Gay writer/director Bill Condon will be the recipient of this year's Outfest Achievement Award, to be presented to him at the fest's opening night ceremony on June 12th. Most folks know Condon for Dreamgirls, Kinsey and his Oscar-winning work on Gods and Monsters, the biopic of gay Frankenstein director James Whale starring Ian McKellan.

But many people don't know that Condon himself got his start in horror films (a genre very close to my heart, for some sick reason). He directed the sequel to Candyman (thus beginning a working relationship with gay horror legend Clive Barker, who produced Gods) and wrote the campy (and wonderful) early-80's genre pics Strange Invaders and Strange Behavior (in which he also appeared as a naughty teen -- his commentary on the DVD is priceless). Condon's feature directing debut was Sister, Sister, a Southern Gothic thriller evocative of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane and the great made-for-TV thrillers of the seventies.

We congratulate Condon on his work in musicals (he also wrote the screenplay for Chicago), biopics, and the oft-maligned horror genre, and on his accolades at Outfest. Below the jump you can find a few clips from Condon's earlier works.