Welcome to Love, Sex & Cinema
Submissions are now open for the inaugural Love, Sex & Cinema Film Festival.
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 treats intimate cinema with seriousness, openness, and respect.
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. What values does Sex School live by? Honesty, integrity, smart, fun, innovation, uniqueness, transparent, ethical, prepared, elegant, healthy, caring, respectful, gender free, sexy, knowledgeable, approachable, trustworthy, reality and Community.
