Iris Prize: Shortlist for Best British award announced
The 17th edition of Iris will take place in Cardiff between Tuesday 10 and Sunday 15 October 2023.
The 15 films nominated for the Best British award at the Iris Prize LGBTQ+ Film Festival have been announced.
The category, supported by Film4 and Pinewood Studios, includes a range of films spanning AI, music, love, and coming-of-age stories.
The winner of the award will receive a package of services sponsored by Pinewood Studios Group. Each of the shortlisted films will also be streamed on Channel 4 for a year after the festival.
The nominees are also eligible for BAFTA consideration.
Best British Shortlist:
Lemon | Dir. Tala Nahas
Miss Coco Lemon, a taxi driver dreaming of a different life faces a chaotic night of business around the streets of London with her less-than-ideal customers who drive her to absolute insanity.
Goodbye Python | Dir. Frankie Fox
A computer scientist struggles with his past, present, and future when it comes time to part ways with his best friend.
Betty and Jean | Dir. Elinor Randle
80-year-old Betty waits for her true love, Jean. She remembers their painful break-up in 1960s Liverpool. She wasn’t brave enough to be with a woman. Will their love be rekindled?
Malcolm | Dir. Caleb J Roberts
In the aftermath of an emotionally abusive relationship, a man seeks couples counselling with a sock puppet likeness of his ex-boyfriend, Malcolm.
TICKER | Dir. Thom Petty
Howard drives his partner Joseph to hospital to undergo a high-risk operation, and the intimacy of the car, alongside a long-forgotten mix tape, sees the masculinity of their forty-year relationship start to yield.
Longing | Dir. Courteney Tan
On the night before her flight home, a Malaysian woman with a secret finds herself on an impromptu date with another woman.
Ted & Noel | Dir. Julia Alcamo
For over 50 years, iconic activist Ted Brown has fought for queer and black identities. But after losing his partner, Noel, under heart-breaking circumstances, a devastated Ted questions the impact of his activism and struggles to mount a new campaign. Can Ted find the strength for one last fight for LGBTQ+ rights?
The Talent | Dir. Thomas May Bailey
On the set of a luxury car commercial, an overlooked assistant seizes his chance to get noticed by the star. Filmed entirely on and around a Virtual Production Stage, THE TALENT is a lyrical meditation on masculinity, desire, and becoming — disguised as a 15-minute thriller.
Bleach | Dir. Daniel Daniel
Gay and lonely, Lloyd is on a shame-fuelled, Grindr-addicted spiral into tragedy.
Realness with a Twist | Dir. Cass Kaur Virdee
A talented footballer is forced to battle between his secret passion for voguing and the fear of his teammate’s disapproval.
Just Passing | Dir. Sophie Austin
Del, a workaholic struggling with her mental health, wants to escape the numbness consuming her. After experiencing an attempted assault by her colleague, she has a chance encounter with Sami, a homeless undocumented man from Nigeria. Del begins to question what she stands for and starts to come to terms with her own immigrant roots.
Stone | Dir. Jake Graf and Hannah Graf
When Tess learns of her estranged father’s death, she travels to the funeral hoping for nothing more than some closure and the chance to meet the woman who stole him from her. Immediately blindsided by the revelation that her father was a transgender woman, Tess starts to wonder what else has been kept from her, turning to her mother for answers.
F**KED | Dir. Sara Harrak
What exactly are the rules in an open relationship? With no rulebook, it’s down to the couple to draw their lines… So when Dani tells Jess she might be interested in sleeping with guys again, it doesn’t go down too well. F**KED raises the question many of us secretly ask ourselves – have I really explored and enjoyed my own sexuality? There’s something about hitting 30 that makes you question whether you’re really being true to yourself.
Requiem | Dir. Em J Gilbertson
Requiem is set in 1605, against the backdrop of the witch trials. It’s a coming-of-age story, following Evelyn as she engages in a game of cat and mouse against her father, Minister Gilbert, in order to be with Mary, the woman she loves.
Fortune Favours the Fantabulous – Dir. Emmanuel Li
Queer fortune teller, conjurer, and runaway Fei Liu lives and performs out of a tent in the middle of the marshes. Over the course of three days, figures and phantoms of present and past penetrate Fei’s tent and plague their subconscious, threatening to unravel their way of life and throwing their own future – and grip on reality – into turmoil.
Berwyn Rowlands, Iris Prize Film Festival Director, said he was “thrilled” to announce this yar’s nominees. He also celebrated the category’s sponsors.
“Film4 is a wonderful supporter of home-grown and new talent, and I’m excited to remind people that all 15 shorts in competition will be available to stream on Channel 4 for 12 months. This partnership has become a much-valued part of helping Iris to reach a new audience for LGBTQ+ stories.”
Heading up the judging panel for the Best British award will be Channel 4’s Tim Highstead, the Senior Film Editor of acquired feature films.
He will be joined by Adam Quigley, Head of Events at London’s Ministry Venues; Muffin Hix, an experienced film programmer who also works as Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Project Officer at Tate; Somina ‘Mena’ Fombo, a director and co-founder of Blak Wave Productions and the first Iris Prize Documentary Film Fund Recipient; and Shiva Raichandani, a BAFTA-nominated non-binary screenwriter, director, and producer. Raichandani won Best British film last year with Queer Parivaar.
The 17th edition of Iris will take place in Cardiff between Tuesday 10 and Sunday 15 October 2023.
Full details about Iris Prize can be found here.