Outfest Film Festival honors Jane Lynch of 'Glee'

(AFP PHOTO / CHRISTIAN ALMINANA)

While New York City prepares for its annual Pridefest and parade on June 27 during Gay Pride Week, cities around the world are celebrating and commemorating the gay uprising of the Stonewall Riots that took place on June 28, 1969.

In Los Angeles, the 28th Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Outfest, which runs July 8-18, opens with a gala tribute to Jane Lynch from the television hit show Glee, and the screening of Howl about the life of Beat poet Allen Ginsberg starring James Franco.

The festival has scheduled 143 films and videos from 25 countries (including Nepal for the first time) in six venues across Los Angeles over 11 days. They cover a range of genres with focuses on American and international dramas and documentaries.

Comedic actress Lynch will be presented with the Annual Achievement Award for her impact on mainstream and LGBT audiences. She has appeared in Christopher Guest's For Your Consideration and Best in Show, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Walk Hard, Talladega Nights, and The 40-Year-Old Virgin.

The presentation of the award to Lynch will be made by Chris Colfer ( Glee) and producer/director Paris Barclay who has worked on the show.

A movie titled Spork, meaning a female-identified intersexed person coping with mean girls in junior high school, closes the event with a final night screening.

The nation's leading LGBT festival and the oldest film festival in the city will be held July 8 to 18.

http://www.outfest.org/

RC