26th Annual OUTshine LGBTQ+ Film Festival Miami Unveils Lineup

OUTshine LGBTQ+ Film Festival Miami has revealed its 26th annual Miami film line-up. This year’s festival celebrating queer culture runs April 18 - 28 and will feature more than 50 internationally acclaimed features and shorts including premieres and documentaries that inspire, entertain, and educate. Adding to the excitement and sense of community this year will be a Latin Spotlight featuring men’s and women’s films, a panel for aspiring filmmakers and FREE Uber rides to and from select film screenings. The films will screen at Silverspot Cinema Miami (300 Southeast 3rd Street) from April 18 to 24 and at Regal South Beach (1120 Lincoln Road Mall, Miami Beach) from April 25 to 28. A variety of parties and special events will take place at various locations throughout Miami.

“We are excited to unveil this year’s engaging OUTshine LGBTQ+ Film Festival Miami lineup featuring a reimagined and more accessible experience of incredible premieres, filmmaker instruction and more parties,” said Joe Bilancio, director of programming for OUTshine LGBTQ+ Film Festival. “This year’s groundbreaking films hail from Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Ukraine, Spain, Austria and beyond…all with the goal of bringing us together in universal love and acceptance by promoting tolerance, equality, understanding and empathy.”

This year’s opening night film taking place at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 18, at Silverspot Cinema Miami is Turtles (Les Tortues) (Belgium/Canada, 2023). Directed by David Lambert, this relationship comedy-drama follows the ups and downs of married couple Thom and Henri, together for 35 years, now facing retired life and what happens when a love turns sour. The W Miami Afterparty will take place immediately following the screening.  

Brand new to the Miami line-up this year is a Latin Spotlight night set for Saturday, April 20, at Silverspot Cinema Miami, with four films from Latin America.  At 8 p.m. is the North American premiere of Blue Lights (Luces Azules)(Argentina, 2023). Directed by Lucas Santa Ana, Blue Lights is a vibrant, engaging and sophisticated dramedy that plays out during a 70th birthday celebration. Friends and family gather, tensions soars and secrets are revealed leaving each guest to explore their idea of friends, lovers and self. The film explores the intricacies of love, loss, friendship and the evolving dynamics of gay and lesbian relationships in a changing world.Festivalgoers can also choose to see All The Silence (Tod El Silencio) (Mexico, 2023), directed by Diego Del Rio, at 8:15 p.m. This film will be in Spanish with Sign Language. This poignant film focuses on Miriam, an actress who is also a sign language teacher, who begins a downward spiral when she learns that she will become fully deaf. Despite having deaf parents, deaf friends and a deaf girlfriend, she refuses to accept a world without sound and starts to tear her life apart.

Two nights of Cocktails & Cinema will celebrate our local filmmakers, cast and crews from students to seasoned veterans of the industry at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, April 22, and Tuesday, April 23, at Silverspot Cinema Miami. This year’s South Florida Shorts program includes Double Life by Mellie Parks and Trinity Byonie, Frag by Christopher Frentzel,  Myrna’s Secret Spies by Andy Perrott, and Open Dialogue: Generation QueerZ by Freddy Rodriguez. On both nights, there will be a Q&A after the screening and a reception will be held in the OUTshine Lounge at the Silverspot immediately following.

Max, a 25-year-old aspiring writer living in London, becomes a sex worker with the pseudonym Sebastian in order to research his debut novel and this secret double-life becomes a source of liberation and transformation in Sebastian (Finland/UK, 2024), this year’s Centerpiece Film. The film will be screened at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 24, at Silverspot Cinema Miami. Writer/director Mikko Makela’s second feature offers an intriguing exploration of sex, identity, restraint and abandon. An afterparty will take place immediately following the film.

To encourage more local LGBTQ+ filmmakers to tell their stories, OUTshine will present its Filmmaker Panel on Saturday, April 27, at 2 p.m. at Regal South Beach. This special event will feature local directors Hansel Porras Garcia, director of Febrero and OOLITE Arts; Chris Molina, director of Fallen Fruit, I Wonder If I’m Growing and programmer with the Miami Film Festival; Freddy Rodriguez, director of Open Dialogues: Stories from the LGBTQ Community; Filmmaker Bootcat; Joe Tufte, Miami Dade College film professor; Noah Salzman, director of Clocked and Angelica Bourland, director of Warrior and Unstuck.

Also, on April 27, is the Men’s Spotlight slice-of-life comedy film F.L.Y. (USA, 2023), directed by Rafael Albarran and Trent Kendrick. When two ex-boyfriends (Max and Rafael), who haven't seen each other in five years, reunite -- the covid pandemic hits, and they're forced to quarantine together. The Ladies Spotlight Film will be the East Coast premiere of Backspot (Canada, 2023), directed by D.W. Waterson. Riley is given the chance to cheer with the all-star squad, Thunderhawks. With a competition looming, Riley must navigate her crippling anxiety, her relationship with her girlfriend, and her desperate need for approval from her new coach.

Additional selections of note include the North American premieres of Lessons of Tolerance (Ukraine, 2023), The Fisherman’s Daughter (La Estrategia Del Mero)(Colombia, 2023), and Sunflower (Australia, 2023); the Southeast premiere of Gondola (Georgia, 2023); the Trans-focused films Close To You (Canada and UK, 2023) starring Elliott Page and The Summer with Carmen (Greece, 2024); the Queer Festival premiere of the award-winning Riley (USA, 2023), and the documentary Mad About The Boy: The Noel Coward Story (UK, 2023) narrated by Alan Cumming.

The North American premiere of Mascarpone: The Rainbow Cake (Maschile Plural) (Italy, 2024) will be the Closing Night Film commencing at 6 p.m. on Sunday, April 28, at Regal South Beach. Director Alesandro Haigh presents an intoxicating drama about sexy duo Antonio and Luca who are trying to pick up the pieces three years after their friend Denis’s passing. While each went their separate ways, when the two meet again Antonio mistakes Luca’s desire to reconnect as more than just a pure gesture of friendship. Immediately following at 8 p.m., a celebratory South Beach Group Hotel Closing Night Party will take place at the Miami Beach Women's Club (2401 Pine Tree Drive, Miami Beach).

To make attending OUTshine’s incredible films and special events more accessible, the City of Miami is offering FREE Uber Rides to and from Silverspot Cinema (within a 25 mile radius) valid from April 18 through April 24!

OUTrageous, OUTspoken, and OUTstanding, this year’s OUTshine LGBTQ+ Film Festival Miami is sponsored, in part, by Miami Dade County, the City of Miami Beach and Gilead.

Ticket subscription packages and individual tickets go on sale March 23 for the 41st edition of the OUTshine LGBTQ+ Film Festival. For a full schedule of films, parties and special events or for more information, visit outshinefilm.com.

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