Marine Atlan's 'La Gradiva' Tops 30th Queer Lisboa — SkimNews
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- Marine Atlan's 'La Gradiva' won both the best feature film and audience awards at Queer Lisboa, adding to its earlier top prize at Cannes Critics' Week; the film follows French students on a final-year trip to Pompeii led by a passionate teacher
- 'La Gradiva' is one of five finalists competing to be France's entry for the best international feature Oscar, with U.S. distribution handled by 1-2 Special and Portuguese rights by NOS Audiovisuais
- Lorena Ros's Spanish documentary 'Up and Running' swept the documentary categories (best doc and audience award), offering a candid look at the growing marginalization and homelessness among Barcelona's trans ex-prisoner population
- The 30th edition drew a record 11,500 admissions across 67 screenings over nine days — a 53% increase over 2025, with nine sold-out screenings including 'Orlando,' 'The Man I Love' and 'The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions'
- Queer Lisboa, founded in 1997 as Lisbon's first film festival, marked its milestone anniversary with what artistic director João Ferreira called the strongest evidence in three decades of 'the artistic and political pertinence of queer cinema'
- Additional winners included the Mexican doc 'Nuestro Cuerpo Es una Estrella que Se Expande' (Queer Art Competition) and Hélène Giannecchini's French short 'Je veux qu'on se souvienne de nous' (best short), while the festival closed with Leah Nelson's animated feature 'Tangles'
Why it matters: The 30th Queer Lisboa set an attendance record with 11,500 admissions and a 53% jump over 2025, while simultaneously handing Marine Atlan's 'La Gradiva' — already a France Oscar contender — both jury and audience validation, a dual endorsement that strengthens the film's profile ahead of France's submission decision and underlines the festival's three-decade role as a launchpad for queer cinema.
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