The 37th LGBT Film Festival closed tonight at the Slovenian Cinematheque, where the audience had the opportunity to see 16 feature films, 26 documentaries and 26 short films. The Pink Dragon Awards were presented at the end of the event, as voted by the public and the jury.
The international jury was composed of Andrea Coloma, director of Mix Copenhagen, one of the oldest LGBT film festivals; Jad Salfiti, British-Palestinian film journalist; and Sasha Ihnatovich, Belarusian filmmaker who has been working in Slovenia for several years. The selection was made up of feature films.
Thoughtful, delicate and tender, the winner of the best film at the 2021 Ljubljana LGBT Film Festival as selected by the jury is House of Hummingbird by South Korean filmmaker Kim Bora.
The jury explanation:
The ‘coming-of-age’ genre is a significant phenomenon in LGBTQ+ cinema. Helping questioning young people to understand themselves, while also normalizing the queer experience for wider audiences. Our winning film’s quiet refusal to fall into predictable tropes and character cliches made it a jury stand out. Following a teenager, as she finds her voice in mid-90s Seoul, it delivers a slow-burning and subtle story of family, finding love and self-fulfilment.
The public rated all the feature films during the festival and gave the highest marks to the Finnish biopic Tove.
The film's narrative focuses on the early life of the famous Swedish-Finnish artist Tove Jansson, from the time of World War II to the mid-50s. Tove's drawings were constantly criticised by her father, a sculptor, but she herself chose to pursue an independent artistic and life path. While weaving personal bonds with friends, and especially with her later lifelong partner Vivica Bandler, her creativity would also develop, which would take her on a path of international recognition, especially with her famous children's books about moomins.