

Juried Awards


Audience Awards
Jury Awards
Head of Jurors
Brian Gannon has been working in Philadelphia’s video production community for more than 20 years. He is currently an editor for Center City Film and video, working on a variety of projects including short films and television programming. For more than a decade, he has been an active member of Philadelphia’s LGBT community, having served on a number of boards and committees. This year he marks his 10th year volunteering for the festival.Feature Film Jury
Documentary Film Jury
Frank Calabretti is a service manager by day and a film enthusiast by night. He first got hook on films with Star Wars at three. His interest range from comedies and independent films to "anything that pushes the FX limits." In 2005, he began volunteering for LGBT film festivals after years of attending film as well as theater festivals in Philadelphia. He has worked as an usher, theater manager, box office staffer, and "anything else that needed being done"" at QFest.Katrina Deaton is a filmmaker, song writer, poet and motivational speaker in her native Philadelphia. Her film, Underneath, which premiered in the festival in 2007, sold out and continues to this day to receive great acclaim as well as strong audience response around the country and aboard. She has frequently worked on the sets of numerous independent films for other filmmakers in the region. Currently, she is working on her next feature film, Kathy’s Daughter.
Vince Austin-Cole has been a longtime supporter and volunteer for QFest. As a true cinephile, he made it his personal goal to view more than 30 films each year at previous film festivals. His experience as a juror has broadened his appreciation of the talents, skills and efforts of independent filmmakers everywhere in all genres. He will serve for the fist time as a documentary juror.
Short Film Jury
Michael McGonigle is an award winning filmmaker and critic who has written for Film Comment, Moving Picture Magazine and the Wall Street Journal. Since 1997, he has lectured regularly on film at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Michener Museum, the Barnes Foundation, Temple University and Widener University. He currently co-hosts a film discussion program once a month with Tom Leitch of the University of Delaware at Theatre N in Wilmington.Jeff Darcy became a film buff in his freshman year at Brown University where he soon joined the school’s film society serving as its projectionist. At the nearby Rhode Island School of Design, he took his first film classes. As a psychotherapist, he recently spearheaded the film discussion group for the PA Society for Clinical Social Work where therapists receive continuing education credit for discussing and analyzing films from a psychological perspective.
Jhett Bond is a Philadelphia native who works as a parttime videographer and a part-time building manager. She continues her interest in the intersections between health, healing and the vibrations of sound and light in film. She has refined the elements of a great film in her mind to include: love and lovingness, fear that is overcome, poetry of motion, words and expression, a sense of place and a renewal of spirit.
The Iris Prize - Cardiff’s International Gay & Lesbian Short Film Prize
Philadelphia QFest is proud to be among the Iris Prize partner festivals, a world wide community dedicated to the evolution of gay and lesbian cinema. The Iris Prize provides a united international platform that aims to help a new generation of filmmakers achieve success on an international stage. The winner of the Iris Prize will receive the largest prize for a gay and lesbian short film in the world, valued at £25,000. The Philadelpia QFest Audience Favorite Short will automatically be nominated for this prestigious annual competition held in Cardiff, Wales. For more details see www.irisprize.org