NewFest, New York’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Film Festival today announced its 2014 winners. The Audience Award for Best Feature was awarded to director Daniel Ribeiro for “The Way He Looks” and the Audience Award for Best Short was awarded to Brumby Boylston for “Cruising Electric.”
READ MORE: Brazilian Drama ‘The Way He Looks’ Acquired by Strand Releasing
Programmer KP Pepe said, “I am thrilled that the audience selected these two films – they represent NewFest well. While the films are quite different, they are refreshing, entertaining and span the complexity, humor and beauty of LGBT life.”
“The Way He Looks” premiered in the Panorama section of the 64th Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year, winning both the FIPRESCI Prize for best feature film and the Teddy Award for best LGBT-themed feature. It also screened at Outfest earlier this month, where it won the prize for best dramatic feature.
The film follows Leonardo, stuck fending off bullies and over-protective parents, spending his days allowing his best friend Giovana to drag him around town. Being blind has always been an inconvenience for Leonardo, but his angst-y adolescence gets a lift when the handsome and smooth-talking Gabriel turns down numerous offers from ogling girls to hang with Leonardo after school. The longer they spend together, the more apparent their shared attraction becomes — not just to them but to a spurned Giovana as well. As social pressure mounts on both to fit within their confined social boxes, the two must decide whether to ignore their feelings or to throw caution to the wind and admit that they might actually be falling in love.
It is scheduled for theatrical release on November 7, 2014.
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