Movies: Frameline 50, SF Black film fest, Monroe at Stanford, ‘Leviticus,’ ‘Unidentified’

Celebrating 50 years as a showcase for queer cinema, Frameline, the San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival, launches its 2026 edition Wednesday. More than 140 movies from 35 countries screen at the 11-day event, the world’s oldest and most widely recognized queer film exhibition. Venues are the Castro, Roxie and Vogue theaters, Festival Hub (531 Castro St.), The Foundry SF and the Chapel in San Francisco; Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley; and the New Parkway Theater in Oakland.  

D’Arcy Drollinger’s campy, raucous “Lady Champagne” is Frameline50’s opening night feature at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Castro. Billed as a slapstick dragsploitation comedy, the movie is a sequel to “S— & Champagne,” the popular 2020 Frameline attraction featuring San Francisco actor, filmmaker and drag-scene notable Drollinger. “Barbara Forever,” Byrdie O’Connor’s documentary portrait of pioneering lesbian filmmaker Barbara Hammer, the festival’s centerpiece film, screens at 8:45 p.m. June 25 at the Castro. “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma,” a sci-fi drama directed by Jane Schoenbrun (“I Saw the TV Glow”), is the closing feature at 8:15 p.m. June 27 at the Castro. Also honored are actor Colman Domingo, appearing in conversation at 1:30 p.m. June 27 at the Castro; and German director Kai Stanicke’s “Trial of Hein,” recipient of Frameline’s annual Out in the Silence Award, at 5:45 p.m. June 25 at the Castro. Additional titles include Sasha Waters’ documentary “Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty” at 5 p.m. June 23 at the Roxie and 7 p.m. June 26 at BAMPFA; Gregg Araki’s sex comedy “I Want Your Sex” at 6:15 p.m. June 19 at the Roxie; “Montreal, My Beautiful” starring Joan Chen at 5:30 p.m. June 25 at the Vogue; and, from prolific young trans filmmaker Alice Maio Mackay, “Our Effed Up World” at 8:45 p.m. June 19 at the Castro. Visit frameline.org for more.   

The San Francisco Black Film Festival, celebrating African American cinema and the African cultural diaspora since 1998, presents its 2026 edition Thursday through Sunday. Opening night at San Francisco’s African American Art and Culture Complex includes festivities and screenings. Featured films are “This Will Never Work,” a dramedy by Niccolo Aeed and Marina Tempelsman about a Black family coming together to hold an intervention for one of its members; and “Paralysis by Analysis,” a sci-fi tale by Jolene Carter about a Ph.D candidate who develops a dangerous obsession with an AI app. On Friday, San Francisco Black Film Festival Comedy Night is at at the AAACC. Saturday’s programming, “It’s a Beautiful Day to Look for Black Film,” features a full day of films at the AAACC.  On Sunday, “Beautiful Day to Learn About Blackness” offers an afternoon of screenings at the San Francisco Main Library. Visit sfbff.org for more information. 

Palo Alto’s Stanford Theatre’s summer movie lineup includes Hollywood classics and a tribute series titled “Marilyn Monroe at 100,” which begins with “The Seven Year Itch” (1955) and “Some Like It Hot” (1959), both directed by Billy Wilder, starring Monroe, on Wednesday through Sunday. On June 24-25, “The Asphalt Jungle” (1950), directed by John Huston, and “Clash by Night” (1952), directed by Fritz Lang, screen. On Aug. 26-27, Monroe stars in “The Misfits” (1961) directed by John Huston and “Let’s Make Love” (1960) directed by George Cukor. The series continues through Sept. 6.  For a complete schedule, visit stanfordtheatre.org. 

Combining social realism with supernatural terror, “Leviticus,” the feature debut of writer-director Adrian Chiarella, is a queer coming-of-age tale set in a fundamentalist Australian town where homosexuality is regarded as a curse that must be vanquished. Screening at Frameline Wednesday and opening in theaters on Friday, the movie is a suspenseful horror film, a poignant young-love story and a compelling indictment of homophobia and repression. New-in-town Niam (Joe Bird) lives with his misguided mother (Mia Wasikowska) and has a new friend, a romantic interest, in classmate Ryan (Stacy Clausen). Living in a narrow-minded religious community, the teens intend to keep their relationship secret. But when Niam sees Ryan kissing another boy, his jealousy triggers extreme punitive action, which involves an extreme and supernatural form of conversion therapy. The boys are cursed with an evil entity that masquerades as and aims to destroy the person both love most — each other. Though the horror plot is credible and Chiarella adeptly conveys unease and suspense, the film’s humanity — especially the sweet chemistry in the boys’ affectionate interactions — is what keeps audiences caring. While attitudes are improving, hateful thinking persists and hurts everybody, Chiarella reminds viewers, chillingly. 

Saudi Arabian filmmaker Haifaa Al Mansour, whose charming “Wadjda” (among other movies) features women and girls standing up for their rights, now offers a female-led whodunit called “Unidentified.” Opening Friday at the Smith Rafael Film Center, the drama begins when the body of a murdered teen girl is found in the Saudi desert. A police investigation driven by Noelle (Mila Al Zahrani), a determined amateur sleuth, true crime podcast enthusiast and clerical assistant, ensues. Al Mansour generates intrigue as Noelle, who is divorced and coping with a personal tragedy, works to put together a case. The filmmaker creates morally messy characters, shaped in part by the experience of being female in Saudi Arabia. In the end, the plot brings the movie down. Al Mansour and cowriter Brad Niemann let the screenplay go off the rails in a late-inning twist. While that may mean bolder and juicier storytelling, the revelations lack credibility.