Frameline Film Festival

{{Short description|Film festival held annually in San Francisco}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2013}}

{{Infobox film festival

| name = Frameline Film Festival

| logo =

| logo_alt =

| logo_size =

| image = San Francisco, June-2015 (19055061898).jpg

| image_alt = Castro theatre during the Frameline39 in June 2015

| image_size =

| caption = Castro theatre during Frameline39 in June 2015

| location = San Francisco Bay Area

| founded = 1977

| awards = Frameline Award

| website = {{url|http://frameline.org}}

}}

The Frameline Film Festival (also known as San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival and formerly known as San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival; San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival) began as a storefront event in 1976.{{Cite web|last1=Stack |first1= Peter |title=Gay Film Festival to Go On Despite Director's Vanishing |url=https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Gay-Film-Festival-to-Go-On-Despite-Director-s-3048864.php |work=San Francisco Chronicle |page=D1 |date=January 20, 1995}} The first film festival, named the Gay Film Festival of Super-8 Films, was held in 1977.{{cite web |title=Gay Film Festival of Super-8 Films Program Guide (Frameline 1977) |url=https://issuu.com/frameline/docs/1st-sanfrancisco-international-lgbt-film-festival |website=issuu |publisher=Frameline |date=February 2, 1977}} The festival is organized by Frameline, a nonprofit media arts organization whose mission statement is "to change the world through the power of queer cinema". It is the oldest LGBTQ+ film festival in the world.{{efn|Contrary to local legend the 1977 event in San Francisco was not the world's first gay film festival. That title goes to a "Festival of Gay Films" staged in Australia by the Sydney Filmmaker's Co-op in June 1976.Queer cinema as a fifth cinema in South Africa and Australia, by Ricardo Peach, PhD Thesis https://search.lib.uts.edu.au/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=cdi_proquest_journals_3039733120&context=PC&vid=61UTS_INST:61UTS&lang=en&search_scope=MyInst_and_CI&adaptor=Primo%20Central&tab=Everything&query=any,contains,Queer%20cinema%20as%20a%20fifth%20cinema%20in%20South%20Africa%20and%20Australia&offset=0 However, that was a one-time event. The Australian Film Institute founded The “Gay and Lesbian Film Festival” that became the direct precursor to today’s Mardi Gras Sydney Gay Film Festival two years later, in 1978.{{Cite web|url=https://queerscreen.org.au/about-us/history/|title=Queer Screen | History}} Which leaves the San Francisco event, with its 1977 debut, as first in the US, and the oldest continuous annual Gay Film Festival in the world.}}

With annual attendance ranging from 60,000 to 80,000, it is the largest LGBTQ+ film exhibition event.{{Citation needed|date=May 2019}} It is also the most well-attended LGBTQ+ arts event in the San Francisco Bay Area.{{Citation needed|date=May 2019}} The festival is held every year in late June according to a schedule that allows the eleven-day event's closing night to coincide with the City's annual Gay Pride Day, which takes place on the last Sunday of the month.

Films screened at the Frameline Film Festival have been donated to the Hormel Center at the San Francisco Public Library.{{Cite web |last=Majko |first=Matthew |title=Frameline film trove finds home at Hormel center |url= http://ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=70947 |work=Bay Area Reporter |date=October 1, 2015| access-date=October 13, 2015}} An initial donation was made in 2005, and the library partnered with the Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC) for conservation of video recordings.{{cite web|last1=Cump |first1=Sarolta Jane |url=http://dayofdigitalarchives.blogspot.com/2011/10/it-just-gets-better-all-time-preserving.html |title=It just gets better all the time: Preserving the Hormel Center's Frameline Movie Archive Project |website=Day of Digital Archives |date=October 6, 2011 |access-date=October 13, 2015}}

In 2020 the festival was one of the key partners, alongside Outfest Los Angeles, the New York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Film Festival and the Inside Out Film and Video Festival, in launching the North American Queer Festival Alliance, an initiative to further publicize and promote LGBT film.Jeff Ewing, [https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffewing/2020/06/17/major-lgbtq-film-festivals-partner-to-create-the-north-american-queer-festival-alliance-naqfa/#497c15f9633c "Major LGBTQ Film Festivals Partner To Create The ‘North American Queer Festival Alliance’ (NAQFA)"]. Forbes, June 17, 2020.