2022 ReelOut Film Fest Award Recipients Announced!
Between January 27th and February 7th, 2022, the 23rd annual Reelout Queer Film Festival screened 63 films from 19 different countries. Our audiences were asked to rate each film and the films with the greatest scores become the recipients of BEST FEATURE NARRATIVE, BEST DOCUMENTARY, BEST SHORT and BEST CANADIAN FEATURE and BEST CANADIAN SHORT. In addition to these honours we also award THE BETTY BERGHOUT MEMORIAL AWARD for BEST LOVE STORY which is also determined by our audience but because this year it was a tie, the tie-breaking decision went to Betty’s former partner, Terrie Easter Sheen. Betty and Terry would host fundraisers for the festival in their backyard and Betty would gift homemade preserves to all our visiting filmmakers. We’ll continue to pay her love forward. We also award THE KIM RENDERS MEMORIAL AWARD for OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE to artists whose acting talents went above and beyond. These are genderless awards and are decided upon by our programming team, staff and select Festival Pass holders. Kim Renders was a powerhouse actor, director, activist and educator who always advocated for marginalized communities. She was a founding member of Nightwood Theatre the oldest professional, feminist theatre company in Canada and a professor of drama at Queen’s University. Kim’s final theatrical performance was in the Reelout stage production of Thom Fitzgerald’s Cloudburst.
And the awards go to:
BEST FEATURE NARRATIVE : Firebird (ESTONIA) directed by Peeter Rebane
BEST CANADIAN FEATURE NARRATIVE: Wildhood (CANADA) directed by Bretten Hannam
BEST SHORT FILM: Static Space (USA) directed by Kate Black-Spence & John Klein
BEST CANADIAN SHORT FILM: Couvre Feu (Curfew) (CANADA) directed by Melaine Ricard-Boulieu
THE BETTY BERGHOUT MEMORIAL AWARD FOR BEST LOVE STORY: Static Space (USA) directed by Kate Black-Spence & John Klein
BEST DOCUMENTARY (short or feature-length): Being Black in Porn (USA) directed by Dwight Allen O’Neal
THE KIM RENDERS BEST PERFORMANCE AWARDS go to the following artists:
Colby Minifie for Homebody (USA).
Anthony Hickling for Down in Paris (FRANCE)
Emily Bennett for Alone With You (USA)
Lynn Chen for See You Then (USA)
Phillip Lewitski, Joshua Odjick, Avery Winters-Anthony, Michael Greyeyes, Savonna Spracklin, Joel Thomas Hynes, Steve Lund, Desna Michael Thomas, John R Sylliboy, & Becky Julian. BEST ENSEMBLE PERFORMANCE for Wildhood (Canada)
ReelOut wishes to congratulate all the recipients and to applaud ALL of the artists who shared their work with our audiences from around the globe. THANK YOU!