The JET Progress production of the film WINNOWING has just received semi-finalist recognition and an award in Iceland’s 2024 YETI FilmFest for Best Queer (LGBTQ) film — https://yetifilmfest.com/2024-semi-finalists. This follows a previous nomination by Brooklyn’s 2024 Nocturna Online Film Festival for Best Queer Film — https://nocturnafilmfest.com/2024-spring-results.


WINNOWING is a human drama about human perseverance in which an actor and actress are asked to do a final audition for a “Really Big Film,” the audition requiring each to read six different roles from six different books by internationally renown LGBTQ+ author and screenwriter, William Maltese. Interestingly, Maltese is also the screenwriter for the WINNOWING. WINNOWING stars Daniel S. Janik and Sakura Kai (aka Setsuko Tsuchiya) each playing two roles in addition to the reading roles. A complex neo-noir film in black and white, it has won over 30 international awards.


Respectful diversity is one of several hallmarks of JET Progress productions, including using human drama as the key draw, instead of graphic violence.


“I have long felt a bond with the LGBTQ Community,” says Maltese, “having started my writing career as an author of gay novels during the Golden Age of Pulp Fiction. “Since back in the sixties, I’ve tried, whenever possible, to incorporate ‘Queer’ into all aspects of my writing — whether sort stories, novels or, most recently, movies.”




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