Inside Out’s 2025 RE:Focus Fund Recipients

To kick off the new year on a strong note, Inside Out, Canada’s largest 2SLGBTQ+ film festival, is pleased to announce the 2025 recipients of the RE:Focus Fund. The fund supports post-production and promotion for bold and innovative 2SLGBTQ+ film projects at critical stages of completion. To date, the RE:Focus Fund has distributed more than $350,000 to filmmakers around the world, helping ensure that women, trans, and nonbinary filmmakers are able to bring their projects across the finish line.

The 2025 RE:Focus Fund supports 12 projects from filmmakers based in Canada, the United States, Peru, Singapore, Thailand, China, and New Zealand. Selected from a record-breaking number of submissions, these projects reflect the creativity, resilience, and commitment of 2SLGBTQ+ communities who continue to create even in challenging times.

“Each year, the RE:Focus Fund continues to see growth in submissions. While this speaks to the trust filmmakers place in Inside Out, it also highlights a more difficult reality: many queer projects continue to face significant barriers to reaching completion without adequate support. These works remind us that sustained funding is not optional, it is essential to ensuring queer and trans stories are seen, supported, and celebrated.” – Lu Linares, Programming and Industry Manager

Notable supported projects include Pailin Wedel’s Heals, which follows Drag Race alum and Thai drag superstar Pan Pan Narkprasert, also known as Pangina Heals, and Charlotte Evans’ The Weight of Change, an intimate portrait of New Zealand politician Chlöe Swarbrick as she navigates leadership, public scrutiny, and the personal cost of working in politics.

The 2025 recipients also include work from outstanding Inside Out alumni, such as Luis De Filippis’ first feature documentary Mother’s Day, Alyssa Lerner’s new narrative short First Death, and Nyala Moon’s debut feature I Used to Be a Woman, But I Gave It Up for Christ.

“When we provide artists with the trust, time, and resources they deserve, we create the conditions for them to fully realize their visions. Through RE:Focus, Inside Out is proud to support filmmakers as they expand representation, strengthen 2SLGBTQ+ communities, and create work they are proud to share with the world.” – Jenna Dufton, Festival Director

Inside Out is deeply grateful to the RE:Focus Fund’s supporters, whose continued generosity makes this program possible. We extend our sincere thanks to RBC, the LCBO, and Shaftesbury for their commitment to championing 2SLGBTQ+ filmmakers and stories.

Accismus

Director: Brandy Marien

Country: Canada

A haunting short exploring trans visibility and the violence of being desired.

Anatomy of a F-Boy

Director: Fatimah Asghar

Country: United States

“Anatomy of a F-Boy” follows a young director making a documentary about ELI, a charming and misunderstood queer person at the center of a recent smear campaign. As filming progresses, the director begins to realize she may have been duped and has fallen for a subject who is using her.

Boygirl

Director: Michal Heuston

Country: Canada

Segments from childhood diaries are woven together with prose and stream-of-consciousness poetry to tell the story of Boygirl, a young genderqueer child navigating the complexity of their inner world.

First Death

Director: Alyssa Lerner

Country: United States

An abruptly deceased soul struggles to move on from their first lifetime.

Good Daze

Director: Jonelle Belcourt

Country: Canada

A rebellious coming-of-age stoner comedy following two Indigenous teens, Jazz, a bold two-spirit misfit, and Ari, her reserved but fiercely loyal best friend, as they attempt to steal back a classic car from a toxic ex. Their mission turns into a chaotic joyride across their rez, testing friendship, freedom, and the fleeting nature of adolescence.

Heals

Director: Pailin Wedel

Country: Thailand

This feature documentary traces the rise of Thai drag superstar Pan Pan Narkprasert, also known as Pangina Heals, from Bangkok stages to a groundbreaking Las Vegas residency, while confronting intergenerational trauma and a mother who struggles to accept their queerness.

I Used to Be a Woman, But I Gave It Up for Christ

Director: Nyala Moon

Country: United States

A sharp mockumentary following Jonathan, a detransitioned person, and the “Queer No More” fellowship as they use social media to spread ex-LGBTQ testimonies while attempting to avoid the temptations of their former lives.

Mother’s Day

Directors: Andrew Moir, Luis De Filippis

Country: Canada

A reclusive artist races to complete her final work, a children’s book about a girl who meets the ghost of her mother, while grappling with terminal illness. Years later, filmmakers uncover clues that reveal a deeper connection between her art and a mysterious loss from her past.

Q-Pop

Director: Adri Murguia

Country: United States / Peru / South Korea

“Q-POP” follows 24-year-old TikTok sensation Lenin Tamayo, who blends K-pop sounds with the sacred and disappearing Andean language of Quechua, as he navigates the pressures of stardom and cultural responsibility.

Rooms of Her Own

Director: Yi Shi

Country: Canada / China

A queer filmmaker returns to their aging childhood home as their soon-to-retire mother begins to challenge long-held patriarchal and generational expectations, opening space for reconciliation years after the filmmaker came out.

The Lift

Director: King Dawit

Country: Canada

A short film built around a simple but provocative idea: the most uplifting thing you can do is shoplifting.

The Weight of Change

Director: Charlotte Evans

Country: New Zealand

An intimate portrait of New Zealand politician Chlöe Swarbrick as she navigates leadership, public scrutiny, and the personal cost of working in politics.