Following on from a seminar I gave in Lismore in August on the power of a strong concept to drive film ideas, I returned to the Northern Rivers as a Distinguished Festival Juror for the Queer Fruits Film Festival. Now in its third year, Queer Fruits Film Festival is the only regionally produced independent queer film festival in Australia.
Catering to the largest GLBTIQ (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer) community outside an Australian capital city and a growing national and international Tropical Fruits guest audience, the Queer Fruits Film Festival has been established to provide a vital regional screen culture event to enable the GLBTIQ communities and wider community to participate in the celebration and innovation of international queer filmmaking culture.
Prizes were awarded in the following categories:
Outstanding Music Video – GET YOUR FREAK ON (USA) The Barbarellatones
Outstanding Short – OSTIA: LA NOTTE FINALE (Australia)
Outstanding Experimental – MAIS OU MENOS (Brazil)
Outstanding Comedy – SLUT THE MUSICAL (Australia)
Outstanding Documentary – ORCHIDS: MY INTERSEX ADVENTURE (Australia)
Outstanding Student Film – OSTIA: LA NOTTE FINALE (Australia)
Audience Choice – BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN BIKES (Australia)
JURY Prize – KINK CRUSADERS (USA)
http://www.queerfruitsfilmfestival.org/artists.html
2011 – QUEER FRUITS FILM FESTIVAL – PRESS:
The Northern Star
Film festival draws large crowds
Scott Harlum | 23rd Dec 2011 2:33 PM
THE Queer Fruits Film Festival has established an international reputation with filmmakers for screening films that inspire respect for the queer community, festival director Akkadia Ford has said.
The event, now in its third year, is drawing increasingly large numbers of film buffs, this year requiring a larger venue in the Lismore Worker’s Club.
“We get to screen films from around the world that people rarely get to see,” Ms Ford said.
“We’ve had films from 36 countries in the past three years, and for every film programmed we could have (had) six or seven more of outstanding quality, so we are only showing the best.”
Ms Ford is particularly chuffed to this year be able to screen the documentary Orchids – My Intersex Adventure, which has recently been nominated for a major Australian documentary award.
The screening will be followed by a question and answer session with the director.
“This is a really big scoop for us; we are screening it about three weeks out from the award ceremony,” Ms Ford said.
Ms Ford is also looking forward to queer burlesque duo Fancy Piece (also known as Holly Bennett and Simone Craswell) hosting and performing at the opening night celebration.
Ross Grayson-Bell, the Australian producer of the film Fight Club, which starred Brad Pitt, will serve as Distinguished Festival Juror for this year’s event.
He said he was excited about the diversity represented in the films being screened.
“From a revealing – in more ways than one – documentary about the third generation Australian photographer, William Yang, to a look behind the scenes at an International Mr. Leather competition to an incredibly provocative film in Italian about the bashing of the revered director, Pier Paolo Pasolini.
“There is something for everyone in this lineup,” he said.
The Queer Fruits Film Festival will be held at the Lismore Workers Club from Thursday, December 29 to Friday, December 30.
http://www.northernstar.com.au/news/queer-fruits-film-festival-draws-large-crowds/1218294/And the winner was…