FROM PARIS WITH YAGG

After the Teddy Award at the Berlin film festival and the Queer Lion at the Venice film festival, Cannes will finally have its first LGBT award this year, called the Queer Palm. The event is "off festival" and will reward a film among all films selected (in the official selection as well as parallel sections such as "Directors' Fortnight", "Un Certain Regard", "International Critic's Week"). The organizer, French journalist Franck Finance-Madureira, explained to us that he thinks LGBT visibility is important considering the fact that France still doesn't give equal rights to gays and lesbians and some countries still have death penalty for homosexuals. Journalists from all over the world flock to the Cannes film festival (which opens on the 12th of May) so he thought it was important for LGBT issues to have some visibility there.

The jury will be composed of gay and lesbian film festival organizers as well as journalists and will hand out the award on May the 22nd.

Watch the video of the interview:

The New York Times has an interesting article on this season's gay Broadway productions as a sign of the changing demographics of gay America. The article suggests that gay theatre, much like the big and small screen Will & Grace et al), is in the midst of a seismic shift from depictions of tragedy and crisis to less political exposés on dating and relationships. Queerty readers weigh-in.