LGBTQ+ film festival unveils 36 international shorts competing for Iris Prize
Organizers of the Cardiff-based Iris Prize LGBTQ+ Film Festival have announced the shortlist of 36 films competing for the £30,000 Iris Prize for the best international short film.
This year, the festival returns in person from October 11 – 16. The box office opens on September 16, with full festival passes, day tickets, and weekend tickets available. The shortlist of international filmmakers competing for the £30,000 Iris Prize International Short Film Competition supported by The Michael Bishop Foundation features films from 18 different countries, including three from the UK and three from Ireland.
Iris Prize has 25 partner festivals who nominated 21 of the shortlisted films, with the remainder chosen by a pre-selection jury. The shortlisted films are presented in nine separate programs, with stories ranging from coming-of-age teenage tales, to horror comedies, through a journey encompassing designer babies, and the moving stories of people looking for love and companionship in the autumn of their lives.
Berwyn Rowlands, Iris Prize Film Festival Director, said: “We are pleased to unveil our fantastic shortlist of the best of the best in LGBTQ+ filmmaking. We have filmmakers from 18 countries, representing full diversity, actively engaging across the LGBTQ+ community. The uniting factor in all 36 films is an exhilarating celebration of lives of LGBTQ+ people across the world.
“It is especially poignant to be welcoming our domestic and international filmmakers and guests back to Cardiff, for the first in person, since 2019. We hope you come to enjoy a festival of film and also take part in the ‘fringe events’ such as the first Iris gig at the legendary Cardiff venues, Clwb Ifor Bach and the other nightly parties during the week.”
Here are the films:
Tarneit | Dir. John Sheedy | Australia
Muhafiz (The Protector) | Dir. Pradipta Ray | India
Enlightened | Dir. Nina Bouchaud-Cheva | France
Breathe | Dir. Harm van der Sanden | Netherlands
Fervor | Dir. José Manuel Vélez – USA
Beautiful They | Dir. Cloudy Rhodes | Australia
Tank Fairy | Dir. Erich Rettstadt | Taiwan
This is Katherine | Dir. Ida H. Eldøen | Norway
Thot or Not | Dir. Dylan Glynn | Canada
Chaperone | Dir. Sam Max | USA
Les démons de Dorothy (Dorothy’s Demons) | Dir. Alexis Langlois | France
St Jude | Dir. Pauline Quinonero | Italy/France
CANS Can’t Stand | Dir. Matt Nadel & Megan Plotka | USA
Peach Paradise | Dir. Shiva Raichandani | UK/US
Lugar Nenhum (Nowhere) | Dir. Pedro Gonçalves Ribeiro | Portugal
Lana Kaiser | Dir. Philipp Gufler | Germany / Netherlands
Write Here | Dir. Jake Muñoz Consing | Philippines
Grown in Darkness | Dir. Devin Shears | Canada
A Wild Patience Has Taken Me Here (Uma Paciência Selvagem me Trouxe Até Aqui) | Dir. Érica Sarmet | Brazil
Hornbeam | Dir. Mark Pluck | UK
Blue Eyes (Blaue Augen) | Dir. Alexander Weber | Austria
Successful Thawing of Mr Moro | Dir. Jerry Carlsson | Sweden
Static Space | Dir. Kate Black Spence and John Klein | USA
Science Around Us | Dir. Arif Abdillah | Netherlands
Oisin | Dir. Alba Fernandez | Ireland
Lambing | Dir. Katie McNeice | Ireland
Forgiveness Day | Dir. Derek Ho | USA
How Not to Date While Trans | Dir. Nyala Moon | USA
Perennial | Dir. Naomi Cubero | USA
What is a Woman? (Hva er en kvinne?) | Dir. Marin Håskjold | Norway
Kapemahu | Dir. Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, Dean Hamer, Joe Wilson, Daniel Sousa (Animation Director) | USA
Brutal | Dir. Sam McConnell | USA
Ripples | Dir. Yael Nudelman | Israel
First Date | Dir. Clara Planalles | Ireland
Night Ride | Dir. Erik Tveiten | Norway
Tommies | Dir. Brian Fairbairn | UK
Full details of programs and showtimes can be found at Rhaglen / program | Iris Prize (eventive.org).
You can book tickets for the Iris Prize Film Festival here: https://irisprize2022.eventive.org/passes/buy.
About the Iris Prize
The Iris Prize – the largest LGBT+ short film prize in the world is supported by The Michael Bishop Foundation. £30,000 is available to the winner to make a new LGBT+ themed film in the UK. In 2020, for the 5th time, Iris was identified as one of the “top 50 film festivals worth the entry fee” by Movie Maker Magazine. In 2017 the festival was promoted by BAFTA to A-list festival status, alongside Cannes and Sundance, by officially being recognized as a qualifying festival for the BAFTA awards.
About the Iris Prize LGBT+ Film Festival
The Iris Prize LGBTQ+ Film Festival is a six-day celebration of LGBT+ film which takes place annually in Cardiff, Wales, UK. The 2022 festival will be our 16th edition and much has changed since the first 3-day festival in 2007 with 1,500 admissions. Today the flagship festival is almost a week-long, attracts 11,000 admissions, and the online offer is a month long with a UK on-line audience of 84,000.
