Showcase of the best FILMS in the world today.
Audience Award Winners:
Best Feature Film: ART AND PEP
Best Long Form Short Film: DOGMA
Best Short Form Short Film: RISE LIKE A PHOENIX
Best Direction: FLOWERS
Best Performances: A HOLIDAY I DO
Best Sound & Music: DANCING HEART
Best Cinematography: TRIPPING
Best Student FIlm: DADDY
ART AND PEP, 88min., USA
Directed by Mercedes Kane
Art Johnston took Pepe Peña home one night in 1972 and he never left. Together, they opened Sidetrack, a small bar that’s become a 16,000-foot pillar of Chicago’s gay business district. At Sidetrack, the community sings show tunes on a Sunday and helps elect progressives on a Tuesday. From being on the frontlines of the AIDS crisis to co-founding Equality Illinois, Art and Pep have been leading the fight all along, making Illinois one of the most progressive protectors of LGBTQ+ rights in the country. ART AND PEP is a look back at the long struggle for equality and their fight to love freely – and a look ahead at the work being carried on by a new generation of activists.
http://www.artandpep.org/
https://www.facebook.com/artandpep
https://www.instagram.com/artandpep
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
A HOLIDAY I DO, 90min,. USA
Directed by Paul Schneider
Jane, a single mom, is the best (wo)man in her ex- husband’s Christmas wedding. She is navigating a holiday season with changing family dynamics when she inadvertently falls for Sue, the wedding planner. As the big day approaches, Jane needs a Christmas miracle to save the wedding and rescue her family’s farm.
https://www.aholidayido.com/
https://www.facebook.com/rocksolidcreative
https://www.instagram.com/aholidayido/
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
RISE LIKE A PHOENIX, 8min., UK
Directed by Carl Hunter
Rise like a Phoenix is a short, poetic documentary about Eurovision Song Contest fans. The film hears the intimate testimonies of what the contest means to them. The interviews are played over their black and white moving portraits hinting at the voluptuousness of fashion photographer Irving Penn’s Vogue, Photo shoots.
https://www.instagram.com/carl_james_hunter/
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
DOGMA, 27min,. Columbia
Directed by Fernando García Arias
Lorena, a 45-year-old transgender person, a refugee in the Catholic religion, fasts for 9 days in search of her liberation and acceptance as a woman. In the process, she discovers that her deliverance is not in faith. A critique of social exclusion and the Catholic religion as an institution.
https://www.instagram.com/amendozaproducciones/
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
FLOWERS, 20min., USA
Directed by Nicholas Hansell
Over a weekend in spring, a high school boy reconnects with an old friend and begins to discover what it really means to be in love.
https://www.instagram.com/flowerstheshortfilm/
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
DANCING HEART, 13min., Mexico
Directed by Amaranta R. Saavedra
Lesbian love has always been a rebel act. But a relationship between two women, teenagers and feminist is pure anarchy. Dancing heart is a pathway over the time Luisa and Violeta have been together, how they have faced discrimination and how with courage and feminism they have hold to go on and get around any obstacle. It is the story about two women who love each other in a world made for straight people, trough acceptation, change and a constant struggle for taken a happiness that seems to be denied for woman who love other woman.
https://cactoproducciones.com/
https://www.facebook.com/CactoProducciones
https://www.twitter.com/Cactoproduccion
https://www.instagram.com/cactoproducciones/
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
TRIPPING, 11min., USA
Directed by Amelia Xanthe Boscov
A flirty-butch, lesbian mom (Dot-Marie Jones – GLEE, BROS), goes on a road trip with her pregnant high schooler daughter in order to get an abortion at the nearest women’s health clinic.
http://trippingfilm.com/
https://www.facebook.com/trippingfilm/
https://www.instagram.com/trippingfilm/
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
DADDY, 20min., USA
Directed by Jay Beckett
Rodrigo is an unstable, and materialistic queer man who falls madly in love with his sugar daddy. Rodrigo’s best friend finds out that he is married to a woman and has a new born son. His world collapses along with his mind. Heartbroken and mentally disturbed, he goes on a quest to seek revenge.
https://www.2ndactfilms.com/daddy
https://www.instagram.com/daddy_theshortfilm/
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
LGBTQ+ Toronto Film Festival 