Outfest LA 2020 is bringing back a large selection of its festival film highlights through Labor Day. The 2020 Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ Film Festival announced today a historic Encore Week following its eleven day festival, set to feature its Jury, Programming, and Audience Award recipients. The presenting sponsor of the festival is WarnerMedia.
During these unprecedented times, Outfest filmmakers and distributors have joined forces to create, for the first time in Outfest’s history, an Encore Week that will feature a selection of the festival’s exciting lineup to stream daily, each available for one 24-hour period on its Outfest Now app and platform, with programming running from Monday, August 31 through Monday, September 7. Pricing for the week is a reasonable $24.99, granting access to over 100 films, daily features and nearly the entire shorts program from the festival. This pass will also include a free one-month subscription to Outfest Now, the newly launched year-round LGBTQIA+ streaming platform, hosting the best of queer cinema and past Outfest films, as well as the digital home of Outfest Festivals.
Encore Week films include fan favorites Cicada, Two of Us (Deux), Gossamer Folds, Minyan, Tahara, The Obituary of Tunde Johnson, Keyboard Fantasies: The Beverly Glenn-Copeland Story, The Carnivores, Dry Wind, No Hard Feelings, Shiva Baby, Alice Junior, Cured, Becoming a Man in 127 Easy Steps, Ask Any Buddy, Your Mother’s Comfort and Lily Tomlin: The Film Behind the Show featuring a previously recorded live Q&A with director Joan Churchill, Lily Tomlin, and Jane Wagner, as well as nearly the entirety of the Outfest LA 2020 short film program. For more information on Outfest LA’s Encore Week, please visit –www.outfestla2020.com.
Outfest Executive Director, Damien S. Navarro remarked, “We kept hearing from festival goers that they just couldn’t keep up with all of the great films we were showcasing all week. We asked ourselves, don’t they deserve one more chance to see our best of fest? And, voila, we now have Outfest LA Encore Week. This, following an exciting evening of awarding this year’s winning films, makes for a very exciting week leading up to Labor Day.”
Last night was the closing night of the nation’s leading LGBTQ festival that ran from August 20 to August 30, ending with the world premiere of Outfest alum Travis Fine’s (Any Day Now) century-spanning triptych Two Eyes, in which queer and trans/non-binary people from three different time periods in the American West discover how their identities fall within a multitude of sexuality and gender expressions. The film’s ensemble includes Kiowa Gordon (The Twilight Saga), Benjamin Rigby (Alien: Covenant), Nakhane Toure (The Wound), musician Ryan Cassata, and non-binary activist and performer Kate Bornstein. The film premiered both on the digital platform and as the final drive-in feature.
Major feature award winners include Eric Steel’s 1980s-set Minyan, about a young Jewish man’s sexual and cultural awakening in Brighton Beach, New York; Chilean romance Los Fuertes (The Strong Ones), which snagged both a Grand Jury Prize and an Audience Award; and documentary Your Mother’s Comfort, about Brazilian transgender sex worker and activist Indianara Siqueira. Top shorts prizes went to Em Weinstein’s In France Michelle is a Man’s Name, Leslie Foster’s Heavenly Brown Body, and Babydyke by Tone Ottilie. Full list of winners and special mentions below.
Jurors in the competitive sections of Outfest Los Angeles include:
- US Narrative Feature: James Sweeney, filmmaker (Straight Up – Outfest LA Breakthrough Centerpiece ‘19); Ayo Kepher-Maat, Director of Acquisitions, NEON; Caden Mark Gardner, Film Critic.
- International Narrative Feature: Jacqueline Lyanga, Festival Director, AFI Fest (2010 – 2018) and Artistic Director, Film Independent (2019 – 2020); Andrew Murphy, Director of Programming, Inside Out Toronto; Isabel Sandoval, filmmaker (Lingua Franca – Outfest Fusion ‘20).
- Documentary: Sam Feder, filmmaker (Disclosure); Ben-Alex Dupris, filmmaker, (Sweetheart Dancers – winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary Short at Outfest LA ‘19); Daresha Kyi, filmmaker (Chavela – winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary Feature and Audience Award at Outfest LA ‘17).
- International Narrative Shorts: Daniel Laabs, filmmaker, (Jules of Light and Dark – winner of Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Narrative Feature at Outfest LA ‘19), Lauren Wolkstein, filmmaker (The Strange Ones – Outfest LA ‘17); Aurora Guerrero, filmmaker (Netflix’s Gentefied, Mosquita Y Mari – Audience Award for Debut Narrative Feature at Outfest LA ‘12).
- U.S. Narrative Short: Brian Michael Smith, Actor, (911: Lone Star); Gillian Horvat, filmmaker (I Blame Society); Carly Usdin, filmmaker (Suicide Kale – Audience Award for Debut Narrative Feature at Outfest LA ‘16).
Please find Outfest LA 2020 Award Winners below.
Outfest Los Angeles 2020 Award Winners
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AUDIENCE AWARDS
Experimental Short: Canis Major, dir. Charli Brissey
Documentary Short: Where My Girls, dir. Mads Engel
Narrative Short: Kapaemahu, dir. Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, Dean Hamer, Joe Wilson
Episodic: Hidden Canyons, dirs. Brant Rotnem, Fawzia Mirza
Documentary Feature: P.S. Burn This Letter Please, dir. Michael Seligman, Jennifer Tiexiera
Narrative Feature: Los Fuertes (The Strong Ones), dir. Omar Zúñiga Hidalgo
Debut Narrative Feature: The Obituary of Tunde Johnson, dir. Ali LeRoi
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GRAND JURY AWARDS
Documentary Jury:
Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary Feature: Your Mother’s Comfort, dir. Adam Golub
Documentary Feature Special Mention: Keyboard Fantasies: The Beverly Glenn-Copeland Story, dir. Posy Dixon
Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary Short: Heavenly Brown Body, dir. Leslie Foster
Documentary Short Special Mention: Where My Girls, dir. Mads Engel
International Narrative Shorts Jury:
Grand Jury Prize for Best International Narrative Short: Babydyke, dir. Tone Ottilie
International Narrative Short Film Special Mention: Instructions to Let Go, dir. Gustavo Gamero
U.S. Narrative Shorts Jury:
Grand Jury Prize, U.S. Narrative Short: In France Michelle is a Man’s Name, dir. Em Weinstein. This award is sponsored by Panavision and Iron Works providing an $80,000 camera and post-production package to the filmmaker towards their next project.
U.S. Narrative Short Special Mentions: Tape (dir. Jojo Erholz) & Flex (dir. Matt Porter)
Special Mention for Performance: Chris Petrovski, How to Say I Love You at Night
International Feature Film Jury:
Grand Jury Prize for Best International Narrative Feature: Los Fuertes (The Strong Ones), dir. Omar Zúñiga Hidalgo
International Narrative Feature, Special Mention: Alice Junior (dir. Gil Baroni) & Dry Wind (dir. Daniel Nolasco)
Grand Jury Prize for Best Performance in an International Narrative Feature: Thiessa Woinbackk, Valentina
Grand Jury Prize for Best Screenplay, International Narrative: Faraz Shariat & Paulina Lorenz, No Hard Feelings
U.S. Narrative Feature Jury:
Grand Jury Prize for Best U.S. Narrative Feature: Minyan, dir. Eric Steel
U.S. Narrative Feature, Special Mention: Tahara, dir. Olivia Peace
Grand Jury Prize for Best Screenplay, U.S. Narrative: Emma Seligman, Shiva Baby
Grand Jury Prize for Best Performance, U.S. Narrative: Sasha Knight, Cowboys
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Special Programming Awards
Emerging Talent: Terrance Daye, director of -Ship: A Visual Poem
Award for Freedom: Freedia Got a Gun, dir. Chris McKim
Artistic Achievement: Magic Hour, dir. Che Grayson
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Corporate Sponsors
The 2020 Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ Film Festival is proudly presented by WarnerMedia, a partnership that has spanned over 20 years. The Grand Automotive Sponsor is Hyundai. Grand Sponsor is LA Times. Premiere Sponsors include Clear Channel, Comcast NBCUniversal, The Fight Magazine, Gilead, and Variety. The Program Sponsors are Directors Guild of America, Netflix, Sony Pictures, Union Bank, SAG Indie, Taiwan Academy, and West One Music. Media sponsors include: MYFM, Lesbian News, and Queerty. Outfest is also generously supported by the following government and foundation entities: Academy Foundation, David Bohnett Foundation, California Arts Council, California Community Foundation, City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, The Ford Foundation, David Geffen Foundation, Hollywood Foreign Press Association, LA County Arts Commission, LA County Department of Arts & Culture, and the Sundance Institute.
Find Outfest Now app at: https://apple.co/2FyUCCF (Apple) ; https://amzn.to/348Xosi (Amazon); and https://bit.ly/3g2TNyn (Android).
Outfest Website: www.outfestla2020.com