A teenager living in Brooklyn, Frankie (newcomer Harris Dickinson) befriends a bunch of boys who lead him on a path towards delinquency. At the amusement park on Coney Island—which could be considered as a film character on its own—Frankie meets Simone, a girl both pretty and bold with whom he will end the night. However, Frankie cannot have sex with her. When he finds himself alone, far from his friends’ eyes, Frankie surfs on gay porn sites and dating pages to get together with men, mostly older than him, to have casual sex somewhere in town. Over the summer, Frankie will be caught amidst very conflicting feelings. It will become gradually harder for him to keep his friends’ respect and Simone’s complicity while indulging in his desire for furtive sex. Especially when his two worlds start to collide.

With her second feature, Beach Rats, director and screenwriter Eliza Hittman positions herself as one of the independent filmmakers to keep an eye on in the future. Winner of the Directing Award at the prestigious Sundance festival and honoured at other well-known events such as the Hamburg Film Festival, the Independent Film Festival of Boston and L.A. Outfest, this film has also received two nominations at this year’s Independent Spirit Awards (Best Male Lead and Best Cinematography) and it appears at the seventh position of The New Yorker’s famous Top 10 Movies of the Year list. This story about lost boys and sexual awakening, which does not make gratuitous use of sex but that does not shy away from it either, already generated quite a buzz for its compelling depiction of self-discovery and repression. Without any doubt, one of the best indie titles of the year.

2017: Sundance Film Festival: Best director– Drama

2017: Independent Spirit Awards: Nominated for best actor (Dickinson) and cinematography

2017: Gotham Awards: Nominated for Breakthrough Actor (Harris Dickinson)

2017: Hamburg Film Festival – Best picture