(SPOT.ph) This year's Pride month is off to a great start as local LGBT films continue to gain more ground globally. In a report by Deadline, Inside Out, an LGBT film festival held in Toronto, Canada announced this year's winners on June 2—with Samantha Lee's Billie and Emma garnering an Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature.Â
Director Lee first made waves with Baka Bukas, her entry to the 2016 QCinema Film Festival, starring Jasmine Curtis-Smith as a lesbian secretly in love with her best friend. Following the success of that film, Billie and Emma was Lee's entry to the 2018 QCinema Film Festival. It was shown nationwide earlier this year.
Billie and Emma follows the story of two senior high school students in '90s. Billie (Zar Donato) is fresh from the city, sent to live with her spinster aunt who also happens to be a religion teacher. She meets Emma (Gabby Padilla), a star student, and they fall in love—but things get complicated when Emma finds out she's pregnant. Together, they explore and experience the many fleeting joys, and pains, of life.Â
