The 25th Annual Anniversary Edition of the OUTshine LGBTQ+ Film Festival MIAMI opens at the Silverspot Cinema in Downtown Miami beginning April 20, and stays there for 10 more days.
Internationally acclaimed as one of the largest LGBTQ+ cultural festivals in the world, OUTShine Miami celebrates 25-years of amazing LGBTQ+ programming as well as uniting the community with OUTstanding social events. Through the diversity of showcasing the best in LGBTQ+ films, most of which you can only see at the Festival, OUTshine always aims to inspire, entertain and educate their audience. This year OUTshine will present some 50 plus features, shorts, and documentaries from all around the world.
The OUTshine LGBTQ+ Film Festival will also be maintaining the highly successful OUTshine At-Home programming, it’s well-known amazing, incredible parties and new to this year, a free Cocktails & Cinema Happy Hour after the films on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, making this year’s festival the must-see, must-attend event of the year with social gatherings almost every night.
Board Chair/Executive Director Mark Gilbert said that having a new central location downtown, Silverspot Cinema, makes the festival more accessible to more of the community and gives us a fantastic venue to watch films and hold some amazing after parties. The theater is packed with premium experience amenities such as lounge chairs with armrests to hold your alcoholic beverages and food as you watch. Dolby Atmos audio for an immersive experience in a modern building with an epic view! Located in the heart of downtown right next to some of the best nightlife.
OUTrageous, OUTspoken, and OUTstanding, this year’s OUTshine Film Festival Miami is presented by Gilead and Miami-Dade County.
Some of the highlights are:
The opening night film: Fairyland, which is directed by Andrew Durham, has a 114 minute runtimes, and is made in the USA (Narrative, Gay, Family, AIDS , Biography, Based on a Book, Sundance) – Thursday, April 20.
It’s the 1970s. following the sudden death of her mother, young Alysia is uprooted by her father Steve, in hopes of restarting his life. They move to San Francisco, where Steve develops his poetic and personal writing and begins to openly date men. Steve’s bohemian lifestyle clashes with the expectations of parenthood from the outside world and from Alysia herself. As Alysia grows into a young woman on the cusp of adulthood, their bonds and duty to each other are tested in painful and sudden ways. In this Sundance standout, Fairyland captures the complexities, embarrassment, and pride that are part of any father-daughter relationship, especially in the San Francisco of the ‘70 and ‘80, with its indelible legacy of loss and love.
The centerpiece film: L’immensita, which is directed by Emanuele Crialese, has a 97-minute runtime, and is from Italy with englisg subtitles (Narrative, Foreign Film). Thursday, April 27.
It’s the 1970s and Rome is a city in transition. Clara and her husband moved into a new apartment, with three children. Stuck in a languid marriage to an unfaithful and abusive husband, Clara focuses her attention on the kids, connecting with them by channeling her own inner child. She relates to 13-year-old Adriana the most. Adriana has begun to identify as a boy, Andrew, and proclaims to his mother that he comes from another galaxy, something that Clara definitely relates to. While Penélope Cruz absolutely shines in the role of Clara, it is newcomer Luana Giuliani who commands the screen in this exuberant relationship story between mother and child, complete with a pop soundtrack and musical numbers.
The closing night film: Three Nights A Week (Trois Nuits par Semaine), which is directed by Florent Gouelou, has a 03 minute runtime, and is ffrom France, with French, Spanish, and English with English subtitles (Narrative, Gay, Drag). Sunday, April 30.
Baptiste first meets drag performer Cookie Kunty on the streets, while volunteering at a public-health clinic alongside his girlfriend, Samia. Trapped in a dead-end retail job while trying to develop his photography portfolio, Baptiste is in search of a subject for his art. But the choice to follow Cookie and document the rituals of the drag world ultimately leads him on a profound journey of self-discovery. Himself a drag performer, Gouëlou takes Baptiste and viewers on a deep dive into the world of drag performance and culture, depicted with loving, joyous accuracy thanks to the contributions of 40 French drag artists at work, both in front of and behind the camera.
For more information, to see a full list of the movies showing during the festival, and/or to purchase tickets and packages, visit www.outshinefilm.com.
