We are very pleased to announce that Leah Francisco’s What is Wrong With Her? is the winner of our SQIFF 2020 award for Best Scottish Short.
What is Wrong With Her?, an autobiographical BSL poem by Edinburgh-based filmmaker and comedian, Leah Francisco, produced by Glasgow theatre company Solar Bear, was chosen as the winning Scottish short by festival audiences.
“What is Wrong With Her? is a BSL poem about my journey from a baby born in Greece to an adult living in Edinburgh,” says Leah. “During the poem I explore issues around being born deaf to hearing parents, identity, sexuality and finding peace within myself within a world that keeps telling me that there is something wrong with who I am. When I found out that I won the award I couldn’t believe it, I was speechless! It’s a great honour to win it and thanks go to Felix from Solar Bear and Sebastian Francisco. Thank you SQIFF! I am considering making another film with a few actors this time, which will be a new challenge for me.”
The announcement was made at the closing night of our sixth annual celebration of cinema for and by the LGBTQIA+ community.
“We’re so pleased Leah’s film won our Best Scottish Short award this year. It is well-deserved and great to be able to recognise Leah’s talent and the unique perspective of What is Wrong with Her? Equally all the Scottish work including both filmmaking and curating talent we were able to showcase this year deserves acknowledgement and celebrating.
We don’t know what 2021 will bring yet but we hope to be able to keep providing a platform for LGBTQIA+ work and voices in Scotland, and making events accessible for those most often excluded from the arts.” (SQIFF Producer, Helen Wright)