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Out on Film, metro Atlanta's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender movie festival, will be held in November this year. It will also move from Midtown to Decatur and be partially overseen by new leadership.

Image Film and Video Center, which has produced Out on Film for some 20 years, is beginning to step away as the main administrative arm of the fest in order to give year-round attention to its other longtime entity —- the Atlanta Film Festival.

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"When you divide your resources over two festivals you can't really do either as well as it deserves," says Gabe Wardell, Image's executive director.

Image is able to effect the change in part because of a $145,000 grant over three years it received this week from the Metropolitan Arts Fund. The grant will replace lost revenue during the organizational restructuring.

While Image will be "stewards" for this year's Out on Film —- to be held Nov. 6-9 —- and participate in the call for entries and film selections, the event will move to Theatre Decatur, which will become one of the fest's major players, Wardell says. Also involved will be Carma Productions Inc., which annually prints guides to events such as Atlanta Pride.

"Ideally what we'd like to see happen is for a lot more of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community leaders to take ownership of the event," Wardell says. "We can continue to give guidance, but Out on Film needs a community. We're using as a model the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, which has such a large base and sponsorship support."

The change means Image, which is altering its identity to Atlanta Film Festival 365, can do just that —- focus on the Atlanta fest all year, especially while attending the Toronto Film Festival to seek out titles.

"We can now start planning in August and September, times when we've had to be focusing on Out on Film," Wardell says. "This past year at Toronto, instead of seeing some films, we were writing copy for Out on Film and putting it together."