[Atlanta, GA, October 15, 2025] – On the heels of its most successful year ever, Out On Film – Atlanta’s 38-year-old, Oscar® qualifying LGBTQ+ film festival – has named this year’s Jury and Audience Award winners as follows:
- Carmen Emmi’s “Plainclothes,” about a promising undercover agent assigned to lure and arrest gay men who defies professional orders when he falls in love with a target, won the Audience Award for Best Narrative Film and the Jury Award for Best Screenplay.
- Ivona Juka’s “Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day,” about four close friends/renowned filmmakers in Yugoslavia in the 1950s whose sexual orientation raises suspicions, and Emma Hough Hobbs and Leela Varghese’s “Lesbian Space Princess,” about an introverted space princess who is devastated when she is unexpectedly dumped by her girlfriend Kiki for being needy, tied for the Jury Award for Best Narrative feature and Best Director. “Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day” also won the Jury Award for Best Ensemble.
- “I Was Born This Way,” Daniel Junge and San Pollard’s look at iconic disco artist and activist Carl Bean, took home the Audience Award for Best Documentary, while Kim A. Snyder’s “The Librarians,” about librarians under siege who join forces as unlikely defenders fighting for intellectual freedom on the front lines of democracy in the face of an unprecedented wave of book banning largely addressing race and LGBTQ+ issues won the Jury Award in that category.
- Asia Kate Dillon took home Best Performance for their work in Elena Oxman’s “Outerlands,” starring as Cass, a nanny, restaurant server, and party drug dealer trying to make ends meet who agrees to watch after the 11-year-old daughter of a co-worker they have a crush on.
- “Two People Exchanging Saliva,” Natalie Musteata and Alexandre Singh’s absurdist tragedy set in a repressive society where kissing is punishable by death, and people pay for things by receiving slaps to the face, won Out On Film’s Jury Award for Best Drama Short. This category is Out On Film’s Oscar® qualifying one.
Other winners include: Ali Rosenthal’s “Teen Mary,” winner of the Audience Award for Best Narrative Short; Brad Burleson’s “Tippi and Barb,” recipient of the Audience Award for Best Documentary Short; and Ava Grimshaw-Hall’s “While We Still Have Time,” which took home the Jury Award for Best Documentary Short.
In addition, Angelica Ross received the 2205 Out On Film Icon Award for her body of work and activism, while Oscar® winner Mo’Nique reunited with costars Julian Walker and Torrey Laamar (left, in photo above) for a 10-year anniversary screening of Patrik-Ian Polk’s “Blackbird.”
Other special guests included Tuc Watkins, Adam Huss, Ray Santiago and director Garrett Abdo of the Atlanta-filmed “Exit Interviews,” director/writer Carmen Emmi for “Plainclothes,” Bishop Beatitude Jones of “I Was Born This Way,” Alexandra Grey of “Grace,”
Jelani Alladin of “Strangers on a Beach,” directors Rashaad Newsome and Johnny Symons from “Assembly,” Ben Baur of “Just Between Us” and producer Natalie Metzger of “Queens of the Dead.”
Out On Film’s four-day Queer Film Summit also took place, with sessions on distribution, make-up and special effects, building a low/no-budget feature and the unsung heroes of the big screen: crew members.
“2025 has been an extraordinary year for us, from year-round screenings, the second FIlmmaker Fund grant awards and our surging Queer Film Alliance to being named to Moviemaker’s 50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee and the timely and well-attended Reel Resistance event with Atlanta Pride this summer,” says Jim Farmer, festival director of Out On FIlm. “The icing to a long and productive year was our cornerstone 11-day fall festival, full of great films, filmmakers, audience members and community. Out On FIlm has grown into one of the world’s pre-eminent, best respected LGBTQ+ film festivals and this season was by far our largest ever.”
This year’s festival attracted close to 20,000 patrons both in person and virtually across the nation, and beat all sales records for the festival to date. Presented by GILEAD, festival screenings, Q&As, and panels took place September 25-October 5 at the historic Landmark Midtown Art Cinema and Out Front Theatre Company. In all, Out On Film hosted 10 world premieres, four international premieres, 10 U.S. premieres and 32 regional premieres as part of the 2025 festival.
FULL LIST OF 2025 WINNERS
JURY AWARDS
- Best Drama Short – “Two People Exchanging Saliva” (Natalie Musteata, Alexandre Singh)
o Runner-up: “Skin on Skin” (Simon Schneckenburger)
- Best Documentary Short – “While We Still Have Time” (Ava Grimshaw-Hall)
o Runner-up: “Zora Head: The Life and Scholarship of Valerie Boyd” (Adam Forrester, Clint Fluker)
- Best Documentary: “The Librarians” (Kim A. Snyder)
o Runner-up: “Night in West Texas” (Deborah S. Esquenazi)
- Best Performance: Asia Kate Dillon, “Outerlands”
- Best Ensemble: “Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day”
- Best Screenplay: “Plainclothes” (Carmen Emmi)
- Best Director: (Tie) “Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day” (Ivona Juka) and “Lesbian Space Princess” (Emma Hough Hobbs, Leela Varghese)
- Best Narrative Feature: (Tie) “Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day” and “Lesbian Space Princess”
AUDIENCE AWARDS
- Best Narrative Short: “Teen Mary” (Ali Rosenthal)
o Runner-Up: “Two Black Boys in Paradise” (Baz Sells)
- Best Documentary Short: “Tippi and Barb” (Brad Burleson)
o Runner-up: “Autoerotica: We Buy Gay Stuff” (Jeremy von Stilb)
- Best Documentary: “I Was Born This Way” (Daniel Junge, Sam Pollard)
o Runner-up: “Move Ya Body: The Birth of House” (Elegance Bratton)
- Best Narrative Feature: “Plainclothes” (Carmen Emmi)
o Runner-up “Four Mothers” (Darren Thornton)
About Out On Film
Out On Film, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, is an Oscar®-qualifying LGBTQ+ film festival (since 2020) founded in 1987 by Rebecca Ranson and community leaders. It became an independent LGBTQ+ organization in 2008. Out On Film has grown into an eleven-day celebration of LGBTQ+ storytelling, representing all facets of the LGBTQ+ community, and hosts events throughout the year. Other notable accolades include being voted for a third consecutive year to the USA TODAY 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards, being listed in Moviemaker magazine’s list of 50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee in 2022 and 2025, and being regularly featured as part of Film Freeway’s 100 Best Reviewed Film Festivals. Out On Film’s mission is to showcase work for, by, and about the LGBTQ+ community and highlight films from Atlanta, the South, and around the world. For more information, please visit https://outonfilm.org.
