Cannes cold shoulders its 'Queer Palm' prize

Actor and director Nicolas Maury heads up the 'Queer Palm' award for LGBTQ movies

Actor and director Nicolas Maury heads up the 'Queer Palm' award for LGBTQ movies

It has been won by big-name Hollywood directors and is headed by one of France's top comic stars, but the "Queer Palm" prize celebrating LGBTQ movies at Cannes still has no official place at the world's top film festival.

Awards for films with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer content are already an integral part of other major movie gatherings, including Berlin, which has handed out its "Teddy Award" since 1987 and made it part of its official programme.

"We're not ugly ducklings," actor and director Nicolas Maury, who heads up the "Queer Palm" jury this year, told AFP.

Maury said the award, created in 2010 and independently financed, is aimed at "courageous films that feature openness and humanity" where people who are often discriminated against "are finally noticed and listened to".

On Friday, the jury gave this year's "Queer Palm" to "The Divide" by French director Catherine Corsini, a film also competing for the Palme d'Or in the Cannes festival's main draw.

The film's main male character is shot in the leg by police, taken to hospital and meets a same-sex couple going through a relationship crisis.

"What I really wanted to do was tell the story of a 50-something couple of women who have reached the point of accepting themselves as they are," the director said.

In her three decades of filmmaking, the 65-year-old Corsini has made her mark primarily as a discreet but powerful voice for women's freedom, exploring themes of homosexuality, patriarchy and gender equality. 

This year's shortlist of 26 movies included Paul Verhoeven's "Benedetta" -- also vying for the Palme d'Or in the main Cannes competition -- which tells the story of a lesbian nun in 17th-century Italy.

"Queer Palm" founder Franck Finance-Madureira told AFP he was delighted that this year's Cannes selections made for rich pickings for his prize shortlist.

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Originally published as Cannes cold shoulders its 'Queer Palm' prize