Though boasting several sold-out screenings, plus a new home at the fabulous Cinerama theater, the 6th Annual Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival seemed to have more misses than hits this year. But that is not necessarily the fault of the festival.

Gay cinema, like any other genre, fluctuates in quality from year to year. The festival found itself trying to top its own previous incarnations, which (unfortunately for them) includes screening coups such as All About My Mother, the original British Queer As Folk, Boys Don't Cry, sing-alongs for The Sound of Music and Grease, and smart-assed commentary on the cult-favorite Showgirls. Crowd-pleasing and acclaimed flicks like those would be a tough act to follow for any festival.

This year's QAF was a new hyperkinetic British TV-show called Metrosexuality. This year's Spanish import was Second Skin (Segunda Piel), starring red-hot Javier Bardem. This year's sing-along was called Cine-oke (a karaoke fest of individual scenes from different films). This year's smart-assed commentary was on Ellen Degeneres' Mr. Wrong. For the most part, all of these paled in comparison to their precursors in previous years.

The standouts in the festival were those flicks that brought a fresh insight on previously tread grounds, or else shared something completely new. The documentary Trembling Before G-d brought us into the world of gay and lesbian Orthodox and Hasidic Jews. Gypsy 83 is probably the first road trip flick where the main characters are goths. And The Fluffer brought us back into the world of porn, but with more humor and sweetness than Boogie Nights.

And Your Mother Too    Chop Suey Circuit    Drift The Fluffer    Friends and Family    The Girl

Gypsy 83    Julie Johnson    Metrosexuality    Second Skin (Segunda Piel)    Stray Dogs Trembling Before G-d