Palm Springs Cultural Center is adding a major event to its calendar of happenings - The Palm Springs Gay & Lesbian Film Festival - to be held at Camelot Theatres in Palm Springs from Friday, July 25 through Thursday, July 31, 2008. The festival will present a varied combination of feature films, documentaries, and short films, and is now accepting submissions of films created by and/or about thematic issues relevant to the LGBT community.

"We're establishing this new film event as a focal point for Palm Springs' LGBT community during the summer," says Thomas Ethan Harris, Artistic Director for the Palm Springs Cultural Center. "With other Palm Springs gay events like Greater Palm Springs Pride in November and the White Party in April, this week of films will hopefully become the summer's signature event. Summer in Palm Springs has never been so much fun: Watch movies during the day, and play all night."

Harris will serve as the Gay & Lesbian Film Festival's Director of Programming and is the co-creator/former Director Of Programming of the acclaimed Los Angeles Film Festival. Along with the Los Angeles Film Festival and the International Festival of Emerging Talent in Monaco, the Palm Springs Gay & Lesbian Film Festival marks the third film festival that Harris has helped to establish.

The Palm Springs Gay & Lesbian Film Festival is currently accepting film submissions for the Festival, and has set an entry deadline of June 2, 2008. All entries will be pre-screened for consideration, however not all entries will be accepted for exhibition. The Official Submission Form and submission requirements can be found on the Palm Springs Cultural Center website at www.psculturalcenter.org.

The Palm Springs Gay & Lesbian Film Festival will be the climax to North American's strong and influential summer "circuit" of other community-driven gay & lesbian film festivals which begins in May in Toronto and Miami, continues in June in New York and San Francisco, followed in early July with OutFest in Los Angeles. Says Harris, "We are so proud to find our significant place on the calendar of North America's finest gay film festivals."

The organizers of the Festival are working with the Desert Gay Tourism Guild, which is turning up the summer heat with special offers and events. Sponsorships and other community partnerships are welcome.

For questions regarding festival programming or submissions, please contact the Palm Springs Cultural Center at email protected from spam bots. For telephone inquiries of a general nature about the Festival, call 760/322-5321.

The Palm Springs Gay & Lesbian Film Festival is dedicated to advancing and further strengthening our diverse gay community through the establishment of a world-class forum that presents lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender cinema from around the world. We bring together film artists, film lovers and industry professionals in a weeklong celebration of motion pictures that reflect, inform, enrich and often transform lives.

The Palm Springs Gay & Lesbian Film Festival is a program of the Palm Springs Cultural Center, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to advancing education, to nurturing community-wide participation in the cultural arts, and to sponsoring scholarship awards for deserving individuals. For more information, please visit www.psculturalcenter.org.