COMPETITION
FEATURE award winners
DOCUMENTARY award winners
SHORT FILM award winners
I+N VISIONARY AWARDS
JURY feature
Thi Be Nguyen
Thi Be Nguyen is a Canadian philanthropist, and social entrepreneur. She occupies the position of Manager to the Office of the President at National Bank of Canada. Thi Be is passionate about social impact projects. She founded UniAction, a non profit organisation from which emerged the Social Impact Film and Art Festival (SIFA Festival) a cultural event that raises awareness on social issues around the world.
JURY documentary + short
Jim Farmer
Jim Farmer has been festival director of Out On Film, Atlanta’s LGBTQ film festival since 2008, helping spearhead its growth, including becoming an Oscar® qualifying festival in 2020. Farmer has sat on numerous juries including Atlanta Film Festival, OUTshine and ImageOut. He has been named to Atlanta Magazine’s 500 Most Powerful City Leaders list in both 2020 and 21. An arts reporter/critic for two decades, he’s written for publications across the U.S. and this year won The Association of LGBTQ Journalists Excellence in Theatre Coverage Award. Jim lives in Atlanta with his husband Craig and dog Douglas.
IN COMPETITION
- ALL
- FEATURE
- DOCUMENTARY
- SHORT
BEYTO
GITTA GSELL | SWITZERLAND | 2021
Based on a novel by Yusuf Yesilöz, Beyto spans continents and cultures, as “clever boy” Beyto juggles his responsibilities and swimming abilities to try and make his conservative Turkish parents proud, while falling for his swimming coach – and equally hunky lover – Mike.
CELTS (KELTI)
MILICA TOMOVIĆ | SERBIA | 2021
A lovingly loose-lipped community acts out geopolitical strife and stumbles toward coping over the course of an eight-year-old girl’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles-themed birthday party in the Belgrade suburb of Borča. The sprawling guest list is a melange of social classes and temperaments. Each looking for “some excitement.” Each desperate to be seen.
THE HILL WHERE THE LIONESSES ROAR
LUÀNA BAJRAMI | KOSOVO & FRANCE & USA | 2021
This beguiling, tactile film is the directorial debut of now 20-year-old actress Luàna Bajrami (Portrait of a Lady on Fire), who briefly plays a French visitor to a Kosovar village tucked in foggy, green hills. There, the three female protagonists lounge in the suspended animation of their coterie, until thievery unleashes their inner roar.
I CARRY YOU WITH ME (TE LLEVO CONMIGO)
HEIDI EWING | MEXICO & USA | 2020
The instant chemistry in an underground gay bar between Iván Garcia and Gerardo Zabaleta (embodied by the real-life men in the present and actors Armando Espitia and Christian Vazquez in flashbacks) turns into a harrowing tale of complicated timing and seizing opportunity, which eventually ‘crosses over’ from Puebla, Mexico to New York City.
LOVE, SPELLS AND ALL THAT
ÜMIT ÜNAL | TURKEY | 2019
Eren (played by Ece Didzer with the stiff grace of a ballerina) is drawn back to the gorgeous Turkish island where she grew up – and was exiled from – by a trove of discovered letters from her past with Reyhan (Selen Ucer). Or so she thinks.</br/
MA BELLE, MY BEAUTY
MARION HILL | USA | 2021
Is Bertie more whole when she shares her heart solely with her gorgeous husband (Lucien Guignard) in their country house in the south of France? Or is their relationship improved with their former ex, Lane, in the picture? The answers continually surprise in this sun-soaked film tackling the layered realities of attraction, connection, and polyamory.
POTATO DREAMS OF AMERICA
WES HURLEY | USA | 2020
In one of its infinitely clever cinematic tricks, this semi-autobiographical tour de force transforms suffering into the grinning melodrama of old American movies. Film-obsessed Potato and his depressed but self-possessed mother tangle with communism, exoticism, and sexuality on the way to their Hollywood ending.
SWEETHEART
MARLEY MORRISON | UNITED KINGDOM | 2021
A dysfunctional family descends upon Freshwater Beach Holiday Park where snarky, 17-year-old AJ learns that her lifeguard crush, Isla, isn’t the fembot she deems her to be. And that attraction – like a neon Flamingo sign in the night – has a way of seeping in.
WET SAND
ELENE NAVERIANI | GEORGIA & SWITZERLAND | 2021
Considered a “plague” by their ultra-conservative neighbours, the repressed queer occupants of a seaside Georgian village, who span genders and generations, begin to pursue their true passions in the wake of a “lonely,” “soft” man’s suicide.
WILDHOOD
BRETTEN HANNAM | CANADA | 2010
A fiery getaway from an abusive home sends a Two-Spirit Mi’kmaw teen and his younger half-brother onto the open road and into the Eastern Canadian woods with the help of the charismatic Pasmay, a generous and resourceful companion. Nature as their bedroom. One another as burgeoning chosen family.
EMERGENCE: OUT OF THE SHADOWS
VINAY GIRIDHAR | CANADA | 2021
Tender, thoughtful and teary, Emergence: Out of the Shadows explores the taboo topic of being gay or lesbian in Vancouver’s South Asian community, telling a poignant story of family rejection, self-discovery and ultimate transformation.
NORTH BY CURRENT
ANGELO MADSEN MINAX | USA | 2021
North by Current is a visual rumination on the understated relationships between mothers and children, truths and myths, losses and gains. After the inconclusive death of his young niece, filmmaker Angelo Madsen Minax returns to his rural Michigan hometown, preparing to make a film about a broken criminal justice system.
NO STRAIGHT LINES: THE RISE OF QUEER COMICS
VIVIAN KLEIMAN | USA | 2021
Comics legends Alison Bechdel, Rupert Kinnard, Jennifer Camper, Mary Wings, and “the godfather of queer comics” Howard Cruse (who died in 2019) are joined by the slew of queer Next Gen Comics they inspired, in order to colour in the history of diverse thinking that flouted the often “bland vision” of mainstream production.
REBEL DYKES
HARRI SHANAHAN & SIÂN A. WILLIAMS | UNITED KINGDOM | 2021
“We weren’t lesbians, we were dykes.” This defiant statement represents just one of a whole myriad of empowering sneers as we’re dropped into the epicenter of the struggles, misunderstandings, and dialogues between punk and mainstream modes of feminism and queer identity during London’s conservative Thatcher 80s. That, and a whole lot of guitar and good times.
SEDIMENTS
ADRIÀN SILVESTRE | SPAIN | 2021
Six very different trans women arrive in Magdalena Brasas’ childhood hometown in the Province of León, in northern Spain, and laugh and argue their way towards mutual understanding. Finding Leon to be an incredibly welcoming place full of natural and cultural wonders, they heal and look to the future.
STOLEN KISSES (BACI RUBATI)
GABRIELLA ROMANO & FABRIZIO LAURENTI | ITALY | 2020
This patchwork portrait of Fascist Italy conveys “the spirit of the times” through (in)famous literary passages, impassioned letters often written in code, and archival footage of glistening bodies: sailors, soldiers, bathers, lovers. A film celebrating the efforts of reading between the lines.
SHE WHISTLES (KWÊSKOSÎW)
THIRZA CUTHAND | CANADA | 2021
En route vers chez sa copine, une lesbienne crie est agressée par un chauffeur de taxi. Malgré la détresse qui l’assaille, elle découvre qu’elle possède un pouvoir surnaturel qui pourrait lui permettre d’élucider le mystère de la disparition de sa mère.
LES FILLES NE MARCHENT PAS SEULES LA NUIT
KATERINE MARTINEAU | CANADA | 2020
Après une soirée de fin d’année au secondaire, Chantal et Delphine rentrent seules chez elles dans le noir. Perdues dans la forêt, leur longue marche nocturne est ponctuée de moments d’insouciance et d’une irrépressible envie d’exister.
PARLE-MOI (TALK TO ME)
JULES DE NIVERVILLE | CANADA | 2021
A 14-minute narrative film about not fitting in... in an over-the-top kind of way.
AUTOETHNOGRAPHY
IVÁN REINA ORTIZ | COLOMBIA | 2021
“By looking into my nonbinary trans identity, I review my personal film archives in hopes of understanding the path that has led me to where I am. As a queer artist and through voice, body and image experimentations: what is my place in this world?”
BECCA
NANCY WEBB | CANADA | 2020
In this contemporary queer interpretation of Daphne du Maurier’s Gothic novel “Rebecca”, strangers Max and Daphne share a lovestruck evening while a bizarre secret looms.
SMOKE, LILIES AND JADE
DEONDRAY & QUINCY LENEAR GOSSFIELD | USA | 2020
Alex, a young Harlem Renaissance artist and writer, plays around at love and life until he meets Beauty, appropriately named, who makes no bones about his same-sex desires. Troubled and confused, Alex wavers on the brink of passion until a challenge posed by his girlfriend forces his hand.
ESCAPING THE FRAGILE PLANET (ΑΠΟΔΡΑΣΗ ΑΠΟ ΤΟΝ ΕΥΘΡΑΥΣΤΟ ΠΛΑΝΗΤΗ)
THANASIS TSIMPINIS | GREECE | 2020
A few hours before the world ends, two men have an unexpected encounter, while a strange pink fog is spreading throughout the city. Their romantic affair will only last for a day. But in a broken world filled with fear, sharing a few intimate moments seems to be enough for them to feel safe, against the upcoming end.
MY MOTHER'S GIRLFRIEND
ARUN FULARA | INDIA | 2021
Renuka and Sadiya, two working-class women in love with each other, enjoy their day out celebrating Renuka's birthday. After a fun-filled day, they head home to spend the night together. But unknown to them, Renuka's son, Mangesh, is around. A story of what happens when two relationships collide.
AS THE CROW FLIES (FUGLEFLUGT)
MICHAEL SØNDERGAARD | DENMARK | 2021
The closeted small-town delinquent Mathias is shaken by the arrival of a charismatic Swedish ornithologist who is passing through to study the local birdlife. When Mathias’ friends catch the two young men in an intimate moment, it leads to a violent confrontation.
HEAVEN REACHES DOWN TO EARTH (LEGODIMO LE KOPANA LE LEFATSHE)
TEBOGO MALEBOGO | SOUTH AFRICA | 2020
After Tau comes to a realization about their sexuality, it sets in motion a cascade of thoughts and emotions in Tumelo - nothing will ever be the same between them.
INERTIA
MATT JOHNS | UNITED KINGDOM | 2021
The Universe gives. The Universe takes away. Rabia and Maddie, a pupil and teacher, form a friendship under the unlikeliest of circumstances.
MELODY
ANNE WHEELER | CANADA | 2019
Newfoundland; 1984. Two young women find themselves in an impossible situation. With no one to turn to and against all odds, the pair take the road trip of their lives. Based on the story Melody by Lisa Moore, from her 2002 collection of short stories, Open.
THE TEARS THING
CLÉMENCE POÉSY | FRANCE | 2019
Florence is an actress. Preparations for her new role will challenge her in a way she could never have seen coming.
BUTTERFLIES IN BERLIN
MONICA MANGANELLI | ITALY | 2019
Using stunning art deco-style animation, this award-winning film tells the story of one of the first trans women in Weimar-era Berlin. However, as the Nazis rise to power, will she have the courage to be true to herself?