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Miami Beach - May 8, 2002 - All the essentials that make a film festival great - sold out screenings, special guests, film premieres, sophisticated receptions and trendy parties, film industry networking, and a popular VIP Lounge - added up to the most magical, exciting, invigorating Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival to date.

Diversity and an international flair were on display for a full 10 days during this year's Fourth Annual Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, April 26 through May 5. Audience members and Festival guests came from all over South Florida, as well as from Denver, London, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, Rochester, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C., and from beyond the U.S., from Canada, England, Germany, Nicaragua, Argentina, Puerto Rico, and Spain, to attend opening and closing night films at the historic Gusman Center in downtown Miami and the Art Deco Colony Theatre in South Beach for the remainder of the week.

From the beginning to the end of the Festival's 10 days, audiences and more than 61 guests and filmmakers entered a magical world of cinema. They were immersed in a wash of atmospheric lighting, music specifically programmed for each screening and the roar of many sold-out houses. They were greeted by ushers with glossy Festival catalogs and film ballots for the Audience Favorite Award. Then, Festival Director Robert Rosenberg, along with members of the Board of Directors, community co-sponsors who described the contributions of their non-profit organizations, and guest filmmakers, welcomed the audiences from the stage.

Most of the evening screenings at the Colony Theatre were sold out, and the opening and closing night events at the Gusman Center had more than 800 attendees, the largest single screenings the Festival has mounted to date. Last-minute ticket purchases for sold-out shows on the Rush Line were very popular. Over the 10 days, there was a total of almost 13,000 ticketholders - an increase of 20 percent from last year - with more than 20 world, North American or U.S. premieres out of a total of 70 features, documentaries and shorts screened. Three extra screenings were added to accommodate crowds for the sexy shorts program What Guys Want and the Spanish features Food of Love and I Love You Baby.

Festival audiences and visiting filmmakers overflowed onto Lincoln Road and beyond, filling the sidewalks and the adjacent restaurants with animated conversation and post-screening discussions. New this year was the hip VIP Lounge, located down the block from the Colony Theatre. Accessible to VIP members, sponsors, filmmakers, industry guests and press, this was a popular destination between films.

Guest filmmakers were given the red carpet treatment with hosts to escort them throughout their stay. Press from New York City, Paris, Puerto Rico, Madrid and Toronto attended, as well as representatives from 10 other festivals, including ones in New York, Washington, D.C. and Hamburg, Germany. Local media hosted parties for some films, including the Wire bash at The Hotel (formerly known as The Tiffany) for the North American premiere of Festival Closing Night film The Trip and Miamigo's party for the world premiere of the documentary dance culture in the mix.

Prior to the screening of the North American premiere of the Festival Opening Night feature film from Spain, Sagitario, at the Gusman, a representative from City of Miami Commissioner Johnny Winton's office presented the Festival with a declaration that April 26, 2002, was Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival Day, while Miami Beach City Commissioner Matti Bower gave another proclamation prior to the screening of the East Coast premiere of Festival Centerpiece film The Cockettes at the Colony. Frances Milstead, mother of John Waters cult-drag queen star Divine, subject of The Cockettes, welcomed the sold-out house to the latter screening.

Audiences gave standing ovations to visiting filmmaker Johnny Symons following the screening of the Florida premiere of his autobiographical documentary Daddy & Papa and to British filmmaker Duncan Roy following the screening of his autobiographical feature A.K.A: Lies Are Like Wishes, as well as to guest filmmaker Miles Swain, who directed the The Trip, the Festival's closing night film. Connie Kurtz, co-star of the lesbian documentary Ruthie and Connie, was speechless when an audience member lovingly surprised her with their mutual high school yearbook from 1940s Brooklyn. And Virginia Lacayo, co-executive producer and director of the Nicaraguan telenovela Sexto Sentido (Sixth Sense), was overwhelmed by the standing ovation from audience members, at least half of whom were themselves Central Americans, a first for the Festival. Duncan Roy, who attended the entire 10 days of the Festival, said, "I've been going to film festival after film festival all over the world to promote for years, and I am completely overwhelmed by the outpouring of warmth and generosity from the Miami community at this festival. Thank you so much."

At the Closing Night party at downtown's Miami City Club - abuzz with excitement from Festival filmgoers and filmmakers alike - the Film Festival jury made up of South Florida industry professionals and chaired by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Robert Rosenberg (Before Stonewall), and Festival Founder and Director, announced the awards. The winners were:

Best Fiction Feature A.K.A: Lies Are Like Wishes directed by Duncan Roy
Roy audaciously splits his wide-screen vision ( a la Mike Figgis Timecode) into a triptych of three simultaneous frames to tell his gripping autobiographical story of disaffected youth, identity lost and found, and the search for love amid the arrogant decadence of the late 1970s England of Margaret Thatcher.

Best Documentary Daddy & Papa directed by Johnny Symons
A beautifully personal and informative film that looks at gay men becoming fathers, raising children and trying to change laws that don't support their kind of families.

Best Short Touch directed by Jeremy Podeswa
With a dream-like style that mirrors a young boys troubled perspective, Touch subverts our very definitions of love, in this astonishingly beautiful and disturbing take on childhood sexuality and abuse.

Special Jury Award for First Time Feature Filmmaking Guardian of the Frontier (Varuh Meje) directed by Maja Weiss
The first female-helmed feature from Slovenia tells the story of three college girl friends who embark on an innocent kayak trip that becomes an unsettling tale of sexual awakening, and nationalism run amok in the former Yugoslovia.

Special Jury Award for Pioneering Vision Hand on the Pulse directed by Joyce Warshow
A documentary that profiles the daring, luminous, sexy life of Joan Nestle political and sexual bad girl who came out into the butch-femme bar scene of 1950s Greenwich Village and co-founded the groundbreaking Lesbian Herstory Archives.

Audience Favorite Award Ruthie and Connie: Every Room in the House directed by Deborah Dickson
A documentary about two 1950s-Brooklyn Jewish housewives and best friends, who fallin love and take the ultimate risk in a stifling world of conformity. Now, 30 years later, Ruthie and Connie, part-time residents at Palm Beach County's Century Village, are role models for a younger generation.

In addition to the Festival awards, representatives from PlanetOut.com and HBO presented another $7,500 in cash prizes at the PlanetOut.com Short Movie Awards ceremony and screening at the Festival on Saturday, May 4. The six prize-winning films were: Grand Prize Winner Stuck directed by Jamie Babbitt; First Prize Drama The Confession directed by Carl Pfirman; First Prize Comedy Interviews with My Next Girlfriend directed by Cassandra Nicolaou; First Prize Documentary Losing Lois directed by Julie Hill, Kathy Richter and Barbara Rosenthal; First Prize Animation Ladies Tea directed by Paula J. Durette; and First Prize Experimental Historia de amor en baño público (Love Story in a Public Toilet) directed by Pablo Oliverio.

Festival-goers went beyond the gay community to include arts-loving people of all persuasions. "The Festival's films do give gays and lesbians the opportunity to see themselves on screen in ways that, despite a certain mainstream acceptance, are still not as common as they should be," said Rosenberg. "The film programs also opened the eyes of the community to other facets of gay life around the world. Our films portray universal issues of love, friendship, family, community and identity. We bring the best of world cinema to Miami, with world, North American, U.S., East Coast and Florida premieres of some of the most challenging and cutting-edge films and videos being produced today."

The Presenting Sponsor of this year's Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival was Southern Wine and Spirits of South Florida.

Other sponsors included Abbey Hotel, Absolut, Advanced Radio Systems/ Motorola, The Advocate, American Express, Burstein Family Foundation, Cabana Boy Run, Corazon Tequila, Dade Human Rights Foundation, Party 93.1 WPYM-FM, Design Center of the Americas (DCOTA), Express Gay News, Ferraro Family Foundation, Fla. Dept. of State and Cultural Affairs Council, Genre Magazine, HBO (Presenting Sponsor Of The Planetout.Com Short Movie Awards), Hotel Nash, Indian Creek Hotel, Laurent Perrier Champagne, Miami Beach Cultural Arts Council, Miami Beach Visitor & Convention Authority, The Miami Herald, Miami New Times, Miami-Dade County Cultural Affairs Department, Miamigo Magazine, MisterNightlife.com, Passport Magazine, PlanetOut Partners, PlanetOut.Com, Regal Cinemas, Robert Mondavi Wines, Rubell Hotels, Savoy Hotel, Tangueray, TWN, Voss Water and UltraEvents.com/ Pandora Events.com.

The Festivals Honorary Board supports the organization financially and with their expertise. Members included Executive Producers Harvey Burstein, Stephen Herbits, Kent Karlock, James G. Pepper, Raben & Feldman, MD's & Associates, Rene T. Rodriguez, Lee Brian Schrager, Jacques Soukup & Aaman Crane; and Bruce Weber & Nan Bush. Directors included Jerry Chasen and Mark Kirby, Desmond Child, Scott Dansky & John Dawson, Dwina Gibb, Marc Levin, Sheldon & Myrna Palley, Mayda Perez & Simone Mayer, Alan Randolph, Robert Schafer, Michael Toomey & Dr. Patrick Ward.

The Fifth Annual Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival is scheduled for April 25-May 4, 2003.

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