South Florida’s Critically Acclaimed Film Festival Turns 21

The largest LGBTQ film festival in the Southeast region, the OUTshine Film Festival turns 21 this year, as it celebrates another anniversary of its Miami season. This year’s festival has expanded to 11 days with over 85 foreign, indie, and art films that highlight a variety of LGBTQ voices from around the world.

The highly-rated film festival will kick off with opening night film, “Tell it to the Bees” featuring Academy Award and Golden Globe winner, Anna Paquin at The Black Archives Historic Lyric Theater Cultural Arts Complex in Overtown. Afterwards, the Opening Night party will feature celebrity chef demos.

OUTshine’s Celebrity Talent Vanguard Award will be presented to LGBTQ professional athlete, Fred Rosser (former WWE Superstar Darren Young) at our Closing Night Festivities.

“As part of our 21st anniversary celebrating the Miami edition, we’re excited to expand the film festival to 11 days to showcase more of the groundbreaking and emerging film talent that we’ve been showcasing for more than two decades..” says Executive Director, Victor Gimenez. “This year’s lineup is especially exciting, as we have a large percentage of women filmmakers participating, as well as films from a wider range of countries and continents, including Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and the UK.

In additional to OUTShine’s film lineup, there will be a “Let’s Stop HIV Together” event on Saturday, April 27th at 4:45 PM featuring a short documentary film from event sponsor the CDC (Center for Disease Control) along with a short film from an FSU student – both about the personal stories of people from all walks of life living with HIV. The event will also be co-produced by local community organizations–Latinos Salud and UHealth–who will be sharing resources for getting tested and hosting a panel discussion.

The OUTshine Film Festival’s 21st anniversary season will include over 85 films that feature A-list film talent including Rosanna Arquette, Matt Bomer, James Caan, Patricia Clarkson, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Anna Paquin, Molly Shannon, and Kate Walsh.

The film festival will run from April 18th until April 28th. Other must-attend events include:

• Ladies Spotlight Film & Party : Vita + Virginia – Saturday, April 20th, 7:30 PM
• Centerpiece Film & Party: Retablo – Wednesday, April 24th, 7:00 PM
• Men’s Spotlight Film & Party: The Blonde One – Thursday, April 25th, 6:45 PM

Attendees can find a full schedule of films and purchase tickets here. A full schedule of parties and special events can be found here. Or sign up to volunteer at the film festival here.

About OUTshine Film Festival

The OUTshine LGBT Film Festival is a bi-annual film festival with a mission to inspire, entertain, and educate the public and encourage a sense of community through international and culturally diverse film, video and other media that offer historical and contemporary perspectives on the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender experience. It’s created in part with the support of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners.