Directors Gustav Hofer and Luca Ragazzi
are set to preside over the Queer Lion award jury panel at the Venice
International Film Festival. Hofer and Ragazzi, whose documentary on
gay marriage in Italy Suddenly Last Winter won a Panorama
special mention at last year's Berlin Film Festival, will have their
fill screening the record fourteen films in competition this year.
Fashion designer turned film director
Tom Ford will premiere A Single Man, the big screen adaption
of Christopher Isherwood's 1964 novel of the same name, starring
Colin Firth, Julianne Moore and Matthew Goode.
Isherwood's novel centers on college
professor George (played by Firth) as he struggles on after the
sudden loss of his partner, Jim (played by Goode). George is the
ultimate outsider in 1960s Los Angeles: middle-aged, gay and British.
“The story is a romantic tale of love
interrupted, the isolation that is an inherent part of the human
condition, and ultimately the importance of the seemingly smaller
moments in life,” Fade to Black, Ford's production company, said in
a statement.
The Queer Lion prize recognizes
gay-themed films officially screening at the Venice Film Festival or
one of its sidebars. A Single Man is the only Queer Lion
candidate also in competition for the festival's main prize, the
Golden Lion, and will premiere on Friday, September 11.
Other films in competition for the 3rd
annual prize include Claudio Noce's Good Morning Aman, a film
about a man who strikes up a friendship with a former boxer in Rome,
Luca Guadagnino's Lo Sono L'Amore (I Am Love), a drama
set in Milan at the turn of the millennium starring Tilda Swinton,
and Stefano Consiglio's L'Amore E Basta (Love
Is Enough), a film about nine gay and lesbian couples.
Also involved in judging the films will
be journalist Mark Smith, film critic Roberto Schinardi and director
Peter Marcias.
Gay Entertainment Report is a feature
of On Top Magazine and can be reached at
ontopmag@ontopmag.com.