THE LOLLY AWARDS

Over a decade ago, XPOSED introduced its friendly competitive side with the Lolly Awards! The awards were born out of a passionate night of love between a Lola and a Teddy Award, bringing together the extraordinary in queer experimental filmmaking. We know that competition is not nice, and we often debate whether to keep the awards. Here are three reasons for doing so: awards give visibility to filmmakers and their films, thus ultimately supporting queer voices in film distribution. Each Lolly Award comes with a €250 cash prize, which is our small financial contribution to future filmmaking. And by inviting a film jury, we create the space and experience for queer cinephiles to intensely discuss films over four days.

The three Lolly Awards for Short Film and the winner of the 9th Queer Short Film Fund will be presented by our XPOSED 2023 Jury in the Moviemento Lounge on Sunday, June 18th, at 8 pm. In addition, the XPOSED team will announce the winners of the XPOSED Audience Award for Feature-Length Film and the XPOSED Audience Award for Short Film.

Our 2023 Lolly Award Jury

Ncube

“I’m a Memory from the Future.”

Ncube is a versatile Black African human being who writes monologues, short stories, plays, books, screenplays and makes films, short and long. They also act in theirs and other people’s projects. Furthermore, they moderate or host events.

Basically, they are a servant to a very good idea, and the idea chooses how it wishes to exist, respecting the time Ncube can spare.

Lastly, they love-love the works of others, as much as they love their own work. Meaning they offer film, television, music and cultural commentary as often as they share their own creations, notably via social media.

Instagram: @malelevision

Kristýna Genttnerova

Kristýna is a programmer at One World IHRDFF in Prague, the Czech Republic, where she also manages festival’s VOD platform. She started working at the festival in 2018 as a production manager. Since the same year, she has also been a programmer at Queer Film Festival Mezipatra. She has organized many film festivals and managed screenings for various distribution platforms – My Street Films or the Institute of Documentary Film’s alternative distribution project KineDok (2015-2018). Kristýna has a master’s degree from Charles University in Prague (Sociology), where she also studied Film Theory and History.

Sanni Est

Sanni Est is a Brazilian-German multidisciplinary artist who incorporates singing, songwriting ,visual arts, acting, djing and curating in her practice.. Her work intertwines autobiography and etymological research, creating spaces for reflection and empowerment. Growing up in Curado IV, a marginal neighborhood in Recife, Northeast Brazil, she has been based in Berlin since 2007.

Sanni won the award Artist of the Year by the German Jazz Prize 2023. Presented immersive installation at Kampnagel, Hamburg. Won 5 awards at the Triloka Filmfare Awards in India. Was the main actress of “Memória de Quem (não) Fui” a film in the official selection of 49th Festival of Gramado. As Dj performed in the main venues of Berlin, Europe, Asia and Brazil. As curator, directed her initiative “Encantadas” , a collective art exhibition at Schwules Museum (2022). She was a jury member of Tag der Clubkultur 2020.

Mònica Rovira

Mònica has a degree in Audiovisual Communication and a Masters in Creative Documentary from The Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. She graduated in Film Direction at the FAMU (Academy of Performing Arts) in Prague.

She directed and co-starred in ‘Ver a una Mujer’ (2017), which premiered internationally at the Black Nights Films Festival in Tallinn.

As a filmmaker and researcher she has participated in academic seminars that encourage collective reflection focusing on gender study, and publishes in ‘Women in Transition: Crossing Borders, Crossing Boundaries’ published by Routledge Research (2021).

She collaborates as an expert in her field alongside Andrés Duque at the Santa Mònica arts centre. She is part of Collective 1080, a resident work group of Santa Mònica that investigates the uses, implications and diversities of contemporary cinema (2023).

She has helped with the development of projects in which writing is an experimental process. She teaches film workshops that explore the filmic experience.

She investigates the limits of cinematographic language with a binding pulse; with a desire to learn and understand, and with an interest in the triangular relationship of ‘the other’ and the camera. A practice that puts the focus on the vulnerability and temporality of bodies, as well as the spectral relationships that the images cross and overflow into. She rehearses the writing of the self in cinema, building a voice in transit that questions identity. Starting with ’Ver a una Mujer’, she focused on the filmic take on the ineffable, on the body as a space of dissent, and in the representation of desire.

She has participated in the workshop led by Roni Horn, Being Where You are When You’re There, organized by Centro Botin (2023)

She directs ‘Aliens/Pedres/Onades’, a documentary produced by Santa Mònica arts centre which is a result of the creative process ‘The Tradition That Crosses Us’ (2023). ‘ge036’ is the title of the new film project that she is currently developing.

Please see below for a list of past LOLLY AWARD winners

2022
The three Lolly Award Winners of the 16^th XPOSED Queer Film Festival Berlin:
Uma Paciéncia Selvagem me Trouxe Até (A Wild Patience has taken me here) by Érica Sarmet, Brazil, 2021
Sitt el Beit (The Lady of the House) by Anya Kneez, USA, 2021
อนินทรีย์แดง (Red Aninsri; Or, Tiptoeing on the Still Trembling Berlin Wall) by Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke, Thailand, 2020

Special Mention:
SESTRE (SISTERS) by Kukla, Slovenia, 2020

XPOSED Audience Award for Short Film:
Jackfruit by Thuy Trang Nguyen, Germany 2021

XPOSED Audience Award for Feature-Length Film this year goes to two films which received the same voting results:
VALENTINA by Cássio Pereira dos Santos, Brazil 2020
FRAMING AGNES by Chase Joynt, Canada & USA 2022

2021
Surpreme Lolly Award: INTERNATIONAL DAWN CHORUS DAY by John Greyson
Political Lolly Award: QUEBRAMAR (BREAKWATER) by Cris Lyra
Experimental Lolly Award: BARBÈS by Randa Maroufi

2019
Best XPOSED Short Film was awarded to: SOMETHING SAID from Jay Bernard
The Audience Choice Lolly Award for the best Short Film was awarded to: MARGUERITE by Marianne Farley
The Audience Choice Feature Film Lolly Award went to: THE SIGN FOR LOVE by El-Ad Cohen and Iris Ben Moshe

2018
Best XPOSED Short Film was awarded to: MY OWN WINGS from Katia Repina & Carla Moral & LATIFÚNDIO from Érica Sarmet
Best GERMAN Short Film was awarded to: RIOT NOT DIET from Julia Fuhr Mann
The Audience Choice Lolly Award for the best Short Film was awarded to: EVERYTHING THAT I’M NOT by Roman Manfredi

2017
Best XPOSED Short Film was awarded to: THE FOX EXPLOITS THE TIGERS MIGHT from Lucky Kuswandi
Best GERMAN Short Film was awarded to: BOY from Yalda Afsah
The Audience Choice Lolly Award for the best Short Film was awarded to: BOY from Yalda Afsah

2016
Best XPOSED Short Film was awarded to: AMERICAN REFLEXXX from Alli Coates
Best GERMAN Short Film was awarded to: HEIMAT XXX from Sebastian Dominic Auer
The Audience Choice Lolly Award for the best Short Film was awarded to: GOSPEL OF ANASYRMA von Elene Naveriani

2015
Best XPOSED Short Film was awarded to: SHYNESS IS NICE from Anna Helme
Best GERMAN Short Film was awarded to: PLEASE RELAX NOW from Vika Kirchenbauer
Best INTERNATIONAL Short Film was awarded to: HOLE from Martin Edralin
The Audience Choice Lolly Award for the best Short Film was awarded to: HOLE by Martin Edralin and Fahrt zur Hölle by Henning Beckhoff

2014
Best XPLICIT Short Film was awarded to: WANT SOME ORANGES from Goodyn Green
Best XPOSED Short Film was awarded to: UNDRESS ME from Victor Lindgren
Best GERMAN Short Film was awarded to: OFF WHITE TULIPS from Aykan Safoglu
Best INTERNATIONAL Short Film was awarded to HATCH from Christoph Kuschnig

2013
Best XPOSED Short Film was awarded to: ES HAT MICH SEHR GEFREUT from Mara Mattuschka
Best GERMAN Short Film was awarded to: IT’S CONSUMING ME from Kai Staenicke
Best INTERNATIONAL Short Film was awarded to GINGERS from Antonio da Silva

2012
Best XPOSED Short Film was awarded to: THROUGH THE WINDOW from Chen Shumowitz
Best GERMAN Short Film was awarded to: ZUCHT UND ORDNUNG from Jan Soldat
Best INTERNATIONAL Short Film was awarded to: THE BURIED from Jonathan Pope Evans

2011
Best XPOSED Short Film was awarded to: MURO by Juanma Carrillo
Best GERMAN Short Film was awarded to: MANN MIT BART from Maria Pavlidou
Best INTERNATIONAL Short Film was awarded to: STEAM from Eldar Rappaport