Announcing the 2025 Frameline Completion Fund Recipients

Frameline, the media and arts nonprofit that hosts the annual San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival, has announced the recipients of its annual Frameline Completion Fund grants. Every year, the Frameline Completion Fund provides grants to emerging and established filmmakers, supplying much-needed financial support to artists who are struggling to secure funding in the homestretch of finishing their films centering on LGBTQ+ people and their communities. 

The 2025 Frameline Completion Fund recipients in the features category are Heightened Scrutiny by Sam Feder, Niñxs by Kani Lapuerta, and Only Good Things (Apenas Coisas Boas) by Daniel Nolasco. Additionally, 2025 Frameline Completion Fund grants were awarded to four shorts projects: Budget Paradise by LaTajh Simmons-Weaver; Grandma Nai Who Played Favorites (ចៅសំណព្វចិត្ត) by Chheangkea; Rainbow Girls by Nana Duffuor; and The Roaming Center for Magnetic Alternatives by Brydie O’Connor.

“The Completion Fund is a vital part of Frameline’s artist development process,” said Allegra Madsen, Frameline’s executive director. “At a time when other sources of funding are being pulled or radically changed, queer arts organizations like Frameline must continue the work of uplifting LGBTQ+ creatives. If we don’t tell our own stories — and support our own stories — no one else will.”

For the 2025 Frameline Completion Fund, the jury was made up of three LGBTQ+ filmmakers from three different continents whose works recently screened at Frameline: Natalie Jasmine Harris (New York City, New York, USA), Renato Sircilli (São Paulo, Brazil), and Hao Zhou (born in southwest China, currently based in the USA). Harris and Zhou are previous recipients of the Frameline Completion Fund. Harris’ short film Grace was a 2024 recipient, while Zhou’s short Like What Would Sorrow Look (愁何状) was a recipient in 2023. Sircilli won the juried award for Outstanding Narrative Short at Frameline47 for The Cutest and Funniest Animals in the World (Os Animais Mais Fofos e Engraçados do Mundo). The jury provided the following statement, while also giving a special mention to three additional films:

“After careful consideration, the jury has chosen to recognize a diverse range of films, each standing out for its cinematic language, the relevance of its themes, and its unique voice. These films offer fresh perspectives on queer existence, challenging stereotypes and reimagining dramaturgical structures. We would also like to give special mentions to films that remained strong in our discussions, sparking passionate debates among jury members, each advocating for them with deep conviction. The special mentions go to A Body to Live In by Angelo Madsen, Poreless by Harris Doran, and Ride or Die by Josalynn Smith.”

Heightened Scrutiny
Directed by Sam Feder | Documentary Feature | USA | 89 mins

Amid the surge in anti-trans legislation that Chase Strangio battles in the courtroom, he must also fight against media bias, exposing how the narratives in the press influence public perception and the fight for transgender rights. Following Disclosure (2020) and Kate Bornstein Is a Queer and Pleasant Danger (2014), Heightened Scrutiny is the third film directed by Sam Feder to receive a Frameline Completion Fund grant. Featuring appearances by Laverne Cox (who also serves as executive producer), Elliot Page, Miss Peppermint, and journalist/editor Phillip Picardi, the film had its world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.

Niñxs
Directed by Kani Lapuerta | Documentary Feature | Mexico/Germany | 86 mins

At the foot of Tepozteco, a sacred hill that governs the winds and fertility, lies the small town of Tepoztlán. Against this backdrop, 15-year-old Karla’s body and mind are undergoing a revolution. While Karla navigates her transition, Kani shapes eight years of footage into a joyful film, as they handle the vagaries of a rural trans adolescence together. Niñxs will make its world premiere in April in the International Feature Film Competition at the Visions du Réel Film Festival in Nyon, Switzerland.

Only Good Things (Apenas Coisas Boas)
Directed by Daniel Nolasco | Narrative Feature | Brazil | 104 mins

Catalão, Brazil, 1984. The rural region of Batalha dos Neves is made up of large crop pastures, a few farms and divided in half by the São Marcos River. Antônio lives alone and isolated taking care of his small farm until the day he encounters Marcelo, a lonely motorcyclist who suffers an accident crossing the region. Antônio takes care of Marcelo’s wounds. The two fall in love and live a story that transforms, destabilizes and causes ruptures in each of them. Following Mr. Leather (Frameline43) and Dry Wind (Frameline44), Only Good Things is writer/director Daniel Nolasco’s second fiction feature film.

Budget Paradise
Directed by LaTajh Simmons-Weaver | Narrative Short | USA | 14 mins

Filmed and set in Oakland, Budget Paradise follows Chester a Black, non-binary painter as they search for space and permission to exist within their hometown.

Grandma Nai Who Played Favorites (ចៅសំណព្វចិត្ត)
Directed by Chheangkea | Narrative Short | Cambodia/France/USA | 19 mins

During her chaotic family’s Qingming visit, dead Grandma Nai sneaks away from her peaceful afterlife after overhearing that her queer grandson is about to get engaged to a woman. Grandma Nai Who Played Favorites had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January, where it won the Short Film Jury Award for International Fiction.

Rainbow Girls
Directed by Nana Duffuor | Narrative Short | USA | 16 mins

As San Francisco’s tech boom gentrifies their city, three young black trans women decide to take matters into their own hands, staging an audacious heist targeting the city’s most exclusive luxury brands. Rainbow Girls was executive produced by Cheryl Dunye and Nava Mau (Baby Reindeer).

The Roaming Center for Magnetic Alternatives
Directed by Brydie O’Connor | Documentary Short | USA | 20 mins

The Roaming Center for Magnetic Alternatives follows a mobile archiving center in a cargo trailer as it crosses the Midwest to digitize the VHS tapes of LGBTQ+ folks living in Middle America. In real-time digitizing sessions, people watch their own histories as they are being preserved, and reveal a look into queer life in the Bible Belt since the 1980s. This film takes a road trip through the past into the present, and gives us a glimpse of what an ever-expanding queer archive looks like in the future.