Outfest Awards: “A Marine Story” wins Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize! Dreya Weber and Stephen Guarino take acting awards!

Had a front-row seat for the awards presentation for the 2010 Outfest Film Festival this morning.

I was thrilled to see that several of the films and performances championed by Greg In Hollywood – including A Marine Story, The Four-Faced Liar and BearCity – were big winners!

The festival ends tonight and I will miss it because, as always, it’s been a very fun and rich experience.

The awards were hosted by the very funny drag queen Momma (pictured, left) who told everyone how happy she was that there is such a wide array of LGBT movies these days unlike the past when coming out stories dominated: “I just can’t see another movie about a 15 year old boy who discovers he likes penis and comes out. If you want that, there’s porn on the web!”

Momma was very funny throughout the awards – and very politically incorrect! First off, let me start off with sharing the awards won by the powerful drama A Marine Story starring Dreya Weber, written and directed by Ned Farr and produced by Jd Disalvatore.

I hung out a bit with Jd (pictured at the podium with Farr and Weber) last night at the DGA and told her I thought A Marine Story was going to win some big awards. She was skeptical, citing the strong competition. I’m so glad she was wrong and I was right!

A Marine Story won the Audience Award for Outstanding Dramatic Feature Film AND the Grand Jury Prize for Outstanding U.S. Dramatic Feature Film. In addition to that, the film’s star, the sensational Dreya Weber, took the home the jury’s award for outstanding actress.

“I love you guys so much,” an emotional Jd said to Ned and Dreya while accepting the Grand Jury Prize. “It was so great to work with you. I’m kind of a total wreck!”

Well deserved!

I’ll be posting an interview I did with Ned and Dreya (married in real-life) in the coming days but here is some of what they said while accepting their awards:

Ned: “This really was unexpected. We hope that things changed very soon and that our ending [in which Don't Ask, Don't Tell is repealed] wasn’t some kind of fantasy.”

Added Dreya: “I’d like to thank every gay and lesbian currently serving in the military that doesn’t allow them to have full lives. … There’s no better feeling than putting things out in to the world that you can fully stand behind and say, ‘Yes!’”

Here is a LINK to my review of A Marine Story.

The Grand Jury Prize for Outstanding Actor in a feature film went to Stephen Guarino (pictured, left),  one of the stars of the wonderful BearCity which also won the Outstanding Screenwriting Award for Douglas Langway and Lawrence Ferber.

“I’m totally shocked, that movie is a total ensemble piece,” Guarino said at the podium. “I’m totally shocked. To shoot a feature fim in a 100 degrees in New York at The Eagle at 11 am in the morning, it’s not pretty honey. It’s just a beautiful movie. Oh my God.”

[My interview with Stephen will run soon]

The terrific The Four-Faced Liar, which I loved, won the Audience Award for Outstanding First U.S. Dramatic Feature Film, an award which came with a $5,000 cash award from HBO.

“That’s crazy, we don’t ever win anything at these things,” director Jacob Chase (pictured at the podium) told the crowd. “Thank you for embracing me and my film. We’re shaking up here so we’re gonna get down there.”

There were three Special Programming Awards presented and they went to: The Topp Twins directed by Leanne Pooley (for freedom), actor Drew Droege for emerging talent; and Undertow (Contracorriente) directed by Javier Fuentes-Leon for artistic achievement.

“It’s been an amazing week, I’m kind of speechless about the whole experience,” Fuentes-Leon said while accepting the award. “Tuesday [at the screening] I felt like Cinderella and I still feel like that.”

The Grand Jury Award for Outstanding International Dramatic Feature Film went to The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister directed by James Kent.

Other winners: Audience Award Outstanding Documentary Short: I’m Just Anneke (directed by Jonathan Skurnik); Audience Award for Outstanding Dramatic Short Film: You Move Me, directed by Gina Hirsch; Audience Award for Outstanding Documentary Feature Film: Forever’s Gonna Start Tonight directed by Michelle Lawler.

Other Grand Jury Awards included: Outstanding Documentary Short: Close (Pod Bluzka) directed by Lucia Von Horn Pagano; Outstanding Dramatic Short Film: Samaritan directed by Magnus Mork; Outstanding Documentary Feature Film: Strange Powers: Stephin Merrit & the Magnetic Fields directed by Kerthy Fix and Gail O’Hara.

Congratulations to all the winners!