“It really left a hole when we weren’t doing our traditional summer festival,” interim executive director Christopher Racster tells Variety. Clearly, there was a hole in the heart of L.A.’s queer film community without a yearly festival like Outfest bringing people together. “I call it the unfortunate opportunity,” Racster says of the “perfect storm” that caused the organization to shutter. Connecting influential queer filmmakers like Berlanti and Araki to the emerging filmmakers of today is an essential part of Outfest’s mission. “I think about a film we played, ‘Sparks,’ which is about a renegade group of indie filmmakers in small-town Nevada.