Lambda Literary Awards, also known as the "Lammys", are awarded yearly by Lambda Literary to recognize the crucial role LGBTQ writers play in shaping the world. The Lammys celebrate the very best in LGBTQ literature. The awards were instituted in 1989.
But I'm a Cheerleader is a 1999 American satirical teen romantic comedy film directed by Jamie Babbit in her feature directorial debut and written by Brian Wayne Peterson. Natasha Lyonne stars as Megan Bloomfield, a high school cheerleader whose parents send her to a residential in-patient conversion therapy camp to "cure" her lesbianism. At camp, Megan realizes that she is indeed a lesbian and, despite the "therapy", comes to embrace her sexuality. The supporting cast includes Clea DuVall, RuPaul, and Cathy Moriarty.
Jenni Olson is a writer, archivist, historian, consultant, and non-fiction filmmaker based in Berkeley, California. She co-founded the pioneering LGBT website PlanetOut.com. Her two feature-length essay films — The Joy of Life (2005) and The Royal Road (2015) — premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Her work as an experimental filmmaker and her expansive personal collection of LGBTQ film prints and memorabilia were acquired in April 2020 by the Harvard Film Archive, and her reflection on the last 30 years of LGBT film history was published as a chapter in The Oxford Handbook of Queer Cinema from Oxford University Press in 2021. In 2020, she was named to the Out Magazine Out 100 list. In 2021, she was recognized with the prestigious Special TEDDY Award at the Berlin Film Festival. She also campaigned to have a barrier erected on the Golden Gate Bridge to prevent suicides.
Itty Bitty Titty Committee is a 2007 American comedy film directed by Jamie Babbit. It follows the political awakening of Anna, a young, mild-mannered lesbian woman who joins a radical feminist group. The film is produced by non-profit organization POWER UP.
Fina Torres is a Venezuelan film director and screenwriter. She became internationally recognized after winning the la Caméra d'Or award at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival with her directorial debut film, Oriana.
Mango Kiss is a 2004 American comedy film written Sarah Elisabeth Brown and Sascha Rice, and directed by Sascha Rice. The plot concerns love between two lesbian friends, Lou and Sassafras. It is based on the play Bermuda Triangles, written by Sarah Elisabeth Brown. The story for the play was based on the playwright's experience living within the lesbian subculture found in San Francisco in the 1990s.
The Iris Prize, established in 2007 by Berwyn Rowlands of The Festivals Company, is an international LGBT film prize and festival which is open to any film which is by, for, about or of interest to gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or intersex audiences and which must have been completed within two years of the prize deadline.
Michelle Ehlen is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and actress best known for her comedic feature Butch Jamie.
Butch Jamie is a gender-bending romantic comedy film that premiered in July 2007 at Outfest: the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. Writer, director, and lead actress Michelle Ehlen won Outfest's Grand Jury Award for "Outstanding Actress in a Feature Film." The film was produced independently through the filmmaker's production company, Ballet Diesel Films.
Were the World Mine is a 2008 romantic musical fantasy film directed by Tom Gustafson, written by Gustafson and Cory James Krueckeberg, and starring Tanner Cohen, Wendy Robie, Judy McLane, Zelda Williams, Jill Larson, Ricky Goldman, Nathaniel David Becker, Christian Stolte, and David Darlow.
Steven Toushin is an American producer and distributor of gay pornographic and BDSM films who has operated adult theaters and sex clubs since 1970. Toushin owned and managed the Bijou Theater in Chicago, the oldest gay adult theater and sex club in the United States. Toushin has produced multiple underground and classic pornographic films through his studio Bijou Video and published several books on the matter. He and his businesses have been the subject of twenty-one obscenity cases, including two federal trials, and he has suffered thirty-five personal arrests and over 200 busts to his businesses.
Edie & Thea: A Very Long Engagement is a 2009 American documentary film directed and produced by Susan Muska and Gréta Ólafsdóttir for their company Bless Bless Productions, in association with Sundance Channel. The film tells the story of the long-term lesbian relationship between Edie Windsor and Thea Spyer, including their respective childhoods, their meeting in 1963, their lives and careers in New York City, Thea's diagnosis with multiple sclerosis and Edie's care for her partner, and their wedding in Toronto, Canada, in May 2007, because gay marriage was not then legal in their home state of New York.
Weekend is a 2011 British romantic drama film directed by Andrew Haigh and starring Tom Cullen and Chris New as two men who meet and begin a sexual relationship the weekend before one of them plans to leave the country. The film won much praise and critical acclaim after premiering at the SXSW festival in the US, and was a success at the box office in the UK and the U.S., where it received a limited release.
Beyond Gay: The Politics of Pride is a 2009 documentary directed by Bob Christie, where he examines relevance of LGBT pride celebrations internationally, against the backdrop of opposition to such events in a number of countries. The documentary tries to portray pride as more than just a parade, but rather an important step on the road to equality and fight against homophobia and discrimination. It was produced with Transmission in association with Border2Border Entertainment and Nomadic Pictures.
Jeanne Córdova was an American trailblazer of the lesbian and gay rights movement, founder of The Lesbian Tide, and a founder of the West Coast LGBT movement. Córdova was a second-wave feminist lesbian activist and proud butch.
Maud's was a lesbian bar at 937 Cole Street in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury District which opened in 1966 and closed in 1989. At the time of its closing, which was captured in the film, Last Call at Maud's, it was claimed to be the oldest lesbian bar in the United States. Its history, documented in the film and other media, spanned almost a quarter-century of LGBT events.
BloodSisters: Leather, Dykes and Sadomasochism is a 1995 American documentary film directed by Michelle Handelman. The film documents the lesbian BDSM and leather subculture scene in San Francisco in the mid-1990s. BloodSisters is noted as the subject of protests by the American Family Association in the context of their efforts to defund the National Endowment for the Arts, from which the film's distributor Women Make Movies received funding.
