Outfest is bringing back OutfestNEXT for four days of queer cinema screenings and filmmaker programming at the L.A. LGBT Center’s Village at Ed Gould Plaza from July 23-26, the long-running festival announced Thursday.
The lineup’s centerpiece features Gregg Araki’s “I Want Your Sex,” the kink-forward sex comedy-thriller starring Olivia Wilde, Cooper Hoffman, Chase Sui Wonders, Margaret Cho and Charli XCX. Araki, an Outfest Achievement Award winner, returns to the festival that supported him as an emerging filmmaker in the 1980s and ’90s.
“My long history with Outfest dates back to when I was a baby queer filmmaker in the ’80s/’90s and festivals like Outfest and Frameline provided a crucial platform for voices like mine to be heard,” Araki said in a statement. “Thank you, Outfest, for supporting queer culture in this awful age when it is needed more than ever!”
The series will screen narrative and documentary features and shorts in the Renberg Theatre and Outfest Microcinema. The documentary “Barbara Forever,” directed by Brydie O’Connor and executive produced by Kristen Stewart, will receive its Los Angeles premiere after debuting at Sundance. The film explores the life and work of pioneering lesbian filmmaker Barbara Hammer.
Other titles include sports drama “Test,” starring Matthew Morrison, Brock Yurich and Tammy Blanchard, which follows a small-town Ohio bodybuilder pursuing his dreams under a renowned coach. Spanish film “Maspalomas” follows a gay man forced to leave his life in the Canary Islands for a conservative nursing home. Rom-com “Something You Should Know About Me,” executive produced by Lilly Wachowski, stars EJ Marcus and Morgan Sullivan in a coming-of-age story.
Dramedy “Can’t Go Over It,” directed by Ethan Fuirst and starring Broadway standouts Susannah Perkins and Taylor Trensch, follows two queer friends hiking and camping through the Adirondack Mountains. The microbudget film was shot entirely on location.
The Outfest Microcinema will host filmmaker workshops and panels throughout the weekend. Delta Air Lines and Art & Rev sponsor the event, with Art & Rev providing cocktails at receptions in the Village Courtyard.
“The Outfest programming team can barely contain our excitement when it comes to sharing the work of these visionary filmmakers with theaters full of movie-loving Angelenos,” said senior programmer Daniel Crooke. “OutfestNEXT exists at the convergence of defiant expression and community power, two of our most essential tools in building a world that reflects the vibrance, value, and beauty of queer and trans life.”
Outfest will announce the full program and open member ticket sales on June 29. General public ticket sales begin July 1 via Outfest.org. Founded by UCLA students in 1982, Outfest has showcased thousands of films to audiences of nearly a million over four decades.
