San Francisco Frontiers - Oscar setback, Trump cast shadow over queer film

The first-ever Best Actress Oscar nomination for a transgender person -- Spanish actress Karla Sofia Gascon, who stars in awards season favourite "Emilia Perez" -- was initially seen by many as a potential breakthrough moment.

But her fall from grace due to racist social media posts and unease among many trans people about "Emilia Perez" director Jacques Audiard's handling of her gender identity have undermined the sense of achievement.

"I would love for a trans person to win an Academy Award... but representation without input from the audience being represented or from the community being represented, is always going to fall flat," Allegra Madsen told AFP.

Madsen runs the Frameline festival of queer film in San Francisco and is a member of the three-person jury set to hand out the Teddy Award this weekend at the Berlin film festival, the oldest festival award for queer movies.

The "queer" category covers everything from films that portray non-heterosexual characters and themes, to those with LGBTQ people in leading acting roles or behind the camera.

Around 30 movies and documentaries are competing.

In the current context, with trans rights under attack in America under Trump and from other conservative politicians in Europe, the awards have taken on new significance.

"It's a hard moment," Madsen said. "Everyone feels like we're at the start of a long, hard slog."

- Fight again -

Trump has moved swiftly to roll back gains for trans people since returning to power a month ago, announcing that the US would only recognise two genders, banning trans soldiers, and restricting transition procedures.

The film industry is still waiting to know the extent of his designs on America's cultural output, with the former reality TV star vowing to combat "anti-American propaganda".

How far will film studios, streaming platforms and distributors go to please him, avoiding films viewed as being too "woke"? Will he cut back already small US federal arts funding?

Madsen, 45, views the trans backlash as a reaction to societal progress over the last decade, with Trump serving as a sort of reverse pendulum swing that will be less significant than the initial movement.

"There wouldn't be such a violent swing if it weren't a response to something. It's a response to success," she said.

Like her, American director Todd Haynes, who heads the overall Berlinale film jury this year, believes that the LGBTQ community at large and filmmakers specifically are entering a new phase in their fight for acceptance.

"I think we haven't realised how much everything is suddenly at stake," the director of "Carol", who is gay, told AFP this week. "It means we all have to start fighting for all the things we've been fighting for in the past, all over again."

- 'Frightening' -

For younger trans filmmakers like Paula Tomas Marquez, who has only known gradual gains in acceptance of non-conforming people over her adult lifetime, the changing political environment seems more worrying.

Marquez's first feature film "Two Times Joao Liberado", featuring a trans woman in the lead role, was chosen for the secondary Panorama section of the Berlin film festival and is in the running for a Teddy.

"It's frightening what's happening now," the 30-year-old told AFP at the Berlinale. "It's normalising hate speech."

Films about LGBTQ people can "be a political tool to create empathy", she said.

When asked about "Emilia Perez", she declined to comment.

"Two Times Joao Liberado" features a heterosexual director trying clumsily to make a film with a trans actress.

Might there be parallels with Audiard, the well-meaning veteran French director of "Emilia Perez", who critics have accused of reinforcing trans stereotypes?

"Not all representation is good representation," said "Two Times Joao Liberado" producer Cristiana Cruz Forte.

"That's it," agreed Marquez.

E.Walker--SFF