The Donald M. Ephraim Palm Beach Film Festival©
Presented by MorseLife to Offer Seven Amazing Movies Embracing LGBTQ+ Audiences
January 26 – February 16, 2023
The Donald M. Ephraim Palm Beach Film Festival© Presented by MorseLife is committed to having a truly international focus, celebrating cinematic excellence and reflecting a commitment to global diversity. Offering more than 40 different highly anticipated, critically acclaimed, and thought-provoking films features, documentaries, and shorts, the Festival will showcase seven extraordinary films of particular interest to LGBTQ+ audiences—including one Florida Premiere and six Palm Beach Premieres.
The 2022 documentary ALL MAN: THE INTERNATIONAL MALE STORY is more than outrageous fashions, it is a journey across three decades of the International Male catalog’s lasting impact on fashion, masculinity, and gay rights. Written by Emmy- and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Peter Jones and narrated by Matt Bomer. Film Director Jesse Finley Reed will attend the two screenings. (February 4, 6)
BALABAN tells the story of a reserved 16-year-old schoolgirl diagnosed with HIV as a child, living a sheltered life with her mother in Kazakhstan and dreaming of moving to Paris and becoming the next big thing in fashion. (January 30, February 9)
From Austria, BREAKING THE ICE explores what happens when someone with a rigid approach to life meets their freewheeling opposite? Mira is the heir to an Austrian vineyard whose existence is defined by stress and her sole outlet is serving as the captain of a women’s ice hockey team. (January 27, February 11, 14)
Enjoying a Florida Premiere is the award-winning DOS ESTACIONES from Mexico, a beautiful story about one woman’s journey of legacy and loss, the painstaking process of making an artisanal bottle of tequila, and all the challenges the tequila industry endures. (February 2, 10)
NO STRAIGHT LINES: THE RISE OF QUEER COMICS is a lively look at five LGBTQ+ comic book artists whose careers go from the underground scene to the cover of Time Magazine and the international stage. This film invites the artists to share their stories and observations on everything from the AIDS crisis and workplace discrimination to the search for love. (January 28, February 12)
Co-produced in Belgium, Denmark, France, Morocco, THE BLUE CAFTAN is about a middle-aged married couple who operate a small garment shop, from which the master tailor painstakingly embroiders magnificent caftans for a choosy clientele. This film was Morocco’s official Oscar entry for Best International Feature. (February 2, 7, 15)
YOU CAN LIVE FOREVER is set in the early ’90s, when gay teen Jaime is sent to live with her devout Jehovah’s Witness relatives after her father’s death. She makes an unexpected connection with the daughter of a prominent Witness Elder, but the community forcing them each to make a terrible choice between faith and love. (February 1, 3, 10)
The various LGBTQ+-themed movies during the new Donald M. Ephraim Palm Beach Film Festival will be shown at CMX Downtown in Palm Beach Gardens, CMX Wellington, Movies of Lake Worth, Paragon Theatres in Delray Beach, and the Regal in Royal Palm Beach.
For a full list of participating theaters and scheduled movies, request a DMEPBFF brochure, or to become a member of the Festival Film Society, please call 561.867.3109 or visit DMEPBFF.org.
