Out on Film, Atlanta’s LGBTQ+ film festival, ran from Sept. 25 to Oct. 5 this year and broke records in the process.
“This was by far our best year in terms of revenue and in terms of attendance,” Out on Film Festival Director Jim Farmer said. “We set records roughly about two-thirds of the way into the festival. We had sold-out shows every day of the 11 days. It was tremendous.”
Farmer attributes some of the festival success this year to the programming Out on Film has been doing throughout the year, including its Spring Mini-Fest and other screenings throughout the year. Farmer said that more than 17,500 people attended the festival this year between in-person and virtual.
This year’s festival theme was “Queer Propaganda,” a response to the stance that federal and state governments across the country have taken toward the LGBTQ+ community over the past few years.
“This is certainly a very trying time for our community. It’s a time when people are trying to erase us, pretend we don’t exist, take away our rights,” Farmer said. “Part of the theme ‘Queer Propaganda’ is just saying, ‘We’re still here.”
For Farmer, the opening night film “I Was Born This Way,” a documentary from Daniel Junge and Sam Pollard about the disco artist Carl Bean, fully embodied the festival’s theme.
“It was a perfect opening night film to say, ‘We are who we are. We’re a community. We’re together. And we’re not going anywhere,’” Farmer said.
The audience agreed. “I Was Born This Way” won the Audience Best Documentary Award. Other films recognized by the audience included Ali Rosenthal’s “Teen Mary” for Best Narrative Short, Brad Burleson’s “Tippi and Barb” for Best Documentary Short, and Carmen Emmi’s “Plainclothes” for Best Narrative Feature.
In addition to the Audience Awards, Out on Film also features Jury Award selections. Best Drama Short went to Natalie Musteata and Alexandre Singh’s “Two People Exchanging Saliva” and Best Documentary Short went to Ava Grimshaw-Hall’s “While We Still Have Time.” Kim A. Snyder’s “The Librarians” took home Best Documentary, while Best Narrative Feature resulted in a tie between Ivona Juka’s “Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day,” and Emma Hough Hobbs and Leela Varghese’s “Lesbian Space Princess.” Juka, Hobbs, and Varghese also shared the award for Best Director.
“Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day” also won the Best Ensemble Award while Asia Kate Dillon took home the Best Performance Award for their role in “Outerlands.” Carmen Emmi won the Best Screenplay Award for his film “Plainclothes.”
Farmer said while he’s always believed in the strength of Out on Film’s programming, it was nice to see the audience numbers match up.
“For a while now, we’ve had the reputation that our programming is as strong as any LGBTQ+ fest in the country,” Farmer said. “And now we’re at the point where we have the crowds too.”
In addition to international and national films, Out on Film also featured filmmakers from right here in Georgia. According to Farmer, 16 short films from local filmmakers played the festival.
Farmer said in the years to come, he hopes to keep growing Out on Film both as a festival and outside of the festival experience. This year in conjunction with the festival, Out on Film held a Queer Film Summit from Sept. 29 – Oct. 3. Last year, it launched the Queer Film Alliance as a way to help queer filmmakers in Atlanta network and collaborate with each other. Out on Film also launched a filmmaker fund last year to help queer filmmakers complete their projects.
“[We’re] trying to grow, and not just showcase films but also work with filmmakers and develop ways to help them with their projects and help them grow,” Farmer said.
Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that Asia Kate Dillon uses they/them pronouns. This article has also been updated to reflect that 17,500 is the number of people who attended, not revenue.
