Bixa Travesty
Latin America took by storm this year's Teddy Awards—the Berlinale's international queer film award selected by an independent jury—as productions from Brazil, Peru, and Paraguay took five of the six awards of the evening.
The top Teddy Award of the evening for Best Feature Film was presented to the Brazilian film Tinta Bruta / Hard Paint by Marcio Reolon, and Filipe Matzembacher. The film is a intimate character story of a socially withdrawn young man who escapes into a virtual world as a gay chatroom performer.
The Teddy Jury Award was presented to the documentary film Obscuro Barroco by the Greek filmmaker Evangelia Kranioti, which follows the life of Luana Muniz, an icon of Brazil’s queer subculture. Also from Brazil, Claudia Priscilla and Kiko Goifman's Bixa Travesty, a portrait of Linn da Quebrada—an Afro-Brazilian transwoman from Sao Paulo's favelas who is also a pop star raising her voice for queers of color—was presented with the Teddy Award for Best Documentary 2018.
The Peruvian film Retablo by Álvaro Delgado-Aparicio was the winner of the L'Oréal Teddy Newcomer Award, in its inaugural year. The film is a coming of age story of an Andean boy who wants to become a "Retablo" maker just like his father. The Paraguayan film Las Herederas / The Heiresses by Marcelo Martinessi was the winner of the Teddy Mannschaft Readers’ Award. The film follows a withdrawn, middle-aged gay woman from Asunción who slowly tries to make a new life for herself after she separates from her partner of 30 years.
