Out Takes: A Reel Queer Film Festival has wrapped up for 2010, so now it's time for film fans to have their say by voting in the audience awards. Little Ashes, which drew votes before even screening The final movies screened at Wellington's Paramount last night. Chief programmer Simon Fulton says the voting in the 2010 Audience Awards is very close so far. "In some categories there are three or four films neck-and-neck, with only one or two votes separating them, so every vote will count." He says there was even a lot of voting before some of the films even screened, particularly with Little Ashes. "One imagines the Robert Pattinson fans were alerted to the festival and lots of teenage straight girls in the suburbs were busily typing away." Fulton says it has been easy enough to discount spurious votes that obviously didn't come from people who attended the festival. The closing date for voting in the audience awards is Wednesday 16 June. In last year's awards, Patrick, Age 1.5 was joint winner with Shelter in the Best Narrative Feature category, while the inside look at the US military's 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy Ask Not won Best Documentary and Kiwi-made short Teddy won in the Best Narrative Short Film category. Fulton says the Out Takes team is also looking for feedback from the community on this year's event, especially on the shorter festival length, different printed programme format and the new Auckland venue – Rialto Cinemas. A short survey follows the film voting process. While organisers haven't carried out a full analysis of the 2010 festival yet, they say it appears the number of people attending in Auckland was slightly up on last year, which they say is very encouraging. Fulton says things are already looking very good going into 2011, with films already being submitted. "And several of this year's sponsors and funders, including Mini and the US Embassy, have indicated they are keen to have an ongoing sponsorship relationship with us, which is great news." Click here to vote in the 2010 Audience Awards and take part in the Out Takes survey.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Thursday, 10th June 2010 - 12:34pm