Image courtesy of The LGBTQ Center of Long Beach from “A Million Happy Nows,” winner of the Best Narrative Feature Jury Award.
After four days of full screenings and parties celebrating the life experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) lives through film, the awardees of this year’s QFilm Festival have been announced by The LGBTQ Center of Long Beach. Along with the announcement organizers also stated it appears this festival was their best attended QFilms to date.
The festival kicked off Thursday and ended Sunday, featuring films like “Signature Move,” a comedic, thoughtful look at the life of Zaynab, a Pakistani, Muslim lawyer in Chicago who takes up wrestling, and “Saturday Church,” a story about Ulysses who finds voguing, and a space to be himself, in the West Village after fleeing his home in the Bronx.
Once the festival schedule is decided, the QFilms committee reviews all films, then submits nominations for the jury awards. If there is not a clear majority of support the first go-around, films within each category go through a second round of voting.
“‘A Million Happy Nows’ and ‘Sisak’ were chosen as ‘best’ in their categories as a result of exceptional filmmaking, direction, script, and storytelling,” said Porter Gilberg, executive director of the LGBTQ Center of Long Beach and QFilms co-executive producer.
The awardees are listed as follows:
Audience Awards
Best Narrative Feature: Saturday Church
Best Documentary Feature: The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin
Jury Awards
Best Narrative Feature: A Million Happy Nows
Best Director-Feature: Damon Cardasis (Saturday Church)
Best Director-Short: Mari Walker (Swim)
Best Short Film: Sisak
Best Documentary Feature: The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin
Special Jury Award for Outstanding Performance: Ever Mainard, The Feels
For more information about QFilms, visit the website here.