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A chance encounter at a lesbian bar brings two women of a certain age living strikingly different lives together in this winning romantic comedy. Named after Irene Cara’s classic anthem from Flashdance, What a Feeling blends heart with a lack of self-consciousness, telling a poignant story of new love amongst two women in the “sandwich generation” while also never taking itself too seriously.

What a Feeling

Now in their 60s, Thom and Henri are a married couple living an outwardly sweet existence at their quaint home in Brussels with their pet turtles Topsy and Turvy, but after Henri retires, his newfound lack of purpose clashes against Thom’s attempts to rekindle their passion. Turtles likens Thom and Henri to a classic Tracy and Hepburn duo as they spar the way only people who truly know one another can.

Turtles

The phrase “opposites attract” has rarely rung so true as in Helen and the Bear, a cinéma vérité portrait of a vibrant, queer woman and her most unusual marriage. This clear-eyed, affectionate documentary finds the couple at a critical junction in their 40-year union.

Helen and the Bear

October 29, 2024. We're proud to partner with The James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center to present a free encore screening of the Frameline48 smash hit Sally!

Sally! Free Encore Screening

The sudden death of Ruth's beloved hamster reveals a decaying marriage with her curmudgeon wife, Connie. Ruth can either accept the death of things or keep spinning the wheel.

Goodbye Tango

Devoted partners Pat and Angie have shared a life, a love, and their Hong Kong apartment for decades — until Pat’s family starts to intervene, in this moving portrait of an older queer couple navigating society’s lingering biases. Writer/director Ray Yeung’s new feature won the 2024 Teddy Award for Best Feature.

All Shall Be Well

A meditation on the often-fraught relationship between sexuality and growing older, director Alexis Taillant’s documentary centers a trio of queer elders as they defy prejudice, rethink aging, and delight in new and familiar experiences.

If I Die, It’ll Be of Joy

After a near-death experience lights a flame within Grandma and Grandpa, they decide to grab life by the boas and tell the world their deepest secret: They're both gay. First stop: the big city... to learn “how to be gay” from the best gay people they know: their grandchildren!

Stories from My Gay Grandparents: Episode 1

Sally Gearheart was a radical lesbian feminist (and something of a sapphic Casanova) in San Francisco whose trailblazing vision and ebullient personality were the spark for movements with far-reaching impacts. This doc cements her legacy while illuminating both the personal and the political in Sally’s impactful life.

Sally!

This gorgeous and emotionally charged film goes behind the scenes of the infamous Fire Island Pines, a gay fantasyland on the East Coast, to uncover real life pleasures and simmering conflict. This doc combines breathtaking visions of natural beauty with the day-to-day drama of the island regulars.

A House Is Not a Disco

When a chance encounter between a sexy go-go boy and a charming nursing student blossoms into a passionate affair, two young men must learn to carve out their own fate in bustling Mexico City. Director Julián Hernández's new film is a sensual, absorbing portrait of burgeoning love in a hostile world.

Demons at Dawn

Bay Area multihyphenate Brontez Purnell made his directorial debut with this semi-autobiographical &quot;video mixtape,&quot; centering on DeShawn (played by Purnell), an HIV-positive homo whose boyfriend no longer wants to have sex, and his romantic/sexual misadventures around SF.

100 Boyfriends Mixtape

Set in the Belgian countryside, Young Hearts is a refreshing tale of first love. When a cool new city boy moves in next door, 14-year-old Elias finds his feelings of friendship going much deeper than he knows what to do with.

Young Hearts

An ode to the love of movies, Una película barata (literally A Cheap Film) is a beguiling dramedy about a gay man in the middle of an existential crisis who meets a wild card friend from his childhood who will shape the course of his summer. With dashes of forgotten Meg Ryan movies of the 90s, classic Pedro Almodóvar humor, and Mondays in the Sun, Una película barata is a wildly inventive feature debut from Spanish director Osama Chami.

Una película barata

An intimate slideshow chronicling how two transmasculine artists fall madly in love. From their initial meeting to traveling across continents, viewers witness their intimate moments, long-distance relationship, and transformative top surgery. A sweet and steamy celebration of T4T love with life and art all tangled up.

You can’t get what you want but you can get me

Having documented each of her romantic partners on film since her late teens, Chloé Barreau embarks on a bold experiment to flesh out an autobiographical project. She invites each of her exes — both male and female — to divulge their side of the story, filmed by a neutral party to allow for candid reflections of Barreau and their time together.

Fragments of a Life Loved

On the Catalonian coast, American exchange student Sophie joins bleach-blonde local Gloria for friendly game of futbol. And just as friendly rivalries morph into summertime crushes, someone has to go and break their arm.

Ripe!

With cameos by Dolly Parton, Christina Aguilera, and Brandi Carlile, this portrait of Linda Perry (best known as the frontwoman for 4 Non Blondes) celebrates her as one of pop music's most influential forces. Afterwards, join us at Oasis for a live performance from Perry at our Pride Kickoff party.

Linda Perry: Let it Die Here

Produced for SF queer dance party collective Hard French, this uproarious and surreal film pays takes us on a trip through the queer underground and perverted subconscious of San Francisco’s id — with appearances from Bay Area icons like Juanita More and Glamamore.

We Only Sleep on Xanny Bars and Then We Don’t Dream

Largely unseen since 1972, this madcap movie musical extravaganza stars transgender Warhol icon Holly Woodlawn as a small-town girl who tries to make it big (or at least find a roommate) in NYC. She gets tangled up with everyone from wrestlers to crunchy granola lesbians on her quest to find secure housing.

Scarecrow in a Garden of Cucumbers

Musician Oliver Sim is the main guest of a talk-show that soon slides into a surreal journey of love, shame, and blood. A three-part musical short with songs from Oliver Sim’s solo album Hideous Bastard that explores growing up as a queer boy living with HIV.

Hideous

A multidisciplinary artist and scene queen in a variety of different circles from the beautiful elite to the queer punks of LA in the 90s, Sean DeLear broke the mold when it came to being Black and gay in the art world and in the music scene. Friends and peers piece together DeLear's video archives and writings into a fun, enlightening tribute, honoring the counterculture spirit and light of this one-of-a-kind American artist.

The Life of Sean DeLear

Through visual metaphors and circumstantial installations, Chella Man explores his cyborg identity and personal relationship to the freedom and constraints cochlear implants created.

The Device That Turned Me Into a Cyborg Was Born the Same Year I Was

Transpiring over a languid summer by the sea in Argentina, Marco Berger's new film is a breezy comedy about openly gay Pedro (Javier Orán) and nominally &quot;straight&quot; Maxi (Lautaro Bettoni), childhood friends reunited years later as young men. Things kick up a notch when Maxi tries to make his ex-girlfriend jealous by saying Pedro is his boyfriend.

The Astronaut Lovers

Cole Doman and Brian J. Smith star in this atmospheric, darkly sexy thriller about a journalist’s quest for answers to the deaths of eight gay men at his hometown’s psychiatric hospital. Now abandoned and intentionally forgotten by the town's people, the looming structure haunts Joe in his quest for the truth.

Haze

The pages of Drag Race queen Lady Camden's fairytale story are filled with growth, discovery, and a true passion for performance. Journey along with Camden as she revisits the ballet stages of her youth in the UK, finds drag and chosen family in the Bay Area, and captures fame and confidence on reality TV and across the world.

Lady Like

A must-see on the big screen, this exquisitely cinematic debut feature from celebrated photographer Luke Gilford observes a young man’s blossoming among a community of queer rodeo performers in the American west. Taking an odd job outside of town, 21-year-old Dylan finds himself welcomed into the idyllic ranch family, while falling for champion barrel rider Sky.

National Anthem

Unemployed and down on her luck, Siobhan (the hilarious Meg Stalter) is presented with a life changing job opportunity. Unfortunately, she can't get her foot out of her mouth long enough to get her foot in the door.

ILY, BYE

A late-night encounter and a summer romance merge when a small-town teenager named Smith sneaks out to meet a man in his twenties.

Like You

From homosexual penguins to sex-transitioning fish, contemporary scientists have been zealously studying animal behavior and anatomy and exposing the myth of the gender binary. Turns out the natural world is way more diverse and complex than Darwin led us to believe! Director Drew Denny takes the nature documentary to a whole new level in this eye-opening and entertaining expedition.

Second Nature

This year's Teddy Award for Best Documentary offers a playful, all-encompassing syllabus for the 20 years of diddling our skittles and fucking the pain away to The Teaches of Peaches. Featuring interviews from collaborators, admirers, and lovers alike — including Leslie Feist, Chilly Gonzalez, and Shirley Manson — this rousing portrait follows musical artist Peaches as she prepares for the anniversary tour of her breakthrough LP, The Teaches of Peaches.

Teaches of Peaches

November 18, 2024. The one and only Julia Roberts will introduce this special exclusive screening of Queer, with director Luca Guadagnino and star Daniel Craig in attendance!

Queer

A lesbian detective duo investigating a web of ooey-gooey murders within the queer cruising scene quickly learn their killer might not be entirely human (or from this planet).

Mamántula

A wealthy politician hires lesbian detective Mélinda after receiving a mysterious porno film starring her estranged son in Paul Vecchiali’s wildly entertaining bisexual triple-X film noir. The case soon leads Mélinda directly to the Shanghai Lily, a den of iniquity populated by lusty and duplicitous femmes fatales.

Don’t Change Hands

Often called “the pioneer of lesbian gaze,” iconic San Francisco photographer Honey Lee Cottrell was a student at San Francisco State University when she made this lustful, elliptical exploration of female fantasy and self-love.

Sweet Dreams

A trans girl cop with the NYPD goes undercover to make a drug bust. Starring Lux Pascal and Cole Doman, Bust had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.

Bust

In this slick and sexy limited series shown in its entirety at the Festival, complex, powerful emotions arise between stunt performer Anna (Alma Jodorowsky) and Eve Callac (Jehnny Beth), the actor she’s doubling for. As things start to heat up, the usually fearless Anna finds herself cautiously stepping into her sexuality while stepping out of the life she envisioned for herself.

Split

Written, directed, produced, edited, and starring eternal gay sex symbol Peter Berlin, That Boy is a hot, horny, and intentionally funny hardcore paean to, well, Peter Berlin, in a sumptuous new 2K restoration from Vinegar Syndrome. With his pageboy haircut, tight and tanned body, and all of that form-fitting leather, Berlin bursts off the screen — in more ways than one.

That Boy

After blowing up their lives, relationships, and finances, besties Ben (Jacob Roberts) and Jordan (David Treviño) come up with a scheme to live “rent free” for a year, and chaos ensues. This charming comedy from writer/director Fernando Andrés is an intimate, naturalist look at Gen-Z trying to find stability in modern-day Austin, Texas.

Rent Free

Two transwomen chance encounter in the club bathroom, one at the end of her rope, one at the end of her break working at the bar. Multidisciplinary artist Star Amerasu directs and stars opposite local performing artist Muñeca in this San Francisco tale, executive produced by Elliot Page.

After Hours

For the past 548 days, A has been absent from her own life, unable to feel anything. One night, J appears and takes her along with her, looking for ways to make her heart beat again. Starring Jehnny Beth and Agathe Rousselle, Stranger is a musical tale, the story of an awakening.

Stranger

A broody, yet clever teen is on the rocks with her long-distance girlfriend when she discovers she can touch a photograph and travel back to the moment it was taken.

After All

With touches of Kelly Reichardt within a unique, fully realized vision, director India Donaldson offers a funny and wry anti-coming-of-age film about a young queer woman (Lily Collias in a revelatory central performance) pressured into weekend camping getaway with her dad (James Le Gros) and his best pal (Danny McCarthy).

Good One

Winner of the Encounters Award for Best Director at the Berlinale, this transfixing diptych explores the divides between urban and rural, past and present, and tangible and metaphysical. In the first part, a displaced woman adjusts to life in the city, while in the second, a lesbian couple makes a fresh start in the countryside.

Cidade; Campo

Nick Kroll and Andrew Rannells are effortlessly funny as a married couple who jet-set off to Italy for their anniversary. Eagerly awaiting news on an adoption, the couple’s baby anxieties become the least of their problems when their getaway starts to spiral comically and wildly out of control.

I Don’t Understand You

Underground San Francisco filmmaker Curt McDowell offers a cinematic account of his “adventures with straight boys and the hospitality he extends to them” in a beautiful new restoration of Loads by the Academy Film Archive.

Loads

Just as Brooklynite besties Hilton and Drew begin to tackle braving the summer heatwave, the universe forces them to acutely live out a fear that every New Yorker has on some level: &quot;What if my air conditioning unit falls out of my window and kills someone?&quot;

AC Unit

A bunch of horny gayboys journey to a witch’s manor in Normandy. Oh what experimental horrors await you! From garçons terribles who made Beauty and the Beast (Frameline45).

The Deep Queer Massacre

An unhinged pregnant woman delivers her unborn child a guided tour of its eventual inheritance: the haunted family home. Amidst a riot of crumbling 1970s interior design, writer/director/star Cricket Arrison uncannily twists the tropes of motherhood, home, and family legacy.

Some Day All This Will Be Yours

This morning, Marina has an appointment with Charlie to sell her a mattress. This evening, she will cancel her plane for Reunion. But they don’t know that yet.

Queen Size

A drag queen embarks on a quest for better workplace rights, but finds herself in a dicey situation when her new lawyer, a tone-deaf straight woman, is revealed to be a drag super stan. Starring Drag Race comic divas Ginger Minj and Heidi N Closet.

Stan Behavior

On the day thousands of people are protesting against unaffordable rents in Berlin, a Brazilian who was just kicked out of his place struggles to find a new room while his personal life falls apart.

Paradise Europe

November 2, 2024. Twenty-six years after it served as Frameline22’s Opening Night Feature, we’re so thrilled to be able to invite you to revisit Lisa Cholodenko’s stunning directorial debut, High Art, in a brand new 4K digital restoration. Starring Ally Sheedy, Radha Mitchell, and Patricia Clarkson, High Art is just as potent and striking as ever.

High Art

This fun, illuminating doc is a love letter to the late songwriter Allee Willis (who co-wrote Earth, Wind &amp; Fire’s “September”) from those who loved her, including Cyndi Lauper, Paul Reubens, Patti LaBelle, Lily Tomlin, the Pet Shop Boys, and Willis’ longtime partner Prudence Fenton.

The World According to Allee Willis

Bring someone you want to excite! Radley Metzger's legendary erotic masterpiece Score! gets an update from some frisky San Francisco queers.

Score

Ani DiFranco. The raw energy. The stream-of-consciousness storytelling. We surely know Ani as a touring phenom in the 1990s, but who is our favorite righteous babe as a 51-year-old married mother of two? 1-800-ON-HER-OWN is a backstage pass to the boxes in her attic with never-before-seen archival footage.

1-800-ON-HER-OWN

Joana, a non-binary person with a vagina, meets Xtopher, an effeminate gay man, in the FKK area (aka the nudity-permitted area) of a Berlin lake. Then, they decide to go to the cruising area together, where they experience new sensations.

Cucumber/Knife

April 8, 2025. Jacob Elordi, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Will Poulter, Diego Calva, and Sasha Calle star in Daniel Minahan's adaptation of Shannon Pufahl's novel about gambling lost souls in the American West during the 1950s.

On Swift Horses

Cinematic collaborators and lifelong partners, James Ivory and Ismail Merchant made 43 films together, including A Room with a View, Howards End, and groundbreaking gay romance Maurice. Their names conjure up sumptuous costumes, slyly subversive scripts, and legendary performances from Helena Bonham Carter, Emma Thompson, and Vanessa Redgrave, each of whom give dishy interviews in this revelatory documentary.

Merchant Ivory

September 20, 2024. Join us for a special screening of this doc — which screened at Sundance, Telluride, and TIFF — followed by a special Q&amp;A with director Josh Greenbaum and film participants Will Ferrell &amp; Harper Steele.

Will & Harper

For his first feature, world-renowned playwright Marco Calvani places Brazilian star, Marco Pigossi, at the heart of this sexy, moving film about a gay immigrant in Provincetown making a living through the harsh gig economy following an unexpected break-up. Marisa Tomei and James Bland also star.

High Tide

March 6-9, 2025. Curated specifically for the Superfine Art Fair at Fort Mason, this shorts program of Frameline Distribution titles highlights all the vibrant colors of the LGBTQ+ rainbow.

A Tapestry of Queer POC Tales (Superfine Art Fair)

March 8, 2025. A “straight” construction worker receives an invitation to a mysterious club named Bijou after witnessing a car accident in this second feature from Boys in the Sand filmmaker Wakefield Poole.

Bijou

March 6-9, 2025. Curated specifically for the Superfine Art Fair at Fort Mason, this striking collection of shorts takes the drop-in viewer on unpredictable and absurd adventures through a borderless global labyrinth full of music, mystery, and mayhem.

Adventures in Queerness (Superfine Art Fair)

A pre-Madonna primer that raises questions about race, sex, and subcultural style, Voguing: The Message traces the roots of this gay Black and Latino dance form, .

Voguing: The Message

Noor and Layla are breaking up. Is it the end of the road for these two Muslim women… or is it just the beginning?

Noor & Layla

Legend tells us that long ago four spirits came to Hawaii and healed the people. Now all that remains are the stones, and the spirits if we remember them.

Kapaemahu

Two queer women recall their awkward, closeted high school days of kissing boys and straight-girl crushes.

Were You Gay in High School?

Set in a not-too-distant future, two cousins bond over the course of a night on the town, until their relationship is tested in more ways than one.

Luv U Cuz

Two Asian American teenagers meet in the bathroom of a Chinese restaurant while having dinner with their families.

Lucky Fish

A bisexual man meets an attractive couple to explore the possibilities of life as a ‘unicorn:’ a drama free, emotionally non-threatening third.

Unicorn

Since childhood, Léa has been seeing ghostly deer looming around her. Now that she is in a relationship with Maud, the visions are getting worse. How can she prove to her girlfriend, and to herself, that this is a real problem to be dealt with?

Et chaque nuit

Take a wild journey through the gay cyberspace labyrinth — past video clips of Britney Spears after burning down her gym, Eric André French-kissing a cop, Ina Garten and Padma Lakshmi cocktail hour, and Moira Rose reaction gifs — to discover the Tumblr legend of an elusive, masculine-scented candle.

Mountain Lodge

Once upon a time, the magical Tank Fairy delivered tanks of gas (with plenty of sass) to the home of young Jojo, a lonely dreamer in need of a glittery godmother.

Tank Fairy

March 4, 2025. Frameline and the James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center of San Francisco Public Library are queering up Women’s History Month with a special FREE screening of this epic documentary — winner of the Frameline26 Audience Award — which traces the 30-year evolution of women's music from the 1970s to the '90s.

Radical Harmonies

Behold this exclusive, streaming-only shorts package which collects several of the bold, edgy, exciting short films screening before features at Frameline48 into a wickedly queer adventure.

Cruel Summer Streaming Shorts

Frameline is honored to present Lena Waithe with the Variety Creative Conscience Award. The honor celebrates Lena’s career as a writer, and producer along with her work to champion the Black and queer communities. Join us for a conversation with Lena Waithe and Variety's Jazz Tangcay, as they discuss the cultural revolution in Hollywood being led by Waithe.

Lena Waithe Conversation

Our queerness demands to be seen, heard, and appreciated. This program presents the spaces that make us who we are — past, present, and future — that unleash us and unify our community. Co-presented with <a href="https://www.drunkenfilmfest.com">Drunken Film Festival</a> and showing at the newly reopened STUD Bar on Folsom Street as well as the Roxie.

Queer Places, Spaces, & Shorts

In San Francisco, a city known for its queer community and bustling gay nightlife, there hasn't been a lesbian bar for almost a decade. Driven by nostalgia for a time when queer women had spaces, self-identified dyke Malia Spanyol sets out to build one for the next generation of women and femmes.

Mother

At a rural Vermont dive bar called BABES, Cribbage tournaments overlap afternoons of karaoke and nights of raucous queer dance parties. When the aging conservative townsfolk and the younger queer leftists begin sharing the same watering hole, a delicate allegiance flourishes.

One Night at Babes

Join us for our first-ever Juneteenth screening and block party to open Frameline48 featuring drag performances from Reparations, curated by Nicki Jizz, followed by a free outdoor screening of Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero. Bring your blankets &amp; comfy chairs!

Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero

A true-crime trans podcaster returns to her conservative hometown, just as a masked killer in a Santa suit begins paying grisly homage to the town’s own haunted legend, The Toymaker. In her fifth feature, trailblazing trans director Alice Maio Mackay establishes herself as a horror auteur to keep your eyes on.

Carnage for Christmas

The film follows the trajectory of Naikee, a black transwoman activist, in her quest for identity and freedom. By re-interpreting Botticelli's painting &quot;The Birth of Venus,&quot; Naikee asserts her right to exist differently.

The Birth of Naikee

Long before Love Lies Bleeding, there was Pumping Iron II: The Women. This little-seen sequel to the film that made Arnold Schwarzenegger a superstar follows a group of four women bodybuilders as they prepare and compete in the 1983 Caesars World Cup in Las Vegas.

Pumping Iron II: The Women

Transfixed by the smell of his victims, a stalker takes his obsession to the limit.

Stink

From the sensual to the sweet, this perfect date showcase will leave you in a lavender haze. How do a mattress sale, an abortion road trip, a soccer match, the sprawling Juhu Beach in Mumbai, salsa music, The Strokes, and Erin Brockovich lead to queer romance? Come find out.

Come to My Window: Date Night Shorts

When competitive tension turns to romantic tension and passion, two Filipina highschool athletes must come to terms with their conflicting emotions. The perfect film for fans of the WLW genre, the latest film from director Samantha Lee is a sapphic romance with balls — volleyballs and basketballs, that is.

Rookie

Heartbroken, listening to Enya, and making Mickey Mouse pancakes in his underwear, the last thing thirtysomething Brooklynite Troy wants to do is welcome new neighbors... that is until he sees Abel’s captivating smile, pushing his hope for a rekindled romance with his ex-boyfriend Chance to the back burner.

Best Years

“Fear to the side, power to the front” is Valencia’s motto when it comes to queer ecology activists fighting the climate crisis in Florida, a state shaped by water, wind, and political storms. Estimates say 60% of Miami will be underwater by 2060 in this “don’t say gay” state. Follow queer and trans activists and learn about the passionate work being done to combat these crises.

Can’t Stop Change: Queer Climate Stories from the Florida Frontlines

Lillah Halla’s punky and electrifying debut follows Sofia, a 17-year-old volleyball star in São Paulo who finds herself unexpectedly pregnant. While seeking a solution in a country where abortion is illegal, she becomes the target of the radical conservative community. But these far-right, anti-choice zealots are no match for the incendiary spark of solidarity ignited by her ferociously queer teammates.

Power Alley

As the fight for trans rights in sports continues, this unconventional documentary uses archival Olympic footage, eye-opening historical facts, conversations with gender nonconforming athletes ⎯ and a little bit of time travel ⎯ to recognize forgotten trailblazers, reject violent structures of oppression, and examine the shared experiences of those on the margins: queer, intersex, and Black women athletes.

Life Is Not a Competition, But I’m Winning

Luke and Simon always go for burgers together after tennis. But this time, Luke wants to tell Simon how he really feels about him. How will Simon react? Luke's vivid imagination leads us into some intense scenarios, only to reveal a surprising truth.

Dream Burger

What makes a lesbian? To those inspired by Sappho to gather on the island of Lesvos in the 1970s, women-loving-women is a crucial component. To local Lesvians, however, the answer differs. Lesvia artfully explores what happened when international lesbians and native Lesvians strove to build and preserve community in the same small town.

Lesvia

It's been thirty years since Joan &amp; Susie stood before their closest friends to celebrate at a small wedding, decades before their union would become legally recognized. Now, in front of children and chosen family, they cross a different threshold.

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