The Grand Jury winners of the 41st Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ+ Film Festival, presented by Genesis Motor and Warner Bros. Discovery, have been announced, with “Something You Said Last Night” and “Anhell69” winning the top awards for North American Narrative Feature and Documentary Feature. Select award winners will be available on the Outfest Los Angeles’ virtual platform through Sunday, after which Audience Award winners will be announced.
The Paul D. Lerner and Stephen Reis Grand Jury Award for Outstanding Documentary Feature, now in Year 2 thanks to a generous donation from Lerner and Reis to the Outfest Empathy Fund, will see the awarded filmmaker, “Anhell69,” director Theo Montoya, receive a $5,000 prize.
The festival opened with Aitch Alberto’s “Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe” and closed with Sav Rodger’s “Chasing Chasing Amy.” For the first time in Outfest’s LGBTQ+ Summer Film Festival history, both the opening and closing night films were made by trans artists, underlining the deep roster of trans, non-binary, and intersex talent working in the entertainment industry as well as the diversity of trans storytelling at this moment in history.
This year’s festival also honored filmmaker Andrew Ahn with their Outfest Achievement Award, Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone with the James Schamus Ally Award, actor/producer/musician Amandla Stenberg with their Platinum Maverick Award, electronic music icon and activist Madame Gandhi with their Platinum Alchemy Award, and presented Karine Jean-Pierre with their inaugural Outfest Achievement Award for Press and Media.
Outfest’s director of programming Mike Dougherty said: “In a truly exceptional year for LGBTQIA+ film, in which our artists delivered such a diverse collection of provocative, insightful, and fearless work, the choices made by our esteemed juries could not have been easy. Congratulations to every filmmaker in our festival for their commitment to unapologetically queer cinema in all its forms, and to these awardees for their much-deserved recognition.”
The jurors for Outfest Los Angeles represented a diverse cross-section of filmmakers, artists, journalists, and industry executives.
North American Narrative Features Jury –
Tuck Dowrey, Creative Executive, Page Boy Productions
Allegra Madsen, Director of Programming, Frameline
Breeda Wool, Actor
International Narrative Features Jury –
Jamie Gonçalves, Producer (Dos Estaciones)
Anna Li, Film Programmer
Evan Schwartz, Vice President of Content, Wolfe Releasing
Documentary Jury (Features and Shorts) –
Anja Block, Documentaries, Discovery+
Aurora Brachman, Filmmaker (Joychild)
Anita Raswant, Film Programmer
U.S. & International Narrative Short Film Jury –
Anto Astudillo, Lead Programmer, TRANSlations: Seattle Trans Film Festival
Nava Mau, Actor
Cameron Scheetz, Entertainment Editor, Queerty
The 2023 award winners are:
Grand Jury Awards
– The Paul D. Lerner and Stephen Reis Grand Jury Award for Documentary Feature:
“Anhell69,” directed by Theo Montoya
Documentary Feature Special Mention
“Queendom,” directed by Agniia Galdanova
– Grand Jury Prize for Outstanding North American Narrative Feature
“Something You Said Last Night,” directed by Luis De Filippis
– Grand Jury Prize for Outstanding Performance, North American Narrative Feature
Isaac Krasner in “Big Boys”
– Grand Jury Prize for Screenwriting, North American Narrative Feature
Sebastián Silva for “Rotting in the Sun”
North American Narrative Feature Special Mentions
“Fancy Dance,” directed by Erica Tremblay
“The People’s Joker,” directed by Vera Drew
– Grand Jury Prize for Outstanding International Narrative Feature
“The Fabulous Ones,” directed by Roberta Torre
– Grand Jury Prize for Screenwriting, International Narrative Feature
“Asog,” screenplay by Seán Devlin, Jaya, and Arnel Pablo
– Grand Jury Prize for Outstanding Performance, International Narrative Feature
Choi Hae-jun in “Peafowl”
– Grand Jury Prize for Outstanding International Narrative Short Film
“An Avocado Pit,” directed by Ary Zara
– International Narrative Short Special Mention
“Christopher at Sea,” directed by Tom C J Brown
– Grand Jury Prize for Outstanding Documentary Short Film
“Love, Jamie,” directed by Karla Murthy
– Documentary Short Special Mention
“Here, Hopefully,” directed by Hao Zhou
– Grand Jury Prize for Outstanding U.S. Narrative Short
“Dilating for Maximum Results,” directed by Nyala Moon
– U.S. Narrative Short Special Mention
“As You Are,” directed by Daisy Friedman
– Special Programming Awards, presented by the senior Outfest programming team
Emerging Talent: Alice Maio Mackay, “T Blockers”
Artistic Achievement: “Rumpelstiltskin,” directed by Ethan Fuirst
Social Impact: “Truth Be Told,” directed by Nneka Onuorah
– Hornitos First Shot Award
“A History of Sitting in Waiting Rooms (or Whatever Longer Title You Prefer),” directed by Lorena Russi
This inaugural Achievement Award for Press and Media is the organization’s highest honor and celebrates the representation of the LGBTQ+ community in the media. The award comes as Outfest makes new investments in journalism for the first time with the Outfest Inclusive Press Initiative, the first ever press initiative explicitly for LGBTQ+ entertainment journalists. The program offers emerging film critics, broadcasters and other journalists unrestricted access to cover the Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ+ Film Festival while receiving a stipend and mentorship from journalists at media outlets including Reuters, The New York Times, The Hollywood Reporter, KABC-TV and more.
This year’s fellows include Gisselle Palomera, Jireh Deng, Joey Harvey, Kayla Thompson, Kelsey Brown, Kristian Fanene Schmidt, Lindsay Lee Wallace, Marcus’Anthony II, Ose Ehianeta Arheghan, Eli Press-Reynolds and Shahamat Mohammed Uddin.
Genesis Motor America and Warner Bros. Discovery are the presenting sponsors of Outfest LA. Grand Sponsors are IMDb and Friends at Work. Additional sponsors include West Hollywood Travel + Tourism Board, Gilead Sciences, Comcast NBCUniversal, Hornitos, Sony Pictures, The Fight Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, ABC7 and On The Red Carpet, APLA Health, Bank of America, UTA, Second Home Hollywood, Amazon and Glamazon, and West One Music Group.
