The opening night feature is "Hollywood je t'aime" (USA 2009, 95 minutes), on July 9 at 7 p.m. at the Prince Music Theater, 1412 Chestnut Street, in English and French, with English subtitles. It will also be shown on July 11 at 2:30 p.m. at the Ritz East, 125 South Second Street, in Theater One. The film tells the story of a Parisian, Jérôme (Eric Debets), and his self-discovering journey from Paris to Los Angeles for fun, sun, and the fulfillment of his dream to become an actor. Just as we go from black-and-white Kansas to colorful Oz, in "The Wizard of Oz," in "Hollywood, je t'aime," we begin in a black-and-white Paris and, when Jérôme arrives in L.A., shift to living color, for a scene set in a seedy Hollywood hotel. At the beach, Jérôme meets Ross (Chad Allen), a stoner, hot and tempting. Jérôme meets and chats with Kaleesha (Diarra Kilpatrick), a tranny hooker, on Santa Monica Boulevard, she takes him home to live with her and he begins to go for auditions. The director of "Hollywood, je t'aime" is Jason Bushman, in his feature debut, and this is the film's East Coast premiere At the opening night screening, Chad Allen will receive Q Fest's Artistic Achievement Award. One of the few openly gay professional actors working in Hollywood today, Allen is being honored for his success on-screen and for being a proud ambassador for the gay and lesbian community off-screen. He and director Bushman will answer questions following the film and a party, billed as "I Could Have Danced All Night," will follow, at Hamilton Hall at the University of the Arts, 320 South Broad Street, from 10 p.m. to 12:30 a.m.

The closing festivities, on July 20, end this 15th anniversary festival on a high note. The audience and jury awards ceremony and world premiere of "The Big Gay Musical" (USA 2009, 90 minutes) will take place at the Prince Music Theater at 7 p.m. This lyric fantasy tells a story of gay love, lust, and heartbreak and puts a new spin on the Biblical Book of Genesis tale of Adam and Eve, sorry Steve, along with hot angels in the briefest of briefs. Some of us have already heard a sneak preview of one duet, "It's Our Musical Theater Love Story," thanks to cast member Joe Komara, and all I could say was, "Wow!" If the rest of "The Big Gay Musical" is like the bit that I heard, then it's destined to have "smash hit" written all over it! A "Big Gay Closing Night Party," with drinks, snacks and desserts in store, will be held on the 33rd Floor of the Loews Philadelphia Hotel, 1200 Market Street, at 12th Street, from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m.

Writer, composer and, now, director H.P. Mendoza will receive Q Fest's Rising Star Award on July 16 at 7:15 p.m. at the Ritz East, Theater One, at the screening of his directorial debut film "Fruit Fly" (USA 2009, 94 minutes), in its Philadelphia premiere. Among his earlier credits are writing and composing music for the 2006 film "Colma: The Musical." In "Fruit Fly," Mendoza recounts the tale of Bethesda (L.A. Renigen), a young performance artist embarking on a career. She hangs out with her gay buddies and gay clubs, but rejecting the label fag hag, opts instead to be called a fruit fly. Listen for songs, firmly rooted in gay reality, including "Fag Hag," "Gay, Gay, Gay, Gay, Gay," "Enough about Me," "We Are the Hag," and "Work in Progress."

Dee Mosbacher, whose 1994 film "Straight from the Heart" was nominated for an Academy Award, will receive Q Fest's Barbara Gittings Award-named for Philadelphia's early lesbian activist, who passed away in February 2007-on July 18 at 4:45 p.m. at the Prince Music Theater, at the screening of Mosbacher's film, with Fawn Yacker, "Training Rules" (USA 2008, 58 minutes). Another showing of "Training Rules" is on July 19 at 9 p.m. at the Ritz East, Theater Two. The Barbara Gittings Award was created by the Philadelphia Cinema Alliance in conjunction with Equality Forum. The award honors Gittings' life's work through the arts and is presented to an out member of the entertainment, arts, sports, politics, or media industry. This first Barbara Gittings award very fittingly, say the presenters, goes to Mosbacher, a documentary filmmaker, who like Gittings, is an "unwavering advocate and activist for LGBT social justice." "Training Rules" concerns Rene Portland, the head coach of the Lady Lions, Penn State's women's basketball team, and twice voted "Coach of the Year" by the Women's Basketball Coaches Association, the last of whose cardinal rules for the Lady Lions, no drinking, no drugs and no lesbians, left more than half a dozen players emotionally scarred, losing them scholarships and basketball careers, and put Portland at the center of a controversial court case. Any LGBT sports fan would be intrigued by this film, to see how the sort of struggle, first undertaken by Barbara Gittings half a century ago, has played out more recently.

Actor and activist Sharon Gless will receive Q Fest's Gay Icon Award on July 19 at 4:45 p.m., at the Prince Music Theater, at the East Coast premiere screening of director Wendy Jo Carlton's film adaptation of Claudia Allen's play, "Hannah Free" (USA 2009, 90 minutes), in which Gless plays the title role of a septuagenarian butch lesbian. "Hannah Free" will be shown again on July 20 at 5 p.m. at the Ritz East, Theater Two. Gless is an active participant in the fight for reproductive rights and, in 2004, attended the first March for Women's Lives in Washington, D.C. On television, she starred in both "Cagney and Lacey" and "Queer As Folk," playing the parent of a gay child in the latter. "Hannah Free" tackles the passionate, yet frustrated love affair between two women, who shared a lifetime of friendship and love, but wind up bedridden in a nursing home in their later years.

There will be outdoor screenings at the Jamaican Jerk Hut, 1436 South Street, www.jamaicanjerkhutinc.com, from July 13 to 16 at 9 p.m., of classics "Grease" (with sing-along), "Hair," "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert," and "Myra Breckenridge." On July 12, make it a Doris Day day, with the North American premiere of Andrew Davies and Andre Schafer's "What a Difference a Day Made: Doris Day Superstar" (Germany 2009, 90 minutes), in English and German, with English subtitles, at 2:30 p.m. and, at 4:45 p.m., "Pillow Talk," with Day and Rock Hudson, at the Ritz East, Theater Two.

Check the website www.phillycinema.org for the many other terrific movies that make up Q Fest 2009. Single tickets for the opening and closing night films are priced at $15; for the films and parties $55 for opening night ($50 for Philadelphia Cinema Alliance members), $45 for the closing night ($40 for Alliance members); for regular screenings $10 ($9 for Alliance members), and for the open-air screenings $5. Tickets for the Doris Day double feature are priced at $16. A Festival 10-Pass sells for $90 ($85 for Alliance members) and an All-Access Badge, which includes admission to the parties, costs $260 ($235 for Alliance members).

There will also be free events of local flavor at DIVE/Shooters at the Curtis Center, Seventh and Walnut Streets, 10th Floor, www.the-dive.net, and these are, on July 11 from 2 to 3:30 p.m., a panel discussion about LGBT scriptwriting; on July 12 from 4 to 5:30 p.m., the "sundae social: Meet the Philly Filmmakers!" and on July 18 from 2 to 3:30pm, a panel discussion entitled "Out, Proud AND in the Film Industry."