30/06/2016 - The festival kicks off today with Paris 05:59, which won the Teddy Award, awarded by audiences, at this year’s Berlinale

The 30th edition of the MIX Milano Festival of Gay and Lesbian Film and Queer Culture kicks off today, Thursday 30 June, with the film Paris: 05:59 [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau, which won the Teddy Award, awarded by audiences, at this year’s Berlinale. Ducastel and actor Geoffrey Couët will be guests of the Festival and will participate in a Q&A with audiences after the screening of the film. 

Created and directed by Giampaolo Marzi, the MIX Milano Festival (which will run until 3 July this year) is firmly rooted in the collective imagination and historical memory of the GLBTQ community of Milan. This year’s edition features around 70 films divided up into three macro sections: feature films, documentaries, and a focus on short films.

Three of the films being shown in the Feature-Length Competition will have their Italian premieres at the Festival: De chica en chica by Sonia Sebastián, a chaotic and entertaining comedy on the romantic escapades of Inés, from the same creators of successful Spanish TV series Chica busca chica; Jason and Shirley by Stephen Winter, which was screened in the official competition of this year’s BFI Flare: London LGBT Film Festival, and Liebmann [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by German director Jules Herrmann, straight from this year’s Berlin Film Festival. 

Also in competition are five films from this year’s Torino Gay & Lesbian Film Festival: first up is the winner of the award for Best Feature Film, Summertime [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Catherine Corsini, the story of the passionate encounter between Delphine and Carole in 1970s Paris (the film also won the Variety Piazza Grande award at Locarno in 2015). Then there’s Those People by Joey Kuhn, a melodrama set on the Upper East Side in New York; the visionary Closet Monster, the debut feature by Stephen Dunn which won the award for Best Canadian film at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival; Israeli film Blush, the debut feature by Michal Vinik which was screened at San Sebastián; and finally Beautiful Something by American director Joseph Graham.

Not to be missed is the bizarre Tangerine by Sean Baker, which was shot entirely using three iPhone 5Ss and was the revelation of the NEXT section at Sundance in 2015.

(Translated from Italian)