Queer Palm + Queer Palm Lab
The Queer Palm celebrates its 15th anniversary at the MixBrasil Festival. The Queer Palm is the Cannes Film Festival’s queer award for feature and short films that address LGBTQ+ or feminist themes or challenge gender norms. Every year, a jury—composed of five international directors, actors, and film professionals—deliberates on a selection of films across all Cannes competitions. Queer Palm juries have been presided over by filmmakers such as Lukas Dhont, John Cameron Mitchell, Bruce LaBruce, João Pedro Rodrigues, Julie Gayet, Virginie Ledoyen, Travis Mathews, and Desiree Akhavan. Founded in 2010, the Queer Palm stands at the forefront of contemporary social change, awarding films that have revolutionized queer cinema and contributed to the development of new cinematic imaginaries, such as Kaboom (2010) by Gregg Araki, 120 BPM (2017) by Robin Campillo, Joyland (2022) by Saim Sadiq, Monster (2023) by Hirokazu Kore-eda, and Three Kilometers to the End of the World by Emanuel Pârvu this year. 2024 marks a pivotal year for the Queer Palm with the launch of the Queer Palm Lab, an annual mentorship program created to foster the next generation of queer cinema. The program supports first-feature film projects from around the world, providing five selected winners with both individual and collective mentorship over the course of the year. Winners also participate in a dedicated residency to advance the writing and development of their projects, and they’re invited to the Cannes Film Festival to present their work to industry professionals. As part of an exceptional partnership between Queer Palm and the Morelia International Film Festival, the Queer Palm Lab’s professional residency took place in Morelia during the festival (October 2024). Participants received methodological support from producer Marie-Pierre Macia and had the opportunity to meet with invited filmmakers and professionals such as Ira Sachs, Javier Van de Couter, Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, Ava Cahen, and Cédric Succivalli, among others. Additionally, the five participants attended screenings and connected with the Mexican and Latin American film scenes. The godfather of the Queer Palm Lab 2024-2025 is Belgian director Lukas Dhont, who won both the Caméra d’Or and Queer Palm at Cannes in 2018 for Girl and the Grand Prix for Close in 2022, and who also held a Masterclass at MixLab Spcine in 2022. In 2025, the Queer Palm will celebrate its 15th anniversary. To mark this special occasion, retrospectives will be organized to watch and revisit past Queer Palm winners. This special celebratory year will be launched in São Paulo with its president and founder, Franck Finance-Madureira, at the 32nd edition of the MixBrasil Festival.
Franck Finance-Madureira is a French journalist and film critic. He runs FrenchMania, a website dedicated to French and francophone cinema, and writes for Têtu, the leading LGBT+ media outlet in France, in addition to collaborating with Trois Couleurs and Strobo. He is the president and founder of the Queer Palm, the Cannes Film Festival LGBT+ Award, which he created in 2010. He is also the creator of the Queer Palm Lab, a year-long mentorship and residency program launched this year for queer directors, organized in partnership with the Morelia Film Festival in Mexico. He has contributed to various international juries (Berlin, San Francisco, Guadalajara, Tel Aviv, Lisbon, Turin, Belgrade, Milan, among others).
