XY
2026 · 2m
Directed by Lucas Madebos
Genres: coming-of-age, drama, LGBTQ+
Tones: contemplative, tender
Through rejection and encounter, a soul on the border of genders discovers that its beauty lies in affirming what it is.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
The premise reads like every coming-of-age affirm-yourself story, but if Madebos actually found a way to make gender fluidity feel strange and unsettled rather than neatly resolved, that's the rare thing—I'd need to see it.
A contemplative meditation on identity that positions itself within the lineage of tender, introspective portraiture; the question is whether the formal choices—pacing, framing, sound design—elevate it beyond sincere earnestness into something formally considered.
Two minutes is almost no time, which means Madebos had to choose one moment, one image, one cut that does all the emotional work—the film lives or dies on whether that decision lands with the precision to make you feel the whole arc in fragments.