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OUTFEST 2005:
THE 23rd LOS ANGELES GAY & LESBIAN
FILM FESTIVAL
THE ACCLAIMED “CÔTE D’AZUR” AND “THE DYING GAUL,”
STARRING PETER SARSGAARD, CAMPBELL SCOTT AND PATRICIA CLARKSON BOOKEND A DIVERSE, ABSORBING SLATE OF FILMS AND SERIES
FILMMAKER GREGG ARAKI
TO RECEIVE FESTIVAL’S HIGHEST HONOR,
THE OUTFEST ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
TWO CENTERPIECES, AN EXPANDED PLATINUM SERIES, MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS AND GAY OLD TRIBUTES TO SCREENWRITERS AND “DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES” HIGHLIGHT A STRONG YEAR IN GLBT FILM COMMUNITY
SCREEN IDOL AWARDS ANNOUNCED
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One of the world’s largest gay and lesbian film festivals and the largest film festival in Southern California, the 23rd edition of Outfest will showcase a very strong year of gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered filmmaking at its finest and most diverse. Outfest 2005, July 7 – 18, will screen 232 high quality narrative and documentary shorts and features from a record 28 countries around the world, beginning with the debut of the sexy comedy “Côte D’Azur,” starring Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi and Gilbert Melki. Outfest will close with the Sundance Film Festival favorite and much anticipated “The Dying Gaul,” written and directed by Craig Lucas and starring Peter Sarsgaard, Campbell Scott and Patricia Clarkson. Both the Opening Night gala and Closing Night will take place at the spectacular Orpheum movie palace downtown, one of nine different venues across Los Angeles.
Gregg Araki is responsible for some of the most visually and aurally stunning, cutting-edge and controversial queer films of the past 20 years, and he has been selected to receive the 9th Annual Outfest Achievement Award. This prize, Outfest’s highest honor, will be given to Araki on July 7, prior to the screening of “Côte D’Azur.” The pre-screening presentation is also scheduled to include awarding the winners of the fifth annual Screen Idol Awards, which honors the best four performances - Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actor - in a gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered role in a feature film or movie for television. As the only awards honor of its kind, the winners are as follows: Actress in a Leading Role - Charlize Theron, “Head in the Clouds”; Actor in a Leading Role - Steve Sandvoss, “Latter Days”; Actress in a Supporting Role - Lynn Redgrave, “Kinsey”; and Actor in a Supporting Role - Peter Sarsgaard, “Kinsey”. After the screening, there will be a huge, legendary after-party, with food from 30 different Los Angeles restaurants, dancing and merriment.
For more information, log on to www.Outfest.org or call 213/480-7065. Festival tickets go on sale on June 6th to Outfest members and on June 11th to the general public.
Known perhaps for its festivities as much as for its movies, Outfest has an exceedingly wide variety of films this year: Men’s Comedy, Men’s Documentary, Men’s Drama, Women’s Comedy, Women’s Documentary, Women’s Drama, Coming of Age, Crime/Thriller, Family Interest, Human Right/Activism, Sports, Transgender and Foreign Language and Cultures.
“The breadth and diversity of this year’s Festival is truly outstanding, said Stephen Gutwillig, the Executive Director of Outfest. “The Festival boasts 101 separate public programs – five galas, 66 feature film programs, 17 short film programs, seven special events and six panels. We have outdoor screenings, family programs, documentaries, live performances, experimental works and a great mix of provocative events and panels. Outfest 2005 has all the markings of a terrific year.”
There are two Centerpieces at this year’s Outfest. The American Centerpiece is the very funny slapstick farce “Adam & Steve,” written and directed by veteran indie actor and queer idol Craig Chester. This raucous romp about two gay men struggling to chart a relationship that blooms in the face of overwhelming odds stars Chester, Malcolm Gets, Parker Posey and Chris Kattan and is produced by Funny Boy Films, who last year produced Outfest favorite “Latter Days.” “Adam & Steve” screens July 13th at the Ford Amphitheatre. The International Centepiece is “Unveiled,” a stunningly beautiful portrait of an Iranian refugee struggling between survival in a small-town in Germany and her love for a local woman. The film is co-written and directed by Angelina Maccarone, who won the 1998 Outfest Audience Award for “Everything will be Fine.” “Unveiled” screens July 14th at the DGA.
This year’s Awards Night film is “Summer Storm,” a sexy, evocative, coming-of-age story that was a crossover boxoffice hit in its native Germany. European coming-out films have long had a refreshing matter-of-factness, depicting sexual orientation as just one more hurdle adolescents face. In co-writer/director Marco Kreuzpaintner’s highly-accomplished “Summer Storm,” gay teens are as bewildered, intense and libidinous as their straight peers, and all are on an even keel when it comes to self-discovery. “Summer Storm” screens July17th at the Ford Amphitheatre. Preceding the screening will be the announcement of the winners of Outfest’s 11th annual film competition. The 16 awards – the most of any LGBT festival - are in three categories: Grand Jury Awards, Audience Awards and Special Programming Awards.
Outfest has also expanded its Platinum Section, their signature showcase dedicated to films, videos, live performance and multimedia work that defy boundaries, stretch cinematic sensibilities and go where none have gone before. Legendary performance artist Ron Athey and soprano/musicologist Julianna Snapper create a multimedia operatic drama using body and voice as well as projected image and elaborate costumes to explore the history of torture and personal suffering. Entitled “The Judas Cradle,” there will be just four performances of this live performance event. The Platinum Section also includes six screening programs of avant garde features and shorts. The entire section takes place downtown at REDCAT, the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theatre at Walt Disney Concert Hall.
As always, there will be offering a wide variety of films for every taste at this year’s Festival, including “Based on a True Story,” the real story that inspired the classic film “Dog Day Afternoon”; “The Full Monty” / “Bend it Like Beckham” mix that is “Guys & Balls”; Don Roos’ “Happy Endings”; a new documentary on “Kinsey,” with never-before-seen archival footage; Tim Kirkman’s “Loggerheads,” starring Kip Pardue, Bonnie Hunt, Michel Learned, Tess Harper, Michael Kelly and Chris Sarandon; the legendary sensation “Paris is Burning”; “Pursuit of Equality,” an insider’s look at San Francisco Mayor Gain Newsom’s bold challenge to California’s marriage law (Newsom will attend the screening); “Red Doors,” a smart, whimsical and funny film that examines the roles of family, love and memory play in our daily lives; Dan Klores and Ron Berger’s “Ring of Fire: The Emile Griffith Story”; “Say Uncle,” the debut feature from Peter Paige of “Queer as Folk”; “Tammy Faye: Death Defying,” in which the invincible heroine will be present at the screening; “Wilby Wonderful,” starring Sandra Oh and Maury Chaykin; and the Berlin Film Festival Teddy Award winning “A Year without Love.”
Other interesting aspects of the Festival this year include “TRANSamorous,” a series on the groundswell of visibility and awareness of transgender lives; “5 in Focus: New Directors Spotlight,” highlighting first-time feature directors with exceptional films in the Festival; and the Outfest Screenwriting Lab, nurturing emerging screenwriters and outstanding gay and lesbian-themed screenplays.
At Outfest 2005, a highly-anticipated event is the panel “Queer is Just a Frame of Mind on Wisteria Lane,” featuring “Desperate Housewives” creator Marc Cherry and actors, producer, writers and directors from the series. There will be panels on “Gay Writers Write Hollywood,” with the scheduled participation of Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato, Academy Award winner Bill Condon, Richard Day and Don Roos; “Queertoons,” where thanks to such shows as “The Simpsons,” “South Park” and “Sponge Bob Square Pants” queer culture has never been so animated; and “Where’s the Action?,” a look at why so many testosterone oriented action/adventures and thrillers are now being directed by women.
There are also a host of Special Events this year at Outfest, including a sing-along to “Purple Rain,” a conversation with Outfest Achievement Award recipient Gregg Araki, an evening with British filmmaker Isaac Julien, “A Whiz-Bang History of Queer Movie Marketing” hosted by Jenni Olson; the supremely popular Annual Home Video Gong Show, and Family Fun at the Village with a screening of “Tarzan II.”
Recipient of the 2005 Outfest Achievement Award, Gregg Araki has consistently tapped into feelings of anger, alienation and disenfranchisement that so often defines young queer identity. From “The Living End” (1992) to “Totally F***ed Up” (1993) to “Splendor” (1999), Araki helped define the Queer New Cinema. His latest film “Mysterious Skin” (2004) is a stirring work that heralds an exciting new chapter in the career of this truly daring artist of the cinema. This sure-to-be-fascinating conversation is being moderated by Tommy O’Haver (director, “Billy’s Hollywood Screen Kiss,” “Ella Enchanted,” “Get Over It”). Previous Outfest Achievement Award recipients include Todd Haynes, Sir Ian McKellen, Christine Vachon, Gus Van Sant, Jane Anderson, John Schlesinger and Strand Releasing’s Marcus Hu and Jon Gerrans.
The Screen Idol Awards exist to encourage more projects about gay and lesbian experiences. To have been eligible for the Award, the performances must have been in a gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered role in a feature film or a film made for television or miniseries. (Performances in episodic television series such as “Will & Grace” and “Queer as Folk” are not eligible.) Feature films must have enjoyed a U.S. theatrical release of at least one week during the 2004 calendar year; films made for television and miniseries must have premiered during the 2004 calendar year.
Outfest members voted for their favorite performances. The top five vote getters in each of the four categories were tabulated, and the general public voted online at www.advocate.com for their choices for each award, resulting in Theron, Sandvoss, Redgrave and Sarsgaard as the winners. Theron is the first actor to win this award two years in a row; she was awarded this honor in 2004 for her performance in “Monster,” for which she also won the Academy Award as Best Actress.
Outfest 2005 is presented by HBO and Absolut. Premiere sponsors include Adelphia, The Advocate, Director’s Guild of America (DGA), here!, Mercedes Benz and Q Television Network.
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GS Entertainment Marketing Group
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