Lovi Poe, Janine Gutierrez’s ‘Sleep With Me’ wins award in LA LGBTQ+ Film Fest

MANILA, Philippines – The 2022 Filipino queer series Sleep With Me starring Lovi Poe and Janine Gutierrez bagged the Audience Award for Best Episodic at the Outfest LGBTQ+ Film Festival in Los Angeles on Wednesday, July 27.

The recent 40th installment of the film festival included over 200 films and series from all over the globe. Outfest is a nonprofit organization that gives a platform for LGBTQ+ stories and storytellers. 

The series’ stars Poe and Gutierrez took to social media to congratulate their director Samantha Lee and their 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 home the bacon from [Outfest]! Congratulations team [Sleep With Me],” Gutierrez said in her Instagram story.

Queer storyteller Lee also expressed her gratitude for winning 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 to everyone who brought this to life. We’re coming home soon,” she shared on her Instagram page. 

Lee notably won the Outfest 2017 Emerging Talent Award for her first film, Baka Bukas. This was followed up by a second feature, Billie and Emma, in 2018.

The Dreamscape Entertainment and Project 8 Projects original series, described as “a tender romance for insomniacs” by Outfest, follows the narrative of Harry, an overnight radio DJ, and Luna, a woman with a sleeping disorder.

“Both [the characters] have their own sets of issues that they deal with that make them excluded from society at large. It’s people whose stories don’t get told a lot,” Lee shared in an interview with iWantTFC.

The project was first announced in December 2021 as part of the iWantTFC’s project lineup. Sleep With Me premiered at Outfest on July 19 and will debut on the ABS-CBN live streaming app on August 15.  – with reports from Sydney Cañamo/Rappler.com 

Sydney Cañamo is a Rappler intern.