tribute • cinekink

>More polyamory in the mainstream of late. First up, on Parks and Recreation, Leslie meets April’s boyfriend… and April’s boyfriend’s boyfriend. He’s gay for him, but straight for her and well, you know.

(Hat-tip Practical Polyamory)

And next, writer Jenny Block, author of Open: Love, Sex and Life, introduces the concept of polyamory to a less accepting (and real-life) audience. Wearing a brazen red dress, she appears at a Texas church–and holds her own–discussing the relationship she has with her husband and girlfriend on “Nightline Face-Off: Born to Cheat?“

>Slightly delayed by the lingering effect of–and subsequent recovery from– our ever-popular AfterGlow Party, here at long last are the CineKink awards for 2009!

“CineKink Choice” – AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARDS
CineKink Choice awards, which go to feature-length works in competition during the festival, were determined by audience balloting at the close of each eligible work’s screening. The 2009 award winners are:

CineKink Choice Award for Best Narrative Feature:
“The Auteur” (James Westby)

CineKink Choice Award for Best Documentary Feature:
“Graphic Sexual Horror” (Barbara Bell & Anna Lorentzon)
-tie-
“Kinky” (A. Benjamin)

CineKink Choice Award – Honorable Mentions:
“Happy Endings?” (Tara Hurley)
Sex Positive” (Daryl Wein)

“CineKink Best” – JURY AWARD FOR BEST SHORTS
CineKink Best awards, which go to short works in competition during the festival, were determined by jury deliberation and ranking. The 2009 award winners are:

CineKink Best Narrative Short
“Kink, Inc.” (Casey Clark)
-tie-
“Matinee” (Jennifer Lyon Bell)

CineKink Best Documentary Short:
“Serving Madame Gina” (Gabriele Hoff, PsyD)

CineKink Best Experimental Short:
“Erotic Moments” (Eva Midgley)
-tie-
“Un Piede di Roman Polanski” (Lauren Wissot & Rosanne Kapitoa)

CineKink Best Animated Short:
“Teat Beat of Sex: 8-11” (Signe Baumane)

CineKink Best Musical Short:
“At the Porno Shop” (Michael Mehfield)

CineKink Honorable Best Mentions:
“BDSM: It’s Not What You Think” (Erin Palmquist)
“Belle de Nature” (Maria Beatty)
“Rubberheart” (Brian Crano)

This year’s jury included Steven Speliotis, a photographer and CineKink alumni director, Viviane, ring-leader of the sex blog, “Viviane’s Sex Carnival, and Bill Woods, a film festival programmer and curator of the New Filmmakers series at Anthology Film Archives.

“CineKink Tribute” – FESTIVAL AWARD FOR EXTRAORDINARY DEPICTION OF KINK & SEX IN MAINSTREAM FILM & TELEVISION
Recognizing extraordinary depiction of kink and sex in mainstream film and television, the annual CineKink Tribute was presented to two works this year:

“Swingtown” (CBS)
“CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” (CBS)

Honorable Mentions (aka the CineKink Nod)
“Burn After Reading” (Focus Features)
“How I Met Your Mother” (CBS)

Many thanks and congratulations to this year’s CineKink award winners – and to all of our ultra-talented filmmakers!

For more details on all of the award winning works…

>Or where’s your nomination, rather, which we’re currently accepting for the CineKink Tribute, an annual award that honors outstanding depictions of kink and sex-positivity in mainstream film and television.

Last year’s CineKink Tribute was presented to the film Shortbus— which was directed by our long-time nemesis, John Cameron Mitchell, and distributed by ThinkFilm–for its “frank, funny and human look at the inextricable role sexuality plays in our day-to-day lives and the many flavors it can exhibit.”

Meanwhile, honorable mentions (aka the CineKink Nod) went to Focus Feature’s Lust, Caution, to ThinkFilm’s documentary release Zoo and to the syndicated series, The Oprah Winfrey Show. (Yes, that Oprah…for the episode “237 Reasons to Have Sex”!) (You thought there were only 236?)

A wide range of works–will it be Tyra?–are eligible for consideration, as long as they were released for US distribution (theatrical, broadcast and/or cable) at any time in 2008. Winners will be announced in conjunction with CineKink NYC, which is coming up February 24-March 1, 2009.

So, who’s gonna take it home this year? Let us know!

>Just as with dating, it might be too much to expect both qualities in one package. And the not-so-mixed reviews don’t exactly make a compelling argument for a dash to the cineplex. (Though largely affectionate–“I sort of liked it”–critic Andrew O’Hehir’s review also includes the observation that it “…seems like a movie Jim Jarmusch might have started in 1991 and then abandoned because it wasn’t going anywhere.” Yikes! That’s the very fear that has kept us unproductively lodged in our creativity burrow all these many decades.)

But Madonna’s directorial debut, Filth and Wisdom, would seem to have enough CineKink-relevant themes to warrant at least a quick go-over–and, who knows, quite possibly a Tribute? We’re ever-eager to be happily surprised.

>It’s not that complicated. Well, maybe kinda… but still.

>And the winner is…

>Hey, where’s our tribute?!

>Filth and wisdom?