NO BIKINI wins Best Short Film

Congratulations to Claudia Morgado Escanilla (Vancouver, Canada) for winning ImageOut's Audience Award for Best Short Film for her wonderful and entertaining piece, NO BIKINI! Ironically, this award-winning short is the very first film I booked for our 2008 lineup having first seen it at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival in September of last year (yes, even before ImageOut 15 started!). Claudia, whom I met at TIFF last year and again at Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year, generously agreed to participate in our Youth Project Series because she understands what we are trying to accomplish here at ImageOut -- to reach out to as many LGBT youth as possible through films. Her film narrowly edges out another popular youth film, ODD ONE OUT, VERY NORMAL REALLY.

Here are your Top 25 choices for Best Short:

1. No Bikini (Growing Pains)
2. Odd One Out, Very Normal Really: From Lucas to Luus, From Boy to Girl (Growing Pains)
3. The Postcard (His Dark Secret)
4. Traces (His Dark Secret)
5. Laundromat (screened with In Sickness & In Health)
6. Mano-A-Mano (screened with Another Gay Sequel)
7. Mrs. Kasha Davis: The Life of an International Celebrity Housewife (Flower City Flicks)
8. In-Sight-Out: Mark Groaning (Flower City Flicks)
9. Babysitting Andy (Growing Pains)
10. Ready? Ok! (Growing Pains)
11. Auld Lang Syne (screened with Out Late)
12. Souljah (His Dark Secret)
13. The Crown (Womyn Power is Everywhere)
14. Pages of a Girl (Arts & Crafts)
15. Crafty (Arts & Crafts)
16. A Boy Named Sue (Flower City Flicks)
17. Pitstop (Arts & Crafts)
18. HerzHaft (His Dark Secret)
19. Ready or Not (screened with Searching for Sandeep)
20. Solace (His Dark Secret)
21. The Premiere (Arts & Crafts)
22. Ta (His Dark Secret)
23. Donkey Girl (Growing Pains)
24. Death & Taxes (Flower City Flicks)
25. Buffalo-Bangalore-Buffalo (Flower City Flicks)