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Thomas Gustafson's "Were the World Mine," which recounts an all-boys high school production of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," was named outstanding U.S. dramatic feature at Outfest, which handed out its awards Sunday night. "World" also played as the awards night feature at the Ford Amphitheatre in Hollywood.

The fest, which formally closes Monday night, also honored Lucia Puenzo's "Xxy" as best international dramatic feature. Daryl Wein's "Sex Postitive" took the documentary award. Tye Olson was chosen best actor in a feature for "Watercolors"; Nicole Bilderback was best actress for "The New Twenty."

James Bolton earned the screenwriting award for "Dream Boy."

Madeleine Olnek's "Countertransference" was named best dramatic short; Amanda Micheli and Isabel Vega's "La Corona" (The Crown) was hailed as best documentary short.

David Assmann's "Football Under Cover" received the Freedom Award.

Dave O'Brien was recognized with the Emerging Talent Award for "Equality U."

Matt Wolf took the prize for Artistic Achievement for "Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell."

Audience awards went to David Oliveras, "Watercolors," first dramatic feature; Andrew Fleming, "Hamlet 2," dramatic feature; Carolyn Coal, "A Place to Live," documentary feature; Lee Sung-eun, "I'm Jin-Young," dramatic short; Micheli and Vega, "La Corna," documentary short; and "Hamlet 2," soundtrack.

Perspektiv Deutsches Kino

BERLIN -- Iranian director and football fan Ayat Najafi must have been hearing voices like Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams when he approached various bodies (including FIFA) to sponsor a friendly match between a local Berlin girls' soccer team and Iran's national women's team. But tackling all the political, religious and cultural defenses that stand in their way is harder than building a stadium.

Nevertheless, as Najafi says to his co-director David Assman, "In Iran, everything is impossible and everything is possible," the teams' refusal to give up pays off and the climactic match presents some exhilarating footage of sports fanaticism and girl power.

Do not expect the trenchant anti-authoritarian observations of Offside or any deep probing into the German-Iranian team members on their feelings of being Persepolis-like emigres visiting their parents' homeland. Politically inoffensive, bursting with teenage energy and softened by a lovely Middle Eastern-flavored score, the documentary will find a sympathetic audience among soccer lovers and young people. With the current popularity of films that mix women soccer fans with ethnicity such as Bend It Like Beckham and Offside, this feel-good exercise might be able to score a golden goal in the worldwide market.

Football Under Cover kicks off with the Iranian members of the Berlin-based BSV AL-Dersimpor girls' soccer team waxing lyrical about the sport. There are the token tomboys and Beckham groupies, but more fascinating is one member's mother, who played for Iran's national team in pre-Revolution days and now coaches her daughter.

Najafi and co-producer Marlene Assmann fly to Iran to meet their potential sponsor, Iranol Oil. The ensuing tug-of-war to make the match possible is confusing and not as eye-opening as the directors intended it to be. The film only heats up at the match itself. Female audiences will enjoy a sense of vindication to see men (even the president of the association) banished from the stadium and get a taste of what the heroines of Offside suffered. The responses of Iranian women spectators make an amusing spectacle and demonstrate the utter impotence of the moral watchdogs present.

FOOTBALL UNDER COVER

Flying Moon Filmproduktion

Credits:

Directors: Ayat Najafi, David Assmann

Producers: Patrick Merkle, Helge Albers, Roshanak Behesht Nedjad

Directors of photography: Anne Misselwitz, Niclas Reed Middleton

Music: Niko Schabel

Co-producers: Marlene Assmann, Corinna Assmann

Editor: Sylke Rohrlach

Running time -- 85 minutes

No MPAA rating...