Since 1982, Outfest has screened thousands of LGBTQ+ films and television shows at its annual Outfest Los Angeles film festival.

To celebrate its 40th anniversary, Outfest will showcase over 200 films in multiple locations throughout Los Angeles from July 14-24. The lineup of films includes narratives, documentaries, short films, episodics, festival favorites and a total of 42 world premieres spanning every genre and representing 29 countries. There are also discussion panels, drag and comedy shows, screenwriting labs and live readings.

“When you hit your 40th anniversary, whether you’re a person or an organization, I think the knee-jerk reaction is to look back and say, ‘How did we get here,’” Outfest Executive Director Damien S. Navarro said during a recent video interview.

He said that he and his crew dug deep into the history of Outfest. They wanted to be sure that the 40th anniversary put a spotlight on everyone that helped get them to this place and provided wide-ranging representation.

“We were diving deep into those films and those stories where we’d traditionally say, ‘We didn’t get them to submit,’” he said. “Instead, we were much more proactive in going out into the filmmaker community and into those communities where we haven’t seen those submissions to make sure those films are reflected.”

The festival kicks off with its opening night gala at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles on July 14 with the world premiere of Billy Porter’s directorial debut, the romantic comedy, “Anything’s Possible.” The film will be available for streaming on July 22 on Amazon Prime and follows the story of a trans girl and a cisgender boy navigating their teenage relationship.

The Tony-, Grammy- and Emmy Award-winning Porter will also be honored with the 2022 Outfest Achievement Award. Navarro said that Porter has been a supporter for many years, but that it was more than his work as a performer that earned him the trophy.

“You have to be a filmmaker or a storyteller, you can’t just be in front of the camera talent,” he said. “So when you see someone like Billy Porter or Elliot Page or Octavia Spencer get the award, it’s because they’re investing in independent filmmaking, whether it’s skills or money or time. In Billy’s case, it feels like we’ve been waiting for each other and it just came together with his directorial debut. It’s been so nice for all of that to come together because he has been such a vocal activist in our community for so many years.”

Navarro said one of the most exciting aspects of Outfest is the discovery process. He said festival goers tend to be open to experiencing new kinds of cinema with unique storylines.

“The festival gives you the opportunity to be a little curious,” he said. “If you love romcoms, maybe pick one with a trans lead. Or pick a horror movie or a musical. If you just want to get outdoors, we have shows at The Ford Theatre, too. There really is something here for everyone.”

While some of the events are free, most of the screenings are $14 at the Directors Guild of America (DGA); other events, including the opening and closing galas, are $18-$175. The official Outfest Los Angeles website makes it easy to navigate the events by date, time or genre and purchase tickets.

Some of the highlights include the film “Sirens,” about a female thrash metal band from Lebanon; “Mars One,” a family drama from Brazil; an advance look at Shudder’s forthcoming docuseries “Queer for Fear,” which explores LGBTQIA+ influence in horror cinema; the world premiere of “Stay on Board: The Leo Baker Story,” which follows the story of a non-binary pro skater; and a screening of Todd Haynes’ 2002 film “Far From Heaven,” followed by a Q&A session with Haynes, producer Christine Vachon and actress Julianne Moore.

The virtual tab also breaks down which of the films will be available to stream for a limited time.

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For its closing gala, Outfest will offer the world premiere of screenwriter John Logan’s directorial debut, the queer slasher “They/Them” on July 24 at The Theatre at Ace Hotel. Logan, who also wrote the screenplays for “The Aviator,” “Skyfall” and the Showtime series “Penny Dreadful: City of Angels,” said that “They/Them” was written during the pandemic lockdowns in early 2020. It was a passion project he’d thought about for a long time; he wanted to write an inclusive slasher film.

“I grew up on horror movies,” Logan said during a recent phone interview. He’d race home after school to watch the TV series “Dark Shadows” and was obsessed with the Universal Monster films.

“When I was a teenager, the slasher films came about and I became aware that the gay characters were either victims or they were jokes or even worse, they were non-existent,” he continued. “As a gay kid myself, I had to do the transference thing that you do, which is suddenly I was imagining myself as Jamie Lee Curtis in ‘Halloween.’ That transference is what queer people have to do to see themselves represented. I knew how much it would have meant to me to see a gay hero in a horror film, in my favorite genre.”

In “They/Them,” which will be available for streaming on Peacock starting Aug. 5, seven queer and transgender teenage campers are sent to a therapy conversion camp led by Owen Whistler who is played by Kevin Bacon. In casting each of the campers, Logan said he wanted to ensure that they hired LGBTQ+ actors for the roles. The film also stars actress Anna Chlumsky, non-binary actor Theo Germaine, trans actress Quei Tann and gay actor Austin Crute.

“I can only speak from my own experience, but the representation of queer characters has been so limited in cinema, particularly within the horror genre,” he said. “So I figured if we had the opportunity to represent every color in the rainbow flag, we should boldly, heroically and justly do so. I wrote characters that covered every part of that spectrum.”

But it was the cast on set that taught him the most.

“I’m not transgender and I’m not non-binary, so working with people like Theo Jermaine and Quei Tann, they were able to help me learn the language and learn the sensitivity and help form the characters so there was a sense of authenticity,” he said. “It’s those seven actors that are bringing so much of themselves to those roles. It’s not overstating it to say that all of those actors felt a real sense of ownership in the movie because in a way they were telling their story.

“It’s a story of queer people coming together, being brave and triumphing,” he added. “And that’s not a story you get to tell very often or one you get to see very often. You look at movies like ‘Get Out’ that are in the horror wheelhouse, but speak to a larger issue and that’s the great thing about horror for me is that it’s the ultimate metaphor. You’re dealing in very specific tropes and our movie is unapologetically a very entertaining slasher movie, but within that there’s — I hope — meaning and empathy and especially in this day and age, a chance to declaim the glory of queer people.”

Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ+ Film Festival

When: Various times July 14-24

Where: Various locations throughout Los Angeles

Tickets: Free-$14 per screening; $18-$175 for select in-person events; Streaming options also available at outfestla.org.