Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival Selected To Host
PlanetOut.Com Short Movie Awards

The Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival (MGLFF), now entering its fourth year, is partnering with PlanetOut.com, a leader in gay internet content, to present the PlanetOut.com Short Movie Awards. The Awards honor film and video shorts by, about and of interest to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) community. The deadline for entries is December 14, 2001.

Twenty-five finalists will be selected by the Festival to compete for online Audience Awards through the PlanetOut.com website (www.planetout.com), which runs during the month of March. The Festival will also select cash prize winners, including one $2,500 Grand Prize winner and five $1,000 First Prize winners in the categories of drama, comedy, documentary, experimental and animation. The cash prize-winning films will be screened at a special program and awards presentation at this year's Festival, which runs from April 25-May 5, 2002, in the internationally known South Beach district, and other locations.

The addition of these Shorts Awards, now in their third edition, to the Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival this year is a sign of Miami's increasing importance as a venue for gay cinema, according to Festival Director Robert Rosenberg. "Getting this kind of recognition from PlanetOut acknowledges that our hard work has not gone unnoticed," Rosenberg said. "Having grown exponentially in its first few years, the Festival is now known for the outstanding quality of its films and the way they are presented, as well as for the diverse audiences it attracts."

PlanetOut.com's Director of Entertainment, Jenni Olson, agreed. "The Miami festival has quickly become one of the most prestigious stops on the gay film festival circuit. Were very excited to be working together to showcase the best GLBT short films and support the filmmakers themselves."

The Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival and the PlanetOut.com Short Movie Awards deadline for submissions is December 14, 2001, for a $25 entry fee. Late submissions will be accepted by January 11, 2002, for a $35 entry fee. Films and videos are automatically eligible for the PlanetOut.com Short Movie Awards when submitted to the Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, as long as they are no longer than 20 minutes in length and, due to limitations of current online exhibition formats, are in English or conatain no significant dialogue.

An official submission form and detailed guidelines are available on the web at http://www.mglff.com or by contacting the Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival at 1521 Alton Road, #147, Miami Beach, FL, 33139, by phone at 305.534.9924, by fax at 305 535.2377, or by e-mail at festprogram@the-beach.net. Additional rules and regulations are available at http://movieawards.planetout.com specific to the Shorts Awards.

Last year's attendance at the Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival reached 11,000 in ticket sales, selling out most screenings, with over 35 attending industry guests. The Festival programming continued in its international vein, showing films from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, England, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Puerto Rico, Spain, Thailand and the U.S. Of the Festival's 24 feature films, there were four U.S. premieres, three East Coast premieres and 15 South Florida premieres, and of the 41 shorts and documentaries, there were three world premieres, eight U.S. premieres, five East Coast premieres and 24 South Florida premieres.

Films screened in previous years have included the U.S. premiere of Plata quemada (Burnt Money) from award-winning Argentine master Marcelo Piñeyro, the U.S. premiere of Iron Ladies, from Thailand; the East Coast premiere of Scout's Honor, an award-winning documentary; the East Coast premiere of The Closet, starring French actor Gerard Depardieu; the East Coast premiere of Stranger Inside, from director Cheryl Dunye; the South Florida premiere of Susan Seidelman's (Desperately Seeking Susan) Gaudi Afternoon; the U.S. premiere of the Queer as Folk sequel from the U.K.; and a sneak preview screening of the award-winning documentary Paragraph 175. Attending industry guests have included Sharon Gless, Alexis Arquette, B. Ruby Rich, Cheryl Dunye, Juan Luis Iborra, Barbara Hammer, Marcus Hu, Rob Epstein, Félix Sabroso, Jim Fall, Rose Troche, Mitchell Anderson, Rain Phoenix and María Conchita Alonso.

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