The Jury of the Sebastiane Latino Award, composed of members of GEHITU, the Basque association of gays, lesbians, transsexuals and bisexuals, has selected as finalists the films Marilyn, Mi mejor amigo, Las Herederas, Las hijas del fuego and Retablo.

The Award goes to the Latin American feature film released during the previous year that best defends the demands and values of lesbians, gays, transsexuals and bisexuals.

“Many of them show the life of LGBTI people in the rural world and some of them are sexually explicit, demonstrating the capacity of Latino LGBTI films to take cinema to borders we need to cross,” says GEHITU.

In 2017 the Sebastiane Latino went to the Chilean production by Sebastián Lelio, Una mujer fantástica which, starring Daniela Vega, represented a “historic milestone” for Latino cinema and the international trans community, in a year when the LGBTI pride celebrations were seeking to obtain respect and recognition for transsexuality.

This sixth edition of the GEHITU Award continues its backing of Latin American LGBT+ films in the framework of the San Sebastian Festival. In addition to presenting the award to the winner, to be announced in August, the 4th Meeting of Ibero-American LGBT Film Festivals will also take place at the coming edition of the Festival.

MARILYN
Martín Rodríguez Redondo (Argentina, Chile)
Marcos, a 17 year-old farmhand, discovers his sexuality in a hostile atmosphere. Nicknamed ‘Marilyn’ by the other village teenagers, he becomes an object of desire and discrimination. Marcos feels increasingly more penned in.

MI MEJOR AMIGO
Martín Deus (Argentina)
Lorenzo is a quiet adolescent who lives with his parents and younger brother in a town in Argentine Patagonia. One day, the son of a family friend called Coaíto moves south, coming to live in Lorenzo’s house. His family is going through difficult times and is unable to take proper care of him. Coaíto is very shy and hardly says a word.

LAS HIJAS DEL FUEGO
Albertina Carri (Argentina)
Three women meet by chance at the end of the world and set out on a polyamorous journey which will change them to the extent of returning them to their native city as different people. Subjects who suffer from the established order, from the irreversible nature of passion and from the Utopian approach of a single love, they are caught up in the search for new kinds of relationships, far from possession and pain as the unavoidable finality of love and obeying none of the rules. That’s how they become The Daughters of Fire: a band dedicated to accompanying other women in the search for their own erotica, for the way each one wants to be in a world ignorant of the voluptuousness of detachment.

LAS HEREDERAS
Marcelo Martinessi (Paraguay, Uruguay, Germany - Brazil - Norway - France)
Tells the story of two women from well-to-do families in Paraguayan society who had inherited sufficient means to live comfortably. But now they have turned 60, the money is running out and their situations have changed.

RETABLO
Álvaro Delgado Aparicio (Peru, Germany, Norway)
Segundo Paucar, a 14 year-old boy, wants to become a great history teacher, like his father, to continue the family legacy. On his way to a community celebration in the Andes, Segundo accidentally sees his father in a situation which brings his world tumbling down around him. Trapped in a chauvinist environment, Segundo will try to deal in silence with everything that's happening to him.