15 August 2021

The Lolly Award Winners

The XPOSED Queer Film Festival Berlin is proud to present the winners of the 2021 Lolly Awards.

The Lolly Awards are awarded by our 2021 Jury: Banafshe Hourmazdi, Jan Künemund, Tonina Matamalas, and Robert Moussa. The jury watched a total of 10 short film programs during our festival edition, and also selected the winner of the 7th Queer Short Film Fund from five semi-finalists who pitched their project.

Congratulations to the following filmmakers and their teams:

International Dawn Chorus Day

by John Greyson, Canada 2021, 15 min

Winner of the Surpreme Lolly Award

Jury Statement:

Starting with what seems to be a comment on the means of communication during a pandemic, a zoom between an international community of birds evolves to become much more. The birds communicating with each other are actually dealing with the life and deaths of two Egyptian activists, Sarah Hegazi and Shadi Habash. Letting the birds comment on what happened, and hearing them sing about these lives, changes our perspective and adds a poetic layer that brings sadness and anger to this real life tragedy. The film becomes a memorial that is not only a documentary, but also an instant classic, and an artwork in itself dedicated to Sarah and Shadi.

Quebramar

by Cris Lyra, Brazil 2019, 27 min

Winner of the Political Lolly Award

Jury Statement:

A group of lesbian friends at a beach in Brazil, connected through shared experiences, fears, and rage. Sunbathing, making music and shooting this film. Everything is in flux, the waves, the music, the bodies, as well as the cinematography and the editing both contribute elegantly to this flow. Collective filmmaking and songwriting arise as gentle and unforced forms of resilience against a hardening social and political situation.

Barbès

by Randa Maroufi, France 2019, 6 min

Winner of the Experimental Lolly Award

Jury Statement:

The winner of the next Lolly Award questions the role of genders in public spaces through the decentering of archetypal representations which we produce around our culture. In Barbès by Randa Maroufi, young women occupy the public space, taking on the same gestures and postures as those of men in such places.

Watching this short film feels like something is odd and out of place. We understand that we go along with the gendered division of space in our societies all the time, even without necessarily being aware of it. The film makes it clear: It is fundamental to stop focusing on the individual behaviors and pay attention to the systemic extent of violence against and oppression of women. The political message intertwines with the experimental form of this film.

Wait Your Turn

Director and Producer: João Carvalho

Winner of the 7th Queer Short Film Fund

Jury Statement:

A young man navigating the pleasures and pains arguing within a trans body in a public space. An intimate story, told from a subjective point of view, that turns into a collective matter. A gaze crossing scene between the protagonist, the «public» of a waiting room and the «viewers», appeals to our role and experiences within normative society.

The jury of the Queer Short Film Fund were touched by the self-determined proposal of representation, its intimate empowering moments, and the sensible claiming of the public space. The jury also found the project remarkable for the politics of representation. We valued the perspective from where this story is being told and the fact that the filmmaker is considering to work with Berlin-based queer, trans and non binary collaborators, taking into consideration their knowledge and individual perspectives, as a potential to develop the film further.

For all of the reasons mentioned, we decided that the recipient of the Queer Short Film Fund goes to «Wait your turn» by João Carvalho.