·        Film festival doubles number of feature length movies to 17

·        Winners from Germany and Brazil return  to Cardiff with new feature films

·        Gay secret agent takes on billionaire hair dressing tycoon to open festival with World Premiere of Jayson Bend: Queen and Country

A young man, in a woman’s dress, wielding a Samurai’s sword hotly pursued by the young village police man, who is clearly out of his depth, is just one of the many stories celebrated by the 8^th Iris Prize Festival. The five day LGBT film festival boasts a bigger than usual programme with 17 feature films.

European films are well represented with seven making the programme including the German offering, Der Samurai by former Iris Prize winner Till Kleinert. The film has been described as an impressive debut feature and “one of the best and weirdest films I watched” by a reviewer following the South America premier in Fantaspoa.  Closer to home organisers of FrightFest have identified the film as one of the top 10 to watch at the annual London horror festival. Till will be attending the screening in Cardiff.

As a counterbalance the festival organisers are delighted to be screening The Way He Looks (pictured above) by another Iris Prize winner, Daniel Ribiero from Brazil who will be attending the screening in Cardiff. The film is a feature length version of his popular 2011 Iris Prize winning short about a blind boy who falls in love with the new boy in class. The Cardiff screening will follow the London Film Festival premier, proving the film has mainstream cross-over appeal.

“The Iris family is growing and this year we will have 4 previous winners join us in Cardiff.  Till from Germany and Daniel from Brazil return with new feature films as they dominate the world film festival circuit. We also have the company of Tim Marshall, our winner from 2013 who has just finished filming Followers, his new Iris Prize funded short film. And if that was not enough we are also delighted to welcome back Eldar Rapaport (Iris Prize winner 2009) who will chair the Best Feature Film Jury,” said Festival Chair Andrew Pierce.

As announced previously the 2014 festival will open with the World Premiere of Jayson Bend: Queen and Country. Jayson Bend is your typical charming gay secret agent. But whilst on a routine mission he retrieves an artefact that reveals hints to a sinister plot by Raymond Perdood, a billionaire hair dressing tycoon who owns the largest global chain of hair salons.

“What better way to open our festival in a year that we are celebrating the Best of British than with a very charming British gay secret agent!” added Andrew.

“I'm delighted and thrilled that 'Jayson Bend: Queen and Country' has been chosen as the opening film for the prestigious Iris Prize Festival. It's wonderful that all the hard work put into making the film has paid off. October is looking to be an exciting month!” said Matt Carter the film’s director.

The full programme can be found here: WWW.IRISPRIZE.ORG

VIEW Iris Prize Jayson Bend cinema advert: http://youtu.be/35mzYpcrYI8

View Iris Prize Best British Short montage here