Pillion and Heated Rivalry may have been broadly accepted by mainstream audiences, but there is another film on the horizon that will test people's comfort level with erotic gay sex and taboo sexual relationships.
The upcoming indie movie Blue Film, about a camboy who meets up with a much older client from his past, is finally being released next month by Obscured Releasing. The film had a controversial start as it was turned down by film festivals and people walked out of screenings for the graphic content.
Thankfully, Blue Film will get a proper release in theaters this May, so audiences who are craving authenticity, explorations of sexuality and desire, and taboo sex are in luck.
Scroll down to learn what is the film all about and why it's already so controversial.
Mild spoilers for Blue Film follow.
What is ‘Blue Film’ about?
Kieron Moore as Aaron Eagle in Blue Film.
Fusion Entertainment
Blue Film follows Aaron Eagle, a camboy and sex worker, who is hired to spend the night with an anonymous and much-older man named Hank, who it turns out he knows from his past.
The two men have a shared history — Hank was accused of abusing another student while he was Aaron’s teacher — that will test audiences' ability to engage with challenging and taboo topics around sex and sexuality.
"The script feels very personal in the way that the Aaron character feels very personal to me," writer-director Elliot Tuttle told Out last year, where he also described Hank as a "vessel to navigate ideas about sex that I wanted to explore."
Who is starring in ‘Blue Film’?
Reed Birney and Kieron Moore in Blue Film.Fusion EntertainmentBlue Film is a two-hander, with only a pair of actors cast in the movie.
Kieron Moore plays camboy Aaron Eagle, after making a name for himself when he starred in last year’s hit gay Netflix series Boots. Theater veteran and Mass star Reed Birney plays former teacher Hank Grant.
Why did 'Blue Film' almost not make it to screen?
Reed Birney as Hank Grant and Kieron Moore as Aaron Eagle in Blue Film.Fusion Entertainment
The taboo nature of a film that explores a teacher who confesses that he once harbored romantic feelings for his 12-year-old student — and was fired for abusing another student — led to both Sundance and SXSW film festivals rejecting the title.
"As soon as you say pedophile, everybody has such a strong and undeniable reaction to it," Birney told Entertainment Weekly. "I don't think I thought that it was gonna be as controversial as it was, which is kind of foolish in retrospect. Of course, it was gonna be controversial, but I just think I thought it was such a beautiful character study."
The movie was eventually showcased at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, where a few audience members walked out of the screening.
"My producer was in the theater watching it, and he was texting our little group chat, 'Someone just walked out during the scene... one other person just walked out. A third person just walked out,'" Tuttle said, per EW. "I think I had always anticipated that to some degree."
When will 'Blue Film' premiere?
Blue Film will be released in a limited number of theaters in New York City on May 8, 2026, and in Los Angeles on May 15, 2026. A streaming premiere date has yet to be announced.
