Outfest Los Angeles announces 2013 award winners

Outfest Los Angeles has announced the winners of the 31st L.A. LGBT film festival. The nonprofit organization hosts the oldest continuously running film festival in the city in order to foster, support and promote LGBT stories on screen.

The festival, which kicked off July 11, closes Sunday night with a screening of Darren Stein’s “G.B.F.,” starring Michael J. Willet, Andrea Bowen, Megan Mullally and Natasha Lyonne, among others.

The 2013 awards are grouped in three categories: special programming awards, audience awards and jury awards.

PHOTOS: Celebrities by The Times

“Bridegroom,” directed by Linda Bloodworth-Thomason (creator of the TV series “Designing Women”), took the audience award for documentary feature. It previously won the audience award at the Tribeca Film Festival.

The film, based on a YouTube video that went viral, examines the subject of marriage equality through the tragic story of a young gay couple that never got to marry before one of them, Tom Bridegroom, died in 2011 after falling off the roof of an apartment building while taking pictures.

After his death, Bridegroom’s partner, Shane Bitney Crone, found that he had no rights when it came to dealing with the aftermath of Bridegroom’s death. A year later he posted a 10-minute video called “It Could Happen to You,” which eventually attracted 3.4-million views.

CRITICS’ PICKS: The best movies in town

The audience award for dramatic feature went to “Reaching for the Moon,” made by the Brazilian director Bruno Barreto. The biopic chronicles the 15-year lesbian love affair between the American poet Elizabeth Bishop and the vivacious Brazilian architect Lota de Macedo Soares.

See the full list of winners after the jump:

Special programming award for freedom

“Deepsouth,” directed by Lisa Biagiotti

Special programming award for artistic achievement

“Animals,” directed by Marçal Forés

Special programming award for emerging talent

Diego Ruiz, writer-director-actor

Audience award for documentary short

“Facing fear,” directed by Jason Cohen

Audience award for dramatic short

“Wini + George,” directed by Benjamin Monie

Audience award for documentary feature

“Bridegroom,” directed by Linda Bloodworth-Thomason

Audience award for dramatic feature

“Reaching For the Moon,” directed by Bruno Barreto

Audience award for first U.S. dramatic feature

“Geography Club,” directed by Gary Entin

Grand jury award for experimental short

“She Gone Rogue,” directed by Zackary Drucker and Rhys Ernst

Grand jury award for documentary short

“Performing Girl,” directed by Crescent Diamond

Grand jury award for dramatic short

“Going South,” directed Leesong Hee-il

Grand jury award for documentary feature

“Born This Way,” directed by Shaun Kadlec and Deb Tullman

Grand jury award for international dramatic feature

“It’s All So Quiet,” directed by Nanouk Leopold

Grand jury award for actress in a feature

Guinevere Turner, “Who’s Afraid of Vagina Wolf?”

Grand jury award for actor in a feature

Bill Heck and Marcus DeAnda, “Pit Stop”

Grand jury award for screenwriting

Chris Mason Johnson, “Test”

Grand jury award for U.S. dramatic feature

“Test,” directed by Chris Mason Johnson

ALSO:

Pivotal passages: A look at coming-of-age movies of the past

‘The Conjuring’: Director James Wan channels real-life scares

Box Office: ‘The Conjuring’ bound for No. 1; ‘R.I.PD.’ lacks pulse