BEST FEATURE FILM
Charles Lum: This Is Where I Get Off by Todd Verow & Charles Lum
As a particular queer history of its own, Charles Lum: This is Where I Get Off weaves together a collage of films from the late Charles Lum – documenting everything from doctor’s visits to blowjobs – and shows the various histories of gay men in the 1980s and beyond, as well as what it’s like to inhabit Lum’s mind. This unique film celebrates not only Charles Lum the man but also the exuberance, curiosity, generosity and tenacity queer people are capable of. For this reason, we award Charles Lum: This is Where I Get Off Best Feature of the 2023 Hacker Porn Film Festival.
BEST DOCUMENTARY
NARCISSISM by Toni Karat
As post porn rebels, we must take care of our heritage, our archive and our visibility. “Narcissism” is the best example of this. Such films appear once every dozen years and become part of our culture. We can’t ignore it.
BEST INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM
Hungarian Tango by Pina Brutal
For the creativity in its narrative structure, for its humor, for the great production work at the service of the story (editing, compositing, and animation) for the music, for the unusual gender representation, and finally for the effectiveness in engaging with the public and in arousing it.
BEST ITALIAN SHORT FILM
Just a day by Andy Flipegg
Per l’intensità e la leggerezza con cui racconta una giornata di gioco, passione. L’impossibilità di uscire di casa perché incastrat@ nell’altr@. Ci sembra che l’intesa giocosa tra le performer, la musica e il montaggio danzino insieme e parlino a certe nostre magnifiche giornate senza investimento emotivo, “da paura” come recita l’unica battuta del film.
SPECIAL MENTION: NO GENDER NO BORDER
PLAYGROUND by Ben Berlin
SPECIAL MENTION: BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM
Hold Me Tight by Leoluna Robert-Tourneur
A good number of films were submitted to the competition this year that make use of animation to one extent or another. We therefore feel the urgency to give a special mention to one of these films. It is a story of courtship, attraction and repulsion, made vibrant and visceral through the use of an over-the-top animation technique, with constantly changing colors and shapes, almost like a long and attractive morph.
SPECIAL MENTION FOR OUTSTANDING ARTISTIC CONTRIBUTION
Jan Soldat
A special mention not for a single movie but for the entire body of work, he is becoming more and more necessary in this type of festivals. He has an unmistakable gaze and he really knows how to chose subjescts, and how to work with them. We consider Jan Soldat the epithome of what Hacker Porn was intended to be since the beginning.
SPECIAL MENTION: LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Malga Kubiak
The special award of this year’s edition of HPFF23, the Lifetime Achievement Award, we decided to award to a rebel, a hacker of both the art and porn worlds, an artist, musician, and a writer who wonderfully combines these fields of art in her many years of extremely prolific work, Malga Kubiak. For her ability to constantly exceed the existing standards, her fight against the patriarchy, her steadfastness and the entirety of her creativity.
PREMIO CAPOZZI – In memory of Michele Capozzi
Beer and Loving with Las Bangers by Paulita Pappel & Rod Wyler
PREMIO BARONE – In memory of Antonio Barone
Kinkydogs by S. Pain e Tanamadana
FEATURE FILMS AND DOCUMENTARIES JURY
Aga Szreder
Rafał Żwirek
Walter Crasshole
SHORT FILMS JURY
Tony Allotta
Ester Cardella
Melanconico