Tropfest is the world’s largest short film festival, and in this year’s contest the winner is a 7-minute short film by West Australian film maker Matt Hardie. The film, Bamboozled, is a “revenge sex” film where a gay cisgender man (Harry) pretends to be a transman who was once the girlfriend (Helen) of the protagonist, Pete. However, the entire thing is a set-up for a TV “gotcha” program, and thus the film portrays someone pretending to be a transsexual person for the purpose of tricking them into sex.

Setting off any alarm bells yet?

You can watch the entire film at the link below. I was not hugely offended by it, more just turned off. Nonetheless, it’s getting a lot of press and spurring a lot of commentary, and none of it is positive towards transgender persons.

Tropfest winner Bamboozled accused of transphobia, homophobia | Crikey.