NEWFEST '08 | 20th Anniversary Marked With 250 Films, New Additions

The New York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Film Festival (NewFest) announced the program of films and events for its 20th annual edition. The line-up features nearly 250 films, representing over 30 countries, and including 49 New York Premieres, 14 U.S. Premieres and 8 World Premieres. "Each year we try to make NewFest bigger and better than the last one," Basil Tsiokos, Artistic Director of NewFest in a statement. Among the new additions is NewDraft Screenplay Competition & Reading Series, which is discovering and fostering LGBT features screenwriters and their screenplays.
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DISPATCH FROM MIAMI | Miami Gay Fest Tosses on the Go-Go Boots and Throws a Bash

It's hard to believe that it's only the Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival's 10th anniversary. In only a decade, it has established itself as the first major stop on the annual U.S. gay and lesbian festival circuit. Filmmakers, sponsors and audiences alike have jumped at the invitation to spend time amongst Miami's famed art deco facades, shirtless rollerbladers, and endless parade of girls pulling at their short skirts and falling over their heels. It's a distinctly Miami affair.
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PARK CITY '08 DISPATCH | Queer Cinema Then and Now at Sundance '08

A rather staggering forty-four films with either GLBT themes or a GLBT director are screening at this year's Sundance Film Festival, including new works from directors Tom Kalin ("Savage Grace"), Isaac Julien's "Derek"), Bruce LaBruce ("Otto; Or Up With Dead People"), producer Christine Vachon, as well as a screening of Gregg Araki's remastered "The Living End." The films inspired a reunion of sorts at this year's festival, anchored on Saturday night with a dinner celebrating the group of queer films. In remarks during dinner B. Ruby Rich, who coined the term "New Queer Cinema" at a Sundance panel in 1992, emotionally proclaimed the room as "filled with history."
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Outfest Celebrates Silver with Films, a Legacy and a New Boom

It was a big year for Outfest, one of the nation's preeminent gay & lesbian film festivals, which concluded its 25th run on Monday in Los Angeles. To celebrate its silver anniversary festival organizers honored the history of queer cinema, publishing the "25 Films That Changed Our Lives," a list compiled from over 1,000 responses to their inquiries, and held special screenings for four of those films including "High Art," "I've Heard the Mermaids Singing," "Longtime Companion," and "Poison," the last accompanied by a tribute to actor and editor Jim Lyons. The big news, however, was the world premiere of Outfest's restoration of Bill Sherwood's landmark 1986 film "Parting Glances," one of the pioneer gay films from the early years of the AIDS epidemic.
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FESTIVALS | Taking a Survey of Queer Film Screening at Frameline31

[Editor's Note: Dennis Harvey surveyed some of the films screening at Frameline in San Francisco ahead of the festival's opening on June 14 in indieWIRE's SF-based sister publication SF360. Frameline continues through June 24.] Once upon a time, the San Francisco International Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Film Festival--back when it was just plain SF Gay Film Fest--had trouble coming up with even enough titles to fill out one whole weekend. Gay cinema was not exactly plentiful, from any nation; arthouse distributors (let alone Hollywood studios) were loath to let their few relevant titles suffer the taint of playing an explicitly gay event. Now past its third-decade anniversary, SFILGBTFF--the producing organization keeps trying to change its public-recognition name to something more manageable, which this annum would be Frameline31--now has filmmakers and distributors banging on its door.
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DISPATCH FROM NY | Riley" Wins NewFest Prize; "Save Me" Closes Event While Eyeing U.S. Release

A tender love story set within an ex-gay ministry in the Southwestern United States closed the 19th annual New Fest: The New York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Film Festival on Sunday night in Midtown Manhattan. Robert Cary's "Save Me," starring Chad Allen, Judith Light and Robert Gant, drew a large crowd to the event's closing night, even as the annual Tony Awards were being presented at the same time across town. The film, a 2007 Sundance premiere, is set for an Autumn U.S. release from Roadside Attractions, according to those involved with the film, although Roadside said on Monday that an official deal announcement is premature.
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FESTIVALS | Orange is the New Pink: The Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival

The stars shone brightly on the ceiling of The Olympia Theater last week, while a Wurlitzer played to an excited audience for the opening of the Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, which this year celebrated its 9th year of being one of the first stops in the country for LGBT films. Festival director Carol Coombes drew gasps in a ruffled orange skirt and sequined orange halter as she took to the stage to introduce British director Duncan Roy (previous MGLFF jury winner with 2002's "AKA") for his opening night film "The Picture of Dorian Gray" with the warning that just as Oscar Wilde's novel had drawn both praise and scathing criticism, so too might Roy's queer-themed update of the novel, set in 1980s New York. The titular portrait is modified with the ravages of age replaced with AIDS--which strongly divided its audience.
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"Gymnast" Flies to Two Outfest Prizes

Ned Farr's "The Gymnast" took two prizes at the recently concluded Outfest: Los Angeles Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, including the event's juried OUTstanding American Narrative Feature award and the HBO OUTstanding First Narrative Feature nod, which is an audience prize. Also sharing fest honors were Amnon Buchbinder's "Whole New Thing" (OUTstanding International Narrative Feature) and Malcolm Ingram's Sundance 2006 film, "Small Town Gay Bar" (OUTstanding Documentary Feature).
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"Another Gay Movie" Ushers In 12th Philadelphia Gay Fest

Todd Stephens' "Another Gay Movie" will open the 12th Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival Thursday night. The event, one of the largest gay fests on the east coast, continues through July 25 and will screen five world, one North American, three U.S. and six east coast debuts. The comedy is about four gay high school graduates who make a pact to lose their virginity before heading to college.
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Outfest Gears Up for 24th Edition and a Heavy Film/Party Line up

Los Angeles is gearing up for another large festival with the opening of the 24th edition of Outfest in downtown LA Thursday night. Outfest, the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival will debut at the historic Orpheum Theatre with Maria Maggenti's Sundance 2006 romantic comedy "Puccini for Beginners." The film centers on a New York writer who has recently become single, but finds herself enveloped in complicated relationships. The film will usher in a festival line up of 207 narrative and documentary shorts and features from 25 countries.
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Frameline30: Mature and Still Hot

In some of life's occupations (and preoccupations), turning 30 is a point many would prefer to defer. Supermodels, acrobats, and San Francisco gay men among them. Yes, "maturity" is "nice" in theory -- but facial lines, thinning hair and a body-fat percentage that no longer stays low all by itself can seriously cramp a boy's lifestyle. Though not, of course, a bear's. On the other hand, longevity in gay institutions is always a plus, since our communities' public histories have been so short, as well as so often embattled by oppression, the AIDS epidemic, and other impediments to survival. Thus the 30th anniversary marked by this year's S.F. International LGBT Film Festival represents more than just a healthy and well-loved cultural treasure's long-term success story -- it offers a forum for the LGBT community to celebrate its own hard-won survival and progress.
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NewFest Wraps of '06 Fest With Kudos for "Camp Out" and "The Gymnast"

NewFest, the New York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Film Festival wrapped up Sunday, giving Larry Grimaldi and Kirk Marcolina the Showtime Vanguard Award. The doc, which premiered at the Cleveland International Film Festival, spotlights the first overnight camp for gay Christian youth, following the campers as they experience the "requisite gossip, crushes, and interpersonal conflicts of summer camp, as well as more serious discussions with camp staff on how to be true to both one's spirituality and one's sexuality." "Camp Out" also won the best documentary award at the festival.
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Frameline Turns 30 with "Puccini" and "Queens" and a Little XXX

The look is Little Red Book, and the contents of the bright red catalogue with an "XXX" on the cover for the 30th edition of Frameline's San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival are meant to evoke the cultural revolution this particular festival helped to build beginning in 1976. At age 30, however, the festival is the oldest and the largest on the now international circuit of lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender film festivals, and faces something of a repositioning task in a world where the highest profile films with queer themes reach all the way up to Oscar.
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"Candy" and "Centimeters" Bookend 18th NewFest Queer Line up

NewFest, New York's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Film Festival has unveiled its 18th edition lineup featuring 230 films, including 45 features, 40 docs and 145 shorts. As previously announced the festival, taking place June 1 - 11, will open with the New York premiere of Paul Dinello's "Strangers with Candy," starring Amy Sedaris and Stephen Colbert, while the New York debut of "20 Centimeters," by Ramon Salazar will close out the event. In all, NewFest will screen 25 world premieres as well as ten U.S. and 36 New York debuts. Screenings will take place at the AMC Loews 34th St. Theater in Manhattan.
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"Queens" Reigns at 8th Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival

The 2006 Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival has announced its eighth annual line up of galas, screenings, tributes and panels for its event taking place April 21 - 30. The festival will open with the East Coast premiere of Manuel Gomez Pereira's "Reinas (Queens) at the Gusman Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Miami, ushering in the ten day event. The Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival will screen 83 films from around the world in its competition.
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Thessaloniki Sees a Regime Change; Spotlights Newcomers

"I don't believe in God, but I believe in John Huston," Patrice Chereau noted last Tuesday in Thessaloniki, a northeastern port-city in Greece at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival.

At the modest honorary ceremony celebrating Chereau's career and spotlighting his latest effort, "Gabrielle"--a mostly entertaining talkathon about a wife (Isabelle Huppert) who nearly cheats on her priggish spouse (Pascal Greggory) in 1912 Paris--the renowned director succinctly formulated a slogan suitable for the 46th rendition of Greece's main movie festival.

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Dispatch from Brazil: Mix Brasil Celebrates Record Attendance With Innovative Programming

It is one of Brazil's greatest contradictions that a deeply religious country is also one of the most sexually liberal societies in the developing world. Despite the influence of Catholicism and other fastly growing religions (Brazil is home to the world's largest number of Catholics), sexual minorities have a visibility in Brazil that makes it an anomaly among Latin countries. In such a unique context, the growing success of the Mix Brasil Film and Video Festival of Sexual Diversity - which celebrated its 13th year with record attendance in Sao Paulo from November 10-20 (and will tour abridged programs to Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia) - is an important exploration of film and sexuality in a pluralistic world.

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Outfest Focuses on Diversity with 3rd Fusion Fest

Outfest is spotlighting diversity again this year with its third edition of Fusion: The Los Angeles LGBT People of Color Film Festival. Fusion, which bills itself as "the only multicultural, gender-inclusive film festival of its kind," will run November 11-13 in Los Angeles.

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