• The Queer Film Festival Mezipatra gave out awards for the best feature film and the best short film at its closing ceremony in Prague.
• The main jury award went to the Canadian feature film Solo.
• The Student Jury awarded the short film Coffee Grapefruit Cacao (Café Pamplemousse Cacao). It also gave special recognition to all the personalities whose cultural work goes beyond the boundaries of unfreedom.
• The winning films can be seen again by the Prague audience on Thursday 14 November.
• On Friday 15 November the festival moves to Brno, where the winners of the audience award will be announced on 22 November.

The Prague part of the 25th edition of the Mezipatra Queer Film Festival ended today with a gala evening at the Lucerna café. The ceremony, followed by a screening of the Argentinian musical Reas, was performed by radio presenter Ivana Veselková and drag queen Just Karen. The festival jury then announced the winning films in two categories.

Best Feature Film Award

The main jury, which consisted of Ukrainian actress Oksana Cherkashyna, film scholar Nicole Kandioler-Biet and director Julius Shevchik, chose from ten feature films. They decided to award the prize to Solo by Canadian director Sophie Dupuis.

The emotionally charged story of Simon (Théodore Pellerin), who performs as a drag queen at a local club, offers an authentic insight into artistic creation and interpersonal relationships, be they familial or amorous (Simon's turbulent relationship with Olivier, played by French actor Félix Maritaud). In the words of the jury, it also successfully reflects "the themes of integration into society or the collective, as well as the awareness that one does not quite fit in".

In their final statement, the jury said: "Solo captivated us with its spectacular cinematic images, complex characters and immersive narrative that took us on a journey with the protagonist from perfect happiness to despair. We would like to highlight in particular the extraordinary performance of Théodore Pellerin, whose raw innocence and intensity of feeling made us empathise with all the struggles, failures and victories."

Best Short Film Award

The student jury composed of Petr Doubravský (Masaryk University), Tobiáš Frýdl (FAMU) and Veronika Svozílková (AVU) awarded the prize to Coffee Grapefruit Cacao (Café Pamplemousse Cacao). The German director Dominique Preusse personally received the award. The jury praised his film for "depicting intimacy as it can be".

Special recognition and solidarity with Slovakia

The student jury also decided to award a special mention, which is unusual this time: it was not given to one particular film. The jury dedicated it to "all queer people whose cultural work transcends the boundaries of economic, political and cultural unfreedom and defines the limits of free spaces".

It added that it wanted to "draw attention to the systematic destruction and restriction of culture in neighbouring Slovakia and to express solidarity with Slovak society. The situation there forces us to remember that a vibrant culture - like queer communities - are not a consequence of a free society, but its foundation."

Continuation of the festival in Prague and Brno

Prague audiences will have the opportunity to see both winning films one more time, on Thursday 14 November in the large hall of the Světozor cinema. The festival will then move to Brno, where it starts on Friday 15 November. On Friday 22 November, the closing ceremony will take place there, where Mezipatra will announce the last of the three winning films - the winner of the Audience Award.
In addition to the film programme, the Brno section will also offer a rich accompanying programme. The audience can look forward to a fundraising opening, a talk on queer mental health and well-being, as well as popular parties. The main party in the foyer of the Scala cinema will feature DJs Vesna and Noona from the Bratislava collective Tepláreň.

One of the highlights of the Brno programme will be the discussion Do our TV stations want queer film? about the future of queer themes in public service media. The situation in the Czech Republic, as well as the already mentioned difficulties of Slovak queer filmmakers and filmmakers, will be commented on by film and television personalities together with moderator Kamila Zlatušková, founder of the Serial Killer festival.