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Outfest has announced the complete lineup for its 40th-anniversary Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ+ Film Festival, which will take place from July 14-24 at multiple locations throughout Los Angeles.

More than 200 films, representing 29 countries, will screen as part of this year’s lineup. 42 will make their world premieres, including the doc Stay on Board: The Leo Baker Story from Drew Barrymore’s Flower Films and Pulse Films; the UK feature Phea, starring Sherika Sherard; Mercedes Kane’s Art and Pep; and Scout Durwood’s Youtopia.

Outfest Los Angeles’ Episodics section will also feature a host of world premieres, including advanced looks at at Shudder’s forthcoming docuseries Queer for Fear; the comedy special Queer Riot, headlined by Margaret Cho; and writer-producer Des Moran’s series halfsies, as well as a free sneak peek screening of the upcoming Prime Video series A League of Their Own, starring Abbi Jacobson.

The fest’s Platinum section,...

The LGBTQ+ organization Outfest announced the complete lineup of its 40th Anniversary Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ+ Film Festival today.

The 200 films include feature narratives, documentaries, short films, and episodics. The roster also names an impressive 42 world premieres, films spanning every genre, and represents 29 countries.

Previously announced premieres include the Opening Night Gala world premiere of Billy Porter’s directorial debut “Anything’s Possible,” the Closing Night Gala’s screening of screenwriter John Logan’s directorial debut from Blumhouse, Peacock Original film “They/Them” (pronounced ‘They-slash-them’).

A 20th Anniversary screening of Todd Haynes’ “Far from Heaven” will take place, with Haynes, Julianne Moore, and producer Christine Vachon in person.

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“I’m incredibly proud of the work our programming team has done to craft a lineup that celebrates the history of the Lgbtqia+ community and the art we create,...

Exclusive: Bash Naran, a literary manager and producer at Writ Large, is leaving the company to become an agent in the Scripted Television department of WME. He will be based in the agency’s Beverly Hills office.

During his more than three and a half years at Writ Large, Naran represented writers, directors and producers with a focus on diverse, underrepresented and international creators with unique, multicultural perspectives. Several of his clients are expected to follow him.

Prior to his time at Writ Large, Naran was a literary manager at Jeremy Platt’s Plattform for two and a half years. Over the length of his career as a manager, Naran has worked with such clients as Oscar & Emmy-nominated and DGA award-winning Smriti Mundhra, Ali Selim (Marvel’s Secret Invasion), Matthew Chauncey (Marvel’s What If…?), David Coggeshall, Des Moran (Peacock’s Queer As Folk) and Anna Klassen.

“Bash is a terrific representative, colleague and friend! He and his singing will be truly missed, but we are excited to continue to support him in the next stage of his career,” the Writ Large partners said in a statement.

Naran started his entertainment career at CAA in the Entertainment Marketing group, where he aided with clients including Canada Goose, Chipotle, General Motors and Fender Guitars, among others. Before that, Naran was the Chief Marketing Officer of New York-based Doucce Cosmetics.

Naran is a co-founder of The Salon, a forum for South Asian artists and executives in entertainment to connect and collaborate, share resources, facilitate mentorship and drive public advocacy. Co-Founded by Nik Dodani and Vinny Chhibber, the organization launched a mentorship program for developing creatives and executives in the diaspora with the help of Rishi Rajani and Reena Singh.

Encapsulating any generation accurately on television isn’t easy. As Des Moran and the rest of the “grown-ish” writers room have come to find out, it’s a particularly difficult task when writing about Gen Z — a group of young people who are currently entering adulthood and aren’t too keen on being generalized.

This is especially true when exploring Gen Z relationships, which might feel much more progressive than those of generations past. In some ways, they are. But, in other ways, their dating woes feel quite familiar, Moran told TheWrap.

“I think the surprise to all of us was that [we’ve been] living in this progressive bubble and reading articles about how all of Gen Z is queer, and being cisgender and being heterosexual are not even things that Gen Z is anymore,” he explained. “And the more college kids we talked to the more we saw, like actually, that’s not necessarily true.

Spoiler Alert: Do not read if you have not yet watched “A Boy is a Gun,” the fifth episode of “Grown-ish.”

Since its 2018 debut, Freeform’s “Grown-ish” has paid special attention to social issues presented through the lens of today’s college students. With the fifth and sixth episode of its fourth season, the Yara Shahidi starrer recreated last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests and puts Zoey (Shahidi) and her friends at the center of the debate on how to meaningfully support — or critique — the movement.

The special two-part arc kicked off Aug. 5 with a powerful half hour, titled “A Boy Is a Gun.” The episode opened with Doug (Diggy Simmons) out for an early morning jog with earbuds in, entering a convenience store for a quick drink before heading back to his dorm. As the character exits the store, police quickly approach with guns drawn, and a shot rings out.