1. Kandidaten
Scene is the classroom of a special school in Berlin. Yannik is the leader of class 7a. Yousuf and Marcel would rather have him as a friend than as an enemy, otherwise they might end up like Emanuel. Sitting in a corner, unwanted and lonely, he gets beaten up regularly. But Emanuel shrugs off these offences and violations with surprising gentleness. All in one boat, the roles are firmly distributed. But when the teacher introduces the topics of democracy, ethics, and human rights to the class, Emanuel sees a chance to break free from his role as the underdog.
2. Transhood
Filmed over five years in Kansas City, this documentary follows four transgender kids – beginning at ages 4, 7, 12, and 15 – as they redefine “coming of age.” These kids and their families show us the intimate realities of how gender is re-shaping the family next door in a unique and unprecedented chronicle of growing up transgender in the heartland.
It has an average vote of 5.3 on TMDB.
3. Jonas and the Backyard Circus (Jonas e o Circo Sem Lona)
Jonas is 13 years old and his life's dream is to maintain the circus that he created in his backyard. While he faces this challenge, he will live the adventure of growing up.
It has an average vote of 8.1 on TMDB.
4. Passage (Passage)
Gabrielle and Yoan are 18 years old. Even though they both grew up in Temiscamingue, their aspirations are opposite. While Yoan wants to leave the area to break away from his loneliness and explore his homosexuality, Gabrielle is torn at the thought of going over a hundred kilometers away from home to carry on with her studies.
5. How to Find Love
Charlie is an awkward teenage boy who can't get over his ex-girlfriend. After his attempt to win her back goes horribly wrong, he and his bumbling friends head to the streets to try and learn how to find love. As their fourth friend films them, the boys hear a variety of perspectives on what love is, and attempt improve their abilities to make women swoon.
It has an average vote of 10 on TMDB.
6. Square One: A Documentary
Following a single father & his 3 kids, watch the struggle, stress, & strength of what the everyday life is like growing up & those growing pains called life.
7. The Afterlife
A young adult's first-hand account of "accidentally becoming human again" after, and with, trauma induced depression. Lo-fi, vulnerable, and uniquely youthful, "The Afterlife" is a melancholic affirmation of life after death.
8. Five Times Five
Cécile, Annette, Yvonne, Émilie and Marie, the Dionne Quintuplets, turn five years old and have a private birthday party in their garden. Other than the five little French-Canadian princesses-of-the-world, the attendees at the party for the sheltered sisters are their doctor-and-mentor Roy Dafoe; a priest and two nurses; radio's "Town Crier" Alexander Woollcott; and RKO-Newsreel cameraman Harry Smith.
9. Like Water Through Stone (A Falta Que Me Faz)
In the Espinhaço Mountains one winter, a group of small-town Brazilian girls are experiencing the end of their youth. Impossible romances leave marks on their bodies and the surrounding landscape. Each of the friends finds her own particular way to overcome the loneliness and to live within a tangle of uncertainty.
It has an average vote of 8.8 on TMDB.
10. Young Wrestlers (Genç Pehlivanlar)
“Let’s see if you gained any weight. 26,3 kilogram. Ahmet, you need to eat more. Double meals.” Like other boys their age, Baran, Ahmet and their classmates wrestle with the desire for recognition, with homesickness and with their target weights. Most of all though, they wrestle with, and against, one another. They are comrades and competitors, united by one and the same dream: Olympic gold! In their wrestling academy in the Turkish province of Amasya, which is well known for this traditional form of combat sport, they undergo strength and endurance training, they learn lifts and throws, they urge each other on and they console one another. Always responding to the boys’ needs, the trainers give the boys tough love, sometimes fatherly, sometimes strict and disciplinary. The film’s intimate documental camera bears close witness to the fine line between friendship and competition, victory and the lesson of how to lose.
It has an average vote of 5.4 on TMDB.
11. How To Dress Like Me
Since 1979, Rose Chong Costumiers have been dealing in elaborate and vibrant maximalist attire for hire. In 40 years, it has established itself as an iconic and legendary Melbourne staple among the Inner-North's queer scene. But neither Rose Chong's nor fancy-dress are as simple as they first seem according to Dan, one of the long-time "Chongettes" who works there. When considered with care and attention, they reveal glittering ideas of play and fun and community. From a queer lens - or rather, a mirror - this unassuming costume shop is a place where one might begin to conceive truths about themselves and their identities. How to Dress Like Me is a 5-minute documentary that contends with the intersections of play, queerness, and clothes.
12. Green Light (Sinal Verde)
Moments of a group of high school students at a party, before the college admission tests start.
13. Bangla Surf Girls (Bangla Surf Girls)
Three working-class teenage girls in a port city in Bangladesh escape daily hardships and stifling family lives by riding waves on their surfboards and grabbing hold of the fleeting and thrilling sense of freedom that brings.
It has an average vote of 9 on TMDB.
14. I Am a Girl
Six girls coming of age, ready to become something extraordinary.
It has an average vote of 5.8 on TMDB.
15. Axel
An experimental documentary which explores themes of childhood and rebellion through the lens of a 14-year-old skateboarder, musician, and graffiti artist in upstate Vermont.
16. All This Panic
Shot over a three-year period with unparalleled intimacy and access, ALL THIS PANIC is a feature length documentary that takes an intimate look at the interior lives of a group of teenage girls as they come of age in Brooklyn. A potent mix of vivid portraiture and vérité, we follow the girls as they navigate the ephemeral and fleeting transition between childhood and adulthood.
It has an average vote of 6.1 on TMDB.
17. Prelude (Preludio)
In a dreamlike journey through the memories that formed him, Sergio's past comes to life before his eyes. With his grandparents' house in ruins as a vehicle of memory, he will question his first 10 years of life and why he considers them his Prelude, the foretaste of what his life and work would become. Among ghosts, he will have to make peace with his memory, his reflection and his name to find the color among the ashes and stop fearing the future.
18. Yo sentí su amor (Yo sentí su amor)
(Yo sentí su amor)
19. Jawline
Sixteen-year-old Austyn Tester, a rising star in the world of digital celebrities, builds his following on wide-eyed optimism and teen girl adoration as he tries to escape a dead-end life in rural Tennessee.
It has an average vote of 5.9 on TMDB.
20. Summer Nights (Summer Nights)
Under the cover of night, skaters claim back the streets.
