Toronto, February 1, 2022 – outACTRAto, the queer committee of ACTRA Toronto, proudly announces the winner of the third Queer Your Stories Short Film Competition. The competition is a partnership with Inside Out, Canada’s largest 2SLGBTQ+ film festival and the single largest promoter and exhibitor of 2SLGBTQ+ content in Canada.
The competition was open to queer ACTRA Toronto members interested in producing a short film. Despite the pandemic, 14 eligible submissions were received. The jury consisted of two outACTRAto members and two senior programming staff from Inside Out. The winner receives financial and in-kind production support, and the film will play at the Inside Out Film Festival 2022.
The 2022 winning project is Save the Date by Andrew Di Rosa, directed by Bria McLaughlin and co-produced by Andrew Di Rosa and Bryn Kennedy. The cast includes Aldrin Bundoc, Helly Chester, Sofanda Cox, Andrew Di Rosa, Izad Etemadi, Khadijah Roberts-Abdullah and John Wamsley.
Save the Date is a comedy for the every-queer. The one who can’t help but feel categorized, scrutinized and berated into questioning their own self-worth. It’s about a man who is under the disillusionment that his body does not deserve love, and therefore, nor does he. It’s about letting our insecurities dictate the trajectory of what could be uniquely honest and compatible relationships. It focuses on the intersection of body image and self-worth, of Hallmark endings and the realities of queer relationships, of sexual expectations and life after love (after love after love…). It’s a story about queer people in a very queer time.
“This is a deeply personal story for me, and I can’t thank the outACTRAto Committee and the Queer Your Stories panel enough for their generosity and support. It means the world to me, our team, and hopefully, to a community of people still struggling with their own self-worth. Together with our director Bria McLaughlin and my co-producer Bryn Kennedy, we can’t wait to show you the film my mom called ‘brave.’” Andrew Di Rosa (writer, co-producer, actor)
Queer Your Stories 3 is sponsored by AFBS, Grandé Camera, Rolling Pictures and Inside Out. The producers have launched a fundraising campaign.
About outACTRAto:
The outACTRAto Committee is dedicated to raising awareness about queer performers, our stories and our place in the industry and society. We value diversity and equality, and we aim to be recognized, supported and valued as queer performers. We aspire to educate and inform our industry about realistic queer representation on screen as we seek a more accurate and balanced reflection of our rich and multifaceted community. We denounce and will work to end harassment and stereotyping of any kind. We will work to achieve true-to-life queer onscreen visibility of our culture and our stories and to realize change in our industry.
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Media contact: Karen Woolridge, Public Relations Officer, ACTRA Toronto kwoolridge@actratoronto.com, 416-937-1437
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