![\"KissMeKillMe\"](\"https:\/\/sduptownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/KissMeKillMe.jpg\")
<\/a>\u201cUpstairs Inferno,\u201d a documentary directed by Robert L. Camina, examines the real story of what happened on the night of June 24, 1973, in the French Quarter in New Orleans when an arsonist torched the Upstairs Lounge and 32 people died when they were trapped on the second floor. Until 49 people were murdered in the hate crime and terrorist attack at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, on early Sunday morning June 12, 2016, the unsolved arson in New Orleans was notorious for being the largest gay mass murder in U.S. history. \u201cUpstairs Inferno\u201d won Festival and Audience awards for Best Documentary and the prestigious Freedom Award.<\/p>\n
Michael McQuiggan, the longtime program director for FilmOut, explained the difference between Festival Awards and Audience Awards. \u201cThe Festival Awards are chosen by the programmers\/screening committee and the Audience Awards are determined by the audience,\u201d he said. \u201cA lot of the Festival Awards will be noted by programmers from other film festivals that may or may not have been on the fence to select these films for their upcoming festivals. It was a highly competitive year for the Audience Awards, which were 6 inches thick.\u201d<\/p>\n
Audience Award ballots were available throughout the festival, which ran June 3 \u2013 5 at the Observatory North Park theater. Attendance exceeded 5,000 this year, McQuiggan estimated.<\/p>\n
Almost half of the movies shown at the festival won some sort of award, and McQuiggan had a theory for that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat the broad selection of films seemed to resonate with the audiences this year,\u201d he said. \u201cThere were films from all genres represented. There were some clear frontrunners, but some of the more obscure films were really supported by our patrons \u2014 and the results were quite surprising and rewarding to the filmmakers\/talent involved. The Festival Awards seemed to gear more toward the intense, dark, controversial films, while the Audience Awards went for the more mainstream-themed films.\u201d<\/p>\n
McQuiggan noted that FilmOut \u2014 which has previously been named one of the top 10 LGBT film festivals in the U.S. \u2014 now has official recognition in the movie industry.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince FilmOut San Diego is accredited with IMDb and our festival winners are listed in its awards section, it gives these films a small boost in recognition to the film industry,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
IMDb calls itself the world\u2019s most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content. The website offers a searchable database of more than 185 million data items including more than 3.5 million movies, TV and entertainment programs and 7 million cast and crew members.<\/p>\n
The full list of award winners follows:<\/p>\n
2016 FilmOut Festival Awards<\/strong><\/p>\n 2016 Audience Awards<\/strong><\/p>\n 2016 Programming Awards<\/strong><\/p>\n The Festival and Programming Directors are responsible for these awards:<\/p>\n\n
\n
\n