A QUEER PALM AT CANNES
Text by Toby Rose
Cannes has always been the preserve of high brow arthouse and blockbusters but has had its camp outbursts, like the memorable midnight screening of Welcome to Woop Woop from Priscilla creator Stephan Elliott - and the sight of full-on gay love in James Cameron Mitchell's Shortbus caused a good amount of seat shifting. But now the gay fayre is going to get a well deserved and overdue Palme, the aptly named Queer Palm.
It's the first time that the festival will give a prize for the best gay film, and a prestige panel composed of French journalists will deliberate on the best queer offering among the many unspooled during this Riviera cine fest.
Already talents have hit La Croisette running, with Gregg Araki and his steamy tale of coming of age youth, Kaboom, leading the pack. Hot on its heels - high, kitten, or whatever your fancy - are Xavier Dolan's Les Amours Imaginaire, Felipe Bragança and Marina Meliande's A Alegria and Lodge Kerrigan's Rebecca H (Return to the Dogs), to name but a few.
The excitement is running high in homo film circles. "Coming in behind the Teddy Awards at the Berlin Festival, which celebrates its 25th anniversary next year, it's good to see that Cannes is getting its gay prize," says Brian Robinson, senior programmer at London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, adding that "it's a reflection of the increase in gay films being selected at major festivals around the world."
The gay gongs get given out this Saturday May 22 at 18:00 at a ceremony at the Zanzibar - perhaps the oldest gay bar in France, world famous from Soho to West Hollywood and beyond, and certainly the premier gay watering hole in this Festival Town. With yesteryear's barflys including Noel Coward and Lord Louis Mountbatten, what better place to host the latest pink showbiz awards.
More info on www.queerpalm.fr
