Queer Lion Award to "José" by Li Cheng

The Queer Lion Award was founded in 2007 thanks to Daniel N. Casagrande and Marco Müller, as a collateral award recognising the “Best Film with Homosexual & Queer Culture Themes” during the Venice International Film Festival. The award – supported from the start by former M.P. and LGBT activist Franco Grillini – is fully endorsed, since 2012 by Alberto Barbera, current Director of the Festival.

The Queer Lion Award 2018 was given to "José" by Li Cheng on 7 September at Villa degli Autori, by the jury composed of: Brian Robinson (UK) BFI Flare: London LGBT Film Festival, British Film Institute, Rita Fabbri (Italy) Radio Ca’ Foscari, Università Ca’ Foscari, and Jani Kuštrin (Slovenia) LGBT activist.

The common motivation of the award is: "Sensitively written and beautifully performed, this passionate portrait of a young man’s journey in search of emotional fulfillment, shows the complexity of a same-sex relationship against the background of the harsh life in contemporary Guatemala".

Other films that were in competion for the Queer Lion Award: C’est ça l’amour by Claire Burger (France, 98’), The Favourite by Yorgos Lanthimos (UK, Ireland, Usa, 120’), The Other Side of the Wind by Orson Welles (Usa, France, Iran, 122’, 1970-1976, 2018), Suspiria by Luca Guadagnino (Italy, Usa, 152’), Zen sul ghiaccio sottile di Margherita Ferri (Italia, 90’), La quietud by Pablo Trapero (Argentina, 117’), Bêtes blondes (Real Love) by Alexia Walther, Maxime Matray (France, 100’), Tchelovek kotorij udivil vseh (The Man Who Surprised Everyone) by Natasha Merkulova, Aleksey Chupov (Russia, Estonia, France, 105’), and Kucumbu tubuh indahku (Memories of My Body) by Garin Nugroho (Indonesia, 105’).

More info on the plot of José

We remember our Global Campus Visual Contest, open until 1 December 2018, that aims to create a platform to celebrate diversity of gender and sexual orientation identities: “Free and equal in dignity and rights: images of the everyday lives of LGBTIQ+ persons”.