Welcome to Love, Sex

& Cinema

The 2nd year of Love, Sex & Cinema Film Festival will take place in Berlin, Germany, from September 14 – 17, 2027, at various venues.

Love, Sex & Cinema Film Festival was created to address a specific curatorial gap. We found that films dealing openly with intimacy often fall between categories: too sexually frank for conservative festivals, yet misaligned with festivals that frame sex primarily through erotic spectacle, pornography, kink, or niche subcultures.

There’s a vast middle ground where intimacy is narrative, emotional, political, and deeply human. This festival exists for that space.

BOUNDRY LINE  Dir Olesya Smolkova

The festival is run by Ivan Malekin and Sarah Jayne Portelli, Berlin-based filmmakers whose own work frequently explores intimacy, relationships, and the private moments that mainstream cinema often avoids. Together, they also ran the Shorts In Season Film Festival in Berlin and previously founded the Made In Melbourne Film Festival.

Love, Sex & Cinema Film Festival 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.


2026 Partners


  • 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.


  • Other Nature is a queer-feminist, sex-positive, eco-friendly, and vegan sex shop based in Berlin-Kreuzberg. We were founded in 2011 and have been a collectively run business since 2021. For us, accessible sex education and social responsibility take precedence over profit!

    In our online shop and in-store in Berlin, you’ll find body-safe sex toys, rad books and zines, alternative menstrual products, natural lube, gender expression wear, locally-made kink gear, and lots of other sexy stuff. We believe that everyone deserves access to awesome sex ed & high-quality products.

    Whoever you are - Other Nature is for you!

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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!


Love, Sex & Cinema
Film Festival

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