8th Queer Lion Award Winner

Yesterday the jury for the 2014 Queer Lion Award bestows the award for Best Film with Homosexual Issues and Queer Culture to Les nuits d'été, directed by Mario Fanfani, presented at the 11th edition of Venice Days.

Jury Statement
The pursuit of one's own identity is always a revolutionary act! It is so for the main character, when donning women's clothing while maintaining his bourgeois beliefs; it is so for his wife, through her emancipation and pacifistic ideals; and it is so for all the other characters, each of them in their own personal way, in a queer movie that manages to mix tradition and transgression in a very elegant manner.

The award will be presented at the awards ceremony of the 11th edition of Venice Days.

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The eighth edition of Queer Lion, the collateral award of 71. Venice International Film Festival dedicated to movies "with homosexual themes or queer interest", has this year the patronage of the Presidency of the Cabinet – Department for Equal Opportunities, Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities, Veneto Region, Province of Venice, Venice Municipality and the National Union of Italian Film Critics.

Created by Francesco Gangemi, this year’s award poster is an homage to the 75th anniversary of Victor Fleming’s cult movie The Wizard of Oz.

No short films competition but worth mentioning because the LGTB interest are Rami Yasin’s short film Fi al waqt al dae'a (In Overtime) in Orizzonti and Paola Randi’s episode in the collective movie 9X10 Novanta in Venice Days. Seven movies are competing for the award this year and as happens too often, most films have some degree of gay interest while perhaps there is only one film that could have some lesbian interest, sigh.

Venezia71
Pasolini, Abel Ferrara, France, Belgium and Italy (G)

11 Giornate degli Autori - Venice Days
Métamorphoses, Christophe Honoré, France (G)
Mita Tova (Farewell Party), Sharon Maymon, Tal Granit, Israel (G?)
*Les Nuits d'été, Mario Fanfani, France (G) Winner
The Goob, Guy Myhill, UK (G)
The Smell of Us, Larry Clark, France (G)

29 Settimana Internazionale della Critica
Đập cánh giữa không trung (Flapping in the Middle of Nowhere), Nguyên Hoàng Diep, Vietnam, France, Norway, Germany (L?)

Jury
President: Alessandro Zan member of the Italian Parliament, working in the Commission for Environment of the Parliament, and LGBT rights activist.
Daniel N. Casagrande, creator of the Queer Lion Award,
Marco Busato, General Delegate of the cultural association CinemArte

Special Events

- Queer Lion of Honor
Queer Lion organizers will bestow a Queer Lion of Honor to Ettore Scola's Una Giornata Particulare (A Special Day) that will be screened in this year fest with a restored version. Organizers statement:

Regardless of its own artistic merits, the movie represents a true milestone for the international LGBT culture because in years when “politically correct” was still something yet to come, it managed to create a story centering on a dignified, positive main homosexual character, in an absolutely bold and unprecedented way for Italian cinema.

Director Ettore Scola already stated he will joyfully accept the award, that will be handed out during the 71. Venice Film Fest

-Video On Demand Screening
There will be a VOD project on the Open Reel web portal  that will screen 3 films that were screened at other festivals and have some LGBT content. These are the three films you can see from September 5th on.

Noordzee, Texas (North Sea Texas) by Bavo Defurne, Belgium, 2011, (winner of the Alice Nella Città Award at the Rome Film Festival) (G)
Lose Your Head by Stefan Westerwelle and Patrick Schuckmann, Germany, 2013  (Berlinale Panorama) (G)
Test by Chris Mason Johnson, USA, 2013 (Berlinale Panorama) (G)

Award ceremony will be on September 4th at 18:00 local time. The Queer Lion will be presented along other collateral awards like Fedeora Award, Label Europa Cinemas, Venice Days Award, BNL Audience Award. If you wish to read the news at the official site go here.

Watch some trailers and movie info @MOC