Somewhere in the world is there an office so cool that they skip the tired yet addictive Oscar pool and instead try to guess the winners of the Teddy Awards? Tomorrow night the 22nd Teddys will be presented to honor queer cinema at the 58th Berlin Film Festival. Among the contenders for the features prizes are:
Corroboree, In Australia, a dying director hires actors to recreate scenes from his life.
Dream Boy, based on the much loved novel by Jim Grimsley, about a fifteen year old boy who falls in love with his seventeen year-old school bus driver in a religious community in Louisiana.
Drifter, a twenty-five year-old hustler befriends two younger hookers, all of whom turn tricks in the Zoo train station to buy drugs.
Drifting Flowers, from Zero Chou, winner of last year's feature award, a story about lesbians in Taiwan, including the tomboyish lead singer of a band and her blind girlfriend and her jealous little sister.
Hatsu-koi (First Love) In Japan, a student's unrequited crush on a classmate and his relationship with a gay couple.
Otto, or, Up with Dead People, more craziness from Bruce La Bruce, this time centering on a young zombie in Berlin discovered by a filmmaker trying to finish a "political porno zombie movie" called Up with Dead People.
The Amazing Truth about Queen Raquela, a transsexual in the Philippines must choose between Valerie, "Iceland's only transsexual," and Michael, a web porn producer in New York.
Women's Hearts, an Italian bride-to-be and the Moroccan transvestite making her wedding gown travel to Casablanca for surgery to "restore" the woman's virginity, until their feelings change.
The festival's documentary section looks particularly strong with
A Jihad for Love examines the lives of gay Muslims in seven countries.
Be Like Others looks at being queer in Iran where homosexuality is punished by death but transsexuality is legal, leading many young people toward gender reassignment
Darling! The Pieter-Dirk Uys Story South Africa's answer to Dame Edna is Evita Bezuidenhout, who uses humor to fight apartheid and aids in performances seen by more than one million school children.
Dead Gay Men and Living Lesbians, Rosa von Praunheim reconsiders gay history from the Third Reich to today with many original interviews with survivors of Nazi persecution.
Derek, Isaac Julien's portrait of director Derek Jarman features Tilda Swinton who starred in seven of his films.
East/West Sex & Politics, looks at contemporary gay life in Russia, especially the ongoing fight to legalize their annual pride parade in Moscow, scene of violent confrontations with police and anti-gay protesters.
The Other Side of Istanbul shows the constant contradictions of the thriving gay culture in Turkey's most cosmopolitan city.
Suddenly, Last Winter was made by a gay couple who traveled their native Italy in 2006 interviewing people about gay rights as the country debated a national law for domestic partnerships.
Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell rediscovers the classical musician who nevertheless pioneered New York's garage funk of the 1970s and 80s before dying of aids.
With Gilbert & George a former model of theirs began filming the art stars eighteen years ago.
To refresh your memory, last year's winners were Zero Chou's Spider Lilies for best feature and Esther Robinson's A Walk into the Sea: Danny Williams and the Warhol Factory for best documentary. Take a look at the huge, spiffed out ceremony (bits are in English), which included Berlin's gay Mayor Wowi and Almodovar star and current Oscar nominee Javier Bardem who celebrated by wearing false eyelashes. Just to ponder, not to complain, but why don't our film festivals look like this?
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