Directed by Linda Cullen, The 34^th opened GAZE with a gala event that was attended by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. The film, which follows Marriage Equality from its inception with the Katherine Zappone/Ann Louise Gilligan case against the Irish government to have their Canadian marriage recognised in 2004, to victory at the polls when Ireland voted for same-sex marriage in 2015, won both the Audience and Spirit of GAZE Awards at the festival, which celebrated its 25^th anniversary this year.

“It’s a great honour to receive both the Audience award and the Spirit of GAZE award for this documentary,” Cullen (pictured below) told GCN.ie. “I believe The 34th is an important documentary in terms of capturing LGBT+ history and stories, and I am really glad that I, along with a great but small team, got to make it. That it has been so well received and has won two awards at GAZE 25 is the total icing on the cake!”

The Best Documentary Award went to The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson, which uses never-before-seen footage and rediscovered interviews in a search for the truth behind the mysterious 1992 death of black transgender activist and Stonewall veteran Marsha P. Johnson (pictured  below).

The Best Irish Short went to Michael Moody Culpepper’s 3 Friends (pictured below). Based on a Colm Tóibín short story, it follows Fergus, a young Irish man who is propelled on a powerful journey that begins at his mother’s funeral and wake.

French animator, Céline Devaux’s Sunday Lunch (Le Repas Dominical), won Best International Short. With a unique brand of story-telling it shows the universal feelings that many in the LGBT+ community have felt with both our birth families and sometimes the families we call our own.

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