SHORTS: Award Encores

NewFest 2021 Award-Winning Shorts.

Featuring audience award winners and jury prize recipients, this eclectic collection of LGBTQ+ stories – featuring work from shorts programs Queer Kid Power, Finding Refuge, Sense and Spirituality, and I Know What Boys Like – provides a chance to catch up with festival favorites from the newest wave of emerging queer filmmakers.

Part of NewFest Award Encores
$12 Tickets
Free for NewFest Members
THE BEAUTY PRESIDENT
Winner of the Emerging Black LGBTQ+ Filmmaker Award
Dir. Whitney Skauge, USA, 10 mins
Drag queen Joan Jett Blakk ran for US President in 1992 as one of the first openly queer candidates. Today, Terence Smith, the man behind the persona, reflects on his place in history

Closed Captioning available

PURE
Winner of the NYWIFT Grant Award
Dir. Natalie Jasmine Harris, USA, 12 mins
On the eve of her cotillion ball, a young Black girl grapples with her queerness and questions her purity.

Closed Captioning available

PRAYERS FOR SWEET WATERS
Winner of the Emerging Black LGBTQ+ Filmmaker Award
Dir. Elijah Ndoumbe, South Africa, 16 mins
The stories of a Burundian refugee, an elder dedicated to her community, and a member of Gen Z provide vivid dreamscapes and realities of three trans sex workers in Cape Town, South Africa

Closed Captioning available

FERVOR
Winner of the New York Short Grand Jury Award
Dir. José Manuel Vélez, Chile, 14 mins
Tomás feels the highs and lows of a first love when he falls for Benjamin, a boy from a wealthy family

Closed Captioning available

CARINO (Cariño)
New York Short Grand Jury Award Special Mention
Dir. Carlos Taborda, Ashley Williams, & Roshel Amuruz, USA, 4 mins
A young boy sets out to return a picture that has fallen from the pocket of a boy he admires
SHEER QORMA
Winner of the Audience Award for Narrative Short
Dir. Faraz Arif Ansari, India, 30 mins
A non-binary Muslim person introduces their partner to the family

76 minutes