XVI Sebastiane Award Winner

A few hours ago was announced the award winner and the winner is none other than Freeheld by Peter Sollett that has in the two leading roles Ellen Page and Julian Moore but also in the cast Steve Carrell and Michael Shannon.

All of us that have seen Academy Award winner documentary 2007 Freeheld by Cynthia Wade know that story is not easy-to-watch and just hope that film kept the story essence without too many creative licenses, sigh. Nevertheless I'm glad that this year lesbian interest films are winning awards at top festivals.

This is a copy and paste of the Jury Statement available only in Spanish and Euskara.

"El Jurado le concede el 16 Premio Sebastiane por reflejar una hermosa historia de amor entre dos mujeres que quedan atrapadas en la realidad de la enfermedad de una de ellas y en la lucha por la reivindicación de su pensión de viudedad; una pequeña lucha particular, que sin embargo, se convierte en un impulso notable del matrimonio igualitario en EEUU, que ha sido un gran avance por los derechos humanos y la igualdad real de nuestra comunidad que contribuye a lograr una sociedad mejor y más justa para todos.

Esta película rinde un justo tributo, a menudo omitido, a la lucha de las lesbianas que han abierto camino a los hombres gais y bisexuales.

FREEHELD está llena de valores de lucha, solidaridad, igualdad y compromiso."

The award ceremony will be this afternoon at the Galería Kur and tomorrow will be the traditional party at Centro Cultural Jareño.  To read announcement at award official site go here.

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9/3/15
Yesterday award organizers announced the films that will compete for the 2015 LGBT award given at the San Sebastian International Film Festival.

Along with the Sebastiane Award organizers will also present the 3rd Sebastiane Latino award given to Latin American films; as we already know, this year Sebastiane Latino goes to Mariposa by Marco Berger that will be screened in the Zabaltegi section and will receive the award on September 20.

Also from September 24th to 26th there will be a meeting of LGBT Film Festivals directors from Latin America and Europe.

These are the films competing for 2015 Sebastiane Award.

Official Selection
El Rey de la Habana, Agustí Villaronga, Spain and Dominican Republic (G)
*Freeheld, Peter Sollett, USA (L)

New Directors
Barash, Michal Vinik, Israel (L)

Horizontes Latinos
El Club (The Club), Pablo Larraín, Chile (G)
Desde Allá (From Afar), Lorenzo Vigas, Venezuela (G)

Zabaltegi
Mariposa, Marco Berger, Argentina (G)

There is another film that is out of competition in a Thematic Retrospetive, New Japanese Independent Cinema 2000-2015: Parade by Isao Yukisada, Japan,, 2009 that I assume is just mentioned as a reference to complete all films with LGBT interest in San Sebastian fest.

The Jury president is Benoît Arnulf, artistic director of In&Out Nice festival and jury members come from the Gehitu organization. The award will be presented on September 25 at Kur Gallery and on September 26 will the the award party at Centro Cultural Jareño. If you wish to read about each film go to award official site here.

The magnificent B&W photo in this year award graphic identity is by Isabel Muñoz and to have a better look check the larger photo and the complete GM magazine cover.   If you wish to learn more about the photographer go to her official site here.