Previous honorees at the event include Justin Simien, Laverne Cox, Jill Soloway, Sean Hayes, Tom Hanks, Hilary Swank, Lee Daniels, Adam Shankman, Roland Emmerich and Paris Barclay.
Outfest is finalizing the program for its upcoming Outfest Legacy Awards Gala: A Benefit to Protect Our Past and Build Our Future with an honorees list that includes Emmy-winning producers of Queer Eye and Vida creator Tanya Saracho.
Hosted by Sheryl Lee Ralph, the Legacy Awards will be held Oct. 27 at Vibiana in Downtown Los Angeles. Also set: a special performance by comedian Dana Goldberg, a menu from head chef Neal Fraser of Redbird, a new “Unveiling of a New Era” theme, and Tony award-winning producer Scott Mauro on board to produce the whole affair.
For Queer Eye, its producers and co-founders at Scout Prods., David Collins and Michael Williams, will take the stage along with Scout’s chief creative officer Rob Eric to accept the Corporate Trailblazer Award. The honor recognizes the company’s “bold vision and commitment to assuring LGBTQ stories’ visibility onscreen,” per Outfest. The show, which first aired on Bravo, has been a cultural smash for Netflix since the reboot first debuted in 2018. At the recent Emmy Awards, the show — starring food guru Antoni Porowski, fashion expert Tan France, culture leader Karamo Brown, design expert Bobby Berk, and grooming aficionado Jonathan Van Ness — picked up a top prize for outstanding structured reality program. Scout Prods. other credits include The Fog of War, Session 9 and Transsiberian.
Meanwhile, Saracho is a playwright and TV writer who serves as creator, showrunner and executive producer of the critically-acclaimed Vida for Starz. The series, which stars Melissa Barrera, Mishel Prada, Ser Anzoategui, Chelsea Rendon, Carlos Miranda, Maria-Elena Laas and Roberta Colindrez, tells the story of two Mexican-American sisters who move back to their childhood home in East L.A. after the death of their mother. It has been lauded for its portrayal of women and LGBTQ storylines and has been honored with a GLAAD Media Award for outstanding comedy series, an Impact Award from the National Hispanic Media Coalition and an Audience Award at the 2018 SXSW Film Festival.
“Our honorees for this year’s Outfest Legacy Awards Gala have built such remarkable careers on the premise that authentic and multidimensional queer characters and storylines allow audiences to find pathways of connection via their own humanity and shared experiences, regardless of their own race, religion, ethnicity, sexuality or gender. We call that empathy and acceptance! As the new executive director, I am excited to announce the launch of the Outfest Empathy Campaign, an initiative to expand our programs across the United States in order to create even more pathways of opportunity, inclusion and visibility for our stories and storytellers,” said Outfest’s executive director Damien S. Navarro.
The Legacy Awards serves as a fundraiser to support the Outfest filmmaker and professional education courses, screenwriting labs, leadership training, trans-acting workshops and film restoration programs. Previous Legacy Award winners include Justin Simien, Rita Moreno, Laverne Cox, Jill Soloway, Sean Hayes, Tom Hanks, Lisa Cholodenko, Armistead Maupin, Hilary Swank, Lee Daniels, Craig Zadan, Neil Meron, Adam Shankman, Roland Emmerich, Alan Poul, Bruce Cohen and Paris Barclay. More information about the event and ticketing can be found here. Sponsors for the night include Effen Vodka, KCRW, Rava Wines and Variety.
