We’re incredibly excited for this year’s Teddy Awards and hopefully so are you!
Radio Eins has been one of our most trusted and supportive partners for more than 10 years. We are thrilled to present you the Radio Eins Trailer for the 34th Teddy Award!
HELLAS FILMBOX BERLIN is a Greek film festival established in 2015 to highlight the current, highly artistic Greek film scene and present it to a German audience.
This year’s is the 5th Edition of the Hellas Filmbox Film Festival in Babylon, Berlin and we thought some of these events might be of our readers’ interest.
On Friday, 17 January 2020 at 17.00 at Babylon, Hellas Filmbox Berlin will host an Open Discussion with the title “Gender Matters (?)”. To date, the panelists will be Maria “Cyber” Katsikadakou, activist, director and Director of the LGBTQI film festival Outview in Athens, Natalie MacMahon, curator, actress/director Founder of the Female Filmmakers Film Festival Berlin and Lara Celenza, director/screenwriter co-Founder of Female Filmmakers Film Festival Berlin. The subject matter revolves around the gender equality at workplace and specifically in film business and Media.
This is a free admission event but the seats are limited.
IRVING PARK by Panayotis Evangelidis, Sat, 18.01.2020, 21:30, Hall 1
Greece 2019, 117 min, Greek with English subtitles
Irving Park is the story of four gay men in their 60s, living together in Chicago and exploring an unconventional lifestyle of master/slave relationships.
The film is followed by a discussion after in the Oval (same location as the film).
Short Film before:
SO QUIET THE PERFORMATIVITY OF A PUSSY by Maria Katsikadakou a.k.a Maria Cyber
Greece / Norway 2018, 8 min, no language
Tickets
Hellas Filmbox Berlin Full Program
This year, 43 queer shorts films from all over the world have done just this and found their way into the XPOSED program. 43 shorts that explore and celebrate queerness in filmmaking, finding a way of storytelling that challenges not only heteronormativity but also conventional cinema. Queer film icon Mara Mattuschka opens XPOSED by personally presenting her newest work PHAIDROS and will be our guest of honor at the Artist in Discussion session in Aquarium.
>>http://www.xposedfilmfestival.com/
During the celebration of the 90th Academy Award last Sunday, ‘Una Mujer Fantástica’ (‘A Fantastic Woman’), was awarded the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. The film, which won the 31st TEDDY AWARD for best feature in 2017, is the work of Chilean director Sebastián Lelio. The Academy Award for a non-English speaking film has been given away since 1956 and ‘A Fantastic Woman’ is a landmark recipient in a number of respects; it’s the first first Chilean film to win the foreign-language Oscar, the first film with a trans themed plot to take home the prize, and lead actor Daniela Vega is the first openly transgender person to present an award on stage at the ceremony. Sebastián Lelio praised Daniela Vega as “the inspiration for this movie”. 
The story follows Marina (Daniela Vega), a transgender woman working as a waitress, who has a loving relationship with Orlando (Francisco Reyes), a divorced man 30 years her senior. Their affectionate love is brought to an abrupt end on the day of Orlando’s sudden death. In the aftermath of this tragedy, Marina is faced with the hatred of Orlando’s ex-wife and children. She fights simultaneously for her right to mourn her beloved one and against the prejudices and harassment from her late lover’s family. The film not only gives a sensitive portrayal of the universal right to grieve but also tells the intimate story of a trans women in today’s conservative Chile. On a broader level, the film highlights the transphobia and ignorance constituting every-day life for many transgender people around the world. Few would be able to leave the cinema unmoved by this touching story of love and loss. To learn more about the film, have a look at our interview with director Sebastián Lelio and lead actors Daniela Vega and FranciscoReyes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9VQLBKaP9Q
These are the words Mahmoud Hassino casually remarks just minutes into our conversation. Oscar and I look quizzical: this is the man who’s made a name for himself by founding the first gay Syrian blog Mawaleh, starring in the documentary Mr Gay Syria, and fighting tirelessly for LGBT and refugee rights. How is it, then, that he can so easily shed the term ‘gay’ when that forms such a significant basis for the activism upon which his right to asylum rests? The answer is that this is not a denial of gay identity, but an empowered decision choose one’s own labels, rather than have them imposed: “homosexuality is just some thing, some part of my identity… we have many ways of introducing ourselves; I can say a journalist or blogger or writer. Sometimes you choose something that is more necessary.” Continue reading In conversation with Mahmoud Hassino
