Seattle Gay and Lesbian Film Festival

TWIST: Seattle Queer Film Festival (formerly known as the Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, or SLGFF) is an annual film festival in Seattle. This event is the largest LGBTQ Pacific Northwest festival, and its award winning films receive national praise. At the festival each film is able to receive an award which is doled out by a jury. Danny Tayara organizes the festival programming while Keith Bacon is the Festival Director.

The festival is produced by Three Dollar Bill Cinema, a nonprofit organization which promotes queer cinema. Their mission is to provide films by, for, and about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities. The festival is a place where the filmmakers can have contact and interact with their audiences and fellow filmmakers. This is one of the many events that Seattle International Film Festival, SIFF highlights. The Films are shown in cinemas around Seattle including AMC Pacific Place, SIFF Cinema Egyptian, Northwest Film Forum, 12th Avenue Arts, and Re-Bar. There are also after parties at local spots like Grim's and Hotel Max following the showings.

TWIST was inspired by a gay film festival in San Francisco that Skylar Fein attended in the early 90's. He knew that he wanted to start a similar one in Seattle. After trial and error in 1995 the first Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival was created in 1996. Since then it has grown into the large vibrant event it is today. The 20th annual festival took place October 8–18, 2015 and over 10,000 people were expected to attend. Many of the films throughout the festival highlight the struggles, successes, and daily lives of people within the LGBT community. Some of the films this year had high profile actors like Julianne Moore and Ellen Page, the actress from Juno. There are also events throughout the showings; this year there was an auction and dinner, a series of short films, and a celebration of the last 20 years of LGBT film. This year's awards were best feature film, best documentary film, documentary film honorable mention, best short film, short film honorable mention, and most innovative short film. There was also a similar list of awards voted on by the audience. The opener of this years festival was "Freeheld" a story of a woman with a terminal illness and her partner's struggle with survivor benefits. The finale showing was "Out to Win" about Dave Kopay, a University of Washington and NFL football player, and his coming out story in 1975. A trailer for the 2015 festival can be found here http://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2015/10/something-to-get-motivated-seattle-lesbian-and-gay-film-festival-turns-20/

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