Showcase of the best FILMS in the world today.
Audience Award Winners:
Best Feature FIlm: FRANCHESKA: PRAIRIE QUEEN
Best LGBTQ+ Film: PUZZLE IN THE PALM
Best Long Form Short Film: A BETTER PLACE
Best Short Form Short Film: METAMORPHOSIS
Best Performances: NO FATS. NO FEMMES. NO ASIANS.
Best Sound & Music: MONOCHROME
Best Cinematography: LIE NEXT TO ME
Best Direction: CARTER
Best Experimental: EXIST
Best Documentary: ONE & ONLY
Watch the Audience Feedback Video for each film:
FRANCHESKA: PRAIRIE QUEEN, 64min., Canada, Documentary
Directed by Laura Lynn O’Grady
It’s hard to be a superstar when you have a midnight frontline shift to show up for. Francheska: Prairie Queen follows the journey of Filipino care worker Francis (Kiko) Yutrago, as he tries to achieve drag star superstardom while still financially supporting his family back in the Philippines. Adding complexity to his quest is where Kiko and his fiancé Cody choose live: a tiny bible belt town in southern Alberta, population 956.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
A BETTER PLACE, 32min., UK, Documentary
Directed by Jennifer Fearnley
A Better Place is an in depth look at the toxic legacy of British colonial-era laws, which criminalise consensual same-sex love, while at the same time allowing perpetrators of sexual violence to go unpunished. More than 70 countries still criminalise gay sex. In over 30, rape within marriage is still legal. Behind these statistics are the people whose lives are paralysed by these archaic laws.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
ONE & ONLY, 15min., USA, Documentary/Experimental
Directed by Carolina Barlow
A young comedian misses performing, but faces a world in which she can no longer tell if she’s funny, so she decides to reconnect with her audience members – one at a time.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
EXIST, 4min., USA, Experimental
Directed by Niaz Parvaresh
Power of sorrow that guide you to exist .
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
PUZZLE IN THE PALM, 26min., Japan, Drama
Directed by Ayumi Kurokawa
Risa and Takumi were born and raised in Kanazawa at Japan. They’ve been dating for a year and a half, and they turned thirty years old. Parents and relatives half-heartedly encouraged them to live together. So they decided to live together. As they began to think about marriage and shared time each other, they gradually noticed a certain gap in their relationship.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
NO FATS. NO FEMMES. NO ASIANS., 23min., USA, Comedy/Relationships
Directed by Adam Razavi, Willa Rydall
When Eli and his longtime boyfriend break up, Eli starts to realize the parts of himself he was hiding to appeal to his relationship. Namely, his femininity.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
METAMORPHOSIS, 10min,. South Africa, Drama
Directed by Iban Bester, Roelof Hayward
A coming out story: A young gay man named Lerato is struggling to become intimate with his boyfriend Jaden, due to feelings of gay shame. One night after a romantic picnic Lerato and Jaden try to become intimate with one another, as it starts to become more serious, Lerato starts to see and hear flashes of his ex-girlfriend. She states her disgust in the activity busy being performed, thus he throws Jaden off of him and says he cannot go through with sex.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
LIE NEXT TO ME, 12min., USA, Drama/Romance
Directed by David Legel
A polyamorous couple finds their marriage called into question after their loyalty to each other is tested by diverging expectations.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
CARTER, 14min., USA, Drama
Directed by Aaron Guest
A lonesome 16-year-old investigates his older brother’s ultra-masculine facade and the role it plays within their troubled family.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
MONOCHROME, 13min., Switzerland, Erotic
Directed by Dan Nieders
Behind closed doors, Juan lives their fantasies through Elise, with an intense and strange fascination. While Elise and Marius are flirting during a night out with friends. Juan is drawn into the introspection of a wicked game, and must regain control of their body to access their desires.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
LGBTQ+ Toronto Film Festival 