It’s been some time since a new queer film has caused a stir, in the vein of William Friedkin’s Cruising, Abdellatif Kechiche’s Blue is the Warmest Colour, or Todd Verow’s soon-to-be reissued Frisk, but if the reported festival audience response is anything to go by, writer-director Elliot Tuttle’s provocative Blue Film might be the latest addition to that legacy.
As seen in the film’s first official trailer, released today, Boots star Kieron Moore portrays fetish camboy Aaron Eagle who visits an anonymous client in exchange for $50,000. When Aaron discovers that the masked, much older man (Tony-winning theatre vet Reed Birney) has a disturbing connection to his past, the two drop their personas and gradually reveal their true desires.
“Everybody was afraid to move”, Birney, who also serves as executive producer, recalls about the audience response at the world premiere at the 2025 Edinburgh International Film Festival in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. “People just didn’t know what they were watching and what was gonna happen. It felt very dangerous. People said they felt like it was gonna end very badly, like it was gonna be a bloodbath or something. It was that suspenseful.”
“A lot of the Aaron character is very personal to me in that I was trying to fillet some uglier sides of myself in a truthful way,” Tuttle told Entertainment Weekly. “That changed over the course of the writing process, too. The final character, as is, is not completely what I’m discussing right now, but that was how it started.”
“I don’t think all art is meant to agree with us,” Moore shared with Entertainment Weekly. “I don’t think it’s meant to dismiss our opinions. I also don’t think it’s meant to strengthen them, but I think it can be all of them…The movie doesn’t make you do anything. The movie gives you an opportunity. And that is where I think the uncomfort lies.”
Blue Film will open theatrically in New York from Obscured Releasing on Friday, May 8th, 2026, followed by a Los Angeles release on Friday, May 15th.
Watch the trailer below:
