Culture

14th Annual Philadelphia Gay & Lesbian Film Festival – you’re OUT!

When they say it’s going to be the gayest summer in the city, they mean it, babyface! It’s the 14th Philadelphia International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival and it’s all about the films. Well…not ALL…there’s other stuff too.

Since it’s founding in 1995, the festival has grown into the third largest event of its kind in the United States, and the largest on the East Coast. If uninhibited programming and packed parties are your bag, then come on out to what has been called the “Sexiest gay and lesbian film festival in the country.”

High praise indeed from Out and About Magazine.

Diversity, freshness, and excellence are the watchwords this year. Choose from 176 outstanding films from 29 countries. Be there when the curtain rises on a raucous opening night with the highly anticipated Another Gay Sequel: Gays Gone Wild! Afterwards, hit the party at the Hyatt Regency Philadelphia at Penn’s Landing. Closing night features Were the World Mine, a gay musical interpretation of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

For two weeks in between, July 10th to the 22nd, luxuriate in the gayest cinematic bliss imaginable. The festival presents documentaries, shorts, truly spanfabulous events like a sing-along Xanadu, a screening of the 1970s adult classic Heavy Equipment in the original 3-D, a live staged reading of Todd Stephen’s Another Gay Movie, with Scott Thompson, Lypsinka and Mathew Rush.

As if that weren’t enough…

The festival lives and breathes on a commitment to new visions and a level of hospitality unmatched on this planet. Previous years have seen premiere’s of such hits as Dirk Shafer’s Circuit, C. Jay Cox’ Latter Days, and even Elvira-Mistress of the Dark’s Elvira’s Haunted Hills. Guests have included Clive Barker, Mart Crowley, Cheryl Dunye, Barbara Hammer, John Waters, and Chi Chi LaRue.

And there’s more. So very much more than I can’t do justice to right here. My suggestion to you is to download the program guide and take a few moments to sift through your opportunities.

Gay Philadelphia is here to rock your world for the fourteenth year in a row. Call me breathless.

Find more Philadelphia festival events on our calendar.

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