SUMMER STREAMING FROM PECCADILLO
Peccadillo Pictures has lined up a summer of international LGBTQ+ feature films that are playing on digital platforms with exclusive releases. Journey from Latin America through Europe to Australia. There’s also the 25th edition of the popular Boys on Film short film collection. Plenty of drama, passion and friendships among the living and the undead to explore.
Available on the following streaming platforms; Apple TV, Sky Store, Prime Video, You Tube Movies, BFI Player, and Peccadillo Pla
JUNE
THIRST
(Iceland, 90 mins)
Directed by Steinþór Hróar Steinþórsson & Gaukur Úlfarsson
Starring Hjörtur Sævar Steinason, Hulda Lind Kristinsdóttir, Jens Jensson
Somewhere in the frozen darkness of Reykjavík, something very old and very hungry has been waiting. For a thousand years, Hjörtur has lurked in the shadows — a gay vampire of considerable sass, and very specific appetites…
Meanwhile, Hulda is having the worst week of her life. A drug addict freshly released from police custody following her brother’s suspicious death, she has nowhere to go and no one to turn to — until she meets Hjörtur. In what he almost certainly considers a friendly gesture; the ancient vampire resurrects her dead brother. It does not go well.
Now the two unlikely companions find themselves on the run — from a fanatical cult in purple tracksuits, a rogue detective, and the steadily mounting consequences of a thousand-year-old monster who simply does not know when to stop. The blood flows freely. The body count rises cheerfully. And somewhere in the neon-lit, gore-soaked chaos, an unlikely friendship is forged.
Some friendships are worth dying for. Repeatedly.
Available on Prime Video, BFI Player, Peccadillo Player from 22nd June
JULY
BOYS ON FILM 25: SILVER BULLET
(UK/ international, 137 mins (total)
All about the trials and tribulations of consequence and chance encounters, BOYS ON FILM 25: SILVER BULLET bids you to make a move. When a door is presented to you, do you walk through it? Do you abide by the status quo, or do you dare to truly love yourself and finally embrace yourself? And what happens when you make bad decisions?
Eight queer stories from Singapore, USA, UK, Taiwan and Germany, proving that every bullet has its billet.
This marks the special 25th anniversary of Peccadillo’s highly popular short film collection that includes award-winning Welsh film G Flat (dir Peter Darney), starring Richard Wilson (One Foot In The Grave); 302 (dir. Leon Cheo); Miss Temperance (dir. Jeremy McClain), starring Drag Race UK’s Chanel O’Connor; Next Door (dir. Lukas März), Some Kind Of Paradise (dir. Nicholas Finegan); Ripples (dir. Rhys Marc Jones); J is For Just An Afternoon Storm (dir. Chuang Yung-Hsiang); and I Hope He Doesn’t Kill Me (dir. Lyndon Hanrahan & Nora Dahle Borchgrevink).
Available to stream on both UK & US platforms and worldwide from 6th July
RENT FREE
(US, 2024, 93 mins)
Director: Fernando Andrés
Starring Jacob Roberts, David Treviño, Molly Edelman
After a failed move to New York City leaves them kicked out of their new apartment due to Ben’s poor judgment, best friends Ben and Jordan return to Austin, Texas, emotionally and financially broken.
The pair make a desperate pact to spend an entire year living “rent free” by couch surfing with friends, family, and strangers, navigating their complicated relationships and emotional codependence against the backdrop of their rapidly changing hometown.
A darkly funny, tenderly honest portrait of friendship, adulthood avoidance, and the rising cost of literally everything!
Available on all UK streaming platforms from 13th July
LESVIA
(Greece, 2024, 80 mins)
Director: Tzeli Hadjidimitriou
Since the late 1970s, women from across the globe have made a pilgrimage to the tiny Greek village of Skala Eressos on the island of Lesvos, drawn by the ancient legacy of the poet Sappho. What began as a trickle of travellers became a thriving community — but one that brought with it decades of tension and conflict with the conservative local villagers.
Filmmaker Tzeli Hadjidimitriou — a native of Lesvos and a lesbian herself — is uniquely placed to tell this story. Weaving together archival footage, personal testimony, and her own diary entries, she crafts a deeply moving portrait of two communities learning, over forty years, to share the same shoreline.
Available on Prime Video, BFI Player, Peccadillo Player from 20th July
AUGUST
MARIA’S PARADISE
(Finland, 2019, 110 mins)
Director: Zaida Bergroth
Starring Pihla Viitala, Satu Tuuli Karhu, Saga Sarkola
Finland, 1927. Maria Åkerblom is magnetic, imperious, and utterly dangerous — a self-proclaimed prophet who has built a devoted flock of followers who have surrendered everything to her divine vision.
At the edges of this world lives Salome, a teenage orphan who has known no other life. When Maria draws her close, elevating her above the others, Salome’s world is turned upside down by a chance encounter with a girl from outside the cult — and for the first time, she dares to question everything.
Inspired by a true story. Some heavens are prisons in disguise.
Directed by Zaida Bergroth (Tove), this is a lush period drama with an intense emotional triangle at its heart.
Available on Amazon Prime, BFI Player, Peccadillo Player 10th August
LESBIAN SPACE PRINCESS
(Australia, 2025, 86 mins)
Director: Leela Varghese & Emma Hough Hobbs
Cast (voices): Shabana Azeez, Gemma Chua-Tran, Richard Roxburgh
Daughter to the flamboyant lesbian Queens of Planet Clitopolis, introverted Princess Saira is devastated when her bounty-hunter girlfriend, Kiki, suddenly breaks up with her for being too needy.
After Kiki is kidnapped by forgotten incels of the future, the Straight White Maliens, Saira must leave the comforts of gay space to deliver their ransom: her royal labrys (the most powerful weapon known to lesbian kind). Only problem is… she doesn’t have it!
And so the most anxious, self-doubting princess in the GAY-laxy must climb aboard a deeply problematic spaceship, pick up a fabulous gay-pop runaway and hurtle across queer space on the most chaotic rescue mission ever attempted to save her ex!
Multiple award-winning Lesbian Space Princess is a mad-cap animated adult queer comedy, written and directed by Emma Hough Hughes and Leela Varghese Winner of the Teddy Award and a recent Nominee for seven Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Award.
Available on UK streaming platforms from 17th August
DOWNRIVER
(Australia, 2015, 99 mins)
Director; Grant Scicluna
Starring Reef Ireland, Kerry Fox, Robert Taylor
James is released from juvenile detention after serving time for his alleged involvement in the death of a young boy, though the body was never found and James has little memory of what happened.
When the victim’s grieving mother confronts him upon his release, James embarks on a dangerous quest for the truth, returning to his rural Australian community where he must navigate an estranged family, old friendships, shocking revelations, and a complicated romantic entanglement while risking his freedom and life to uncover what really happened that day by the river.
Debut feature from Iris Prize winner director Grant Scicluna, this mystery thriller stars Robert Taylor (The Meg, The Matrix) and Kerry Fox (Shallow Grave)
Available on Prime Video, BFI Player, Peccadillo Player from 24th August