NewFest: IF YOU ARE AFRAID YOU PUT YOUR HEART IN YOUR MOUTH AND SMILE

Winner of the 2025 Teddy Jury Prize, this moving portrait follows a deaf mother and her 12-year-old child, Anna, as they navigate class struggle, identity, and bodily autonomy in the heart of Vienna. In their cramped flat, daily life is shaped by facing economic precarity and social exclusion. When Anna starts high school, she confronts the cost of fitting in — and finds unexpected solidarity with a classmate whose parent is a queer, trans man, played by Daniel Sea (THE L WORD).

More than a story of survival, this is a cinematic letter of dissent from Vienna’s dissident community, drawing strength from queer and trans voices to demand change and imagine futures worth living.