Festival News

FRAMELINE31 AWARD WINNERS ANNOUNCED

6/24/2007
Audience and Jury Awards Presented at Closing Night Party

FRAMELINE31 AUDIENCE HONORS FOUR MINUTES FOR BEST FEATURE, SEMPER FI: ONE MARINE'S JOURNEY FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY AND PARIAH FOR BEST SHORT



GLUE RECEIVES THE $10,000 FRAMELINE FIRST FEATURE AWARD



RED WITHOUT BLUE RECEIVES THE $10,000 MICHAEL J. BERG DOCUMENTARY AWARD



Frameline31, the 31st San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival, the world's oldest and largest LGBT film festival, closed Sunday, June 24, with a gala screening of Jamie Babbit's Itty Bitty Titty Committee, produced by 2007 Frameline Award Winner Andrea Sperling. 

At Sunday night's Closing Night Party, Frameline31 organizers announced the recipients of the Festival's Audience Awards, the $10,000 Frameline First Feature Award, and the $10,000 Michael J. Berg Documentary Award.



The Audience Award for Best Feature was given to Chris Kraus' Four

Minutes, a German film that follows the volatile relationship between

a convicted killer and the older piano teacher who takes her on as a

pupil. Vince DiPersio's Semper Fi: One Marine's Journey took home the

Audience Award for Best Documentary. Screened at the Castro Theatre in

front of an appreciative audience that included many gay veterans of

the Iraq War, Semper Fi follows the evolution of Lance Corporal Jeff

Key, a patriotic gay marine stationed in Iraq who begins to question

both the occupation and the policy of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." The

highly charismatic Key graciously and humbly accepted the award on

Closing Night.  Frameline Completion Fund winner Pariah (Dir. Dee

Rees), which centers on a black lesbian teen struggling with

self-doubt, guilt and familial rejection, garnered standing ovations

when it closed the Fun In Girls' Shorts program at the Castro Theatre

– and ultimately took home the Audience Award for Best Short Film.



The juried Frameline First Feature Award recognized Glue, Argentine

director Alexis Dos Santos' richly poetic ode to budding adolescent

sexuality.  The Michael J. Berg Documentary Award, a $10,000 juried award

recognizing the best documentary feature having its Bay Area premiere

at the Festival, was given to Red Without Blue, Brooke Sebold, Benita

Sills and Todd Sills' moving portrait of Mark and Clair, identical

twins whose relationship must adapt when one of them transitions from

male to female.  All three directors, as well as Mark and Clair, were

on hand to accept the award, a fitting followup to their Audience

Award at this year's Slamdance Film Festival.