Dirty (2020 film)

Dirty is a 2020 short LGBT coming-of-age romantic drama film, written and directed by Matthew Puccini. It premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize for Best Short Film.

The film made its online premiere through a virtual screening by SXSW, as the festival was cancelled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, the festival still awarded the film with a Special Jury Award for the performances of its lead actors, Morgan Sullivan and Manny Dunn. It then went on to play at BFI Flare, Outfest Fusion, Atlanta Film Festival and the Palm Springs International ShortFest; at the latter it was nominated for Best LGBTQ+ Short. In October 2020, the film's streaming rights were acquired by The Criterion Channel.

Premise
Marco cuts class to spend the afternoon with his boyfriend, Graham. Things do not go as planned.

According to Puccini, this film and his previous short, Lavender (2019), are personal to him, saying: "I’m grateful for both films for different reasons and they are all part of one period of my life — exploring these ideas of intimacy and loneliness and queer people seeking connection. In some ways they’re almost two attempts to answer the same question."

Cast

 * Morgan Sullivan as Marco
 * Manny Dunn as Graham
 * Sean Patrick Higgins as Mr. Flanangan

Ethan River Cohen, Chelsea Eason, Cherish Hearts, Ryan Knight, Octavia Kohner, Maurice Nelson, Zac Porter, Olivia Sulkowicz, Melissa Topnas, Arianna Wellmoney and Jude Young appear as students during the opening scenes.