Success for Shank

Gritty drama wins gay cinema award.

by Amber Wilkinson

Shank director Simon Pearce
Shank director Simon Pearce

Gritty gay Brit flick Shank has won the Roger Walker-Dack Award for Emerging Talents in Queer Cinema at the Miami Lesbian & Gay Film Festival.

Directed by 21-year-old newcomer Simon Pearce and written and produced by gay creative team Christian Martin and Darren Flaxstone, the film follows the life of teenage gang member, Cal (Wayne Virgo) who hustles for sex and deals drugs to get by.

Hiding his secret sex life from fellow hoodlums Cal rescues a university student mid queer-bashing and falls in love as their lives and worlds collide.

Writer Christian Martin sai: "It was a risk working with a young, inexperienced cast and first-time director but this award, along with the international audience support for the film validates the courage of our conviction to push the gay genre in a new direction.

"May it be the first of many - we're delighted and now hungry to get it out to a British audience."

TLA Releasing will give the film a small theatrical relase in September, before the film is released later this autumn on DVD.

Share this with others on...
News

Cousins discovers a kindred spirit Filmmaker on his Barns-Graham art doc in Karlovy Vary

Creating a spirited comedy Tomás Gómez Bustillo on faith, competitive piety and humour in Chronicles Of A Wandering Saint

Fragile yet beautiful Usman Riaz on creating animated magic in The Glassworker

Action woman Kelsey Egan on stars, stunts, world building and the 11 year journey of making The Fix

Star fixer who can 'make or break' a film Casting agent Francine Maisler reveals her secrets - from The Bikeriders to Succession

Why Soderbergh became hooked by Jaws Karlovy Vary guest reflects on Spielberg, Kafka and 'retirement'

More news and features

We're bringing you news, reviews and interviews from the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.



We're looking forward to the Fantasia International Film Festival.



We've recently covered Frameline48, Docs Ireland, Sheffield DocFest, the Tribeca Film Festival, the Muslim International Film Festival, Inside Out, Cannes, Fantaspoa, Queer East, Visions du Réel and New Directors/New Films.



Read our full for more.


Visit our festivals section.

Interact

More competitions coming soon.


DJDT

Versions

Time

Settings from settings.local

Headers

Request

SQL queries from 1 connection

Templates (10 rendered)

Cache calls from 2 backends

Signals