.jpg) Castro Theatre during Frameline 39 in June 2015 | |
| Location | San Francisco andOakland, California, USA |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1977 |
| Most recent | June 18–28, 2025 |
| Awards | Frameline Award, Out in the Silence Award, audience and juried awards |
| Hosted by | Frameline |
| Website | frameline |
TheFrameline Film Festival (also known asSan Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival) is an annual event that screens and celebrates films by and about LGBTQ people, established in 1976. The festival is organized byFrameline, a nonprofit media arts organization whose mission statement is "to change the world through the power ofqueer cinema". Since 2024 the executive director of Frameline has been Allegra Madsen, formerly director of programming.[1]
It is the oldestLGBTQ+ film festival in the world,[a] and with annual attendance ranging from 60,000 to 80,000, the largestLGBTQ+ film exhibition event.[4] It is also the most well-attended LGBTQ+ arts event in theSan Francisco Bay Area.[citation needed]
The festival is held over eleven days in late June (reduced in 2004 from eighteen),[5] with the closing night coinciding with San Francisco's annualGay Pride Day, which takes place on the last Sunday of the month. TheCastro Theatre has traditionally been the main venue.[6]
The first festival was organized in 1976[7] and took place in 1977[4][8] at the Gay Community Center at 32 Page Street in San Francisco, under the namesPersistence of Vision and theGay Film Festival of Super-8 Films. It comprised experimental films, screened using a rented projector on a bedsheet pinned to a board.[9][10][11] In 1982, the organizers incorporated under the name Frameline,[12] and the festival becameFrameline: San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.[4] Michael Lumpkin joined the organization at that time; he became a full-time employee in 1986, molded it into a professional film festival,[12] and retired in 2008 after many years as director.[13] A film distribution arm was founded in 1982.[12] In 1988, the festival received its first grant from theNational Endowment for the Arts,[14][15] but this funding was withdrawn in the 1990s under pressure from Republicans in Congress.[16]
Because of theCOVID-19 pandemic, a small virtual event was held in June and the 2020 Frameline was delayed to September and was online except for a drive-in screening.[17][18] Frameline 45, in 2021, was a hybrid online and in-person event.[19] In 2022, Frameline returned to in-person screenings but offered a home streaming option.[20]
Frameline initially grew out of thegay liberation movement and was focused ongay men. "Lesbian" was added to the festival's name in 1982, but a riot led by lesbians at a screening ofMidi Onodera'sTen Cents a Dance: Parallax at theRoxie Theater during the 1986 festival led the organization to work toward greater diversity in programming[21] and create a fund to assist women and people of color in completing film projects.[22] The festival was widely referred to as theSan Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival[15][23][24][25] until 2005, when it adopted the nameSan Francisco International LGBT Film Festival;[4] it added aQ in 2015,[8] but since 2004 the organization has referred to individual festivals simply as "Frameline" with an appended number.[5] Objections by thetransgender community led Frameline to pullCatherine Crouch'sThe Gendercator from the 2007 festival, leading to accusations of censorship from lesbians.[26][27]
In 2020 Frameline was a partner, alongsideOutfest Los Angeles, theNew York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Film Festival and theInside Out Film and Video Festival, in launching the North American Queer Festival Alliance, an initiative to further publicize and promote LGBT film.[4][28] Films screened at the Frameline Film Festival have been donated to the Hormel Center at theSan Francisco Public Library.[29] An initial donation was made in 2005, and the library partnered with theBay Area Video Coalition for conservation of video recordings.[30]
The festival's annual awards include the Frameline Award given to an individual who has played a key role in the history of LGBTQ+ cinema, the Out in the Silence Award for "an outstanding film project that highlights brave acts of visibility", audience awards forBest Feature, Best Documentary, Best Episodic, and Best Short, and juried awards for First Feature and Outstanding Documentary.[31]
1986Vito Russo
1987 Alexandra von Grote
1988Divine
1989 Cinevista / Promovision
1990Robert Epstein
1991 Elfi Mikesch
1992Marlon Riggs
1993Pratibha Parmar
1994Christine Vachon
1995 Marcus Hu
1996Peter Adair[32]
1997Channel Four Television
1998Dolly Hall
1999Stanley Kwan
2000Barbara Hammer
2001 The Festival’s Founders
2002Isaac Julien
2003Fenton Bailey &Randy Barbato
2004Rose Troche
2005Gregg Araki
2006François Ozon
2007Andrea Sperling
2008 Michael Lumpkin
2009George Kuchar &Mike Kuchar
2010Wolfe Video
2011Margaret Cho
2012B. Ruby Rich
2013Jamie Babbit
2014George Takei
2015Jeffrey Schwarz
2016Bob Hawk
2017Alan Cumming
2018Debra Chasnoff
2019Rodney Evans
