MGFF2020 Festival Guests

Queer Screen loves welcoming international guests and local filmmakers to the festival. This year we have an amazing number of talented people coming to Sydney for the 27th Mardi Gras Film Festival.

Stay tuned to this post as we announce more guests!

Cédric Le Gallo

Co-Director: Shiny Shrimps

Cedric was a journalist, TV reporter (mainly for TF1, the first channel in France) and documentary director for 12 years, all whilst performing in his own theatre company. In 2015, he created the short fiction TV show Scènes de Culte for Canal+. A comedy show, it was a fake “behind the scenes” look at iconic movies. Cedric wrote, starred in, and directed all 20 episodes.

Click here for a quick, queer Q+A with Cédric where he talks to us about his real-life inspiration for his film and reveals which film he’d remake with a queer twist…

The Shiny Shrimps screens Friday February 14, 2019, at 6.30pm at Event Cinemas George Street featuring a Q+A with Cédric Le Gallo

Isabel Sandoval

Director: Lingua Franca

Isabel Sandoval is a New York-based Filipina filmmaker and MacDowell Fellow in film. She is the first transgender director to compete at the Venice and BFI London Film Festivals. Her three dramatic features (“Señorita”, “Apparition”, “Lingua Franca”) have competed and screened at prestigious international festivals including Locarno, Busan, Thessaloniki, Stockholm, Goteborg, Hamburg, Vancouver, Goa, Hawaii, AFI Fest and Palm Springs. Her work has been supported by the Tribeca Film Institute, SFFILM, NYFA, MOME, IFP and Frameline.

Omar Zúñiga

Director: Los Fuertes

Omar holds an MFA from New York University’s Graduate Film Program, which he attended with scholarships from the Fulbright Program, Chile’s Ministry of Education and Tisch School of the Arts. He directed James Franco and Zach Braff in a segment of the feature film “The Color of Time”. He premiered his short “San Cristóbal” at the Berlinale in 2015, where it won the Teddy Award. His debut feature film “The Strong Ones” is currently taking him everywhere. He is a founding partner in Cinestación, a production company that creates bold auteur filmmaking from Chile and Latin America.

Danielle Jablonski

Producer: Season of Love

Danielle Jablonski is an Owner and Executive Producer of ClexaCon, DASH Productions and Tello Films. Danielle is also a founding board member of The Visibility Fund, a 501c3 non profit organization that aims to promote positive representation of underrepresented communities in media through making grants available to content creators. Danielle has produced events on two continents along with two feature films: Riley Parra and Season of Love. She is a graduate of Yale University and studied cello in Australia.

Ashley Arnold

Producer: Season of Love

Ashley is an owner and Executive Producer of ClexaCon, DASH Productions and Tello Films. She served seven years in the U.S. military before attending Penn State University where she majored in public relations and began working in social media and marketing. At college she was heavily involved in social outreach initiatives and continues to be passionate about supporting women, LGBTQ people and other underrepresented communities. Ashley is also a founding board member of The Visibility Fund, a 501c3 non profit organization that gives grants to filmmakers.

Laur Allen

Actress: Season of Love

Laur Allen is a Los Angeles native of Chinese, British, and Hungarian heritage. She is best known for her role as “Juliet Helton” on CBS’s The Young and the Restless and most recently as “Mardou” in the first queer full-feature holiday romcom, Season of Love. Prior to acting, Laur worked behind the scenes doing production and TV marketing. She also served as an ambassador for the Southern California Chinese community, as the first mixed-ethnicity Miss Los Angeles Chinatown Queen. In addition to her acting career, Laur is also a third-year law student and an avid animal advocate.

Nicole Conn

Writer, Director: More Beautiful For Having Been Broken

Conn has achieved world-wide industry recognition with her Award winning films, Claire of the Moon, Elena Undone, (boasting the longest kiss in cinema history) A Perfect Ending and little man, which won 12 Best Documentary Awards.

She recently finished her eighth film, More Beautiful for Having Been Broken, another strong message film about special needs inspired by her son, Nicholas and daughter, Gabrielle, who makes her film debut in what critics describe as a “heart-breakingly beautiful love story.” Conn is finalising her epic tome, Descending Thirds, a limited mini-series in development, along with her next feature, Do We Not Bleed.

Jayne Goldstein

Producer: More Beautiful For Having Been Broken

Jayne Goldstein has produced entertainment and fundraising political and non-profit events for over 30 years. Twenty years producing GLBT standup comedy and 10 years producing award winning Off Broadway theatre as a member of Inverse Theatre Company in NYC. She has been a producer with several film companies. This is her second film working with Nicole Conn.

Jessica Liley

Co-producer: More Beautiful For Having Been Broken

Jessica Liley is an Australian producer whose debut feature film, More Beautiful for Having Been Broken, has won numerous awards on the Film Festival Circuit, including Best Picture accolades. Serving as a co-producer on that project, she has also served as Executive Producer on short films, Murder Mill and At Last. With a background in the Arts, beginning her career training to be an Opera Singer, Jessica went on to become a corporate employment lawyer and senior executive. More recently Jessica is utilising her impressive business skills to devote her time to bringing impactful content to the screen.

Lissa Forehan

Producer: More Beautiful For Having Been Broken

Lissa Forehan is a screenwriter, playwright and award winning Producer with an eclectic foundation. After 20 years in academia, she launched her creative career 8 years ago to pursue her passion of writing and producing, primarily projects for women by women. She has been involved behind the scenes (AKA “The Wizard”) in numerous book publications and feature films. Current projects include writing Justice? a feature film, the creative Producing Partner with Nicole Conn for the award winning film, More Beautiful for Having Been Broken and co-writing rock musical, I Am The Warrior with Holly Knight, recently adapted to a screenplay.

Chakinta Jones

Executive Producer: More Beautiful for Having Been Broken

Chakinta founded Taurean Heart Production, in honour of her father, as a company to assist women filmmakers. More Beautiful For Having Been Broken is the first film the company has produced. Chakinta says “this journey, so far, has been a steep learning curve, but a very enjoyable ride all the same, learning about editing and music scoring and camera angles to name a few. I am so proud to be an Aussie and so proud and grateful for the experience of watching the film develop from words on paper to a beautifully raw story on the big screen.”