Founded in 1977, the San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival is the longest-running, largest, and most widely recognized queer film exhibition event in the world. As a community event with an annual attendance of more than 63,000 (89,000 virtual attendance in 2020), the Festival is the most prominent and well-attended LGBTQ+ arts program in the Bay Area. In 2018 Frameline's Festival was named by MovieMaker to be one of the 25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World.
Frameline45: the San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival returns to the Bay Area with its signature showcase of the world’s leading queer cinema. Frameline45 unites diverse communities for 11 days of innovative and socially relevant content. Discover emerging talents and embrace an unparalleled community of festival-goers at the world’s largest celebration of queer media. The Festival pays tribute to LGBTQ+ experiences through pioneering documentaries, gripping features, delightful shorts, cinematic classics, and more.
Each year, Frameline hosts 400 official Festival Guests, including directors, producers, actors, programmers, distributors, and buyers that range from small, independent entities to major studios such as Strand Releasing, Wolfe Video, The Film Collaborative, TLA Releasing, HBO, Showtime, and Warner Bros. The Festival is one of the largest annual business meeting places for theatrical and educational film and video buyers in Northern California.
Committed to showcasing the best and most diverse work by, about, and of interest to the LGBTQ+ community, we strongly encourage applications from women, people of color, transgender people, intersex people, asexual people, non-binary people, disabled people, and other underrepresented people and communities. The Festival is produced by Frameline, a non-profit arts organization dedicated to the exhibition, distribution, funding and promotion of LGBTQ+ media arts.
Frameline45 will be presented safely and could be online, at venues, or a mix of both. Frameline will provide updates on these plans as they emerge.
Since 1983 our audience has been responsible for selecting the Best Narrative Feature Film, Best Documentary Film and Best Short Film of the Festival. Putting the power in the audience's hands, the Frameline Audience Awards offer cash prizes to the favorite Feature ($1000), Documentary ($1000) and Short ($500) in the festival. From Frameline42 we started an Audience Award for Episodic ($500).
Outstanding First Feature
A juried award for the most Outstanding First Feature to be awarded to the Director. Submitted film must be a San Francisco Bay Area Premiere to qualify.
Sponsor: Frameline
Cash Award Value: 7,500 U.S. Dollar
Outstanding Documentary Jury Award
A juried award for the most Outstanding Documentary Feature to be awarded to the director. The submitted film must be a San Francisco Bay Area premiere.
Sponsor: Frameline