Outfest

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Festival logo

Outfest (out in the sense of " coming out ", plus fest in the sense of film festival ) is an American LGBT film festival in Los Angeles , California that takes place annually in July. The organizing organization of the same name develops further film-related activities during the year.

At the festival, the Outie prizes will be awarded in 16 film categories. The prizes are decided by a jury, the festival visitors and a program committee.

history

Many American independent LGBT filmmakers had dealt with the topics of coming out , sexual oppression , hate crimes , and more, but had no commercial platform for their work. So they came together in 1982 and hosted the Gay and Lesbian Media Festival and Conference in collaboration with the UCLA Film and Television Archive. In 1994 the name was changed to "Outfest" to better express the dynamism of the community. It became the largest regular film festival in Southern California. Since the turn of the century, around 200 films and videos have been shown annually in several of the city's cinemas and all of this has been supported by over 100 sponsors. From 1982 to 2004 a total of over 4,000 films were shown to an audience of more than half a million.

In 2006, film director Roland Emmerich donated US $ 150,000 to the Legacy Project, a joint project between UCLA's film and television archive and Outfest, to preserve and restore lesbian and gay films.

Outfest activities

  • Outfest: The Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival - The oldest continuously running film festival in Los Angeles.
  • Fusion: The Los Angeles LGBT People of Color Film Festival - A multicultural, cross-gender film festival, the only one of its kind.
  • Outfest Wednesdays - Screening Series - A weekly film screening. The oldest series of LGBT film screenings in the USA, held infrequently in 2009 due to the tight financial situation.
  • Outfest Legacy Project for LGBT Film Preservation - The world's first project dedicated to the preservation and restoration of LGBT films
  • Access LA - To facilitate contact between emerging filmmakers and established entertainment industry workers. Part of the project are HBO Breakfast Panel Series, Industry Link for organizing 1: 1 discussions between filmmakers and entertainment industry employees, festival forums and a DVD library at the Directors Guild of America for distributors and programmers from other festivals.
  • Outfest Screenwriting Lab is also part of the project. It started in 1997 as a script competition and developed into a three-day workshop in which five well-known scriptwriters participate as mentors.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Chuck Stewart: Gay and lesbian issues: a reference handbook . ABC-CLIO, 2003, ISBN 1-85109-372-9 , p. 246.
  2. ^ David E. James: The most typical avant-garde: history and geography of minor cinemas in Los Angeles . University of California Press, 2005, ISBN 0-520-24257-2 , p. 515.
  3. ↑ cinema.ucla.edu ( Memento of February 10, 2006 in the Internet Archive ): UCLA Film & Television Archive: Landmark Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Film Collection Created by UCLA and Outfest
  4. ↑ Hollywood director helps save gay and lesbian films | Entertainment News | Advocate.com