By: Joe Castel
With the timely demise of Outfest in 2023, a new and vibrant LGBTQ film festival has risen like a queer cinematic rhinestone phoenix from the celluloid ashes of its predecessor’s former Hollywood glory. CinePride, founded by talent agent Cecilio Asuncion, will debut Sept. 11 – 14, 2025 at the Landmark Theatres Sunset in West Hollywood.
CinePride will screen between 30 and 40 films over four days, ranging from LGBTQ documentaries, feature narratives, short films, web series and TV pilots.
Asuncion commends the now defunct Outfest for being one of the first and largest LGBTQ film festivals in the country and how it gave ample opportunities to thousands of filmmakers in its 42-year history to screen their work. However, the Executive Director also believes that Outfest was out of touch with the up and coming filmmakers of color by having most of them segregated from its larger and more publicized annual festival that took place in the summer. Outfest’s Fusion Festival, held in the Spring, was only for filmmakers of color. The issue was just not that Fusion was a smaller festival, but the distributors, critics, and stars all attended the major Outfest festival in the summer, making the Fusion festival, well, less than desirable.
What inspired Asuncion to jump start a new queer film festival? As a Filipino gay filmmaker, Asuncion was told to submit his film to Outfest’s Fusion Festival when his film was rejected by the Outfest judging committee.
“That didn’t sit well with me,” says Asuncion. The CinePride Director explains he felt that festival officials were disrespecting filmmakers of color. “Look, I’m not the kind of person who goes online and bitches about something. I’m going to do something about it.” Asuncion stresses that CinePride is going to “create the right home for people who look like all of us.”
Not only does Asuncion own a successful modeling/acting agency that helps provide him with industry networking, he’s also partnered with other Hollywood major players to pull off a such an artistic and challenging event. The executive team includes programming director Miguel Santos, who currently serves as COO of Whoopi Goldberg’s All Women’s Sports Network, and development director Michael Daly, who brings his experience as a marketing consultant. CinePride also aims to provide educational opportunities through workshops, filmmaker Q&As and panel discussions during the festival.
Filmmakers who wish to submit their films to CinePride must first register their material with Film Freeway at
https://filmfreeway.com
For more info on CinePride,
visit https://www.cinepride.org.