Cardiff - Iris Prize Festival

The Iris Prize was established in 2007 in an attempt to promote global recognition of LGBTQi moving image content. It was was born out of the desire to create an annual international prize that would recognise, celebrate and promote gay and lesbian short film and that would also promote tolerance, acceptance and further understanding of the credibility and business of gay and lesbian filmmaking.

It is open to any short film which is by, for, about or of interest to gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans or intersex audiences and which must have been completed within 2 years prior to the prize deadline. The Prize is open to film makers from around the world and judged by a panel of international filmmakers and artists. The winner receives £25,000 to make their next short film in the UK.

The Prize is awarded during a three-day event held in Cardiff which presents a programme of screenings and question and answer sessions with some of the UK's most prominent film and media figures, and culminates in a closing night award ceremony. Each of the partner festivals selects one film annually to participate in the Iris Prize. The partner festivals include Toronto, Los Angeles, New York, Sydney, Dublin, London, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Miami, Montreal and Hong Kong.

Previous winners of the Iris Prize have been:

• 2007 - Dee Rees (USA) for her short film Pariah
• 2008 - Till Kleinert (Germany) for his short film Cowboy

Although The Iris Prize is the centre piece of The Iris Prize Festival, they now also screen feature films. In 2009 up to eight new feature films will be screened from which the Friends of Iris will choose the Iris Prize Best Feature. The winner of the Iris Prize Best Feature Award will receive a cash prize of £1000 generously sponsored by Martin Briggs Independent Financial Adviser.

The previous winner of the Iris Prize Best Feature Award is:

• 2008 - Dream Boy (USA) directed by James Bolton