For one night in Midtown, the red carpet was more than a path into a movie theater. It was an invitation to see LGBTQ+ lives, relationships and experiences reflected on the big screen, and to experience those stories together.
Out On Film opened its 39th annual LGBTQ+ film festival Sept. 24 at Landmark Midtown Art Cinema with a red carpet and screening of “Before I Do,” the first feature film from writer-director Gary Jaffe. The 11-day festival runs through Oct. 4 and features 155 narrative films, documentaries, shorts and special events.
For Cindy L. Abel, Out On Film’s newly appointed executive director, representation is central to the festival’s mission.
“Out On Film is really unique in that, yes, it focuses on representing LGBTQ plus people, and it also focuses on what are good films, films that we can introduce to the broader community, that they’re not going to see on Netflix, no matter how good they are,” Abel said.
That representation, she said, also provides an opportunity for people to learn about LGBTQ+ experiences.
“It shares our stories and our lives and what we care about, you know what our experiences are,” Abel said. “It educates people who may not know about that. It encourages people who are trying or thinking about maybe perhaps someday coming out.”
Founded in 1987, Out On Film is one of the country’s longest-running LGBTQ+ film festivals and an Academy Award-qualifying festival for Best Live Action Short. In 2025, its in-person and virtual programming drew more than 17,000 attendees and reached audiences in 254 cities across 13 countries.
Opening-night film “Before I Do” is inspired by Jaffe’s own “queertet”, a close-knit group of 4 college friends. The film follows friends over a consequential weekend as they navigate friendship, romance and what they want from love and relationships.
“I hope that they come away with a more expansive vision of love, relationships, and what life can be,” Jaffe said. “This film does not tell you what to believe about love or relationships. It wants you to find yourself in the movie and decide for yourself what you want for these characters and also what you want for yourself.”
The screening marked a full-circle moment for Jaffe. Out On Film has supported and screened his short films dating to 2017.
“To be the opening night feature with my first feature felt like a long, long history of support coming to fruition right here tonight in Atlanta, and it’s very special,” Jaffe said.
Actor Robin de Jesús, who plays Luis in the film, said “Before I Do” reminded him of discovering queer movies growing up.
“There was a very specific vibe to those queer films in the ’90s, and there’s something about ours that there’s like a built-in nostalgia for some reason,” de Jesús said. “It makes me feel excited the way I did as a little boy when I saw good queer content.”
The festival’s lineup also looks to LGBTQ+ history. On Oct. 2, Out On Film will screen “Love, Patrick: Nothing is Impossible,” a documentary about Patrick Kelly, the Mississippi-born fashion designer who spent time in Atlanta before eventually moving to Paris and making history in the fashion industry.
Ray Cornelius, the film’s creator and executive producer, said the project grew out of a 2018 interview he conducted with Billy Porter about surviving the AIDS epidemic and losing friends during that period. The conversation led Cornelius and his collaborators to consider the artists and entertainers whose stories were lost with them. The filmmakers eventually chose to focus on Kelly.
“We hope that people will take away the gospel that we call ‘Nothing Is Impossible,’” Cornelius said. “That was Patrick’s mantra. That’s on his tombstone, and so far audiences have taken to that mantra, which means that no matter what you’re facing, no matter who you are, nothing is impossible, and that you can achieve whatever you put your mind to.”
For Abel, the festival is also about what happens when audiences experience those stories together.
“Community can be formed simply by people having a common experience,” Abel said. “You’re coming out of the theater, and then next thing you know, you’re talking with people you’ve never met before.”
From new stories of queer relationships to the preservation of LGBTQ+ history, Out On Film’s opening night offered a glimpse of what will fill screens throughout its 39th year: stories meant not only to be seen, but shared.
