Queer Screen’s 30th Mardi Gras Film Festival Audience Award Announced

2023 Mardi Gras Film Festival Audience Award Winners

Our 30th Mardi Gras Film Festival was the biggest film festival we have held in over a decade, with more than 166 films and over 100 screenings!

We are proud to have celebrated films all around the world In Cinema and On Demand during Sydney WorldPride. We were even more chuffed to see that our audience loved them too and rated our films the highest audience rating in the past decade!

It was a very close call, but we have some definite winners to announce and some great prizes to give out thanks to our presenting partner Optus!

– Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature – $2000
– Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature – $1000
– Audience Award for Best Short – $500

So, what films did our audience choose?

Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature

Winner: Of an Age

A Serbian-Australian teenager develops intense feelings for his friend’s older brother, in this phenomenal Australian coming of age romance.

Runner Up: Lonesome

2nd Runner Up: Golden Delicious

Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature

Winner: All the Beauty and the Bloodshed

This extraordinary, Venice Golden Lion winning documentary is an electrifying portrait of the life of bisexual artist and activist Nan Goldin.

Runner Up: Gateways Grind

2nd Runner Up: The Giants

Audience Award for Best Short

Winner: Happy New Year, Ms. Luna (Screened in Trans & Gender Diverse Shorts)

Luna, a young transfeminine woman, attends her family’s annual Chinese New Year gathering for the first time since her transition.

Runner Up: Outrageous: The Queer History of Australian TV (Screened in Number 96: TV’s First LGBT Show)

2nd Runner Up: Troy (screened in Guy on Guy shorts)