Outfest this year, for its 25th anniversary had its share of bi-themed films, but they were a lot harder to find. It used to be that filmmakers could check off "Bi Interest" and audiences could look for films that had guys and gals who were bisexual, just like there are breakdowns for categories such as trans, lesbian, gay, erotica, family, etc. (This year, the bi category was left out, with the only explanation being that they had a new publicity firm.)

The oldest continuous film festival in Los Angeles showcasing, nurturing and preserving lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender film images and artistry. For 25 years Outfest has led the charge, spotlighting emerging talent, creating community between filmmakers and audiences and offering a world-class forum for stories that reflect and often transform LGBT lives. outfest.org

Nevertheless, bi stuff was all over. Director Bill Condon, who was awarded the Outfest Achievement Award, is no stranger to bi themes after writing and directing "Kinsey" and "Chicago" and writing "Gods and Monsters." (The bi themes among the women are a bit subtle in "Chicago," but he insists they're there. "Gods and Monsters" showed an intense relationship between openly gay director James Whale played by Ian McKellen, and a straight man played by Brendan Fraser.)

Bill Condon

Condon attended the opening ceremony, a sing-along for his latest film "Dreamgirls" and allowed an hour of questions and answers during the 10-day festival. I asked him if he thought "Kinsey" helped educate the GBLT community, or did it just confuse people more. He said, "I think Dr. Kinsey was all about true liberation from all labels and wanted to have people identify their sexuality with the absence of labels. People in the middle still have a tough time with it, and with trying to explain it. I think it's still a thing that people have a problem with."

A true gem of a film that played Outfest just a week after debuting at the Los Angeles Film Festival was the documentary "Cat Dancers." This is one of those movies where if you did it as fiction, no one would believe it, and that's why director Harris Fishman pursued the story. It tells the story of Ron and Joy Holiday, a married team of lion tamers, who befriended a fellow trainer, Chuck Lizza. The three of them developed a secret, romantic love affair as they traveled the world performing. After raising a white Bengal tiger from the time he was a cub, Chuck was mauled to death by the tiger, and a few weeks later Joy was killed by the same tiger. Now, Ron tells his story with flashbacks of their performances and their secret life.

Cat Dancers

Ron Holiday attended the screening, and I asked him why they danced around the label of bisexuality in the film. He said, "Well, I always considered myself bisexual from the time I was a child. I would die if I had to choose." He also said Chuck perhaps wasn't aware of his bisexuality until he met the couple. Now running a ballet company in Leesburg, Fla., the 71-year-old Ron has reluctantly allowed the pain of his losses to be displayed in public in this gripping documentary.

It was nice to see that in Outfest's " 25 Films that Changed Our Lives," distinctly bi films were included such as: "High Art," "Making Love," "The Hunger," "Maurice," "My Own Private Idaho," "The Crying Game," "Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert," "Brokeback Mountain" and "Boys Don't Cry." If you add in a few of the other titles with more subtle bi themes, more than half of the list is bi inclusive.

Other new bi films coming out soon include:

• "Shelter" about a guy who has an on-again, off-again girlfriend while falling for his best friend's older brother (played by the super-cute Brad Rowe);
• "Kiss the Bride" about a guy who tries to stop the impending wedding of his old flame to a woman (played by Tori Spelling);
• "Back Soon" about a man who's wife is killed who is surprised by falling for another man until he discovers that his wife's spirit lives inside his new love;
  "The DL Chronicles" following a guy who can't change his cheating ways and the girl who hangs onto him;
• "Don't Go" with many pansexual male and female characters;
• "Out at the Wedding" featuring a girl who's afraid that her biracial boyfriend will freak out her South Carolina family so she pretends she's a lesbian;
• "Starbooty" written by and starring RuPaul who plays a secret agent who has to go all the way with johns in order to find out who kidnapped her niece;
• "Sunny & Share Love You" about a sexually fluid guy who marries a sexy woman and they become rock stars, drug addicts and parents together;
• "The Doctor's Daughter or the Secret and the Lie" features a young Chinese Canadian lesbian who falls for her best friend who's about to marry a man;
• "Love and Other Disasters" directed by "Truth or Dare's" Alek Keshishian about a cute gal who loves Audrey Hepburn and her gay friend. Then comes a handsome suitor who may be after both of them;
• "Men in the Nude" is a Hungarian film about a guy bored with his marriage to an actress who falls for a barely-legal Russian call boy;
• "One to Another" is a French film about a sexy brother and sister who fool around together and are the objects of obsessive desire by many others, possibly to deadly extremes;
• "Rome and Juliet" from the Philippines follows conservative Juliet who hires a sexy female wedding planner to plan her marriage, but the spark between them is something neither one planned;
• "The Two Sides of the Bed" is a Spanish film about plenty of partner-swappingbefore a bride and groom wed. The question is who will leave whom for what before the nuptials are said;
  
• "Alexis Arquette: She's My Brother" shows bi actor Arquette and his real-lifedecision to change to a woman; and
• "On the Downlow" is a documentary about five African American men who aren't quite out, but see the secrecy of their sexuality as a self-preservation tactic.

Sure, there are others, but that is a taste. Hmmm, perhaps it is simply too difficult to segregate the bi films from the pack, and maybe that's why the delineation was left out-and to leave it to critics like me to figure it all out.