Outfest Legacy Awards Offers Sneak Peak of Historic Gay Film

The Legacy Awards on Saturday, Oct. 13, at the Orpheum Theater in downtown Los Angeles will offer a sneak peek at the 1919 silent German film “Different From the Others” (“Anders Als Die Andern”). The film is believed to be the only surviving piece of a group of gay-friendly movies made during Germany’s Weimar era, the rest were systematically destroyed by the Nazis.

Film industry heavyweights Bruce Cohen (Milk), Nina Jacobson (The Hunger Games), and Bryan Singer (X-Men, The Usual Suspects) are the producers behind The Legacy Awards, which serve as a fundraiser for the Outfest Legacy Project, a film preservation collaboration between Outfest and UCLA Film & Television Archive.

Outfest will honor producing partners Craig Zadan and Neil Meron with the Visionary Award, presented by actor Darren Criss (“Glee”), who starred in the team’s Broadway production of “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.”

In addition to the theater, the duo also has a hand in film (“Chicago,” “Hairspray”) and television (“Smash,” “The 85^th Academy Awards”).

The screening of “Different From the Others,” directed by Richard Oswald, will follow the award presentation. Written by famed psychologist Magnus Hirschfeld, the film was meant to oppose the passage of Paragraph 175, a German law outlawing homosexuality. A 40-minute fragment of the film was discovered in the Ukraine, and it’s the only known film segment to have survived World War II.

“The restoration of “Different From the Others” is without question our most ambitious and most important project to date,” says Kirsten Schaffer, executive director of Outfest. “We have an extraordinary opportunity not only preserve history, but to make history in the process. We are immensely grateful to Nina, Bruce and Bryan who have been relentless supporters of our mission.”

For ticket information, go to www.outfest.org or call (213) 480-7088.