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Twists of fate are par for the course in Unidentified Objects, both on and off the screen. The new road trip film from director Juan Felipe Zuleta tracks the unlikely friendship of a gay dwarf (Matthew Jeffers) who agrees to go on a road trip with his bubbly, alien-obsessed neighbor (Sarah Hay). The mission: To find an alien visitation site Winona (Hay) claims to be the spot of her first alien encounter when she was a teen. Cranky Peter (Jeffers) isn’t so sure.

Surprisingly, Jeffers almost wasn’t in this film. He received an email from his agent saying that there was this small indie film he could audition for. It was in the height of the pandemic and, “I was living at my boss' loft in Soho, and very detached from the creative space,” the actor explained. “My grandfather was passing away and I felt very deeply disconnected from my creative muscle.

Twists of fate are par for the course in Unidentified Objects, both on and off the screen. The new road trip film from director Juan Felipe Zuleta tracks the unlikely friendship of a gay dwarf (Matthew Jeffers) who agrees to go on a road trip with his bubbly, alien-obsessed neighbor (Sarah Hook). The mission: To find an alien visitation site Winona (Hook) claims to be the spot of her first alien encounter when she was a teen. Cranky Peter (Jeffers) isn’t so sure.

Surprisingly, Jeffers almost wasn’t in this film. He received an email from his agent saying that there was this small indie film he could audition for. It was in the height of the pandemic and, “I was living at my boss' loft in Soho, and very detached from the creative space,” the actor explained. “My grandfather was passing away and I felt very deeply disconnected from my creative muscle.

A gay dwarf and an alien-obsessed street worker go on a road trip and… Let’s stop right there. Unidentified Objects will surely capture your attention for that inventive premise, but chances are you’ll be more moved by how this sparkling indie film manages to create a compelling narrative with two characters audiences don’t often see on the big screen.

Director Juan Felipe Zuleta co-wrote this amusing and often deeply emotional film with Leland Frankel, and the duo were showered in praise during their film fest run. Unidentified Objects nabbed the 2022 Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ+ Film Festival Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature and Grand Jury Prize for Outstanding Performance for Matthew Jeffers, in fact. Speaking of…

Jeffers teams with Golden Globe nominee Sarah Hay (Flesh and Bone) here. As Peter and Winona respectively, the duo plays New York City neighbors and unlikely friends in an engaging and...

There is a vast array of Lgbtqi films and TV series to experience during Pride month, and Unidentified Objects should sit high on the must-see list. Not because it features gay characters but because it explores universal themes that unite us. Director Juan Felipe Zuleta saw that and creates a winning tale about two characters we can understand and root for.

Here’s to that. So… what can possibly go wrong when an uptight dwarf and his woo-woo, alien-obsessed neighbor road trip it to Canada in an offbeat attempt to search for their place in the universe? Plenty, and that’s what makes Zuleta’s indie outing so enjoyable to watch. The man is also on board as co-screenwriter with Leland Frankel. Together they weave a compelling, often funny tale about an unlikely friendship and enduring existential angst. Juan Felipe Zuleta, who’s experienced a great run at film fests with the movie,...

The company’s new feature Ricky, directed by Rashad Frett, is building on the short of the same name that premiered at Sundance 2023.

New York-based Ramfis Myrthil, whose credits include Independent Spirit Award-nominated Cicada, is in Cannes with the international launch of his new company Ramfis Productions.

The company’s new feature Ricky, directed by Rashad Frett, is building on the short of the same name that premiered at Sundance 2023. The team is gearing up to shoot the feature version of Ricky in the US this summer, most likely in New Jersey. The story is about an ex-offender who is...

A Great Divide, a anti-Asian racism drama that stars Ken Jeong, Jae Suh Park and Emerson Min, is set to open the competitive program for Geena Davis’ Bentonville Film Festival, running June 13-18.

The feature directorial debut of Emmy-winning commercial and short film director Jean Shim, which also star Miya Cech in a lead role, will get a world premiere during the ninth edition of the Bentonville, Arkansas festival. A Great Divide follows a Korean-American family that leaves the Bay Area for a fresh start in rural Wyoming after experiencing a devastating loss.

Also getting a first look at Bentonville is director R. J. Daniel Hanna’s Hard Miles, which dramatizes the true story of a youth prison social worker who took a cycling team comprising teenage inmates on a transformative 1,000-mile ride. The film, written by Hanna and Christian Sander, stars Matthew Modine, Cynthia Kaye McWilliams, Jahking Guillory, Jackson Kelly,...

"I promise that this will all make a lot more sense when I can show you..." Quiver Distr. has released the first official trailer for an indie comedy called Unidentified Objects, marking the feature directorial debut of NYC-based filmmaker Juan Felipe Zuleta. This first premiered at the 2022 Inside Out Film Festival last year, and also played at Outfest LA, Fantastic Fest, NewFest - with a release set for June this summer. An uptight dwarf and his free-spirited, alien-obsessed neighbor hit the road on a border-defying search (up into Canada) for their place in the universe. On their increasingly-surreal odyssey, Peter & Winona encounter bickering lesbian cosplayers, shroom-addled survivalists, and even extraterrestrial highway cops. Starring Golden Globe nom Sarah Hay as Winona, and Matthew August Jeffers as Peter, along with Roberta Colindrez, Tara Pacheco, and Kerry Flanagan. This looks like some quirky, funky indie entertainment. // Continue Reading ›...

The Lgbtqia+ festival takes place March 15-26.

The BFI Flare: London Lgbtqia+ Film Festival has unveiled the line-up for its 37th edition which takes place March 15 – 26.

The programme features 58 features, six of which are world premieres, spread across three thematic strands – Hearts, Bodies and Minds.

Scroll down for full line-up

World premiering at the festival is John Hay’s documentary Willem & Frieda which is presented by Stephen Fry and explores how a gay man and a lesbian woman led the anti-Nazi resistance in Holland.

The other world premieres are Timothy Harris’ documentary Kenyatta: Do Not Wait Your Turn about the...

Unidentified Objects Clip “Give Me Half the Money Before” from Juan Felipe Zuleta on Vimeo. Finding genuine connections in a divided world as they try to adapt to new life circumstances can be an equally harrowing and fulfilling experience for many people. That’s certainly the case for the two protagonists of the new award-winning buddy […]

The post Fantastic Fest 2022 Interview: Juan Felipe Zuleta Talks Unidentified Objects (Exclusive) appeared first on Shockya.com.

The road trip movie is tailor-made for the journey of self discovery; more so perhaps in North America, where the distances are long, the population sparse, and the lack of anything to do besides face yourself dominates. This can be even more important when those on the journey are strangers, each with a different goal and reaching for something seemingly unattainable. Both the journey and the destination matter, even if the result is unexpected. Unidentified Objects falls into the 'odd couple road trip' subgenre, but rather than the tyipical broad comedy tone, evokes a more off-kilter, fantastical atmosphere. In their feature debut, director Juan Felipe Zuleta and writer Leland Frankel work very hard to weave this tale, but perhaps sometimes can't see the forest for...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Stars: Matthew Jeffers, Sarah Hay, Kerry Flanagan, Hamish Allan-Headley | Written by Juan Felipe Zuleta, Leland Frankel | Directed by Juan Felipe Zuleta

By a strange twist of scheduling, the first couple of films from Fantastic Fest, Unidentified Objects and Everyone Will Burn, have something in common, they both have main characters who have dwarfism. It’s the kind of coincidence that, while meaningless in the real world, would probably mean something significant in the strange world where Unidentified Objects takes place.

Along with being a dwarf, Peter is gay and currently unemployed. He’s also tired of his treatment for being different and tends to avoid people. That doesn’t stop Winona from knocking on his door asking for a favour, a ride to Canada. It seems the aliens who abducted her when she was fifteen are coming back for her and she needs to meet them. I guess they couldn...

Outfest has announced the award winners of its 40th Anniversary Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ+ Film Festival.

Top prizes went to Amanda Kramer’s Please Baby Please, starring Andrea Riseborough, Henry Melling, Karl Glusman and Demi Moore, for Outstanding North American Narrative Feature; Gabriel Martins’ Brazilian family drama Mars One took the Grand Jury Prize for Outstanding International Narrative Feature, and the newly-named Paul D. Lerner and Stephen Reis Grand Jury Prize for Outstanding Documentary Feature went to Rita Baghdadi’s Sirens, about the Lebanese female thrash metal band Slave to Sirens. The Academy Award-qualifying festival’s two Grand Jury prizes for Narrative shorts went to April Maxey’s Work (Outstanding U.S. Narrative Short) and Dania Bedir’s Warsha, both of which are now Oscar eligible. Outstanding Documentary Short went to Brydie O’Connor’s Love, Barbara.

Audience awards went to Juan Felipe Zuleta’s crowd-pleasing Unidentified Objects, and documentary feature...

“Please Baby Please” and “Mars One” are among the winners of the 40th Anniversary Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ Film Festival. The organization announced the honorees during its award ceremony Wednesday.

The L.A.-based nonprofit, which promotes LGBTQ filmmakers and projects, ran its 40th edition festival from July 14-24. Over the course of the festival, 30,000 people attended its programming and more than 200 films screened, including 42 world premieres. The festival opened with Billy Porter’s directorial debut “Anything’s Possible” and closed with the LGBTQ slasher film “They/Them.”

“Please Baby Please,” directed by Amanda Kramer and starring Andrea Riseborough and Henry Melling, took the outstanding North American feature prize, while Brazilian director Gabriel Martins’ family drama “Mars One” won the outstanding international feature award. Audience award winners included “Unidentified Objects” by Juan Felipe Zuleta and documentary feature “Stay on Board: The Leo Baker Story.” Select award winners will be available to stream...

When “Unidentified Objects” filmmaker Juan Felipe Zuleta found himself in isolation with the world around him shut down during the height of the pandemic, he and screenwriter Leland Frankel turned to storytelling to transform their “helplessness” to a haven for people, who, like Zuleta, live in liminal spaces.

“Locked in apartments, it was a lot of depression, a lot of anxiety, a lot of… helplessness, and almost a little bit of hatred towards the world for everything that’s going on,” Zuleta told TheWrap. “And eventually, we started developing the story, out of almost necessity, to tell something that expressed… how we were feeling at that moment.”

“Unidentified Objects,” which premieres this week at Outfest Los Angeles, follows Peter, “a flamboyant, misanthropic dwarf hiding from the world,” and his alien-obsessed neighbor, Winona, who forces Peter out of his comfort zone on an impromptu road trip to rural Canada, where she...

Outfest has announced the complete lineup for its 40th-anniversary Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ+ Film Festival, which will take place from July 14-24 at multiple locations throughout Los Angeles.

More than 200 films, representing 29 countries, will screen as part of this year’s lineup. 42 will make their world premieres, including the doc Stay on Board: The Leo Baker Story from Drew Barrymore’s Flower Films and Pulse Films; the UK feature Phea, starring Sherika Sherard; Mercedes Kane’s Art and Pep; and Scout Durwood’s Youtopia.

Outfest Los Angeles’ Episodics section will also feature a host of world premieres, including advanced looks at at Shudder’s forthcoming docuseries Queer for Fear; the comedy special Queer Riot, headlined by Margaret Cho; and writer-producer Des Moran’s series halfsies, as well as a free sneak peek screening of the upcoming Prime Video series A League of Their Own, starring Abbi Jacobson.

The fest’s Platinum section,...

Click here to read the full article.

Outfest is prepping to roll out the red carpet for a milestone 40th annual event next month, setting Billy Porter’s directorial debut Anything’s Possible to open, horror film They/Them to close, and appearances by Kevin Bacon, Theo Germaine, Julianne Moore, Todd Haynes, Clive Barker, Big Freedia and Christine Vachon, among others.

Presented by Warner Bros. Discover and IMDb, the fest runs July 14-24 at various Los Angeles venues. Opening night, held at Downtown L.A.’s historic Orpheum Theatre, will feature Porter’s Anything’s Possible from Prime Video Original. The high school set pic follows a young trans student and her love interest as they navigate a romance during their senior year and it stars Eva Reign, Abubakr Ali, Simone Joy Jones, Kelly Lamor Wilson and Broadway star Renée Elise Goldsberry.

Opening night is shaping up to be a big evening for Porter,...

Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ+ Film Festival today announced a star-studded lineup of galas and centerpiece events that will punctuate its 40th anniversary, which will be celebrated from July 14-24 in venues around Los Angeles.

The 11-day festival will kick off at downtown L.A.’s Orpheum Theatre with the world premiere of Grammy-, Emmy- and Tony Award-winning artist Billy Porter’s directorial debut, Anything’s Possible. The Prime Video Original is an uplifting teenage romance about an unflappable trans girl and a charming cis boy navigating a senior year relationship. Porter will be present at the event to receive the 2022 Outfest Annual Achievement Award.

The festival will close at The Theater at the Ace Hotel on July 24 with the world premiere of Oscar-nominated screenwriter John Logan’s directorial debut, They/Them. The Blumhouse Production, to be released by Peacock, is a horror film set at an Lgbtqia+ conversion camp, in which...

Matthew Jeffers and Sarah Hay in Unidentified Objects

The story of an introverted gay little person talked into going on a road trip by his neighbour, who is hoping to meet up with the aliens she believes abducted her years previously, Unidentified Objects is one of those little indie gems which, too often, one needs luck to discover. It’s screening as part of this year’s Inside Out festival in Toronto, and stars Matthew Jeffers and Sarah Hay, together with director Juan Felipe Zuleta, were enthusiastic about meeting to discuss it. Their easy chemistry and passion for the project shone out of them, and Sarah began the conversation by telling me how she came on board.

Sarah Hay on the set of Unidentified Objects

“My first time I read it – I was sent it by my manager – I was completely taken aback by the whole thing,” says Sarah. “It...

Festival to run May 26-June 5.

The Canadian premiere of Gabriel Martin’s Brazil-set family drama Mars One and the world premiere of the first two episodes of Prime Video’s first original Canadian scripted comedy series The Lake bookend the hybrid 32nd annual Inside Out Toronto 2Slgbtq+ Film Festival (May 26-June 5).

Mars One follows the lives and dreams of an impoverished family in Belo Horizonte against the backdrop of far-right president Jair Bolsonaro’s 2018 election victory and opened Sundance’s World Cinema programme at the start of the year.

The Lake is created by Julian Doucet and stars Jordan Gavaris...