Frameline presents multiple awards during the annual San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film 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.

• Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, directed by Jane Schoenbrun

• Jaripeo, directed by Efraín Mojica & Rebecca Zweig

Please Note: All past Frameline Audience Award winners are archived on our website.

For over 20 years, Frameline has presented the annual juried Outstanding First Narrative 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 (SFBAFCC) to jury this award. This year, the votes resulted in a statistical tie between the following films:

• Leviticus, directed by Adrian Chiarella
• Test, directed by Sam McConnell

“Two films impressed the SFBAFCC, San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle, jury so much that we’re honoring both this year. Adrian Chiarella’s intense directorial debut, Leviticus, floored the jury not only because of how confident and accomplished it was for a first feature, but how it complexly explored issues pertaining to internal and external homophobia through the guise of a horror film. Sam McConnell’s gritty sports-themed drama Test knocked us all out not only by its endearing, volcanic star-making turn from screenwriter Brock Yurich but for how it never once hit an inauthentic note in a searing portrayal of a closeted amateur bodybuilder trying to make his own mark and find connection with another man in the process. Congrats to both.”

Each year, juries convene during the Festival to recognize standout films in the Outstanding Documentary Feature, Outstanding Narrative Short, and Outstanding Documentary Short categories. This year’s winners and honorable mentions include:

• Barbara Forever, directed by Brydie O’Connor

“A lot of the conversation at this year’s Festival revolved around the worry of what the years to come hold for independent film and the spaces that let it flourish. The life of Barbara Hammer (and Brydie O’Connor’s masterful celebration of it through her film) is an expansive embodiment of the power queer cinema has to combat these frequently overwhelming fears; her endlessly evolving dedication and love to the spaces, archiving, criticism, and art that lets us be stronger as a community.”

• Honorable Mention: Mickey & Richard, directed by Ryan A. White & A.P. Pickle

Thank you to the jury, listed below.

• Rowan McCandless, programmer at CinemaSF
• Nico Opper, filmmaker, When I Write It, Try Harder!, and The F Word

• Morpheus & Charon (Morfeu e Caronte), directed by Luiz Ulian & Jocimar Dias Jr.

“A hypnotic ode to love, death, and cinema that brought us all to tears, this film makes powerful use of the history and language of the medium to confront two of life’s strangest bedfellows: sex and death. We were collectively blown away by its bold combination of humor, tenderness, and unflinching eroticism. The jury is unanimously thrilled to award Morpheus & Charon.”

• Honorable Mention: Shutterspeed, directed by Jasper De Maeseneer
• Honorable Mention: Yellow Bucket, directed by Simon Brooke

Thank you to the jury, listed below.

• Fernando Andrés, writer/director of Rent Free and Three Headed Beast
• Lucas Drummond, star of Only Good Things and Follow the Protocol
• Florencia Manóvil, director of Dyke Central, Encuentro, and From X to Z

• Doug + Me, directed by Cecile Fountain-Jardim

“We are proud to announce that Doug + Me, directed by Cecile Fountain-Jardim, has been selected for Outstanding Documentary Short. The film features Cecile recounting memories of her uncle who died of AIDS before she was born — a person she never met but remains tethered to. Formally inventive and deeply felt, her film acts like a scrap book that has come to life, animating pieces of his belongings alongside old family photos and films, weaving together discovery and inherited memories into a film that is both intimate and alive.”

• Honorable Mention: Making It Fit, directed by Mariana Leal
• Honorable Mention: Oh Paulo, directed by Cam Archer

Thank you to the jury, listed below.

• Nana Duffuor, director of Rainbow Girls
• Dani Guzmán, director of Who Raised You?
• Jeremy von Stilb, director of AutoErotica: We Buy Gay Stuff

Please Note: All the past Frameline Juried Award Winners are archived on our website.

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. The 2026 Out in the Silence Award will go to Kai Stänicke‘s Trial of Hein (Der Heimatlose).

• 2026: Trial of Hein (Der Heimatlose), directed by Kai Stänicke
• 2025: The Secret of Me, directed by Grace Hughes-Hallett
• 2024: Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story, directed by Michael Mabbott & Lucah Rosenberg-Lee
• 2023: All the Colours of the World Are Between Black and White, directed by Babatunde Apalowo
• 2022: BLACK AS U R, directed by Micheal Rice

Established in 2025, the Frameline Queer Lens Award for Filmmaking is given to a queer filmmaker who brings their singular vision and perspective to the screen and, in doing so, makes an indelible impact on the art form. The inaugural award was given to Todd Haynes upon the 10th anniversary of one of his masterworks, Carol (2015).

Frameline will award the 2026 prize to filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun at the Closing Night screening of their third feature, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma.

• 2026: Jane Schoenbrun
• 2025: Todd Haynes

Since 2023, Frameline has worked in collaboration with the Colin Higgins Foundation to present grants to emerging LGBTQ+ filmmakers as part of our artist development programs. In addition to receiving up to $15,000 in cash prizes, the grantees are given the opportunity to attend the 11-day San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival.

The 2026 winners are franny trinidad and Kelly Liu for Babaylan, Edward Nguyen for Sweat (Mồ Hôi), and Matthew Sorgie for So Be It.

To learn more, including how to submit your work for consideration, please visit our dedicated Colin Higgins Youth Filmmaker Grant Program page.

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 £40,000 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.