Out on Film, Atlanta’s LGBTQ+ film festival, has named former nonprofit executive Cindy L. Abel as its new executive director.
Out on Film launched the search for its new executive director back in April. Justice Obiaya, the organization’s first-ever executive director, stepped down in March.
According to a press release, Abel brings more than 25 years of experience to the role, her career spanning nonprofit, corporate, and entertainment sectors. She previously served as co-chair of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, was the first executive director of Georgia Equality, and has held leadership positions with Stonewall Cincinnati, the Atlanta Film Festival, and Women in Film & Television Atlanta.
Abel said she felt drawn to the role because she felt like she was the right person to help shepherd the organization through its next steps.
“The more I learned about where the organization was, I saw a place where I could bring my communications experience. I could bring my filmmaking experience, from the filmmaker’s point of view,” she said. “I could bring my experience in change management, as I saw that the organization was really ready to go to the proverbial next level.”
In 2007, Abel founded Atlantis Moon Productions. She has directed and produced numerous documentaries. She has attended the festival as a fan before, but her relationship with Out on Film also includes the festival screening two of her films: “Breaking Through,” about the first openly LGBTQ+ elected officials, and “Surviving the Silence,” about two women struggling with being gay in the military.
“They helped us get an audience,” Abel said about Out on Film. “They helped us reach out to that audience in ways that we might not have been able to, and so for us that was really huge to have that partner.”
Abel said her vision for Out on Film includes pushing forward the idea of film not just as entertainment, but also as a form of advocacy and community building. She hopes to see Out on Film continue to become a voice for th LGBTQ+ community.
“[Out on Film] is definitely one of the the top LGBTQ+ film festivals,” Abel said. “I’d like to see us grow to be recognized not only for that and providing excellence and providing thought leadership in that space, but also doing it on an even larger area, looking at what is the role of arts in our time – to be an organization rather that is helping facilitate those conversations and is helping implement the results of those conversations.”
Out on Film’s 2026 festival will run from Sept. 24 to Oct. 4, and this year’s festival theme is “The World We’re Making.” The theme is meant to celebrate the world that LGBTQ+ filmmakers and audiences create through art, creativity, and shared experience.
“My job, starting right as festival season is already underway, is to go in and observe what’s happening, learn what is working, talk with audiences, talk with staff, talk with volunteers, in order to then start planning in advance in a way that can then support what those needs and those desires are,” Abel said.
