Often referred to as ’The Gay Oscars’, the IRIS Prize Festival in Cardiff is undoubtebly highly respected in the LGBT festival circuit, having been identified as one of the top 50 film festivals in the world for the second year running by Movie Maker Magazine. The BAFTA-qualifying short film festival also offers a £30,000 prize, the largest prize for a gay and lesbian short film in the world, to fund a BBC iPlayer distributed film.
Earlier this year in October, Eoin Maher of MAF Cohort 173 had his film NO STRINGS (2014) screened at the illustrious festival after an official selection in 2015. Revolving around Bryn who has recently moved to London, he and Sean have sex after meeting on dating app Grindr. But only after Sean misses the tube and asks if he can stay do the two begin to get to know each other. Over rolling joints, talking about home and teaching each other Welsh and Irish they begin to negotiate a relationship. Through their conversation, Bryn realises that it’s something other than the city of London that's causing him to have problems settling in. Much like Christopher Manning, who directed JAMIE, Maher wanted to make a film with gay characters but that wasn’t about homosexual issues.
Almost as impressive it’s appearance at the IRIS Prize Festival is the long list of 16 other festivals NO STRINGS has been screened at, which include:
- BFI Flare London LGBT Film Festival 2015
- GAZE: International LGBT Film Festival, Dublin 2015 (Official Selection)
- Reeling 2015: The 1st Chicago LGBTQ+ International Film Festival
- Aesthetica Short Film Festival 2015
- Caminhos Film Festival 2015
- Melbourne Queer Film Festival 2016
- 9th Lichtspielklub Short Film Festival, Berlin 2016
- Frameline40, San Francisco International LGBTQ Film Festival 2016
- Scottish International Queer Film Festival 2016
- InsideOut Toronto LGBT Film Festival 2016
- Springfield MA LGBT Film Festival 2016
- Connecticut LGBT Film Festival 2016
- Queer Hippo International LGBT Film Festival, Texas 2016
- Lesbisch Schwule Filmtage– Hamburg International Queer Film Festival 2016
NO STRINGS didn’t walk away empty-handed either, picking up the Grand Prize for Filmmaker of the Future at FLICKERS: Rhode Island International Film Festival 2015 while also receiving an Honorary Mention in the Best of British Short Films category at Kinofilm 2016, the Manchester International Short Film and Animation Festival.
Click here to watch a 2 minute extract from NO STRINGS.
With a slogan of “Watch films. Party Nightly. Repeat.”, Iris has become the home of LGBT filmmaking, and the festival prides itself on sharing the best content from around the globe to their annual audience in Cardiff each October. This is made possible through their 25 partner festivals in 19 countries, ensuring that the very best in storytelling is shown at Iris.
The Iris Prize – Cardiff’s International LGBT Short Film Prize – is supported by The Michael Bishop Foundation and continues to be the largest LGBT short film prize in the world. With the winner receiving £30,000 to make their next short film in the UK, Iris is exactly what film makers need – funding, support, guidance and of course a warm welcome into the Iris Prize family. To date seven short films have been produced with the winning filmmakers of the Iris Prize, with the eighth currently in pre-production.
Written by Ben Corbett
Photo Credit: Yiannis Manolopoulos