Adventures in the dark. (the Buzz).

Teddy winners Walking on Water(top, left) and All About My Father(above); Guardian of the Frontier(top, right)

WHAT MAKES FILM FESTIVAL parties sexier? Grim movies, apparently. "There were many parties with lots of flirting," joked Manuela Kay of Berlin's gay Siegessaule magazine about the 52nd annual Berlin International Film Festival, usually a launching pad for gay cinema, where this year the major films dealt with issues like Nazis and real-life violent tragedies. "Because of the lack [on-screen], people had to get their share of eroticism on a more social level."

The intensity of the festival's films was also reflected in the Teddy Awards for best GLBT movies, where Tony Ayres's Walking on Water, a heart-wrenching story of how friends and family cope with grief after euthanatizing a terminally ill gay man, came away with Best Feature and a Siegessaule readers' award.

Among the lower-profile films, however, there was festiveness and even joy to be found. Spanish director Venture Pons's Food of Love involves a cute young page turner--the fella that turns music pages for a pianist--who has a steamy affair with his musician idol, Kennington, while on vacation abroad with his kooky mother. Apparently novelist David Leavitt approved of this adaptation of The Page Turner, E-mailing Pons a glowing letter to share before its premiere.

Maja Weiss's Deliverance meets Blair Witch-esque feature, Guardian of the Frontier, saw a trio of hot Slovenian lasses encountering a mysterious guardian, plus some delicious lesbian sex.

Nonetheless, this year's Teddy award ceremony did provide one of the week's biggest laughs: Norway's Even Benestad won Best Documentary for All About My Father, which profiles his gender-bending transactivist pop, Esben, a.k.a. Esther. "Remember to call your mother!" the proud and glamorous Esther proclaimed to Even while accepting the award.