I noted a few weeks ago that the Dallas International Film Festival was very gay this year. Well, hopefully the organizers will realize how beneficial that is.
Two gay-themed films — the Texas-shot gay drama Pit Stop by former Dallasite Yen Tan and the documentary God Loves Uganda, about anti-gay efforts in the African nation, pictured, — won two of the top prizes at DIFF this weekend.
Pit Stop won the Grand Jury Prize in the Texas Competition. That comes with the plum award of the festival: a $30,000 Panavision film package. For indie filmmaking, that’s huge; Tan’s budget for Pit Stop — a romance about two closeted gay men in small-town Texas — was $22,000, which he raised online.
God Loves Uganda received the $10,000 (cash) Grand Jury Prize for Documentary Feature award from DIFF. It was also a hit at Sundance earlier this year.
Other winners announced this weekend:
• Grand Jury Prize for Narrative Feature: A Teacher
• Embrey Family Foundation Silver Heart Award: Tomlinson Hill
• Audience Award for Narrative Feature: The Kings of Summer
• Audience Award for Documentary: The Crash Reel
• Audience Award for Short Film: Head Over Heels
• Other short film winners include Black Metal and The First Hope; honorable mention went to The Dirties (about school bullying), Laurence Anyways (also with queer themes) and Very Small Things.
