Presented in partnership with the Inside Out Toronto 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival, the annual Queer Your Stories: Short Film Competition is open to ACTRA Toronto members who are part of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community interested in producing a short film. Winners receive financial and in-kind production support and a screening at the Inside Out Toronto 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival.

QYS6 WINNER!

The 2025 winning project is Last Call, written by Monica Garrido Huerta, directed by Tricia Hagoriles, and co-produced by Garrido Huerta, Hagoriles, and Heath V Salazar. The cast includes Garrido Huerta and Salazar as two of the lead characters. Cast and Crew Biographies listed below.

In Last Call, a lesbian couple must rely on a jaded bartender to work through their recent breakup and get out of their own bubble to survive a sudden zombie attack inside a dying queer bar.

Last Call is a romantic comedy/horror film. Imagine Me and You meets Shaun of the Dead (but with more horror). Comedy is a central tenet of Queerness. However, we don’t just want to make audiences laugh, we want to give them Queer heroes—to become the heroes of our own stories!

While Queer spaces are disappearing at an alarming rate, we’re lucky to share time with our own heroes: elders, activists, and the bar owners that have fought to make gathering as Queer people possible. Queer bars hold our histories, it’s our duty to protect them. This film is a tribute to our heroes’ resilience and an ode to the Lesbian love for breaking up in public spaces.

As a team, our experiences span the lenses of Queer, Lesbian, Trans, Latine, Non-binary, and Women. Additionally, our principal cast’s first language is Spanish. We wanted to develop a script that honors the way language lives within us. One that will reach audiences like fellow Queer immigrants who share those experiences. Through our use of language, audience members will get jokes at different times creating varying journeys which will prompt conversations after the film. Because our goal isn’t just representation, it’s community connection.

It’s time to honour our Queer bartenders, to breakup loudly *en Español*, and to fight zombies!

Monica Garrido Huerta (she/her) – Writer/Producer/Principal Cast “Alex”

website

Monica Garrido Huerta (she/her) is a Queer Dora-nominated bilingual Artist, a new Canadian from Monterrey, Nuevo León based in Tkaronto. Her short films premiered at the InsideOut LGBT Film Festival. Monica has appeared in commercials, music videos, and TV in shows such as Baroness Von Sketch Show and The Horror of Dolores Roach. She’s part of the ensemble of the Canadian Comedy Award-winning show Sketch Comedy Extravaganza Eleganza and the Second City Touring Company. Monica is the 2018 recipient of the Queer Emerging Artist Award at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. Her stage work includes: “Universal Child Care” (Quote Unquote Collective) “El Terremoto” (Tarragon Theatre). She is one-third of the Latine Drag King boyband “Boyband the Boyband”.

Heath V Salazar (they/them) – Producer/Principal Cast – “The Bartender”

website

Heath is an award-winning Latine multidisciplinary performer and writer. Named a ‘prolific trans artist’ by CBC Arts, they’ve developed a body of work in theatre and film that spans the gender spectrum and are also the internationally recognized drag king: Gay Jesus. In 2019, they were honoured with a nomination for LGBTQ Person of the Year by the Inspire Awards. They can be spotted as Arrow in S2 of CBC Gem & HBO Max’s original series Sort Of and, most recently, as one of Queer Collective’s OUTLOUD Artists Winners with whom they released a ‘The Birth of Gay Jesus’, a draglesque video project featuring their original poetry and sound design.

Tricia Hagoriles (they/she) – Director/Producer

website

Tricia is a writer and filmmaker based in Toronto. Their work includes award-winning shorts Beat and Lola’s Wake, and the CBC x Polaris Prize commissioned Huwag Mataranta. A resident of the 2019 Director’s Lab at the Canadian Film Centre, Tricia has since developed web series, and has directed music videos, and plays. They received the Inside Out + OUTtv Outspoken Documentary Fund for their upcoming work: The Archivist.

At the core of Tricia’s work is connection, humanity, and a reverence for characters on the margins and a need to make epics out of tiny moments. This, combined with over a decade of post-production experience under their belt, and their flair for atmosphere and rhythm, often results in visually-impactful, whimsical and hear-felt storytelling.

SPONSORS

QYS6 is made possible by the generosity of our sponsors. outACTRAto invites cash and in-kind sponsorship from queer and queer-friendly individuals, organizations, and businesses. If you would like to learn more about sponsoring queer filmmaking, please reach out to us at lgbtq@actratoronto.com, Subject: QYS Sponsorship.

FAQ

Q: How do I apply to QYS?

A: See QYS page for all application info : https://actratoronto.com/queer-your-stories/

Q : If I submitted a short to QYS in previous years, can I resubmit?

A: Of course, welcome back! We’re always happy to read how your project has evolved since your last submission.

Q: What should I include in my ‘Pitch:?

A: Try to answer the following questions:

What is your film about? Why do you want to tell this story? Who might benefit from seeing a film like this? What do you want it to look, sound and feel like? How are you going to do that? Who are you making it with? Why this team? 

Q: What is the jury looking for?

A: A great short film! The jury will be asked to evaluate these three categories, each worth 10 points:

Q: Can I submit a documentary to this competition?

A: For full transparency, Queer Your Stories was created to promote and create performing opportunities for 2SLGBTQIA+ ACTRA members. As a result, there has been a mandate to have all on-camera performers be—preferably 2SLGBTQIA+—ACTRA Toronto members. If you feel that your project can still meet this criteria, with some 2SLGBTQIA+ members behind the camera as well, your application would have a great shot. However, if you feel like these criteria put your project at a disadvantage, we would suggest focusing your efforts on documentary-related funding bodies, such as the OUTSpoken Documentary Film Fund or other documentary production funds.

Q: How can I find key creatives and crew to fill out my team for my application?

A: QYS subcommittee has been collecting Production Resources.

Q: Sponsors for QYS are amazing, where can I get more funding?

A: A great place to start is locally! Are there local restaurants in your area that you think could be interested in sponsoring catering? Are there local businesses that can help with props or costumes? A great option for further funding can also be crowdsourcing campaigns or hosting fundraiser events. 

Q: Who do I contact at ACTRA to get more information about the low-budget options for production?

A: For more information, you can reach out to info@actratoronto.com, subject line: “Queer Your Stories Low Budget Production”

Q: I don’t have a project to submit, but I would love to offer my skills to other projects being submitted (as Writer, Director and-or Producer), where can I share my info?

A: You can add your information to our Queer Your Productions contact list. This list can be shared internally to applicants and other committee members looking for collaborators.

Q: Will I have to pay taxes on the cash donation?

A: As long as the funds are used for production and accounted for with receipts, they are not eligible to be taxed. 

Q: If the project is successful, would we maintain the rights to the project?

A: Filmmakers retain exclusive rights to their project. QYS exists to provide opportunities for queer-identified ACTRA Toronto members. This is not intended to be a revenue stream for the committee, the union, or Inside Out. It has always been our hope that both the films and the filmmakers will find success beyond the competition and the premier. Past films have gone on to screen at other festivals, and outACTRAto has not profited from this (although we are always cheering them on!). 

Q: Does the prize money come with any caveats when it comes to profit participation and/or remuneration in regards to InsideOut and its involvement?

A: Should the film generate any profits, any and all profits should be collected by the winning team. Filmmakers should be mindful of their ACTRA agreement and how this may affect compensation for performers should the film find success beyond the premier. The winning team must commit to using exclusively ACTRA performers, with all queer characters played by queer-identified performers. As much as possible, all performers should be queer-identified. Premiering at Inside Out is a condition (and a benefit!) of winning this competition, and the credits must acknowledge the support of outACTRAto, ACTRA Toronto, Inside Out, and all the other sponsors. 

Q: What are some costs that we may not be aware of?

A: Though we have many generous sponsors donating in-kind rentals, these rentals do not include insurance. Proof of equipment insurance is required in order to collect your rentals. Please see our Production Resources document as a starting point.

Q: Who were the previous winners?

A: See the list below

QYS 5 Winners:

Something’s Phishy 

by Chase Lo and Bessie Cheng, directed by Chase Lo and co-produced by Lo, Cheng, and Alice Wang. 

Cast: Bessie Cheng, Kristoffer Bradley Cruz, Chase Lo, Oscar Moreno, Darcy McLenaghen, MJ Fausta.

Something’s Phishy is a romantic comedy about friendship and the desire to be accepted and loved for who you are. It is a lighthearted story that features the specific experiences of Queer/Trans/Nonbinary Asians navigating romantic/intimate encounters. Something’s Phishy asks: What are we willing to do to attract the person we want? What parts of ourselves do we intentionally show or hide?

Something’s Phishy reminds us that Queer/Trans/Nonbinary Asians can be funny, messy, romantic, quirky, charming, and badass!

QYS 4 Winners:

Plant Daddy

By Izad Etemadi and Lauren Holfeuer’s, directed by James Cooper and co-produced by him alongside Yoni Collins, Etemadi, Holfeuer, Katherine Fogler, Lisbet Maclean, and Iain Stewart. 

Cast: Izad Etemadi, Katherine Fogler, Iain Stewart, Parmida Vand, Basel Daoud.

Plant Daddy follows a quirky, down-on-his-luck gay man who can’t bring himself to visit his father on his deathbed and begins to care for an abandoned potted plant in order to cope with his guilt. 

QYS 3 Winners:

Save the Date

Directed by Bria McLaughlin, written & co-produced by Andrew Di Rosa

Cast: Andrew Di Rosa, Khadijah Roberts-Abdullah, Aldrin Bundoc, John Wamsley, Izad Etemadi, Sofonda Cox, Helly Chester and Neta J. Rose.

Save the Date tells the story of a gay millennial who is forced to confront his complicated feelings about his (sort of) ex when he, quite reluctantly, finds himself invited to celebrate the engagement of the man he, accidentally, possibly, kind of, maybe, pushed out of his life.

Set in the heart of downtown Toronto’s Queer neighbourhood, Save the Date 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…)

* InsideOut Festival Ottawa — Official Selection​, Award Winner: Best Short

* Image+Nation Festival — Official Selection

QYS 2 Winners:

Red String of Fate

Written by Onna Chan, co-directed by Lovina Yavari and Lance Fernandes. 

Cast: Onna Chan, Lovina Yavari, Melinda Shankar, Patrick Brown, Camellia Yavari, Michael Gordin Shore, Steve Kasan.

Set during a civil war between androids and humans in the year 2090, Red String of Fate tracks a robotics engineer who tries to bring her fallen lover back to life.

QYS 1 Winners:

Body So Fluorescent

by Amanda Cordner and David di Giovanni.

Cast: Jo Vannicola, Amanda Cordner, Khadijah Roberts-Abdullah, Ucal Shillingford, James Gibson-Bray, Eric Rich.

Body So Fluorescent is described as a film that “cracks open conversations surrounding the appropriation of black femaleness, racism within the white gay community and the boundaries of friendship.” The film tells the story of two friends, Desiree and Shenice, go out for a fun night of dancing. However, when Shenice takes things a step too far, Desiree is confronted with who Shenice really is and how Desiree may be the one responsible for her insidious transformation.

* Body So Fluorescent won the award for Best Canadian Short Film at #InsideOut30