasurable, true-to-oneself sex life. For us, ethical practices are a fundamental part of our work and part of our educational mission. Our cast, crew and staff members are paid fairly for their work. Our shoots are always carefully prepared and carried out in a safe, transparent and positive atmosphere. -
Maniac Films operates in the video engineering space, offering DCP encoding and Blu-ray authoring, colour grading, editing, digital film cleanups (dust/dirt/scratches/colour stabilisation), subtitling and visual effects, as well as creative video filming services, camera and grip hire and script development.Mark Brindle, who has run Maniac Films for the past 24 years, will basically do anything involving Digital Video and has worked as DOP, Focus Puller, Dolly and Jib Grip, Lighting Gaffer, DIT, Vision Mixer, Lighting Cameraman, VFX Supervisor, Colourist, Sound Recordist, Editor, Script Writer and Storyboard Creator and Technical Author, but he can’t act, dance or sing.
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IL KINO is an independent arthouse cinema in the heart of Berlin-Neukölln, transformed from a former neighbourhood bakery into one of the city's most beloved cinemas.
With its intimate 52-seat auditorium, carefully curated international programme, and welcoming café/bar, IL KINO has become one of the city's favourite venues for independent film and festival events.
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B-ware! Ladenkino is an independent arthouse cinema in Berlin-Friedrichshain, renowned for its underground atmosphere, carefully curated programme, and extensive collection of cult and independent films.
Complete with a whisky bar and cinema memorabilia, it offers a unique space where film lovers gather long after the credits roll.
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Another Country is an English-language second-hand bookshop, which is mostly used as a library. We have about twenty thousand books that you can buy or borrow.
You simply pay the price of a book, which you get back, minus a 1,50 Euro charge, should you choose to return it. Another Country is also a club which hosts readings, cultural events, social evenings, film nights and many other things.
Sophie Raphaeline runs the shop, which is also a place propagating British culture, of free speaking, discussing, liberal thinking and, above all, reading!
