Dispatches from the 2026 NewFest Pride Film Festival
Assorted Flavors features listicles and other movie-related goodies.
Pride month might officially start on June 1, but for the New York City-based NewFest, the celebration of all things queer in film and media began early on May 28 at the charming SVA Theater.
With their sixth edition of the annual film series, NewFest upped the stakes with a selection that ranged from intimate documentary portraits about past and present queer icons to recent festival smashes such as Gregg Araki’s I Want Your Sex and Jane Schoenbrun’s Teenage Sex & Death at Camp Miasma.
Across the five days I spent both in-person at NewFest Pride and virtually through its robust streaming platform, I watched seven features and attended a free event co-hosted by HBO Max, culminating in some of the most entertaining and joyous moments I’ve had at a film festival. Here are my brief takes on what I saw.
Stop! That! Train!
Despite my packed schedule, I unfortunately missed the opening night premiere of Adam Shankman’s Stop! That! Train!, which is gunning for a monthly rotation slot in future gay guy movie nights across the world. From what I gathered on the ground, the world premiere was bursting at the seams with RuPaul’s Drag Race alumni, as well as local drag queens and celebrities starring in the film. RuPaul also conducted an impromptu comedy set before the screening started, making the whole affair feel like a Drag Race episode come to life.
Leviticus
During the festival’s second day, I caught Adrian Chiarella’s debut horror feature, Leviticus, which I had actually seen make its New York premiere at Film at Lincoln Center and MoMA’s New Directors/New Films festival in April. On a rewatch, I’m elated to report that the film holds up with its supernatural premise and clever take on the demonic possession subgenre. Considering that the film tackles subjects like homophobia at the hands of religious conservatism, it remained an apt choice for this festival that resonated with me and many fellow queers at the screening.
The Dads
Luchina Fisher’s documentary, The Dads, played with slight overlap with Leviticus at the SVA Theater, but watching the film virtually in the comfort of my home simultaneously felt like a warm hug and a fire alarm. Shedding light on the fathers of transgender children in the United States, the documentary paints an unsettling picture of increasing efforts to ban gender affirming care for adolescents in Republican-controlled states. It’s a sobering piece that reminds those of us living in liberal strongholds to pay attention to the neglected regions of our country, remembering that there are parents fighting for their children’s pursuit of happiness harder than we could ever imagine.
Bookends
Saturday kicked the festival into high gear with three New York premieres for Mike Doyle’s Bookends, Brydie O’Connor’s Barbara Forever, and the Centerpiece film I Want Your Sex. Bookends fell quite flat for me as the only romantic comedy in the lineup, mainly due to a jumbled screenplay and lackluster performances; Caroline Aaron couldn’t even save this well-intentioned indie, and that pains me as someone who thought she was a riot in last year’s off-Broadway production of Conversations with Mother.
I Want Your Sex
However, Gregg Araki lit up the festival with I Want Your Sex, which now stands as my favorite film of the year thus far. [Read our review.] As his first movie in over twelve years, Araki has not lost his zany touch whatsoever as he pokes fun at Gen Z’s attitude towards sex. Moreover, Olivia Wilde deserves to be thrown into the awards conversation with her absurd performance as an avant-garde artist seducing one of her gallery assistants into a BDSM relationship. Her on-screen chemistry with Cooper Hoffman is not just electric—it’s radioactive as the two teeter above mutually-assured destruction. Needless to say, Araki is taking a victory lap at this point in his career.
Heated Rivalry
LGBTQ+ athletes took centerstage towards the end of the weekend, with HBO Max sponsoring a rooftop screening of Heated Rivalry’s “I’ll Believe in Anything” episode at Pier 17. The event included typical marketing activation elements, such as hockey-themed giveaways and photobooths, but the excitement in everyone’s faces during the surprise drag performances before the episode speaks to the lighting in a bottle nature of this Heated Rivalry mass psychosis we find ourselves in.
The Brittney Griner Story
Alexandria Stapleton’s The Brittney Griner Story also screened outdoors, recounting Griner’s unjust imprisonment in Russia during 2022 that drew international headlines. The documentary focuses on Brittney Griner’s life as a professional basketball player, but also how her identity as a black, queer woman was co-opted by conservative political agendas during this time. Although her incarceration ended in 2022, the international implications of the incident remain apropos as the war in Ukraine and Russia’s aggression towards Western powers persists.
Adam’s Apple
On the festival’s final day, Amy Jenkins’ brought her incredibly moving documentary about her son’s gender transition across his adolescence to New York. With over two decades of footage, Adam’s Apple examines the intricacies associated with supportively raising a child in transition, while also making space for Adam to vent his own frustrations with unflinching honesty. With such rare intimacy for a documentary, Adam’s Apple will surely find its way into the hearts of mothers and fathers alike.
Teenage Death & Sex at Camp Miasma
Last but certainly not least, Jane Schoenbrun brought the house down with the cerebral and sublime Teenage Death & Sex at Camp Miasma, which arrives fresh off the heels of its rapturous Cannes Un Certain Regard premiere and Queer Palm win. Longform essays, academic journal articles, and book chapters will not be long enough to dissect this text’s richness and reverence for the slasher subgenre that utilizes horror conventions to articulate sexual liberation and one’s own relationship to their gender and sexuality. Schoenbrun’s auteur sensibilities are on full display here in a bloody filmmaking feat I desperately hope ignites a new wave of full-bodied queer horror.
As New York City’s leading LGBTQ+ film and media organization, NewFest should applaud themselves for another spectacular NewFest Pride that promoted communal viewing experiences and access to diverse queer narratives. With highs reaching the stratosphere and lows only falling slightly below that, this year’s edition sets the bar for what a film festival can—and should—be.