FilmOut, San Diego's LGBT Film Festival, Kicks Off Friday

This is KPBS Midday Edition. I am Maureen Cavanaugh. FilmOut, the tran 11 kicks off this year on Friday. The Festival will screen 40 short, features and documentaries over three days. Best outcome on to previews with film programmer, Michael McQuiggan This year FilmOut is opening and closing with films by the same director. Is that typical? I don't bigots ever happened, certainly not at FilmOut . As we selected kiss me, kill me as the opening film, I was aware there's another film in the works, but I didn't think it was anywhere ready to be screened. I think I was on the Internet and saw they were doing a sneak preview of the film in Miami. I touched base with Kasper and asked, and we came up with the idea of making it the closing night film. Not to take away, they are both great films. It just kind of snowballed into that. Here we are. In your opening night film, is in thriller. -- Is a thriller. That is not the typical opening night film. It is played in every Festival and will continue to play in festivals throughout next year. It is a whodunit. [ Indiscernible ] Also another reason we chose it for opening night, is because most of the cast is recognizable to the tran 11 community. -- LGBT community . I realized when I was putting together press releases, and of all the actors that are in the film, with the exception of one of the supporting characters, every actor has had a film screened at FilmOut since we began 10 1/2 years ago. It is kind of fun to realize that everybody who is in the film and attending has had a film at FilmOut in the past. For opening night, you have an after party where people can mingle with the celebrities . That I have to give credit to our Board President. He takes on the opening night party by himself. We will have 15 restaurants from around town. For $30, you get to see a short film, it is animated in keeping with the tradition, then you get to see the feature film, you get to see the Q&A with 16 of the cast and filmmakers, then you get to mingle with them at the after party. You mentioned a short is playing with the film. You get a lot of submissions this year? It was crazy this year. I think it ended up being over 900 submissions. Out of those 900, the majority of those are short films. I would say probably between 700 and 800 were short films. That is where the task to select the best shorts was a little bit daunting. You also have a girls centerpiece. The girls centerpiece film is called the boy. It is about a photographer artist and she meets and kind of falls for an aging good-looking call girl. It is about the relationship they have with each other, and it is not -- definitely not a wrong come in any way. It is dark and intense and has them. It pays off in the end. I am hoping it does well. That would give them some extra exposure. Just to see the two performances by the two lead actresses is the price of admission -- worth the price of admission. Come and see ToY You said it was a dark film and you have another one . This one is from Australia and reminds me of when you play previously. They are both heart and challenging, but exhilarating from a filmmaking point of view. Downriver is a beautiful film. Australia in the last few years has exploded in tran 11 cinema. -- LGBT cinema . The performances in this p.m. -- film are outstanding, the cinematography is beautiful, it is a mystery. You rarely see and LGBT film with as much that. -- Depth. It is one of the few that can cross over to the mainstream. They both have young protagonists. It will relate to a lot of LGBT youth that don't think that there are a lot of films out there for them. Closet monster also has a unique character in a hamster. I recognize that voice. If you know her work you will pick up on that voice right away. [ Indiscernible ] That was something, I wasn't sure if it was going to work, but it totally pays off in the end. That is another film I hope people discover in this festival. Downriver and closet monster and Paris 559 are all on the darker side, but they're all brilliant. Especially in terms of scope, direction, acting, photography. You can't go wrong if you want to pick three films that are on the dark side, pick those. Thank you for talking with me. Thank you.

FilmOut, San Diego’s LGBT Film Festival, kicks off its 18th year this Friday at the Observatory in North Park. KPBS film critic Beth Accomando has a preview. This year FilmOut had nearly 900 film submissions that had to be pared down to a mere three days of programming. For the first time opening night will serve up a thriller, Kiss Me Kill Me, followed by an after party with cast and crew. Programmer Michael McQuiggan says women have a strong showing this year. MICHAEL McQUIGGAN: The Girls’ Centerpiece I’m actually really excited. It is a great film called Toy. I don’t want to give anything away let me just say that half the films this year are dark or half are rom-coms. Toy is definitely on the dark side. So too are the stunning DownRiver and Closet Monster, the latter featuring a hamster voiced by Isabella Rossellini. Expect the unexpected from this year’s FilmOut. Beth Accomando, KPBS News.