Showcase of the best FILMS in the world today.
Audience Award Winners:
Best Long Form Short Film: COPI
Best Short Form Short Film: A LIFE OF HONOR
Best Performances: YANNIS
Best Cinematography: THE SIGNAL
Best Direction: THINGS WE SHOULDN’T TALK ABOUT
Best Documentary: QUEER MONGOL
Best Experimental: THE EMPTINESS STEVEN LEFT
Best Sound & Music: GAY-ISH
Watch the Audience Feedback Video for each film:
QUEER MONGOL, 16min., USA, Documentary
Directed by Brandt Miller
Queer Mongol follows four characters over the course of Mongolia’s LGBTQ+ Pride Festival, who embody a diversity of gender and sexual identities. The film is a meditation on queerness in the non-west and a nuanced glimpse into a nascent movement on the Central Asian Steppe.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
A LIFE OF HONOR, 3min., USA, Animation/Documentary
Directed by Richard O’Connor
When Joseph Patton joined the Navy in 1955, he recalls serving in silence, as the LGBTQIA+ community could not be open while in the military. Despite being the “perfect sailor,” Joseph was kicked out of the Navy for being friends with gay service members, under the assumption that he was homosexual. Due to the status of his “undesirable discharge,” Joseph was unable to receive any benefits for his service in the Navy. Years later, Joseph came to StoryCorps to reflect on his journey and share his resilience, as he fought and successfully changed his status to “honorable discharge.”
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
THINGS WE SHOULDN’T TALK ABOUT, 11min,. USA, Docuumentary
Directed by Robbie Kruithoff
The mental health impact of religion on the LGBTQIA+ community is unchecked and misunderstood. Alone and largely ignored, queer individuals from conservative, religious communities commit suicide at alarming rates. How many must die before we start talking about it?
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
THE EMPTINESS STEVEN LEFT, 13min., Dominican Republic, Experimental
Directed by Franklin Villar
Xiomara is a young woman who dreams of becoming a beauty queen by winning a beauty pageant since she was a kid, she will have to face the mysterious emptiness that Steven left in everybody around her when he left, for her to achieve her dream.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
COPI, 19min., Brazil, Drama
Directed by André Gevaerd
Renê, 35-year-old, is a Brazilian night hotel receptionist and complements his income with side jobs in order to pay for his 6-year-old son’s pension. Copi, 41-year-old, is an amateur, Argentinian artist who makes her living out of Balneário Camboriú night life as a travestite. Their path intersects and an unlikely friendship is born as quickly as it is interrupted.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
YANNIS, 9min., Australia, Drama
Directed by James Elazzi
Yannis, a first-generation Greek/ Lebanese Australian older teenager has been rejected by his family for being gay and now lives under a bridge, working the local beats as a sex-worker. Omar, his best friend, once in the same situation as Yannis, is now determined to better his life and begins to pull away. A portrait of culture, sexuality and isolation asks; Where do we find refuge when the world seems to have forgotten us?
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
THE SIGNAL, 12min., France, Romance
Directed by Haichuan Xu
Two teenage boy accidentally shared their first intimate experience together in a summer afternoon.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
GAY-ISH, 12min., USA, Romance
Directed by Michelle Askew
A young woman reevaluates her sexuality when she attends a college reunion party with her long time boyfriend… and an unrequited female love.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
LGBTQ+ Toronto Film Festival 