Frameline presents multiple awards during the annual Festival. Most awards are handed out onstage on the final in-person day of the Festival.

Since 1984, our audience has been responsible for selecting the Audience Awards for Narrative Feature and Documentary Feature — as well as audience prizes for short films and episodics at different points in the Festival history. This year, the Comcast Audience Awards will be given to a Narrative Feature and a Documentary Feature.

• Frameline48 Comcast Audience Award for Narrative Feature ($1,500): All Shall Be Well (從今以後), directed by Ray Yeung
• Frameline48 Comcast Audience Award for Documentary Feature ($1,500): The World According to Allee Willis, directed by Alexis Spraic

Click here to see all the past Frameline Audience Award winners.

For over 20 years, Frameline has presented the annual juried Outstanding First Feature Award to a notable narrative feature from an emerging voice in LGBTQ+ cinema. Since 2020, Frameline is proud to partner with the San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle to jury this award.

• First Narrative Feature Award ($2,500): National Anthem, directed by Luke Gilford

• Outstanding Documentary Feature ($2,500): Fragments of a Life Loved (Frammenti di un percorso amoroso), directed by Chloé Barreau
• Outstanding Narrative Short ($750): Paradise Europe (Du Bist so Wunderbar), directed by Leandro Goddinho & Paulo Menezes
• Outstanding Documentary Short ($750): Seat 31: Zooey Zephyr, directed by Kimberly Reed

Click here to see all the past Frameline Juried Award Winners.

The Out in the Silence Award is an annual honor conferred to 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.

The Out in the Silence Award is generously underwritten by longtime film community members Dean Hamer and Joe Wilson.

Out in the Silence Award ($5,000): Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story, directed by Michael Mabbott & Lucah Rosenberg-Lee

The Colin Higgins Youth Filmmaker Grants are awards presented by Frameline centered on providing LGBTQ+ youth filmmakers with financial support to continue their work. Eligible applicants must be LGBTQ+ filmmakers under the age of 25 who currently reside in the United States.

Up to three cash prizes of $15,000 each will be awarded in conjunction with the Frameline Film Festival. Frameline will curate up to 10 short films, from which the Colin Higgins Foundation (CHF) Board will select up to three grantees.

The Frameline48 grantees are:

• Farah Jabir for Kasbi
• Leaf Lieber for Burrow

Frameline is one of the partner festivals for the Iris Prize in the United Kingdom. Each year, Frameline nominates one short film for the annual Iris Prize, one of the top LGBTQ+ film honors in the world. The Iris Prize for short film comes with a £30,000 cash prize — the largest cash prize for shorts in the world. Dee Rees’ Pariah, a Frameline Completion Fund recipient, was the inaugural Iris Prize winner for shorts in 2007.