Plainclothes Wins Best Narrative Feature at Provincetown International Film Festival

Plainclothes, the debut feature from director Carmen Emmi, won the Provincetown International Film Festival Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at the 27th annual PIFF this past weekend. The Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature went to Come See Me in the Good Light, directed by Ryan White.

The festival, held in the arts and LGBTQ+ mecca of Provincetown, Massachusetts, hosted a robust and boundary-pushing slate of top-notch films, including James Sweeney's Twinless and Annapurna Sriram's Fucktoys. Highlights included a Q&A between Ari Aster and John Waters, the patron saint of the festival, as Waters presented Aster the Filmmaker on the Edge Award.

Murray Bartlett was presented with the Excellence in Acting Award by iconic producer Christine Vachon. Eva Victor, director of Sorry Baby, and River Gallo, director of Ponyboi, both received the Next Wave Award.

Additional guests include Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke, whose delightful Honey Don't received a very warm reception, as well as Sweeney and Dylan O’Brien, who co-star in the twisty, fascinating Twinless.

Other guests included Linus O’Brien, whose lovely Rocky Horror Picture Show documentary Strange Journey opened the festival, as well as Brandon Flynn, François Arnaud, Michael Koehler, Annapurna Sriram, Sadie Scott, Aud Mason-Hyde, Carmen Emmi, Ryan White, Michael Strassner, Yashaddai Owens, Alexi Wasser, Kahane Corn Cooperman, Zackary Drucker, Allison Argo, Elegance Bratton, John Cooper, and Sundance Film Festival director Eugene Hernandez.

The festival closed with Michael Koehler’s Spiritus: No Business Like Dough Business, about a pizzeria and cafe that is one of PTown's most beloved and enduring businesses.

Plainclothes, Come See Me in the Good Light and More PIFF Winners

Plainclothes, shot in Emmi's hometown of Syracuse, New York, is the story of a cop who is assigned to bust gay men for having sex in public places — but ends up falling for one of his targets. Come See Me in the Good Light is the story of two poet lovers who embark on an exploraton of love and morality — with unexpected humor — after a terminal diagnosis.

The John Schlesinger Awards, presented to a first-time narrative and documentary feature filmmaker, went to Sarah Friedland for the narrative Familiar Touch and Brittany Shyne for the documentary Seeds.

The winers of the Juried Short Awards were "Dragfox," directed by Lisa Ott, for best animated short; "Signs From the Mainland," by Michael Cestaro, for Best New England Short; "Grandma Nai Who Played Favorites," by Chheangkea, for Best Queer Short; "Susana," directed by Gerardo Coello Escalante and Amandine Thomas, for Best Narrative Short; and "We'll Carry On Alright," directed by Megan Rossman, for Best Documentary Short.

"Yú Cì (Fish Bones)," by Kevin X. Yu, and "Tiger," by Loren Waters, received special jury mentions. (MovieMaker's house style is to italicize feature titles and put short film titles in quotes. )

Main image: Russell Tovey and Tom Blyth in Plainclothes, directed by Carmen Emmi.