Frameline, San Francisco’s prominent LGBTQ+ film festival, will present a milestone 50th edition when it unspools next month from June 17-27. To mark the occasion, Frameline has zeroed in on three selections for its opening night, centerpiece and Pride kickoff films.
Launching the 2026 edition on opening night at San Francisco’s Castro Theatre will be D’Arcy Drollinger’s Lady Champagne, which Drollinger wrote, directed and stars in as a sequel to Shit & Champagne. Framed for murder and thrown into “lady prison”, exotic dancer Champagne
White stages a grand escape using her arsenal of disguises, one-liners and dance moves to take down a sinister perfume empire in the “dragsploitation” slapstick comedy. The project, filmed entirely in San Francisco, co-stars Matthew Martin and features appearances by drag performers Alaska Thunderfuck, Varla Jean Merman, Jackie Beat, Peaches Christ, Nicki Jizz and others.
Then on June 25, Frameline50 will present Brydie O’Connor’s Barbara Forever at Castro Theatre, a documentary that explores the life, work and legacy of lesbian filmmaker Barbara Hammer. It will be a full circle moment of sorts as Hammer — known for works like 1974’s Dyketactics, 1992’s Nitrate Kisses and 2008’s A Horse Is Not a Metaphor — screened films at the fest and received a Frameline Award in 2000.
Lady Champagne
Courtesy of Frameline
Barbara Forever
Courtesy of Frameline
The third selection revealed today is Jennifer M. Kroot’s Hunky Jesus, which will screen at the Castro Theatre on June 26. Serving as the Pride kickoff film, Hunky Jesus lives up to its title by focusing a lens on the titular competition mounted every Easter Sunday by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, San Francisco’s satirical drag nuns. The doc is narrated by George Takei and features Sister Roma and Honey Mahogany.
“San Francisco doesn’t just watch films, we make them, break them open and remake them in our own image. These three films are San Francisco stories about the artists, the activists, the drag queens, the dykes and the queers who built this city’s culture and dared to put it on screen,” said Allegra Madsen, Frameline’s executive eirector. “That Frameline gets to open its 50th year with them, at the Castro, feels less like coincidence and more like destiny. Fifty years in, Frameline is still history in the making.”
Frameline will be launch a festival hub at the Castro’s Hamburger Mary’s location on May 14, and it will stay open through June 14. It will reopen again from June 18-26 during select hours amid the fest. Frameline50 is presented by official fest partners Alaska Airlines, Amazon, Comcast NBCUniversal, Gilead and Hilton San Francisco Union Square and Parc 55 Hotel and PACT Studio. The fest’s full program will be revealed on May 13.
More information on ticketing and the festival in general can be found here.
Hunky Jesus
Courtesy of Frameline
