Outfest Next 2025 Marks a Major Win for Queer LA — Even If It Did Blow That Speaker

Rounding out a strong comeback too many queer cinephiles in L.A. thought might never come, Outfest Next just survived its 2025 edition. Although, judging by the sound of it, a speaker inside Glendale’s Look Dine-In Cinema Auditorium 3 did not.

On Sunday night at a screening of Avalon Fast’s “Camp,” static erupted when the audio levels on Fast’s self-proclaimed “girl horror” movie got too high. “If any film was going to blow the system, it would be ‘Camp,’” the Canadian filmmaker quipped on Instagram to IndieWire, quoting a sentiment Fast heard and liked coming from the programming team.

Asked for just a few nice lines about the director for IndieWire, OutFest Next’s top trio of tastemakers — Sheryl Santacruz, Daniel Cooke, and Gabi Grossman, all familiar festival circuit faces with real warmth behind them — sent an effervescent text wall of sincere and complex praise via email.

“With her second feature,…