BRNO November 20 – The 14th Annual Queer Festival was brought to a close with the reopening of the Oscar winning film, Boy’s Don’t Cry, at the Scala Theater. Almost 11,000 Spectators viewed the 100 films that were screened over the two weeks in both Prague and Brno.
A selection of these movies will be screened over the next four weeks at Echoes of Mezipatra in Ostrava and Olomouc. The Czech premiere of this year’s Cannes Golden Palm Winner, Abdellatif Kechiche’s Life of Adèle, was a great success. Alos, the Polish film, W Imie, and the American drama, Any Day Now, starring Alan Cumming, met with eqyally enthusiastic audiences.
“Thanks to the high quality program and the unique atmosphere we would like to continue to be the main queer culture event in the country next year,” said Aleš Rumpel, director of Mezipatra. “It’s nice to hear from the audience that we managed to explore this year’s theme, ‘true lies’ successfully. My team watched hundreds of films in order to select the best of the European and American Independent cinema choices. We always expect our taste to meet the audience’s. And the audience’s interest in this year’s film gave us great satisfaction,” said the program director of Mezipatra, Lucia Kajánková.
In the main competition of feature films the total of nine movies competed. The grand jury was composed of singer, songwriter and artist Vladivojna La Chia, Romist and a visual artist Lukáš Houdek, and finally a journalist Cóilín O'Connor. They have decided to award the drama directed by Travis Fine, Any Day Now with a special recognition. The main award for best feature film went a movie by Swiss director Marcel Gisler, Rosie.
The mentioned film, Any Day Now, will be also announced tonight as the audience’ favorite in both the Prague and Brno festivals and will be given this award. The student jury this year consisted of Nela Knapová, Brittaney Nunnally and Marek Grajciar. After screening the 75 short films, the Student Just Awarded Victor Lindgren’s Swedish film, Undress Me, as Best Short Film. They gave an honorable mention to the semi-documentary film by Dutch director, Daan Bola.
The main guests of the 14th Mezipatra Queer Film Festival included: the director of the Cuban-American origin, Anna Margarita Albelo, who personally launched her successful debut of Who’s Afraid of Vagina Wold, and the German filmmaker Tim Lineheard who screened his film One Zero One – The Story of Cyversissy and BayBjane in both Prague and Brno. Swiss director and University professor Marcel Gisler, accepted his award for Best Film during the final ceremony. The authors of this year’s awards are artists Michaela Tomišková and Jakub Janďourek who formed and branded the DECHEM Studio.
