Outfest Postpones Legacy Awards & Pauses Other Programming, Initiates “Leaves” For Majority Of Staff, Citing Severe Impact Of “Financial Climate”

deadline.com:

Outfest has pushed its upcoming Legacy Awards ceremony to 2024, hit pause on all other programming for the near term, and is initiating “leaves” for the majority of its staff, citing the severe impact the recent “financial climate” has had on the organization.

In a statement released on Thursday, the LGBTQIA+ org’s Board of Directors said that “the difficult decision” was made “to scale back our operations for the next several months,” given the fact that “like other nonprofit organizations, Outfest has been severely impacted by the financial climate of the media and entertainment industry.” The non-profit’s goal, going forward, is to step back and “humbly focus on creating a financial model that prioritizes programming that serves our community, a supportive environment for our staff, and ultimately protects the organization.” The hope, the Board stated, is to ensure “that Outfest endures and thrives for the next 40 years in its core mission to champion LGBTQIA+ storytellers and create opportunities.” The Board went on to note that it “proudly supports” the right of staff to unionize, as they recently moved to do, “and has provided the staff with a letter recognizing their union, including having reached out to find a date to meet.

It is our continued priority to honor the staff as we forge a productive path forward. We are optimistic this will provide the best position for the organization to ultimately ensure Outfest’s festival and programming are able to continue to support LGBTQIA+ filmmakers.” News of financial turmoil at Outfest has emerged in recent weeks, as has word of layoffs affecting Director of Artist Development Martine McDonald, Senior Programming Coordinator Gabi Grossman, Development Coordinator Alex