What's been referred to as "required viewing" will become practically that as ABC picks up the Oscar nominated AIDS-epidemic ear documentary How To Survive A Plague. 

Even better news is that ABC will run an expanded version of the film as a miniseries! Filmmaker David France is said to be prepping a more personal version of the film that will go deeper into the lives of its subjects for the miniseries. 

Our eyes were wide open (though not in the fun Stanley Kubrick/Tom Cruise kind of way) throughout 2012 thanks to a year that was absolutely teeming with queer cinema. Whether it was on screens at film festivals, in indie theaters or in IMAX across the country, movies playing in every niche this year seemed to serve up some LGBT realness. Once again, Instinct's here to help distill an overwhelming amount of pop culture into a handy guide to the 2012 zeitgeist. 

The Oscars may have bitches starving themselves to get their hands around a trophy and the Golden Globes might command love letter campaigns addressed to members of the Hollywood Foreign Press, but there isn't a movie prize quite as coveted as landing on our annual Top 10...

Spencer Cox, an AIDS activist most recently known for appearing in one of the year's best films, How To Survive A Plague, has passed away at age 44. Like 39 year old Josh Weston whose death we learned about yesterday, Spencer succumbed to complications related to HIV.  

The young men and women of ACT UP get their due in the long awaited documentary on early AIDS-era activism, How To Survive A Plague.

The first trailer for the Outfest hit was released this morning, reminding us just how heroic and inspiring these LGBT fighters were. Watch the debut trailer for a film described as “an epic celebration of heroism and tenacity” after the jump.