The 48th San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival (Frameline48) wrapped on Saturday, June 29 with director Brian J. Smith’s A House Is Not a Disco, the documentary feature about Fire Island Pines, the East Coast’s gay fantasyland preceded by the Festival’s annual Award Ceremony.
At the Award Ceremony, National Anthem, directed by Luke Gilford walked away with Outstanding First Feature prize. This exquisitely cinematic debut feature observes a young man’s blossoming among a community of queer rodeo performers in the American west.
Fragments of a Life Loved (Frammenti di un percorso amoroso), directed by Chloé Barreau won the Outstanding Documentary Feature ($2,500) prize. Since her late teens, Chloé Barreau documented each of her many romantic partners on film, no matter the length or strength of the relationship. The footage from her past serves as the groundwork for a project about identity formed through romance.
“Every year, Frameline is marking new ‘firsts,’ and 2024 was no exception. Frameline48 began with an unprecedented community celebration of Blackness and queerness, which set the stage for the entire festival to be a celebration of all of our intersecting queer identities,” said Allegra Madsen, Frameline’s Executive Director. “As both the leader of this dynamic, community-centered film organization and a long-time programmer, I couldn’t be prouder of Frameline48’s success. But the success isn’t just Frameline’s — the success belongs to the filmmakers, storytellers, and audiences who came together to celebrate the power queer cinema has to change the world and shape the cultural narrative.”
FRAMELINE48 JURIED AWARDS
OUTSTANDING FIRST FEATURE ($2,500)
National Anthem, directed by Luke Gilford
HONORABLE MENTIONS FOR FIRST FEATURE
In the Summers, directed by Alessandra Lacorazza
Young Hearts, directed by Anthony Schatteman
OUTSTANDING DOCUMENTARY FEATURE ($2,500)
Fragments of a Life Loved (Frammenti di un percorso amoroso), directed by Chloé Barreau
OUTSTANDING NARRATIVE SHORT AWARD ($750)
Paradise Europe (Du Bist so Wunderbar), directed by Leandro Goddinho & Paulo Menezes
HONORABLE MENTIONS FOR OUTSTANDING NARRATIVE SHORT
If I’m Here It Is by Mystery (Se Eu Tô Aqui é Por Mistério), directed by Clari Ribeiro
Ripe!, directed by Tusk
OUTSTANDING DOCUMENTARY SHORT AWARD ($750)
Seat 31: Zooey Zephyr, directed by Kimberly Reed
HONORABLE MENTIONS FOR OUTSTANDING DOCUMENTARY SHORT
Wouldn’t Make It Any Other Way, directed by Hao Zhou
You can’t get what you want but you can get me, directed by Samira Elagoz & Z Walsh
FRAMELINE48 COMCAST AUDIENCE AWARDS
COMCAST AUDIENCE AWARD FOR NARRATIVE FEATURE ($1,500)
All Shall Be Well (從今以後), directed by Ray Yeung
COMCAST AUDIENCE AWARD FOR DOCUMENTARY FEATURE ($1,500)
The World According to Allee Willis, directed by Alexis Spraic
FRAMELINE48 FILMMAKER GRANTS + AWARDS
2024 COLIN HIGGINS YOUTH FOUNDATION GRANT RECIPIENTS
The recipients of the 2024 Colin Higgins Youth Foundation Grant are filmmakers Farah Jabir (Kasbi) and Leaf Lieber (Burrow). Both Jabir and Lieber will each receive $15,000 to support their future film projects. The grants, which uplift LGBTQ+ youth filmmakers, are generously underwritten by the Colin Higgins Foundation — an organization that is named after the acclaimed screenwriter and director Colin Higgins (Harold and Maude, 9 to 5).
2024 OUT IN THE SILENCE AWARD
Frameline’s Out in the Silence Award is an annual honor conferred on an outstanding film project that highlights brave acts of visibility, especially in places where such acts are rare and unexpected because of the dominant systems that make it difficult for LGBTQ+ people to live authentic lives. Generously underwritten by longtime film community members Dean Hamer and Joe Wilson, the 2024 Out in Silence Award was awarded to the feature-length documentary film Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story by directors Michael Mabbott and Lucah Rosenberg-Lee.