CIFF

DReam Maker

DReam Maker is the Cleveland International Film Festival’s LGBTQ+ Program and Award, established in 2019 to honor the life and memory of David K. Ream (1949–2017), a beloved CIFF trustee.

An indexer by profession, a master of puns by choice, and a true Renaissance man at heart, Dave loved Cleveland and everything about it.

DReam Maker continues to honor an LGBTQ+ director with a $5,000 cash award to support future work. During CIFF, this director spends time meeting with local organizations whose missions support the LGBTQ+ community. DReam Maker has also grown to highlight not only the award recipient, but also a variety of CIFF films made by LGBTQ+ directors and featuring LGBTQ+ themes. This year's award is presented with support from Case Western Reserve University.

CIFF is thrilled to recognize pioneering LGBTQ+ filmmaker, Kimberly Reed, Director of the CIFF49 film I'M YOUR VENUS, as its seventh DReam Maker Award recipient. Her award will be presented to her at the screening of I'M YOUR VENUS on the Trans Day of Visiblity, March 31st at 7:45 PM at Playhouse Square.

Kimberly Reed’s film “Dark Money” (CIFF42) was an award-winning selection at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, was promptly named one of Vogue’s “66 Best Documentaries of All Time,” shortlisted for an Oscar®, nominated for Best Documentary of the Year by IDA and for four Critics’ Choice Awards, and won the prestigious duPont Columbia Prize for Broadcast Journalism. Her trailblazing film “Prodigal Sons” (Telluride Film Festival premiere, First Run Features, Sundance Channel), won 14 international awards and was the first documentary by a transgender filmmaker to be theatrically released in the U.S. She recently directed episode 2 of the four-part non-fiction series Equal on HBO MAX, titled “Transgender Pioneers,” and served as Executive Producer of the award-winning HBO documentary “Transhood.” Ms. Reed also produced/edited/wrote “Paul Goodman Changed My Life” (Zeitgeist Films), and produced “The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson” (Netflix). We're thrilled to bring Ms. Reed back to CIFF with her latest film I'M YOUR VENUS.

Her work in broader artistic fields has also been acclaimed: her short story was published in the NY Times bestselling The Moth – 50 True Stories, and she has co/written the libretti for four operas, including As One, the most frequently produced American opera in the 21st century. Her film projections for opera have been called “worthy of Fellini or Bergman” (SF Classical Voice).

She has been honored as one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film,” Out Magazine’s “Out 100,” and received the Chicken & Egg Award. A frequent juror (Sundance, POV), lecturer (Harvard, Columbia, NYU, USC), and speaker (The Moth), Kim is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. She is a summa cum laude graduate of UC Berkeley (B.A.) and San Francisco State University film school (M.A.).

Director, Kimberly Reed

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