This year, we divided the list into categories, to recognize the ever-expanding variety of festivals in today’s circuit. So while we’ll still be ranking the “25 Coolest Festivals” in the general category, we’ll also be ranking the top five festivals in 10 other categories, ranging from documentary to shorts. Now tiny genre fests and larger, more well-funded organizations alike can compete on their own terms.
This week MovieMaker presents Tuesday’s Women’s category and today’s LGBT festivals. Scroll down to the bottom of this article to begin voting for your favorite LGBT fests right away!
Here’s how it works: Vote for the best of the best of the LGBT film festivals (that also happen to be the coolest of cool) in each of five pools. The fab fest with the most votes in each pool will win a spot on our “Top 5 Coolest LGBT Film Festivals” list. All the festivals that make our final list will appear in print in the Fall issue of MovieMaker. This round will end Wednesday, August 28 at 4pm, so make sure to get your vote in before then!
How do you ensure that your favorite festival makes the top 5? Tell your family, friends, co-workers, anyone and everyone to vote, vote, vote!
To browse all 20 of this week’s LGBT film festivals and vote, click on the arrows to the right or left of the voting bar (you’ll need to hover your cursor over the edge of the bar until the translucent arrows appear).
For more information on each fest (including MovieMaker fun facts), click on its picture, or the magnifying glass icon. To visit the festival websites, click the shopping cart icon.
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Voting for the LGBT category has concluded. Thank you for participating!
MovieMaker will be releasing the official list of Coolest Festivals as the fall issue hits stands October 21. We know it’s a long time to wait, but as the old saying goes, patience is a virtue. Meanwhile, make sure to vote in the final categories, Ethnic and Experimental, as our Coolest Festival contest comes to an end. Below is a list of the festivals that competed in the LGBT category.
Pool 1:
North Carolina Gay & Lesbian Film Festival
Zinegoak Bilbao LGBT Film Festival
Melbourne Queer Film Festival
Lesbisch Schwule Filmtage Hamburg – International Queer Film Festival
Pool 2:
Out Twin Cities Film Festival
POLARI Film Festival
Kuir Fest
QDoc Portland Queer Documentary Film Festival
Pool 3:
KASHISH Mumbai International queer Film Festival
Reeling: The Chicago LGBT International Film Festival
Translations (Transgender Film Festival)
Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival
Pool 4:
FilmOut San Diego
London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival
Mardi Gras Film Festival
Frameline San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival
Pool 5:
Inside Out LGBT Film Festival
Out in the Desert
Torino GLBT Film Festival
Outfest Film Festival
MovieMaker only has two categories left to vote in, Ethnic/National and Experimental/Underground. Happy voting!
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View Comments
I'm biased, but the ImageOut Film Festival in Rochester, NY has been running for 21 years, and is pretty damn cool. http://www.imageout.org/index.php
The North Louisiana Gay & Lesbian Film Festival is in it's 5th year and runs from September 6th through the 12th. The film festival takes place in Shreveport Louisiana. You can find out more at NLGLFF.org.
Thanks,
Jeremy
You forgot the most important: the Berlinale (Berlin International Film Festival) - Panorama Section
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teddy_Award
http://queermdb.de/teddy.html
#LGBT film festivals that never let me down include Frameline, NCLGFF in Durham, and Seattle Queer Film Fest in U.S. and Gender Bender in Bologna Italy. "Easy Abby" lesbian web series that is also in Feature Film version just won the Audience Award for Best Womens Feature at NCLGFF and they flew the filmmakers there too, and they seemed to be very warm with the artists which is key to the right vibe that makes these film fests more enjoyable and more community-integrated.
Out on Screen in Vancouver, B.C. just completed its 25th anniversary Vancouver Queer Film Festival. Canada's "Out TV" gay network's representatives stated (twice) that Out On Screen was the best organized queer film festival in Canada. I agree. In addition Out on Screen also sponsors Out In Schools - a system of in school presentations educating against bullying and homophobia in high and grade school. They also sponsor an annual PSA (Public Service Announcement) short film contest. Students in both high and grade schools submit short video PSAs addressing bullying and/or homophobia and the winner and runners up each year are used as shorts shown before the main films during the festival and those winners and runners up are used, in turn, (along with other short films and public speeches) for the school presentations. I saw 21 films over 11 days this year. Here is their website: http://www.outonscreen.com/
Pool 4:
FilmOut San Diego is FANTASTIC, and GET'S my vote.