My unexpected Pride icon: Free Willy helped me see the radical power of coming out

An oppressed orca breaking free to find its true family? It may not be obviously queer, but I’ve found much comfort in Willy and Jesse’s story in this film

My unexpected Pride icon: Fast & Furious is my favourite camp classic

Any film where cast members talk about chosen family and Dwayne ‘the Rock’ Johnson busts a cast off his broken arm by flexing his biceps has a place in the gay canon

From New York to Sierra Leone: the search for a missing sister

Oluwaseun Babalola’s film Fighting Giants is an exploration of the misogyny and racism encountered by her family as they attempted to uncover the truth behind her sibling’s disappearance seven years ago

Autumn review – amazing landscape plays central role in Portuguese wine-family drama

Set in the Douro valley, Antonio Sequeira’s softly drawn portrait of a family in flux never quite ferments to anything more than a light tipple about the passing of time

Young Mothers review – outstanding return to form for the Dardenne brothers

Teen mums are taught how to take care of their babies or prepare them for adoption amid drug addiction, mental illness and family conflict in this poignant, compassionate work of unforced social realism

Bono: Stories of Surrender review – megastar tries out humility in likable one-man show

The U2 singer’s solo stage appearance sees him reflect on his anguished family past and have a decent go at being an ordinary Joe

A New Kind of Wilderness review – beautiful film of off-grid family shattered by bereavement

When photographer Maria Vatne died in 2019, her family had to come to terms with not just the loss of a parent but a whole lifestyle, including their home

Le Film de Mon Père review – father’s videotape legacy sparks intergenerational dialogue

A Swiss film-maker’s parent leaves behind a visual diary that raises questions about the limitations of art in a fascinating documentary debut

Where Dragons Live review – reflections on family life in an extraordinary setting

In this warm documentary, three siblings clear out their enormously grand childhood home in Oxfordshire where among the happy memories are those of cruelty

Neirud review – a mysterious family relationship that unravels Brazil’s complex social fabric

Film-maker Fernanda Faya weaves together a loving homage to her circus performer grandmother and her elusive companion

‘The grief takes your breath away’: how death transformed a loving family – and shaped a remarkable film

Nik and Maria Payne were raising their ‘wild and free’ children in the Norwegian countryside when cancer turned their lives upside down. The reluctant stars of A New Kind of Wilderness talk about a world without Maria

When Autumn Falls review – François Ozon’s diverting mystery of tricky family dynamics

Ozon’s drama mixes implied horror with sentimentality as it examines dangerous secrets and the disastrous ramifications of an (accidental?) poisoning

‘It’s been really profound’: artists Joel Meyerowitz and Maggie Barrett on laying bare their marriage on film

Photographer Meyerowitz, 87, and artist and writer Barrett, 78, invited two documentary-makers into their lives for a year. The result, Two Strangers Trying Not to Kill Each Other, is an intimate portrait that all couples should see

‘Tears were running down my face’: why Bridget Jones 4 is the most moving romcom of modern times

Word back from the cinemas is united – and sniffly: Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is leaving audiences in surprising puddles. Our writers reveal the moments that made then sob loudest, and why

A Picture to Remember review – memories of a Donetsk happy childhood before the war

Olga Chernykh’s portrait of life in war-torn Ukraine, based on home videos, examines how bonds and memories persist through trauma, loss and distance