Queer Lion for Gay-Themed Films at the Venice Film Festival
August 8th, 2007 by Andre Soares
The 64th edition of the Venice Film Festival will reportedly (Google translation) have a Lion — or Queer Lion to be exact — handed out to the best film with a gay-lesbian-bi-transgender theme. I don’t know why the new award has been labeled "Queer Lion" — in English — as I’m assuming they have some better-sounding Italian expression they could have used instead.
The films in the new sidebar competition for the Queer Lion — about 12 of them — will be announced in the upcoming weeks.
Actor Alan Cumming has been named jury president; other jury members will be film producer Andrea Occhipinti, journalist Sandro Avanzo, and writers Delia Vaccarello and Vincenzo Patané.
"We aren’t looking for the next Brokeback Mountain," competition director Daniel Casagrande told the Hollywood Reporter. "We are just looking for films that accurately portray gay characters or themes." Casagrande added that he had been lobbying the festival authorities for nearly four years to introduce the award.
The Berlin Film Festival already has a prize dedicated to films with gay-bi-tri-etc. themes, the Teddy Awards. This year’s winner was Zero Chou’s Spider Lilies (top photo).
Venice Film Festival Awards - 2007
Venice Film Festival 2007: Out of Competition Line-Up
64th Venice Film Festival: Horizons Sidebar
Venice Film Festival 2006 Winners
Venice 2006 - Golden Lion Film Line-Up
Quentin Tarantino vs. the New Italian Cinema
Gay Kiss Clips: Q&A with Montage Creator Robert Eldredge
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