ReelOut 2023 Awards Announced!
The judges and our audiences have spoken once again and it’s time to announce the WINNERS of the 24th annual ReelOut Queer Film Festival awards!
Our Kim Renders Memorial Awards for Best Performance is adjudicated by a panel of local actors in honour of our dearly-departed friend and collaborator, Kim Renders. The panelists were Joan Jones, Douglas Connors and Jesse Reynolds and Joan and Douglas attended the final screening of the festival to announce their decisions. The jury was instructed not to consider gender in their decisions and only actors in feature-length narratives were considered. There were two awards given to Best Lead Performance and Best Supporting Performance and an additional award for Best Ensemble Performance.
Best Lead Performance – Matthew Jeffers as Peter in Unidentified Objects
Best Lead Performance- Todd Flaherty as Judy in Chrissy Judy
Best Supporting Performance – Constant Bernard as Flo in Rosie
Best Supporting Performance – Neil Redfield as Guard #2 in Disorienting Dick
Best Ensemble Performance- The Cast of Golden Delicious
Betty Berghout was a superfan of ReelOut and made homemade pickles and jams for our visiting filmmakers every year. She and her partner, Terrie Easter Sheen were an amazing couple and you always felt their love when you were around them. We lost Betty far too soon and so we honour her each year with the Betty Berghout Memorial Award for Best Love Story. This year, the recipient is the feature-documentary Long Live My Happy Head which features a tender and honest portrayal of the long-distance relationship between two men an ocean apart and the brain tumour that portends their inevitable tragic ending. ReelOut wishes to send our condolences to the family and friends of Gordon Shaw and we send our love and admiration to his partner and caregiver Shawn.
Our final awards are all chosen by our festival audience and it was an incredibly tight race in all categories but here is who rose to the top:
Best Short Film – Adjustment d. Mehrdad Hassani/Iran/2022/15min
Best Documentary – A Run For More d. Ray Whitehouse/USA/2022/82min
Best Feature Film – Golden Delicious d. Jason Karman/Canada/2022/120min