The Cannes Festival – this year scheduled for a summer edition from July 6 to 17 – has announced its Official Selection 2021: We are thrilled to announce that two Austrian co-productions will be part of the Un Certain Regard selection 2021: GREAT FREEDOM by Sebastian Meise and MONEYBOYS by C. B. Yi.
Lukas Valenta Rinner’s new project LANDSCAPES OF FEAR is invited to the Cinéfondation’s L’Atelier, Magdalena Lauritsch’s (not yet finished) debut RUBIKON is one of the seven genre films picked for the Frontières Buyers Showcase at the Marché du Film.

Fei is a boy from the countryside. At some point he is drawn to the city, or financial necessity forces him to make the move. His family is only too happy to accept the good money he earns as a male prostitute, but by taking this step he has sacrificed his place in the village and in the family. C.B. Yi, in his feature film debut MONEYBOYS, depicts the desolation of not only one young man but a whole generation which can all too easily find itself in a dead end between the financial and moral pressures exerted by society.

The feature debut and Cannes Un Certain Regard-entry MONEYBOYS by C.B. Yi receives an honorable mention at the Bergen International Film Festival (October 20 to 28).

C.B. Yi feature debut MONEYBOYS stands out as Best Film at the 26^th LesGaiCineMad, the international LGBT festival in Madrid. The jury stated, An impeccable proposal that manages to combine raw realism with visual poetics that reveals a firm narrative pulse.

It is a wonderful sign of how young Austrian filmmaking is radiating around the world: C.B. Yi's powerful feature debut MONEYBOYS (a Cannes Un Certain Regard entry in 2021) took two awards on a single weekend: one in Spain, the other one in Hawaii. MONEYBOYS is the winner of the Rambal Award at the Gijón Film Festival and receives an Honorable Mention in the competition for emerging directors at the Hawaii film festival.

The closing night of the Chéries Chéris festival was completely under the sign of films from Austria: Serial winner GREAT FREEDOM by Sebastian Meise took the Gran Prix and the screening of MONEYBOYS by C.B. Yi brought the hip Paris LGBTQI festival to a close. Evi Romen's feature debut WHY NOT YOU was also part of the Cheries Cheris line-up.

MONEYBOYS director C.B. Yi  takes the Best Director Award at the Cineuropa Compostela festival for an outstanding film that represents homosexuality with great sensitivity and warmth. And on top of that, the new jury honored the Cannes-entry with its Best Film award  for its brilliant aesthetic, playful images that show us a cruel and marginal reality, in which one tries to survive without losing dignity.

Max Ophüls Prize for Best Feature Film and Best Screenplay as well as the Prize of the ecumenical jury. That's the awesome outcome for C.B. Yi's feature debut MONEYBOYS at the 43^rd Max Ophüls Prize festival Saarbrücken. "MONEYBOYS is an existential, queer and at the same time universal film about love."