Gay Film Fest Revealed

An international gay and lesbian short film prize - the Iris Prize Festival has been announced with a new award for best feature film.
Organisers of the Iris Prize Festival said they will be awarding a new cash prize of £1,000 to the best feature film screened during the three-day festival.
Seven new feature films will be selected by the programmers to be part of the 2008 October festival and the best one, as voted by the Friends of Iris, will receive £1,000 ($2,000 approx).
"We're excited to be able to offer this cash award thanks to the generous sponsorship of Independent Financial Adviser, Martin Briggs," said Andrew Pierce, Iris Prize Patron and Assistant Editor of the Daily Telegraph.
"We have a strong relationship with short film makers through the main Iris Prize, the largest prize for an LGBT short film in the world. Adding this new feature film award to our portfolio will allow the festival to develop a relationship with the wider film making community who produce feature films," he added.
"I'm delighted to be sponsoring the Iris Prize Festival. I was very impressed with the inaugural event and strongly believe that this year's festival will provide an excellent platform to support LGBT film talent," said Martin Briggs, Independent Financial Adviser, based in Cardiff.
"This sponsorship will allow the Festival to offer a cash award of £1,000 to the best feature film screened during the Festival. I'm excited that the Friends of Iris will have to choose which film will win the Friends of Iris Best Feature Film Award. This is a great way of getting the public directly involved," added Martin.
The deadline for submissions for the 2008 Iris Prize Festival has been extended to Monday 14 July 2008.
The Iris Prize is an international gay and lesbian short film prize that unites a global network of film festivals - located in LA, Sydney, New York, Hong Kong, and Dublin amongst many others – who annually nominate a short film to compete for the Iris Prize.
The 2008 Festival takes place between October 2nd – 4th in Cineworld and Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff.
The programme will include screenings of all the 30 short-listed short films, feature films, talks and debates, parties, and a closing night award ceremony.
(BMcC)