18th Queer Lion Award Lineup and Award Winner

As we know, the line up of titles competing for the 2024 Queer Lion Award is compiled with the collaboration of Alberto Barbera, Venice International Film Festival director, Gaia Furrer, artistic director of Giornate degli Autori, and Beatrice Fiorentino, general delegate of International Film Critics’ Week. They chose among the films with LGBT stories and characters dealing with civil rights issues related to different sexual orientations, equal opportunities, and fight against homotransphobia.

As always let's start taking a look at the official graphic image of the award and the reasons why this year the image is as seen here.

The Poster

The official image of the 18th edition of Queer Lion Award has been created by award longtime collaborator Francesco Gangemi, illustrator and artist, responsible for more than ten years for the images celebrating our award.

For 2024 he has conceived an intimate, personal image, rich on suggestions investigating the fragile interiority each of us has to face in some moments of our life. The inspiration comes from sonnet CXXXIV from Il Canzoniere, written by italian poet Petrarch in 14th Century.

Throughout Canzoniere, we witness the improvement of Ego’s interiority, a wide array of ideas and feelings exploring the complex, mysterious world of the subject’s contradictions and conflicts. Sonnet CXXIV displays a Self-Identity torn between passion and despair, hope and disillusionment, Love and Death.

2024 Lineup

There are eight (8) films in competition for the Queer Lion award this year. Seems this year there are quite a few less films that usually are; just last year there were the double, 16, films in the competition. Maybe there will be more feature and short films announced as Out of Competition as films below come from specialized press.

The award will be given by a jury composed by members of the Board of Queer Lion Association and they will be attending the whole festival. Award ceremony will be on Friday, September 6th at 7:00pm in the Settimana della Critica closing ceremony at Cassa della Critica in Lido di Venezia.

#Venezia81 Competition
El Jockey (Kill The Jockey), Luis Ortega, Argentina and Spain
Queer, Luca Guadagnino, Italy and USA (G)
Kjærlighet (Love), Dag Johan Haugerud, Norway

Orizzonti
Diciannove (Nineteen), Giovanni Tortorici, Italy and UK (G)
रानीगंज Pooja, Sir, Deepak Rauniyar, Nepal, USA and Norway

Giornate degli Autori
Alma del Desierto (Soul of the Desert), Monica Taboada-Tapia, Colombia (documentary) (T) Winner of 2024 Queer Lion
Peaches Goes Bananas, Marie Losier, Belgium and France (documentary) (L)

Settimana della Critica
Paul and Paulette Take a Bath, Jethro Massey, UK

The Jury
Daniel N. Casagrande, award founder, journalist and film critic, Italy
Marco Busato, Radio contribuator, Italy
Jani Kuštrin, cultural operator, Italy
Adriano Virone, LGBTQ activist, Italy

Out Of Competition

Giornate degli Autori
Boomerang, Shahab Fotouhi, Germany and Iran
Sugar Island, Johanné Gómez Terrero, Spain and Dominican Republic

TV Series
Familier som vores (Families Like Ours), Thomas Vinterberg, Denmark, France, Sweden, Czech Republic, Belgium, Norway and Germany (Ep 1 to 7)

Short Films
Settimana della Critica
Billi il cowboy (Cowboy Billi), Fede Gianni, Italy, 14'
Sans Dieu, Alessandro Rocca, Italy, 10'

Venezia Classici Restored Films
Manji, Yasuzô Masamura, Japan

Films In Competition

El Jockey (Kill The Jockey), Luis Ortega, Argentina and Spain
Synopsis: Remo Manfredini is a legend in horse racing, but his eccentric and self-destructive behavior begins to overshadow his talent and threaten his relationship with his girlfriend Abril. On the day of the most important race of his career that will clear him of his debts from his mobster boss Sirena, he has a severe accident, disappears from the hospital and wanders the streets of Buenos Aires. Free from his identity, he starts to discover who he is truly meant to be. But Sirena wants him found, dead or alive.

Queer, Luca Guadagnino, Italy and USA (G)
Synopsis: Set in decadent Mexico City of the 1940s, it’s the semi-autobiographical story of Lee who has fled from a drug bust in New Orleans. In Mexico City Lee wanders around the city’s clubs and bars populated by American expatriate college students, discharged soldiers, and other characters on the edge of society. He becomes infatuated with a discharged American Navy serviceman named Allerton, a drug user, who, though indifferent to his advances, eventually relents — but only enough to make Lee’s sexual yearnings become even more of an obsession.

Kjærlighet (Love), Dag Johan Haugerud, Norway
Synopsis: Marianne, a pragmatic doctor, and Tor, a compassionate nurse, both avoid conventional relationships. One evening, after a blind date, Marianne encounters Tor on a ferry. Tor often spends his nights there seeking casual encounters with men and shares his experiences of spontaneous intimacy and meaningful conversations. Intrigued by his perspective, Marianne begins to question social norms and explores whether such casual intimacy could also be an option for her.

Diciannove (Nineteen), Giovanni Tortorici, Italy and UK (G)
Synopsis: Leonardo, 19, leaves Palermo to start university in London. However, living with his sister and her roommate, the initial excitement soon wanes. Restless, he impulsively enrolls at the Universita di Siena to study literature and falls in love with the city. Yet, finding his literature professor unbearable, he quits and decides to dive into Italian classics by himself. This reflective solitude sparks an inner journey of self-discovery, intensified by encounters with vibrant youth. A year after, Leonardo travels to Torino and meets a man who may relieve him from his obsessions.

Pooja, Sir, Deepak Rauniyar, Nepal, USA and Norway
Synopsis: When two boys are kidnapped in a border town in Nepal, Detective Inspector Pooja is sent from Kathmandu to solve the case. But when she arrives, the brewing political unrest and violent protests throw her off course, and she is forced to seek help from Mamata, a local Madhesi policewoman. By putting aside systemic discrimination and pushing through everyday misogyny, the women would try to solve the case - but at what personal cost?