Outfest to Honor Amandla Stenberg With Platinum Maverick Award

Amandla Stenberg has a couple of dates with Outfest next month.

First, the actress has been selected to receive the fest’s Platinum Maverick Award, an honor that “recognizes Stenberg’s artistry in film and music and her unapologetic use of her platform for fierce advocacy and activism within the LGBTQ+ community.” Stenberg will take the stage to accept the prize during opening night festivities at LA’s Orpheum Theater on July 13.

Two days later, on July 15, Stenberg will turn up alongside co-star Bobbi Salvör Menuez and their director Jacqueline Castel at LA’s Redcat for a showing of their film, My Animal, as a festival platinum centerpiece screening. The screening, which follows a debut at the Sundance Film Festival in January, will be followed by a Platinum Alchemy Party and Music Showcase at 10DTLA, headlined by Madame Gandhi (who will receive a special award) and featuring such acts as Mega Bog, Praise Kink, Made Vós and Marie Nyx with a special guest performance expected.

Outfest rolled out the updates today as part of a news break that also included intel on other centerpiece screenings, events and highlights for the 41st edition presented by Warner Bros. Discovery and Genesis Motor America, which runs July 13-23.

Included in the lineup is a centerpiece screening of Ira Sachs’ film Passages starring Franz Rogowski, Ben Whishaw and Adèle Exarchopoulos. The MUBI release follows an egomaniacal film director who thrusts his life and relationship into chaos when he enters into a surprising affair with a woman. Sachs will participate in a post-screening discussion and reception.

Kokomo City, D. Smith’s look at the lives of four Black trans sex workers, will unspool at a documentary centerpiece. Following a screening of the Magnolia Pictures title, the filmmaker will discuss the project alongside film subjects Daniella Carter, Liyah Mitchell and Dominique Silver who will attend, schedules permitting.

Other centerpiece screenings include Erica Tremblay’s Fancy Dance starring Killers of the Flower Moon star Lily Gladstone as a queer woman who absconds with her teenage niece on a search for her missing sister. Filmmaker Rightor Doyle’s SXSW entry Down Low starring Zachary Quinto, Lukas Gage, Simon Rex, Judith Light and Audra McDonald will screen as a late night selection. Doyle is scheduled to present his comedy about the wild night that ensues after a deeply repressed man gets a “happy ending” from a young man.

The schedule also features a family day celebration on July 23 at Eagle Rock’s new Vidiots location where queer families, youth and allies will be invited for a day of programs and events including drag story hour, arts, crafts, giveaways and more. The full Outfest The lineup will be announced in the coming weeks.