OUTSOUTH Queer Film Festival
American LGBTQ+ film festival
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The OUTSOUTH Queer Film Festival is an annual LGBT film festival produced by the Carolina Theatre in Durham, North Carolina, typically held in mid-August. The festival has been credited in previous years as the second largest LGBT film/video festival in the Southeastern United States.[1] It has been consistently hosted in the same venue each year.
Front of Carolina Theatre during 2018 festival | |
| Location | Durham, North Carolina |
|---|---|
| Predecessor | North Carolina Gay & Lesbian Film Festival |
| Established | 1995 |
| Website | Official Website |
The festival debuted in 1995 as the Q Film Fest, renaming itself in the following year to North Carolina Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. In 2020, festival organizers announced that the festival would change its name again to OutSouth Queer Film Festival.[2][3]
Programming
OUTSOUTH is international in its focus, screening and occasionally opening selected films and inviting filmmakers and actors from the screened films to attend.[4] The three individual theater venues are in the same building and each are dedicated to the festival's programming.
The festival's program size has varied over the years. For many of its first years, the festival was typically a four-day event (Thursday through Sunday) and has attracted an average of 10,000 patrons each year. In 2012, OUTSOUTH expanded to a full week, bridging across two weekends.[5] The festival has since reduced back down to a four-day program with an extended Après-Fest in the week following.[6]
Awards
The Festival has given a variety of awards to screened films over the years. Awards have been historically divided into Men's, Women's, and Trans categories and also divided on film length.
| Year | Category | Winner | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Men's International Short | Boys Like You | [7] |
| 2012 | Men's Feature | The Men Next Door | [8] |
| Women's Feature | Cloudburst | [9] | |
| Documentary | Wish Me Away | ||
| 2013 | Men's Feature | Southern Baptist Sissies | [10] |
| 2014 | Men's Feature | More Scenes from a Gay Marriage | [11] |
| Women's Feature | Tru Love | ||
| Short Film | Electric Indigo | ||
| 2015 | Men's Feature | Better Half and Upstairs Inferno (tie) | [12] |
| Women's Feature | Margarita with a Straw | ||
| Trans Feature | From This Day Forward | ||
| 2016 | Men's Feature | What's the Matter with Gerald? | [13] |
| Women's International Short | Rose | ||
| Documentary | The Freedom to Marry | ||
| 2017 | Men's Feature | A Very Sordid Wedding | [14] |
| Trans Feature | Apricot Groves | ||
| Documentary | Behind the Curtain: Todrick Hall | ||
| 2018 | Men's Feature | My Big Gay Italian Wedding | |
| Women's Feature | Freelancers Anonymous | ||
| Trans Feature | Transmilitary | [15] | |
| Documentary | To a More Perfect Union: U.S. v Windsor | ||
| Short | Kick the Can | [15] | |
| 2019 | Comedy Film | These Thems | [16] |
| Drama Film | From Zero to I Love You | ||
| Foreign Film | The Shiny Shrimps | ||
| Documentary Film | Gay Chorus Deep South | ||
| 2021 | Short Film | The Forgotten Place | [17] |
| 2023 | Documentary | Studio One Forever | [18] |
| Narrative Feature | Two Lives in Pittsburgh | [19] | |
| 2024 | Short Film | Sunflowers at Night | [20] |
| Year | Category | Winner | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Men's International Short | House for Sale | [21] |
| 2013 | Men's Feature | Scenes from a Gay Marriage | [22] |
| 2014 | Men's Feature | More Scenes from a Gay Marriage | [11] |
| 2015 | Men's Feature | 4th Man Out | [23] |
| Women's Feature | ALTO | ||
| 2016 | Men's Feature | Retake | [24] |
| Women's Feature | AWOL | ||
| Trans Feature | Girls Lost | ||
| 2017 | Men's International Short | Sisak | [14] |
| Women's Long Form Short | Lily | ||
| Women's Feature | Cat Skin | ||
| Trans International Short | Dusk | ||
| Trans Feature | Apricot Groves | ||
| 2018 | Men's Feature | Evening Shadows | [15] |
| Men's International Short | Freefall and Turn It Around (tie) | ||
| Men's Short | The Date Project | ||
| Women's Feature | Freelancers Anonymous | ||
| Women's International Short | Marguerite | ||
| Trans Feature | Transmilitary | ||
| Trans International Short | Something About Alex | ||
| 2019 | Drama Feature | The Garden Left Behind | [25] |
| Lesbian Web Series | Anne Plus | ||
| Long Form Dramatic Short | Miller & Son | ||
| Romantic Comedy Feature | 2 in the Bush: A Love Story | ||
| US Drama Short | Brothers | ||
| US Feature | Last Ferry | ||
| US Comedy Short | The Handyman | ||
| Men's International Short | Carlito Leaves Forever | ||
| Emerging Short | Masks | ||
| 2020 | Short | One More Please | [26] |
| 2021 | Short | Sheer Qorma | [17] |
| Long Form Dramatic Short | Fabiu | ||
| 2022 | Men's International Short | Neuzeit | [27] |