Frameline Supports the Future of Queer Cinema at SXSW

In 2023, Frameline began a partnership with the Colin Higgins Foundation to support the next wave of LGBTQ+ filmmakers. Presented at Frameline47, the Colin Higgins Youth Filmmaker Grants were awarded to three U.S.-based filmmakers under the age of 25 with $15,000 each to be used for their next projects. We’re excited to announce that the first two films made with the Colin Higgins Youth Filmmaker Grant — Daisy Friedman’s Unholy and Karina Dandashi’s Baba I’m Fine — are hitting the festival circuit early this year. Unholy just celebrated its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival last month. Baba I’m Fine will have its world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival which begins on Friday, March 7, 2025. Both films will screen as part of SXSW’s Narrative Short Competition.

A filmmaker from New York City, Friedman was selected amongst 10 finalists to receive the grant for her film As You Are, which explored the dynamics of an interabled queer couple spending their first intimate night together. Her latest short, Unholy, follows a young woman attending her family’s Passover Seder for the first time since being put on a feeding tube for a gastrointestinal disorder. Be sure to also check out Sundance’s Meet the Artist profile on Friedman on the Festival’s YouTube channel.

When asked about her experience at Frameline47, Friedman stated, “Frameline was the first film festival I went to that made me believe that I could really have a career as a filmmaker. I was able to bond with other filmmakers and artists whose excitement about queer film and independent filmmaking was infectious. Not only that, but the incredible support of the whole staff and the team at the Colin Higgins Foundation honored my work in a way that made me believe in myself the same way they believed in me.”

Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Karina Dandashi is a first generation Arab American filmmaker. Dandashi was also selected among 10 finalists to receive the Colin Higgins Youth Filmmaker Grant in 2023 for her film Cousins. Her latest short, Baba I’m Fine, also traces a queer woman’s family dynamics, as a heartbroken teenager accepts her dad’s Friday night invitation to hang out after her girlfriend stands her up.

“I am so grateful to the Colin Higgins Foundation and Frameline for supporting my short Baba I’m Fine with their Youth Filmmaker Grant,” Dandashi stated. “This personal father-daughter story set in my hometown of Pittsburgh could not have gone into production without this award. It was so thrilling as a queer Syrian American director to empower Arab talent in front of the camera and tell a story of queer messy rage, joy, and love for family that defies any box we’ve been assigned. Thanks to Colin Higgins and Frameline, I was able to create this proof-of-concept short and set the stage for a feature yet to come.”

Since 2023, the Colin Higgins Foundation has awarded five filmmakers with grants totaling $75,000. The three other grants were awarded to Emilio Subía for Ñaños, Farah Jabir for Kasbi, and Leaf Lieber for Burrow. The 2025 recipients of the Colin Higgins Youth Filmmaker Grants will be announced ahead of Frameline49 in June.