Editor

16th Int. Hamburg Gay & Lesbian Film Festival (October 11th - 16th, 2005)

Hamburg’s third largest film festival ended on October 22nd with an awards ceremony recognizing the best feature films. A record number of people filled the cinemas and attended the various events surrounding the six-day fest. The number of ticket-holders grew by 5.5%.

Among the festival guests were 120 accredited members of the film and media industry from around the world. Over 25 filmmakers were also in attendance including Alice Wu (USA), Lisset Barcellos (USA/Peru), Onir (India), Madeleine Olnek (USA), Andrew Artbuthnot (Australia), Jenifer Malmqvist (Sweden), Joli Ghiannie (Holland).

This year’s festival offered a focus on current productions dealing with the themes of gender and sexual identity. A total of 151 films from 29 countries were shown.

Ronald Behm, a member of the festival team, reported, “All 56 programs were as full as I could have wished them to be. Eleven programs were already sold out before the festival week even began. We are very pleased with the continual growth of this project that we are all very dedicated to. We are especially glad that the audience responded so positively to the ambitious and challenging productions we chose to screen this year.”

The 17th International Hamburg Gay & Lesbian Film Festival will take place from Oct 17-22, 2006