Festival organisers presented the three inaugural awards on Monday (October 6) at Rio’s CCBB cultural centre to films that tackled LGBT themes.

The Felix winners at the Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival selected from 43 films were:

Best Fiction Film
Xenia, (Greece-France-Belgium), dir Panos H Koutras;
 
Best Documentary
Tie And Red Nail (De Gravata E Unha Vermelha) (Brazil), dir Miriam Chnaiderman; and
 
Special Jury Prize
52 Tuesdays (Australia), dir Sophie Hyde.

In previous editions of Festival do Rio, gay-themed films screened in the Gay World strand. This year organisers chose to screen films across the entire programme.

Wieland Speck, director of Berlin’s Panorama section and co-creator of the Teddy Award, served as jury president alongside Central Station screenwriter João Emanuel Carmeiro, Albertina Carri, the artistic director of *Asterisco – International LGBTIQ Film Festival of Buenos Aires, and Margaret Mee e a Flor Da Lua director Malu de Martino.

Presenting the awards were, among others, Rio’s re-elected federal deputy Jean Wyllys and actor Mateus Solano.