My Queer Career and Asia-Pacific Queer Film Festival Award Winners for 2023!

My Queer Career Winners

My Queer Career is Australia’s richest queer short film prize with over $16,000 worth of cash and support to be won. 

Our 2023 My Queer Career night was full of joy celebrating our wonderful queer artists and their careers in film.

You can see the full photo library from our 2023 My Queer Career night here, thanks to our friends at The Aperture Club!

Best Film

Tuī Ná – (Written and directed by William Duan and produced by Mimo Mukii)

A 17 year-old struggles to reconcile his burgeoning queerness with his filial duties and expectations from his Chinese immigrant mother.

• $3000 cash from The Stephen Cummins Film Trust
• $2000 worth of legal advice from JP Media Law
• Automatic Entry in the Iris Prize, the world richest prize for LGBTIQ+ short film

Best Screenplay

Nathan Lacey – Ghosted

A weekend retreat turns sinister for a social media influencer when he is pursued by an online stalker.

• $750 cash from Event Cinemas George Street

Emerging Performer

Tina Fielding – Sparkles

Tina stars as the lead Courtney in Sparkles, a 30-something year-old woman with Down syndrome who flees her small country town for the big city, befriending a drag queen along the way.

• A 2 hour one-on-one acting masterclass, valued at $500 from Actors Centre Australia

Emerging Filmmaker

Claud Bailey – Right Here

After coming out as non-binary to their parents, Grace meets their future self and realises who they want to be was inside them all along.

• Panavision camera hire, valued at $5000

Audience Award

Sparkles (Written by Tina Fielding, directed by Jacqueline Pelczar and produced Cody Greenwood)

A 30-something year-old woman with Down syndrome flees her small country town for the big city, befriending a drag queen along the way.

• $5000 Editing Support from Spectrum Films

My Queer Career 2023 Jury

Aino Suni

Aino is a Helsinki-based filmmaker who goes both ways – directing both fiction and documentary. Graduating in 2014 with a Masters in Film Screenwriting from the University of Salford, her feature narrative debut Heartbeast premiered in competition at the Goteborg Film Festival. Her intimate 2019 documentary Never Again, about a young Finnish rapper, inspired elements of Heartbeast.

Andria Wilson Mirza

Andria Wilson Mirza is the Director of ReFrame, overseeing the advocacy partnership between Sundance Institute and Women In Film. Previously, she was the Executive Director of Inside Out, Canada’s largest LGBTQ film festival. During her tenure, the festival launched the world’s only LGBTQ film financing forum, as well as two development funds. Andria and her wife, filmmaker Fawzia Mirza, co-founded Baby Daal Productions, and their current feature film slate includes Fawzia’s dramedy ME, MY MOM & SHARMILA (post-production), Sandra Itäinen’s upcoming queer Muslim documentary COMING AROUND, Drew Denny’s GIFTED, which centers survivors of intimate partner violence with an all-survivor crew and creative team, and Lulu Wei’s SOS, documenting 40 years of queer advocacy in Toronto. Andria is on the advisory board of Hire Survivors Hollywood.

Spiro Economopoulos

Spiro Economopoulos is the former Program Director of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival. He was also previously a film programmer and researcher for the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, and on the selection committee for the Melbourne International Film Festival. He is a self-professed movie geek, horror nerd, book lover and music crank.

My Queer Career Finalists | Mardi Gras Film Festival 2023

Blackfellas Who Can’t Dance
Two men dance around their desire for each other at the gym as they discover they’re fundamentally different people, in this comedy-drama.

Dykes On Bikes: An Origin Story
From protectors in the streets to Sydney Mardi Gras icons, this is a love letter to Australia’s longest running LGBTIQ+ community group.

Ghosted
A weekend retreat with his put-upon boyfriend turns sinister for a social media influencer when he’s pursued by a persistent online stalker.

Pause
After two years abroad, with less than 12 hours in her rural hometown Rosie attempts to mend the broken heart of her childhood sweetheart.

Right Here
After coming out as non-binary to their parents, Grace meets their future self and realises who they want to be was inside them all along.

Single
Housemates Tilly, Luke and Bridie bamboozle their way through a kaleidoscope of psychedelic romantic encounters in Sydney’s inner-west.

Sparkles
A 30-something year-old woman with Down syndrome flees her small country town for the big city, befriending a drag queen along the way.

Tuī Ná
A 17 year-old struggles to reconcile his burgeoning queerness with his filial duties and expectations from his Chinese immigrant mother.

Asia-Pacific Queer Film Festival Award

During MGFF23 we announced the winner of the Asia-Pacific Queer Film Festival Award. Nominated by members of the Asia-Pacific Queer Film Festival Alliance (APQFFA), these films from China, Hawai’i, India, Japan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Australia. Founded in 2015, the APQFFA is a regional collective of LGBTIQ+ film festivals and organisations created to foster and promote the visibility of Asia-Pacific voices in queer cinema.

APQFFA Award

Tank Fairy (Directed by Erich Rettstadt)

Once upon a time, the magical Tank Fairy delivered tanks of gas (with plenty of sass) to the home of young Jojo, a lonely dreamer in need of a glittery godmother…

• Prize: $1,000 USD cash

APQFFA Finalists | Mardi Gras Film Festival 2023

All I Ever Wanted

Rom-com obsessed teen Christine has always longed for a picture-perfect romance. But is her ideal prince charming actually a princess?

Are You Still Watching?

Jamie keeps themselves entertained bingeing on queer film and TV, until their favourite queer characters intrude on their sexual fantasies.

Frozen Out

An immigrant artist retreats to frozen prairies and forests, hoping to escape the anxieties of dislocation and find a meaningful story.

Happy Marriage

A strong-willed trans woman encourages her long-term boyfriend to marry a woman of his family’s choosing when his masculinity is questioned.

My Mother’s Girlfriend

Renuka’s two worlds collide when her adult son stumbles on her out celebrating a fun-filled birthday with her new, secret girlfriend.

Ours

The delicate story of a lesbian photographer in Tokyo who discovers the heartbreak and liberation of desire and opening one’s heart.

Tank Fairy

Once upon a time, the magical Tank Fairy delivered tanks of gas (with plenty of sass) to the home of young Jojo, a lonely dreamer in need of a glittery godmother…

The Struggle

After a co-worker takes a photo of Amit with his boyfriend, he’s outed at work and must navigate homophobic harassment.