The 19th Connecticut Gay & Lesbian Film Festival ended its nine day run with over 2,000 enthusiastic viewers, entertaining films, wonderful parties and an exciting silent auction. The Connecticut Gay & Lesbian Film Festival is happy to announce the winners of the Audience and Jury Awards from the film festival. The new Spanish feature Queens (Reinas) by director Manuel Gómez Pereira won the Audience Award for Best Feature Film (www.queens-themovie.com). Laughing Matters. . . More! by Andrea Meyerson won the Audience Award for Best Documentary (www.alloutfilms.com). The Jury Prize for Best Short went to Oedipus N + 1 by French director Eric Rognard.

The Festival ran from June 2-10 at Cinestudio in Hartford, CT. Eleven programs of varied, challenging and entertaining content were showcased, featuring films, documentaries and short films from all over the world. For nine days, the Festival showcased the latest and best in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender film. Every year people from all over the state and beyond come to this celebration of Pride on film. “That 'Queens' won the Best Feature Award is a testament to the strength of the foreign language films at this year's festival. Our audiences really appreciate our efforts to bring in the best of LGBT films from all over the world,” said Dan Millett, the Festival Director.

Other highlights of the Festival include the world premiere of Non Specific by Connecticut filmmakers Erica Santa Lucia & Kurt Uccello. The centerpiece film 20 Centimeters by Ramón Salazar drew an enthusiastic audience. And the closing night film, Loving Annabelle brought the largest crowd to the Festival with over 400 enjoying the final night of the Festival.

The Connecticut Gay and Lesbian Film Festival also hosted a silent auction which raised funds that will go towards funding next year’s Film Festival. Many folks got some great items and helped support the Film Festival too!

Also we have changed the name of our parent organization. Alternatives, Inc. was originally created as a LGBTQ arts organization supporting poetry, literature, film, etc. Since that time the focus has narrowed to film and so we're changing "Alternatives" to "Out Film CT." You'll notice changes in our literature and logo but we will still be bringing you the same quality film events, the Connecticut Gay & Lesbian Film Festival in June, the EROS Film Festival in November and special screenings throughout the year. The twentieth Festival will be June 1-9, 2007.