Cannes 2015: Queer Palm Films Announced with an All-Female Jury

The Queer Palm is an independently sponsored prize for selected LGBT-relevant films entered into the Cannes Film Festival. The award was founded in 2010 by journalist Franck Finance-Madureira who ensures the organization each year. It is sponsored by Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau, filmmakers of Jeanne and the Perfect Guy, The Adventures of Felix, Crustacés et Coquillages, and L’Arbre et la forêt.

Previous winners have been Pride,  Stranger by the Lake and Laurence Anyways. For the first time the jury will be all female with actress and director Desiree Akhavan (Appropriate Behaviour) heading the group. Of the films in competition for the Queer Palm, four are in the Official Selection of the main festival and two are In Competition (Carol and Marguerite and Julien).

Feature films in competition are:
Carol, Todd Haynes (United Kingdom-United States / Official Selection)
Marguerite and Julien, Valérie Donzelli (France / Official Selection)
Amy, Asif Kapadia (UK / Official Selection – Out of competition)
Love, Gaspar Noé (France / Official Selection – Out of Competition)
Dope, Rick Famuyiwa (USA / Directors’ Fortnight)
Much Loved, Nabil Ayouch (France / Directors’ Fortnight)
Mustang, Deniz Gamze Ergüven ( France / Directors’ Fortnight)
The Two Friends, Louis Garrel (France / La Semaine de la Critique)
Neither Heaven Nor Earth, Clement Cogitore (France-Belgium / Critics Week)
From Shadow There, Nathan Nicholovitch (France / ACID)
Pauline Pulls, Emilia Brisavoine (France / ACID)
Vanity, Lionel Baier (Switzerland-France / ACID)

The short films in competition are:
Le Meal Sunday, Celine Devaux (France / Official Selection)
Locas Perdidas, Ignacio Juricic Merillan (Chile / Cinéfondation)
Victor XX, Ian Lopez Garrido (Spain / Cinéfondation)
Kung Fury, David Sandberg (Sweden / Directors’ Fortnight)
Rate Me, Fyzal Boulifa (UK / Directors’ Fortnight)
The Fox Exploits The Tiger’s Might, Lucky Kuswandi (Indonesia / The Critics’ Week)
Ramona, Andrei Cretulescu (Romania / Week Critics)

The Queer Palm will be presented Saturday, May 23rd to 10:00pm during a ceremony at Silencio in Cannes.