Big Gay Picture Show
God’s Own Country & Bette Midler In Freak Show To Open & Close LA’s Outfest 2017 LGBT Film Festival
May 16, 2017 By Tim Isaac
Outfest is undoubtedly one of the most prestigious LGBT film festivals in the world. It’s now preparing for its 2017 edition, having announced the movies that will be getting gala screenings, as well as the fact that this year’s Achievement Award Ceremony will honour writer and producer Bryan Fuller (Dead Like Me, Hannibal, Pushing Daisies, Star Trek: Discovery).
After Fuller receives his award at the the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles on July 6th, Outfest will officially open with a screening of Francis Lee’s poignant feature debut, God’s Own Country, starring Josh O’Connor and Alec Secareanu. The British film, which got massive praise on its Sundance debut, is about a young farmer in Yorkshire, who gets into an intense relationship with a Romanian migrant worker.
The festival will then close on July 16 at The Ace Theatre, with Trudie Styler’s comedic Freak Show, starring Bette Midler, Alex Lawther, AnnaSophia Robb, Abigail Breslin, Ian Nelson, Larry Pine and featuring a cameo from Laverne Cox. The movie marks Midler’s first screen role since 2012’s Parental Guidance. Freak Show is about an eccentric but bullied teenager called Billy Bloom (Lawther). Despite attending a very conservative high school, BIlly decides to fight back on behalf of all the misunderstood freaks of the world by running for the title of homecoming queen.
Other gala screenings include: ‘a rare spotlight on a bisexual lead character in the West Coast premiere of the TV series “Strangers,” (U.S. Centerpiece) written and directed by Mia Lidofsky; the groundbreaking, Japanese trans family drama Close Knit (International Centerpiece) from filmmaker Naoko Ogigami; the World Premiere of Logo Documentary Films and Putti Media’s KEVYN AUCOIN Beauty & The Beast In Me (Documentary Centerpiece), directed by Lori Kaye, on makeup artist legend Kevyn Aucoin; and Awesomeness Films’ Behind The Curtain: Todrick Hall (Special Centerpiece), directed by Katherine Fairfax-Wright, following the life of multifaceted performer Todrick Hall.’
The full programme for the 2017 Outfest Los Angeles LGBT Film Festival will be announced on June 1st
