The Closing Session of the 28th International Queer Lisboa Film Festival took place tonight, at 9pm, in the Sala Manoel de Oliveira at Cinema São Jorge, where the winners of the five competitions were announced:

 

FEATURE FILM COMPETITION

Jury: Cristina Carvalhal, Márcio Laranjeira and Tita Maravilha

 

Best Film

Asog, Seán Devlin (Canada, Philippines, 2023, 98')

 

"For showing us how much Queer cinema knows about gender and how it returns genres to Cinema; for its renewed gaze upon these identities and for its narrative audacity; and for reminding us that Love is Queer heritage as well, and that the fight is intersectional, this film is undoubtedly felt and loved by the jury."

Special Mention

Stress Positions, Theda Hammel (USA, 2023, 95')

 

"The jury has decided to award a special mention to the screenwriting, directing, editing, acting and soundtrack work of the author of Stress Positions. This is an intelligent and dynamic film which unfolds into many layers of meaning with a self-referential humor we're currently interested in. Theda Hammel sketches this community disclosing its scars and cracks in what appears to be an explosion of intimacy shared with the audience. Thank you, Theda, stay with us."

 

Audience Award

Sem Coração / Heartless, Nara Normande, Tião (Brazil, France, Italy, 2023, 91’)

 

 

DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION

Jury: Maria João Gama, Paula Monteiro and Renata Ferraz

 

Best Film

Neirud, Fernanda Faya (Brazil, 2023, 72’)

 

"We have chosen this film because it is a poetic and introspective dive, while it also summons crucial issues for the times we are living in. The film follows the protagonist’s journey by building a maze of recollections and repressed feelings, a maze made up of fragments of an investigation which spanned ten years. Stories such as this one, of a black, lesbian woman who is a nomad and wrestler, are rarely told due to the systematic erasure of such lives throughout time. They are, however, pivotal for us to think and live with an increased social awareness in a fairer world, which currently feels like utopia."

 

Special Mention

Frammenti di un Percorso Amoroso / Fragments of a Life Loved, Chloe Barreau (Italy, 2023, 95’)

 

"We have decided to award a special mention to a film which is a visual poem built upon non-normative love experiences weaved into an unsettling and intimate plot. In a sensitive manner, the film addresses memory, desire and loss through its protagonists. The director displays the domain of seduction and the power of directing by manipulating stories and feelings throughout the making of the film. Disquieting and bold, the film questions who’s subject and who’s object both in intimate relationships and filmmaking."

 

Audience Award

Neirud, Fernanda Faya (Brazil, 2023, 72’)

 

 

SHORT FILM COMPETITION

Jury: Diogo Camões, June João and Madalena Fragoso

 

Best Film

getty abortions, Franzis Kabisch (Germany, Austria, 2023, 22’)

 

"The film sets itself apart by its critical perspective of systems of representation and their relationship with the production of truth, revealing the possible moralizing nature of imagery and its use. With incisive and unexpected humor, guilt narratives related to abortion experiences are questioned, and womanhood is approached as an intrinsically queer lived experience."

 

Special Mention

Paradise Europe, Leandro Goddinho, Paulo Menezes (Germany, Brazil, 2023, 17’)

 

"This film deconstructs European contradictions through the eyes of a migrant person who highlights its violent borders and hosting phallacies, denouncing the rottenness of European values, and revealing the privilege of some and the exclusion of others."

 

Audience Award

Queen Size, Avril Besson (France, 2023, 19’)

 

 

EUROPEAN SCHOOL SHORT FILM COMPETITION - “IN MY SHORTS”

Jury: Diogo Camões, June João and Madalena Fragoso

 

Best Film

Cura Sana, Lucía G. Romero (Spain, 2024, 19’)

 

"With a solid narrative, the film offers a subtle and redeeming representation of sorority and resilience. The director drives the story with tenderness and precision, supported by powerful and moving acting work."

 

 

QUEER ART COMPETITION

Jury: Andreia C. Coutinho, Jorge Braz Santos and Pedro Gomes

 

Best Film

Sofia Foi / Sofia Was, Pedro Geraldo (Brazil, 2023, 67’)

 

"For its surprising aesthetics and its attentive, sensitive gaze upon queer youth in an urban landscape."

 

Special Mention

Trans Memoria, Victoria Verseau (Sweden, France, 2024, 72’)

 

"For the forthright and plural discussion it presents, as well as for the strong aesthetic-political gesture of presenting a relevant and cherished premise of transfeminism, which is the right to bodily autonomy."

 

This edition of the festival welcomed dozens of international guests, coming from countries such as Brazil, USA, France, Germany, Argentina, The Netherlands, Kosovo, Ukraine, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Spain, Indonesia, Thailand, Italy and Chile, in addition to several Portuguese guests, in one of the largest geographical representations and number of guests in the past five years.

 

Cinema São Jorge and Cinemateca Portuguesa saw a rising audience attendance compared to the previous edition, reaching a figure close to 8,000 spectators, in addition to the many people who attended the festival's parallel activities.

 

In an edition with a strong political message, a reflex of the current global situation and of the cinema itself that reflects these realities, Queer Lisboa 28 appealed to human rights, uncovered the reality on conflicts, wars, the genocide in Gaza, spoke about gentrification and the severe social and human situation that we live in the city of Lisbon, not forgetting the “gender ideology” of the (extreme) right wing that keeps spreading violence in our queer bodies. An edition that was a call to defend our individual and collective freedoms.

 

With another edition of Queer Lisboa closed, the dates for Queer Lisboa 29 have now been confirmed, taking place from the 19th to the 27th of September 2025, at Cinema São Jorge and Cinemateca Portuguesa. Meanwhile, the 10th edition of Queer Porto will take place between October 8th and 12th, 2024, at Batalha, Casa Comum and Passos Manuel.