Atlanta's LGBTQ film festival, Out on Film announces Call for Entries for this year's 34th edition

Call for Entries have opened for the 34th edition of Atlanta’s LGBTQ film festival, Out on Film. Taking place September 23-October 3, 2021, the acclaimed film festival plans to be a hybrid event with a combination of in-person, drive-in, and virtual presentations.

One of the rare film festivals that have grown in recent years in terms of the length of the event and number of films screened, in 2020, Out On Film presented a virtual festival with 133 films over an eleven-day period. Special events and appearances are a hallmark of Out on Film, and last year’s guests included guests Margaret Cho, Kevin Williamson, and Margarethe “Grethe” Cammermeyer, three dozen talkbacks with filmmakers around the world and a 40^th anniversary drive-in screening of the movie “Fame” with Irene Cara and Paul McCrane beaming in for special conversations prior to the event.

“Last year presented with us with one of the biggest challenges we ever faced – how to pivot an 11-day film festival into a mostly virtual one,” says Jim Farmer, festival director of Out On Film. “We were able to not only successfully do so without having to scale down our event, but actually added to the number of filmmakers that could participate in virtual Q&As from all over the world. We look forward this fall to (hopefully) returning to theaters, as well as the drive-in, but also supplement that with a virtual component that gives our patrons more flexibility in their viewing and more opportunities to hear filmmaker voices.”

As an Oscar® qualifying film festival, Out On Film’s winner for the Jury Award for Best Drama Short is eligible for consideration at the following year’s Academy Awards® in the category of Best Live Action Short. 2020’s Jury Award winner for Best Drama Short was Jamie Weston’s Wings starring Miriam Margolyes. Out On Film also offers Jury Awards for Best Feature, Best Documentary, Best Foreign Film, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, Best First Film, and Best Ensemble. Audience Awards are given for Best Narrative Feature, Best Documentary, Best Trans-Themed Feature, Best Drama Short, Best Men’s Themed Short Film, Best Women’s Themed Short Film and Best Foreign Film.

Continually strengthening its year-round programming, special events, and outreach, so far this year Out On Film has collaborated with ZAMI Nobla, the National Association of Black Lesbians on Aging, on the inaugural Women Sweet on Women Film Festival and conducted several virtual “In Conversation” event with filmmakers. In January, Out On Film worked with the Atlanta Film Society on two Beyond Film events as part of the Sundance Satellite Screens program. Additional programming leading up to the festival, including a spring-time drive-in event and a Trailblazer Award presentation in June, will be announced soon.

Submissions can be made at https://filmfreeway.com/OutOnFilm.

For more information about Out on Film, visit outonfilm.org.

Awards categories – Jury

Best Feature

Best Documentary

Best Foreign Film

Best First Film

Best Drama Short

Best Actor

Best Actress

Best Director

Best Ensemble