The 2018 Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ Film Festival announced
its 2018 Achievement Award recipient, Angela Robinson,
and its galas, including Opening and Closing Night. Festival runs
from July 12-22, 2018
Los
Angeles
Outfest – the Los Angeles based non-profit organization promoting
equality by creating, sharing, and protecting LGBTQ stories
on the screen – announced its 2018 Achievement Award recipient,
Angela Robinson, and its galas, including Opening and Closing
Night, for the 2018 Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ Film Festival,
presented by HBO. The nation’s leading LGBTQ festival will be
held July 12-22, 2018.
The annual festival will open with Matt Tyrnauer’s vibrantly
nostalgic documentary, Studio 54, featuring interviews
with many of the legendary nightclub’s famous patrons, as well
as those who worked behind the scenes during its heyday. The
Achievement Award Ceremony will take place at the Opening Night
Gala at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles on July 12, followed
by the screening of Studio 54.
Angela Robinson, a celebrated filmmaker and champion
of LGBTQ rights, will receive the Achievement Award, Outfest's
highest honor, presented in recognition of a body of work that
has made a significant contribution to LGBT film and media.
In a time where women still only make up a fraction of directors,
Robinson has carved a space for herself in both film and television,
and frequently deals with LGBTQ topics in her work, such as
D.E.B.S., “The L Word”, Herbie Fully Loaded, “True
Blood”, "How to Get Away with Murder”, and most recently
Professor Marston and the Wonder Women.
Outfest’s Executive Director Christopher Racster commented:
“Outfest has a long and important legacy of launching filmmakers
careers. I am incredibly proud that we have the opportunity
honor an amazingly talented woman director whose career started
at Outfest. Angela has forged a unique path of success within
the industry. When jobs are hard to come by for women directors,
Angela has blazed a path in high-profile television series,
lauded independent films and major studio movies. Her unique
vision, her sharp humor, and her humanity are constantly on
display in each move she makes. Angela's work is always fresh,
intelligent and groundbreaking.”
“It is such an honor to receive the Outfest Achievement Award
this year — I premiered the first short film I ever made at
Outfest and every film I’ve made since. It’s a joy to be recognized
by Outfest in this way so many years later,” Angela Robinson
remarked.
Additional gala screenings include: Sundance NEXT Innovator
Award winner We the Animals (U.S. Centerpiece),
written and directed by Jeremiah Zagar; the sweeping French
drama Reinventing Marvin (International Centerpiece),
from filmmaker Anne Fontaine; famed choreographer and filmmaker
Jamal Sims’ feature debut When the Beat Drops
(Documentary Centerpiece) on the Deep South underground dance
phenomenon known as “bucking”; and Our Future Ends
(Platinum Centerpiece), a multimedia and multidisciplinary satire
about near-extinct lemurs living on long-lost Lemuria.
The 2018 Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ Film Festival will close
on July 22 at The Theatre at the Ace Hotel with Desiree Akhavan’s
Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner, The Miseducation of
Cameron Post, an unapologetically bold take on the topic
of conversion therapy, starring Chloë Grace Moretz, Jennifer
Ehle, Sasha Lane, John Gallagher Jr., and Forrest Goodluck.
Outfest’s Direct of Programming Lucy Mukerjee commented: "After
scouring the world for the past year to find the best LGBTQ
films, our galas capture that queer pioneering spirit that lives
across the ages. From our Opening Night Studio 54, where
we learn the back story of the vibrancy that Steve Rubell and
Ian Schrager brought to creating a safe haven for LGBTQ folk
to the urgency of expression in When the Beat Drops from
long-time choreographer Jamal Sims, we see that freedom of identity
cannot be held down. Even something as simple as coming of age
in We Are Animals looks at new territory in Jeremiah
Zagar's deft hands. The breadth of our galas this year also
continues Outfest's commitment to celebrate female voices including
the work of acclaimed director Anne Fontaine and Desiree Akhavan's
sophomore effort, proving once again we will be seeing exciting
things from her for a long time to come. I am thrilled we are
bringing back the Platinum Centerpiece - Our Future Ends
– which combines many genres to tell a story about how to keep
a culture from extinction. Happily our queer culture is far
from that place!"
The complete lineup for the 2018 Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ Film
Festival will be announced the first week of June.
ABOUT ANGELA ROBINSON
Angela Robinson is an American filmmaker who most recently wrote
and directed Professor Marston And The Wonder Women, starring
Luke Evans, Rebecca Hall, and Bella Heathcote. Robinson has
an overall deal with ABC Television Studios and recently served
as a Consulting Producer on the hit series “How to Get Away
with Murder”. She previously both wrote and directed as an Executive
Producer for HBO on boundary-pushing series including “Hung”
and “True Blood”, as well as on Showtime’s groundbreaking “The
L Word.”
ABOUT OUTFEST
Celebrating its 36th anniversary, Outfest was founded by UCLA
students in 1982 who were looking for positive images of themselves
in media. Today Outfest is the world’s leading organization
that promotes equality by creating, sharing, and protecting
LGBTQ stories on the screen. Outfest builds community by connecting
diverse populations to discover, discuss, and celebrate stories
of LGBTQ lives. Over the past three decades, Outfest has showcased
thousands of films from around the world, educated and mentored
hundreds of emerging filmmakers, and protected more than 37,000
LGBTQ films and videos. Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ Film Festival
is 11 days of world-class films, panels, and parties.
ABOUT HBO
Home Box Office, Inc. is the premium television programming
subsidiary of Time Warner Inc. and the world’s most successful
pay TV service, providing the two television services – HBO®
and Cinemax® – to approximately 131 million subscribers worldwide.
The services offer the popular subscription video-on-demand
products HBO On Demand® and Cinemax On Demand®, as well as HBO
GO® and MAX GO®, HD feeds and multiplex channels. HBO NOW®,
the network’s internet-only premium streaming service, provides
audiences with instant access to HBO’s acclaimed programming
in the U.S. Internationally, HBO branded television networks,
along with the subscription video-on-demand products HBO On
Demand and HBO GO, bring HBO services to over 60 countries.
HBO and Cinemax programming is sold into over 150 countries
worldwide.