L'Adage

Ways to Strength and Beauty

The perfect body as an object of cult worship. Based on the mass sports and body worship movement of the 1920s, the film propagates physical training and shows in stylized documentary scenes aspects of physical hygiene, gymnastics, sports and dancing as well as scenes in which supposed sportsmen of antiquity pose naked.

True Beauty: Before

Reina is bullied for her appearance and drops out. She encounters makeup and transforms into a "goddess," which changes her life. However, a classmate discovers her secret bare face, which leads to unexpected challenges.

True Beauty: After

Reina is bullied for her appearance and drops out. She encounters makeup and transforms into a "goddess," which changes her life. However, a classmate discovers her secret bare face, which leads to unexpected challenges.

Straight/Curve: Redefining Body Image

A documentary about body image and the industry leaders challenging society's unrealistic and dangerous standards of beauty.

COMPLEXion

"COMPLEXion is a documentary that aims to unpack the hegemony of skin color globally and challenge the archaic notions that exist surrounding it. Our mission is to defy toxic beauty standards through raw human stories."

Lalin

She tells Lalin's journey from Thailand to Japan. With the opportunity to study abroad, she flees to Sapporo, where no one knows her and can live under a new identity. Posing as a modern beauty, she becomes an idol on the internet and on social media platforms. The reality is that Lalin hides his face every day with a mask, hiding from the world and striving for self-acceptance.

Miss India America

Lily is a winner, but when her boyfriend leaves her for a vapid beauty pageant queen, she gets the notion that winning the Miss India America title would bring him back. Since Lily is perfect in everything else she does, it should be a cinch...or so she thinks. The pageant world isn't just pretty smiles and high heels, and her main competition, Sonia, gives her a run for her money.

Crowned Species

A journalistic investigation, built not on rumors and assumptions, but on direct evidence, revealing the true mechanisms of podium coronations. Hidden camera footage of negotiations with the owners of the largest national beauty contests and an attempt to answer the question of why these people are not yet in prison. Famous people on the jury are not a guarantee of fair judging. Irrefutable evidence of the corruption of the so-called “stars” who elect the next Miss and Mrs. The collection and subsequent theft of funds for charity is a side business of the owners of fraudulent shows. What actually awaits the titled Misses after purchasing the prize? And what do children's beauty pageants turn out to be like for young participants?

Hair Piece: A Film for Nappy Headed People

An animated satire on the question of self-image for African American women living in a society where beautiful hair is viewed as hair that blows in the wind and lets you be free. Lively tunes and witty narration accompany a quick-paced inventory of relaxers, gels, and curlers. This short film has become essential for discussions of racism, African American cinema, and empowerment.

The Ugly Stepsister

In a fairy-tale kingdom where beauty is a brutal business, Elvira battles to compete with her incredibly beautiful stepsister, and she will go to any length to catch the prince’s eye.

The Substance

A fading celebrity decides to use a black market drug, a cell-replicating substance that temporarily creates a younger, better version of herself.

I Beg You to Like Me

“I Beg You To Like Me”, serves as a testimony of individuals who felt oppressed about their body image for not meeting the standard beauty criteria, and demonstrates how a reckless language based on others’ physical appearance could turn violent. It aims to achieve much more than simply stating the obvious, which is that we are not obligated to submit to the ideal beauty standards dictated by the media, consumerism and the beauty industry. The intimate stories about one’s own body image as told by women, men, disabled people and LGBT individuals make it apparent that any one of us could end up being a victim and a perpetrator at the same time. What if, this iconic body image is nothing but an unobtainable fallacy? “Is it not yet the time to openly discuss the conventional perception of beauty, and step up onto the catwalk in our actual likeness?

Madrepérola

No Lye: An American Beauty Story

A documentary that chronicles the rise and decline of the black-owned ethnic beauty industry in America.

Beauty

A look into how beauty standards affect self-image.

Aphrodite Stereotype

To Be Beautiful

The documentary explores issues of beauty and acceptance in a culture increasingly saturated with idealised and unattainable ideals of femininity. It is a story about the world of young girls in today's Latvia, based on conversations about girls' attitudes towards the world and their place in it.

Miss Congeniality

When the local FBI office receives a letter from a terrorist known only as 'The Citizen', it's quickly determined that he's planning his next act at the Miss America beauty pageant. Because tough-as-nails Gracie Hart is the only female Agent at the office, she's chosen to go undercover as the contestant from New Jersey.

Lavenza

When Lavenza, a 19th-century noblewoman, overhears her husband complaining about her looks, she turns herself into his ideal wife by thrifting the body parts from all the women he desires.