It’s true. I start watching for the Frameline Film Festival and the Outfest Film Festival catalogues to arrive starting now. Both are filled with over 100 pages of film showings that take place in about a 10 day window of time. Last week I received the Frameline catalogue and joy of joys, two films I was part of are at the festival. First up is the brilliant AWOL written and directed by Deb Shoval. It stars Lola Kirke and Breeda Wool. I saw it at Tribeca last month and I cannot stress enough how much you will be blown away by this film. Frameline recognized it too and it is the US Â Centerpiece film. Awesome honor. See it.
The next film I had a bit of a hand in is Lazy Eye written and directed by Tim Kirkman. It’s the boys not the girls this time. And the abundance of boy films at Frameline this year may explain the tagline on the catalogue- Frameline 40- The king of queer film festivals.  Yes, under that is LGBTQ Film Festival, but I was surprised that it was named the “king” and not the “king and queen” of festivals. The royals. Am I being too sensitive or defensive? Probably. With that said, I encourage you to see the incredible films that will be shown in San Francisco, Berkeley and Oakland starting June 16 and ending on June 26 with a closing night showing of the HBO series Looking.Â
Now I sit patiently by the mailbox waiting for the Outfest Festival catalogue. There has always been a bit of rivalry between Frameline and Outfest. Who is better? Who is bigger? Who cares? Both bring us a wealth of outstanding features, documentaries, and shorts. Frameline will show 155 films from 24 countries. Films that rarely make it to your local AMC big screen but should be mainstream. So go. Go see films. Support LGBTQ filmmakers so more of our stories are told.