Freeheld won the Academy Award® for Best Documentary Short Subject. It was shown in over 100 film festivals, had national television broadcasts in five countries, and screened in a dozen of America’s large corporations as a diversity training tool. The film’s ten-city theatrical release included 35 individual theatrical screenings spanning nine states, and provided a natural outreach platform for panels, press, and public dialogue concerning LGBT equality around the 2008 national election (when gay and lesbian rights were pending on many state ballots). When the Oscar® was announced, 40 million viewers worldwide learned of Laurel Hester and her struggle for equality, and he film’s website, freeheld.com, was flooded with hits from 78 countries; Freeheld was the number one Googled word on Oscar® night in 2008. The film is now in production as a major motion picture starring Julianne Moore and Ellen Page.