Guardian of the Frontier and;Georgie Girl; take top honors at S.F. filmfest

The 26th San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival ended Sunday night by presenting jury and audience prizes. Maja Weiss's Guardian of the Frontier, the first feature film from Slovenia to be directed by a woman, won the Levi's First Feature Award, while Annie Goldson and Peter Wells's Georgie Girl, a portrait of trangendered New Zealand parliamentarian Georgina Beyer, received Stu & Dave's Excellent Documentary Award. Both juried prizes came with a $10,000 award. The first feature jury also gave a Special Jury Mention to Milford Thomas's haunting silent film Claire, while the documentary jury gave a Special Jury Mention to Brian Tilley's It's My Life.

Audience awards were presented to Sherman Alexie's The Business of Fancydancing (feature), Dee Mosbacher's Radical Harmonies (documentary), and Geoffrey Haley's The Parlor (short, which can be seen here). Attendance at the 18-day festival is estimated at more than 85,000.