The winning film of the Sebastiane Latino Award, granted by GEHITU, the gay, lesbian, transsexual and bisexual association of the Basque Country, will be screened at the coming edition of the San Sebastian Film Festival. The award goes to the Latin American feature film released the previous year that best represents lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual vindications and values.

In 2014 the Sebastiane Latino went to the Brazilian movie Praia do Futuro, by Karim Aïnouz, competing film in the official selection of the Berlin Film Festival that same year.

This third edition of the award represents new backing of Latin American cinema by the now traditional Sebastiane Award, which celebrates its 16th anniversary this year, in the framework of a Festival like San Sebastian, which has always been characterised by its support of Latin American productions.

In this third edition the jury of the Sebastiane Latino Award has viewed almost all of the Latin feature films in favour of sexual diversity. Although only one of these works will be chosen, the idea is that this work will lend support and recognition to all of the people who have made them possible and that it will help to raise the voice of the growing number of Latin American films in defence of LGBT people.

This year Latin America stands out for the ample presence of films portraying the world of transsexuality and transvestism. It could be the “star” theme of the year, reflected in three of the five productions chosen as finalists for the award by the Sebastiane Latino jury.

Among the five finalists are two Chilean productions, two from Mexico and another from Argentina. They are:

CARMIN TROPICAL (MEXICO) Director: Rigoberto Perezcano
The tale of Mabel’s return to her hometown to find the person who killed her friend Daniela. A voyage of nostalgia, love and betrayal in a place where transvestism acquired uncommon dimension in its day.

LA VISITA (CHILE) Director: Mauricio López Fernández
The much-awaited return of a son for his father’s funeral causes upset in the closed family circle when he turns up as a girl, in a house where the women who live in it thought they needed men to get by.

EN LA GAMA DE LOS GRISES (CHILE) Director: Claudio Marcone
The story of Bruno, an architect who is starting to ask himself if his life is what he dreamt of or if it was forced on him. Amid this crisis, he travels to Santiago de Chile, far from those around him. When he meets Fer, a History teacher, the two are drawn into a love affair that neither had expected.

MADE IN BANGKOK (MEXICO) Director: Flavio Florencio
Morganna is a transgender soprano relentless in her determination to break away from family prejudice and social stigma, firmly resolved to live an honourably respected life in society. With this idea in mind, she sets out on an odyssey of ups and downs to try and build the identity she has striven to achieve throughout her entire life, an identity made in Bangkok.

MARIPOSA (ARGENTINA) Director: Marco Berger
A butterfly, the creature that symbolises rebirth and a new start, embodies the world of Romina and Germán, a world of two parallel realities. In one of them, they grow as siblings who desire one another and try to give shape to their love without sexual involvement; and in the other they are two young people who would rather strike up a strange friendship than give in to their mutual feelings.