iW NEWS | "Lost Coast" Wins NewFest Narrative Prize; "Queen Racquela" Takes Two

Gabriel Fleming's "The Lost Coast," the story of a group of old friends who reunite on Halloween in San Francisco, won the narrative jury prize as the 20th NewFest, New York's LGBT Film Festival, came to a close on Sunday night in Manhattan. Meanwhile, Olaf De Fleur's "The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela" -- a narrative/doc hybrid about a transsexual Filipina prostitute -- won a pair of awards at NewFest, named the jury's best international feature and also winner of the Showtime Vanguard prize for abreakthrough or visionary achievement. The festival's documentary feature award went to Tanaz Eshaghian's "Be Like Others," about homosexuality in Iran. Audience awards went to Ron Davis and Stewart Halpern's " "Pageant." Short film prizes went to Charlotte Hoogakker's "Odd One Out, Very Normal Really: From Lucas to Luus" (documentary jury prize), Claudia Morgado Escanilla's "No Bikini" (narrative jury prize), and Till Kleinert's "Cowboy" (audience prize). Winners of the festival's first NewDraft script competition and reading series were Rodney Evans' "Day Dream" and Soman Chainani's "Love Marriage." [Eugene Hernandez]