LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA — On Wednesday, July 27, the 2022 Filipino queer series Sleep With Me, starring Lovi Poe and Janine Gutierrez, won the Audience Award for Best Episodic at the Outfest LGBTQ+ Film Festival in Los Angeles.
The last 40th edition of the film festival featured over 200 films and series worldwide.
Outfest is a non-profit that provides a forum for LGBTQ+ tales and storytellers.
Poe and Gutierrez, the series’ stars, took to social media to applaud its director Samantha Lee and the production team.
“Couldn’t be prouder of Team #SleepWithMe for this Audience Choice Award for Best Episodic in the recent [Outfest] awards! Congratulations to our girl on fire [Samantha Lee]!” Poe captioned in her celebratory post.
“[Samantha Lee] bringing [Outfest] bacon home!” “Congratulations, team [Sleep With Me],” Gutierrez said on her social media account.
Lee, a queer storyteller, also expressed her appreciation for earning her second Outfest award.
“Feels super surreal to have my second [Outfest] win – the first was the Emerging Talent Award for my first feature and now the Audience Award for my first ever series. Thank you to everyone who watched #SleepwithMe and brought this to life. We’re coming home soon,” she shared on her Instagram page.
Lee’s debut film, Baka Bukas, earned her the Outfest 2017 Emerging Talent Award. In 2018, a second film, Billie and Emma, was released.
Outfest characterized the Dreamscape Entertainment and Project 8 Projects original series as “a sweet romance for insomniacs.” It describes the journey of Harry, an overnight radio DJ, and Luna, a lady with a sleeping condition.
“Both [the characters] have the issues that they deal with that make them excluded from society. It’s people whose stories don’t get told a lot,” Lee shared in an interview with iWantTFC.
As part of the iWantTFC project lineup, the project was initially announced in December 2021. Sleep With Me premiered on July 19 at Outfest and will be available on the ABS-CBN live streaming app on August 15. –WhatALife!/Brix
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