Elie Chivi and Andrew Murphy appointed official co-directors of Inside Out 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival

EXCLUSIVE: Inside Out LGBTQ Film Festivals has announced a change in its organizational structure by introducing a co-leadership model. Elie Chivi has been appointed as co-director and executive director of the Festival and Organization and Andrew Murphy has been appointed as co-director and artistic director, sharing leadership, decision-making and responsibility.

Elie Chivi, now Inside Out’s co-head and executive director, has been Inside Out’s director of development since August 2020 and has been interim co-head since March 2021. Elie Chivi brings over 12 years of operational and strategic leadership experience with an additional focus on fundraising, sponsorship and partnership management in the non-profit space. As Executive Director, Elie will be responsible for the successful operations of Inside Out and will continue to build and nurture effective partnerships with a broad spectrum of stakeholders, strategic partners, members and supporters from businesses, governments and individuals. Together with Andrew, Elie will continue to build and grow Inside Out’s brand, profile and reputation by promoting queer storytelling as a tool for empowerment, education and social justice.

Andrew Murphy, the newly appointed Associate Director and Artistic Director, has served as Interim Associate Director for the past year. Andrew brings more than two decades of festival and curatorial experience to this leadership position, having served as Program Director at the Atlantic Film Festival (FIN) for a decade and co-founded the ViewFinders International Film Festival for Youth before retiring in 2012 . He joined Inside Out director as a program to raise the international profile of the festival. Andrew will continue to lead the artistic direction of Inside Out, with a greater focus on accessible industry development and streaming and studio relationships, while building on his success as the world’s only 2SLGBTQ+ focused film funding forum, now in its seventh year , lead

An important part of Inside Out’s transition to a shared leadership model is the promotion of Jenna Dufton to Director of Festival Programming. Jenna joined Inside Out in 2015 as Program Coordinator and will continue to lead the day-to-day management of the festival program, overseeing all festival-related content and program committees while contributing to creative vision, audience development and guest experience. Jenna builds on the festival’s reputation for championing diverse voices and diversity in representation by curating the RE:Focus grant and career development program for female, trans and non-binary filmmakers.

In their role as co-heads, Elie and Andrew will jointly lead the organisation’s festival strategy, management, human resources, finance and operations. In December 2022, Inside Out launched a new three-year strategic plan that will take the festival to its 35th anniversary in 2025. Key strategic pillars include programming and exhibition, industry development, accessibility and equity, outreach and organizational capacity building.

2SLGBTQ+ filmmakers continue to connect with audiences through community programs. The 33rd Inside Out 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival will take place from May 25 to June 4, 2023 in person and online.

The 7th Financial Forum will take place as a hybrid edition from May 31 to June 2 in Toronto. Inside Out is now accepting marketable feature film (CDN & INTL), documentary (CDN & INTL) and (NEW) Canadian series projects (via FilmFreeWay). To date, almost 40% of the projects that have participated in the Financial Forum since 2017 have been funded, produced, released or will go into production in 2023.