Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ+ Film Festival
The leading LGBTQ+ film festival championing diverse storytelling since 1982
Overview
Outfest Los Angeles is the oldest continuous LGBTQ+ film festival in the world, founded in 1982 at UCLA and growing into one of the most important platforms for queer cinema globally. The festival champions LGBTQ+ storytelling through film screenings, community events, educational programs, and artist development initiatives that support the creation and distribution of diverse queer content. Held annually during the summer in Los Angeles, Outfest screens over 150 films from around the world, attracting thousands of attendees including filmmakers, actors, industry professionals, and community members. The festival's location in Hollywood positions it at the center of the global entertainment industry, ensuring that Outfest selections receive attention from the studios, networks, and production companies that drive content creation.
Outfest's programming encompasses feature films, shorts, documentaries, and episodic content that explores the full breadth of LGBTQ+ experience across cultures, identities, and artistic approaches. The festival's commitment to intersectionality is reflected in the Outfest Fusion QTBIPOC Film Festival, a separate event that specifically celebrates work by and about queer, trans, and BIPOC communities, addressing the intersection of racial and sexual identity in cinema. Year-round screenings and events extend Outfest's impact beyond the summer festival, maintaining a continuous platform for LGBTQ+ cinema and community engagement throughout the calendar year. The festival's curatorial vision balances crowd-pleasing narratives with challenging and provocative work, ensuring that the programming serves both broad audiences and the artistic vanguard of queer cinema.
How It Works
For actors, Outfest provides an essential platform for visibility in LGBTQ+ cinema, which has become an increasingly important and commercially viable segment of the entertainment industry. Actors appearing in Outfest selections benefit from exposure to industry professionals who specifically attend the festival to discover talent and acquire content for studios, networks, and streaming platforms. The festival's Los Angeles location means that the audience includes casting directors, agents, managers, and producers who are actively seeking diverse talent for mainstream and LGBTQ+-focused projects. Outfest's reputation as a tastemaker in queer cinema means that festival selections often receive media coverage that extends well beyond the LGBTQ+ press into mainstream entertainment journalism.
Outfest's artist development programs provide direct support for LGBTQ+ filmmakers and performers at various career stages, including mentorship, workshops, and networking opportunities that accelerate professional development. The Outfest Screenwriting Lab supports emerging screenwriters developing LGBTQ+ stories, creating pipeline projects that will eventually need actors for production. The festival's educational initiatives extend to youth programs that nurture the next generation of LGBTQ+ storytellers and performers, ensuring the long-term health of the community's creative ecosystem. These programs make Outfest more than a film festival — it functions as a year-round institution supporting the creation and exhibition of LGBTQ+ cinema.
Who Uses It
Outfest occupies a unique position in the festival landscape as both a community celebration and a serious industry event, combining the energy and activism of LGBTQ+ cultural organizing with the professional infrastructure of a major Los Angeles film festival. The festival's four decades of history have produced an extensive alumni network of filmmakers and actors who have gone on to significant careers in the entertainment industry, creating a community of established professionals who remain connected to and supportive of Outfest's mission. For actors of any identity who are interested in LGBTQ+ storytelling, Outfest provides an entry point into a creative community that values authentic representation and nuanced character work. The continued growth of LGBTQ+ content across streaming platforms, networks, and theatrical distribution means that Outfest's role as a discovery platform for talent and content has never been more relevant to actors' career strategies.
Pricing & Plans
Outfest's submission fees for filmmakers vary by category — feature films, short films, documentaries, and episodic content — with exact fees updated annually on the festival's website and through standard submission platforms like FilmFreeway and Withoutabox. Festival passes are available at various price points ranging from individual screening tickets to all-access festival passes, with pricing structured to ensure accessibility while supporting the organization's operations as a nonprofit. VIP and patron passes offer premium access including priority seating, exclusive events, and networking opportunities with filmmakers and industry guests. Outfest's nonprofit status means that many programs, including some educational initiatives and community screenings, are offered free of charge to ensure broad community access regardless of economic resources. The summer festival and year-round events are held at various Los Angeles venues, with some outdoor and community screenings offered at reduced or no cost. Membership in the Outfest organization provides year-round benefits including discounted festival access, exclusive screenings, and early access to programming announcements.
Pros & Cons
What's Great
Outfest's position as the world's oldest continuous LGBTQ+ film festival gives it unmatched credibility and institutional relationships within both the LGBTQ+ community and the broader entertainment industry, ensuring that selections carry genuine career weight for filmmakers and actors. The festival's Los Angeles location places it at the epicenter of the global entertainment industry, meaning that screenings are attended by the casting directors, agents, managers, and producers who control access to the most significant opportunities in film and television. The Outfest Fusion QTBIPOC Festival addresses a critical gap in representation by specifically centering work by and about queer, trans, and BIPOC communities, providing a platform for intersectional stories that might be overlooked by festivals with less nuanced approaches to diversity. The artist development programs — screenwriting labs, mentorship initiatives, educational workshops — provide tangible career support that extends beyond the festival experience, investing in the long-term success of LGBTQ+ filmmakers and the actors who will appear in their future projects. The festival's four-decade alumni network includes filmmakers and actors now working at every level of the entertainment industry, creating a professional community that supports emerging talent through mentorship, referrals, and collaboration. The growing commercial viability of LGBTQ+ content across all platforms means that Outfest's role as a discovery and validation mechanism has direct career impact for actors seeking to be identified with and cast in diverse storytelling.
What Could Be Better
Outfest's primary identity as an LGBTQ+ film festival means that it serves a specific community and thematic focus, and filmmakers whose work does not engage with LGBTQ+ themes or identities will not find the festival relevant to their submission strategy regardless of their film's quality. The festival's Los Angeles setting, while strategically advantageous for industry exposure, means that attendance costs for out-of-town filmmakers and actors can be significant, particularly given LA's high costs for accommodation, transportation, and daily expenses during the summer festival period. The sheer volume of LGBTQ+ content being produced across the entertainment industry means that Outfest's competition for attention — from streaming platform releases, other festivals, and year-round content — is more intense than in previous decades when the festival was one of few outlets for queer cinema. The festival's summer timing may conflict with other professional commitments for actors, who may be working on productions, attending other festivals, or pursuing opportunities that overlap with Outfest dates. As a nonprofit organization, Outfest operates with resource constraints that can affect the scale and production quality of festival events compared to larger, better-funded festivals. The festival's programming, while broad in its representation of LGBTQ+ experience, necessarily involves curatorial choices about which stories and perspectives to prioritize, and some filmmakers may find that their specific vision does not align with the programming team's current focus.
Our Recommendation
Outfest is an essential festival for actors and filmmakers creating LGBTQ+ content who want to reach the community, industry professionals, and audiences that will champion their work and create opportunities for future projects. Actors who identify as LGBTQ+ should consider Outfest participation a strategic career priority, as the festival's industry connections and community network provide visibility and professional relationships that are specifically relevant to the growing demand for authentic diverse representation in entertainment. Non-LGBTQ+ actors appearing in LGBTQ+ films selected for Outfest will benefit from the festival's reputation as a tastemaker and its audience of industry professionals who are actively seeking talent for diverse projects. Filmmakers at early career stages should explore Outfest's artist development programs, including the screenwriting lab and mentorship initiatives, as alternative pathways to festival participation and professional development. If you are attending Outfest as an audience member rather than with a screening film, use the festival as a networking opportunity and community engagement experience, building relationships with the filmmakers and industry professionals who will create future casting opportunities.
Pro Tips
Submit to Outfest through the festival's preferred submission platforms, carefully selecting the appropriate category for your project and reviewing the submission guidelines to ensure your film meets the festival's criteria for LGBTQ+ content relevance. Prepare for your Outfest screening or attendance by researching the festival's recent programming to understand its curatorial direction and audience expectations, allowing you to frame your work and professional conversations within the festival's specific context. If your film is selected, maximize your visibility by attending all festival events possible, not just your own screening, as the networking opportunities at Q&As, parties, and industry events are where the most valuable professional connections are made. Engage with Outfest's year-round programming and community even if your primary participation is during the summer festival, as maintaining a visible presence in the organization's activities demonstrates genuine commitment to the community and keeps you connected to opportunities throughout the year. Leverage social media actively during and after the festival, as Outfest's community is highly engaged online and digital visibility amplifies the in-person connections made during the festival. Connect your Outfest participation to your broader career narrative by framing LGBTQ+ storytelling as part of your artistic identity and professional portfolio, rather than treating it as a separate category from your mainstream work.