For new queer filmmakers . the Iris Prize is like The Holy Grail. With its £30000 prize money it continues to be the only LGBT+ short film prize in the world which allows the winner to make a new film. It all happens at a Festival of the same in Cardiff, Wales, which in turn is officially recognised as a qualifying festival for the BAFTA awards.
The 35 international short films competing for the 2020 Iris Prize supported by The Michael Bishop Foundation will be announced shortly.
Meanwhile the organisers of the Iris Prize, have today announced the names of the 15 directors of the short films who are competing for this year’s Iris Prize Best British Short supported by Film4. The UK’s producer/broadcaster Film4. will screen all the entries plus the winner will receive a package of services sponsored by Pinewood Studios Group.
Here”s a few that made the short list :
My God, I’m Queer : dir Matt Mahmood-Ogston.
Is it ‘okay to be gay and Muslim’? A bereaved fiancé goes on a deeply personal journey to prevent another tragedy from happening again.
RHIW GOCH (ON THE RED HILL- directed by Anna Winstone
In 2006, Mike Parker and his partner Peredur were witnesses at the civil partnership of their friends Reg and George, the first in the small Welsh town of Machynlleth. Years later, when Reg and George died within a few weeks of each other, Mike and Peredur discovered that they had been left their home: a whitewashed ‘house from the children’s stories’, buried deep within the hills.
On the Red Hill is the story of Rhiw Goch, ‘the Red Hill’, and its inhabitants, but also the story of a remarkable rural community and a legacy that extends far beyond bricks and mortar. It is a story that celebrates the turn of the year’s wheel, of ever-changing landscapes, and of the family found in the unlikeliest of places.
WINGS: directed by Jamie Weston
Two Land Army girls fall in love, but when the war finishes, the men return, & so must ‘normality’. But maybe their story isn’t over.
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QUEERING DI TEKNOLOJIK directed by Timothy Smith
This is a message from the future. Spoken by the collective digital voice of a group of queer artists and activists, this collaborative project speculates about the possibilities of a temporality yet to come. This is a message of hope.
GO HOME POLISH: Director: IAN SMITH
Angered by graffiti scribbled in a British backstreet demanding ‘Go Home Polish’, a photographer embarks on a thousand mile walk back to his birthplace in search of home.
The Iris Prize Festival runs 6 - 11 Oct 202)
Full details HERE
