For decades now, Outfest, the Los Angeles LGBTQ film festival, has been one of the world's premier destinations for LGBTQ media. This year, however, the festival's hundreds of films will be accessible worldwide for the first time via a subscription. The digital portion of the festival will be powered by the Vimeo OTT platform, making it accessible across all major platforms, viewers at home will also be able to customize their own festival experience, with a personalized watch list tool, on-demand viewing and simple navigation.
Outfest LA's diverse 2020 slate — with over 70% of films directed by female, trans and POC filmmakers — will include high-profile films originally scheduled for festivals disrupted by COVID-19 earlier in the year. They include Tribeca selections "P.S. Burn This Letter Please"; "Cowboys" starring Steve Zahn, Jillian Bell, Ann Dowd, and young trans actor Sasha Knight; and musician Big Freedia's anti-gun advocacy doc "Freedia Got A Gun"; with previous SXSW premiere titles including dark comedy "The Carnivores" and Outfest LA's U.S. Centerpiece selection "Shiva Baby," starring Rachel Sennott, Dianna Agron and Fred Melamed.
Outfest LA's other Centerpiece selections include Documentary Centerpiece "Keyboard Fantasies: The Beverly Glenn-Copeland Story," which catalogs the career resurgence of the musician of trans experience well into his 70s; International Centerpiece "Monsoon," directed by Sundance and Outfest alum Hong Khaou ("Lilting") and starring Henry Golding ("Crazy Rich Asians"); and Breakthrough Centerpiece "The Obituary of Tunde Johnson," the feature directing debut of "Everybody Hates Chris" co-creator Ali LeRoi.
Outfest's Closing Film will be the world premiere of Outfest alum Travis Fine's ("Any Day Now") century-spanning triptych "Two Eyes," in which queer and trans-identified 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 nonbinary activist and performer Kate Bornstein.
Find out more about the hundreds of films to be featured at Outfest and more about the festival online at outfestla2020.com.
