The Florida Film Festival returns with its 34th annual celebration of film. This year’s festival theme is “Dive in.”
After a record-breaking 2,921 film submissions from 119 countries, Programming Manager Tim Anderson and Programming Director Matthew Curtis, along with help from various screeners, narrowed the 10-day festival down to 185 films, comprising of 40 features and 137 shorts — with no shortage of queer representation. Nearly two dozen movies highlight LGBTQ+ stories across almost all categories, including narrative and documentary features, spotlight films and competition shorts.
Anderson and Curtis say among this year’s LGBTQ+ collection, two themes are prevalent in almost every film: body autonomy and family.
Both are represented in the full-length documentary “I’m Your Venus,” directed by Kimberly Reed. “I’m Your Venus” is a 30-year follow-up to Jennie Livingston’s “Paris is Burning,” which followed New York City’s ballroom scene. In “Paris is Burning,” it is revealed that one of the film’s primary subjects, Venus Xtravaganza, was murdered. Reed’s follow-up shows Venus’ loved ones seeking answers about her 1988 murder as well as each family member — biological and ballroom — coming to terms with their relationship with the trans icon.
“¡Quba!” by Kim Anno is another full-length documentary showing at this year’s festival. The film features LGBTQ+ activists fighting for marriage equality in the Cuban constitution.
Similarly, “Shade in the Sunshine State” is a documentary short offering a glimpse into how Miami’s LGBTQ+ ballroom community uses performance to advocate for queer and transgender rights in Florida politically.
“This is a place where we are celebrating these voices and uplifting these voices, and it is more important to do that today than it was six weeks ago and six years ago,” says Anderson. “These are really, really, really urgent and important things to be a part of right now for the purpose of being seen.”
Other documentary shorts — “Icebreakers” and “Institution” — expand on the banning of same-sex coupling in ice skating and the aftermath of the overturning of Roe v. Wade on same-sex marriages.
Narrative Features include “Sisters” by Susie Yankou and “Under the Burning Sun” by Yun Xie. “Sisters” is a quirky film following a bisexual singer-songwriter-standup comedienne as she learns she has a half-sibling. “Under the Burning Sun” has a more serious tone, showing the journey of Mowanza, a victim of rape resulting in a pregnancy, as she escapes from a dystopian future where abortion is outlawed.
In the Sunspots: New Visions of the Avante-Garde category, we have “Chimera” by Gael Jara and Martín André, which shows a nonbinary person witnessing the handover of the first nonbinary ID in Chile.
“‘Chimera’ couldn’t be more relevant if they made it yesterday,” says Anderson.
This year’s big-name films are “On Swift Horses” and “The Wedding Banquet,” the latter of which is a remake of the 1993 film directed by Ang Lee. “The Wedding Banquet” gives the classic movie a fresh spin when a gay man marries his lesbian friend, starring Lily Gladstone and Bowen Yang.
“On Swift Horses” also features an all-star cast of Jacob Elordi, Daisy Edgar-Jones and Will Poulter, which shows the chaos after Julius, played by Elordi, stirs up expected emotions in his brother’s marriage. The film is produced by Christine Vachon, who’s responsible for other award-winning LGBTQ+ films like “I Shot Andy Warhol” and “Boys Don’t Cry.”
“Diciannove,” produced by “Call Me by Your Name” director Luca Guadagnino, is an Italian film that will be Giovanni Tortorici’s directing debut. The movie follows Leonardo, a college student who aimlessly wanders through life in search of something bigger than himself.
Competition, International and Florida shorts include “Witness,” “Dandelion,” “Sweet Talkin’ Guy,” “But He’s Gay,” “Cura Sana,” “Loveline” and “Rushmore.” These stories range from a trans woman’s experience with dating three straight men (“Sweet Talkin’ Guy”) to a 1970s rebellious teen’s relationship with a mysterious social worker after getting yet again tossed from another foster placement (“Dandelion”). The festival will also be the world premiere of Kyle Casey Chu’s short film “After What Happened at the Library,” which shows the aftermath of a drag queen being accosted by a mob after participating in Drag Queen Story Hour at a public library.
This year’s festival is also showing “Pretty Ugly: The Story of the Lunachicks.” The film shows how the all-female band blew up in the ‘90s due to their humor and unwavering pro-women ethos.
The Florida Film Festival holds the distinct honor of being one of only a handful that are Academy Award-qualifying in all three Oscar shorts categories: Animated Short Film, Live Action Short Film and Documentary Short Subject; meaning any short film that is in competition that falls into any of the three categories and wins a grand jury prize is automatically eligible to be nominated for an Oscar the following year.
The 34th annual Florida Film Festival runs from April 11-20. For more information on the Florida Film Festival, a full list of films and to purchase tickets, visit FloridaFilmFestival.com.
