San Francisco, CA - Frameline29 is the 29th annual San Francisco International LBGT Film Festival. The Festival runs June 16-26 at the historic Castro Theatre, Victoria Theatre, and Roxie Cinema in San Francisco, as well as at Oakland's Parkway Theater. With hundreds of feature-length and short-film entries-including the perspectives of 33 foreign countries-the Festival is the oldest and largest LGBT film festival in world.

Opening Frameline29 is CÔTE D'AZUR, a delightful story written and directed by equally charming Frameline veterans Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau (MY LIFE ON ICE, THE ADVENTURES OF FELIX, JEANNE AND THE PERFECT GUY). CÔTE D'AZUR is the story of a lively French family vacationing on the Mediterranean coast, in which no one is who they seem yet no one seems to mind. Both filmmakers will attend Opening Night festivities. The Swedish short animation BIKINI, a Frameline release, will launch the evening, and a post-screening Q&A is scheduled immediately following the program. (An ASL interpreter will be present at the Opening Night program introduction and at the post-screening Q&A.)

Frameline's popular Opening Night gala, the unofficial launch of San Francisco's annual LGBT Pride celebration, will take place at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts following the premiere of CÔTE D'AZUR.

TRANSAMERICA will screen on Closing Night at the Castro Theatre, bringing Frameline29 to a close following a stellar 11-day run. Director Duncan Tucker's laugh-out-loud yet extraordinarily touching film debut stars Felicity Huffman ("Desperate Housewives") in a role laced with humor and poignant moments. Huffman recently nabbed Best Actress honors at the fourth annual Tribecca Film Festival in New York City for her performance as pre-op transsexual, a group she describes as, "the bravest people I've ever known." Following the screening, the Closing Night Party will be held on Pride Sunday, June 26, at the ceremonious Old Federal Reserve Bank Building. Both the Opening Night Gala and Closing Night Party offer a variety of elegant food, thirst-quenching elixirs, and mouth-watering desserts, and will provide attendees a memorable evening of rubbing shoulders with filmmakers from around the globe.

For its Centerpiece selection, Frameline29 will screen HAPPY ENDINGS, directed by Don Roos (THE OPPOSITE OF SEX, BOUNCE), and featuring an ensemble cast: Tom Arnold, Laura Dern, Lisa Kudrow, Jason Ritter, Jesse Bradford, Sarah Clarke, and more. This hilarious film deftly weaves multiple stories that lend a sharp, witty look at love, family, and the uncertainty of life. Jason Ritter (son of late actor John Ritter), who plays Tom Arnold's questioning son, will attend the screening of HAPPY ENDINGS and the Festival's Centerpiece Party at Foreign Cinema.

Two Special Presentation screenings will highlight trends in current international LGBT cinema: SUMMER STORM by German filmmaker Marco Kreuzpaintner, is a touching coming-of-age story in which two members of a rowing team find themselves on opposite sides of a difficult divide. SUMMER STORM is one of over a dozen films presented at Frameline29 that focus on queers in sports. Sports films include RUGGER BUGGERS, Mark Loughlin's documentary that joins gay rugby players from around the world to play in the Bingham cup (an honor to 9/11 hero Mark Bingham). Sherry Horman's GUYS AND BALLS kicks into gear an all-gay soccer team that must face off with the straight boys to prove who has moreÉ balls. Amit Azaz's THE LADY IS A CHAMP is a documentary on woman's basketball coach Orna Ostfeld, who attempts to halt discrimination in women's national sports competitions in Israel. Karen Duthie's 100% WOMAN tracks reigning downhill mountain bike champion Michelle Dumaresq and her struggles as one of the few transgender women in professional sports. Onir's remarkable film MY BROTHER NIKHIL makes waves when a champion swimmer tests HIV-positive. Add to the ring Tessa Boerman's A KNOCKOUT, a film about professional female boxer Michele Aboro who must fight both in and out of the ring.

The Festival's second Special Presentation is the world premiere of TRANSGENERATION, an eight-episode documentary series airing on the Sundance Channel September 2005 that captures four transgender college students during an academic year. TRANSGENERATION, executive produced by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato (recipients of the 2003 Frameline Award), is among more than 25 other films in the Festival that explore transgender and intersex issues within the LGBT community.

Joui Turandot's YO SOY ASI tells the story of young transgender hair salon owner in Santiago, Chile; CALL ME MALCOLM, from Joseph Parlagreco, documents a 27-year-old transgender seminary student's determination to balance faith, love, and gender identity; Travis Reeves' musical odyssey FUNNY KINDA GUY captures an FTM singer's brave acceptance of his new voice; THE AGGRESSIVES is Daniel Peddle's warm portrayal of a secret subculture and how it impacts contemporary gender identification; ENOUGH MAN, by Luke Woodward, is a groundbreaking and explicit documentary/pornography hybrid dealing with body image, relationships, and sex from the perspective of nine FTM transmen and their partners; and BOTH is Lisset Barcellos' film about a stuntwoman named Rebeca Duarte, who discovers her sexual history has been manipulated by both her parents and her doctors.

Each year Frameline honors a selected filmmaker whose outstanding ccomplishments and contributions to LBGT cinema deserve recognition. In May, Frameline proudly bestowed director Gregg Araki with the distinguished 2005 Frameline Award. Araki's trajectory goes back to Frameline12 and includes THREE BEWILDERED PEOPLE IN THE NIGHT, THE LONG WEEKEND (O' DESPAIR), THE LIVING END, TOTALLY F***ED UP, and THE DOOM GENERATION. He is one of the most courageous, unconventional, and intriguing voices in independent cinema. His latest film MYSTERIOUS SKIN opened across the country to critical praise in May. In addition to the Frameline Award, the Festival proudly presents two $10,000 juried awards: The Michael J. Berg Documentary Award for excellence in documentary filmmaking (38 eligible films); and The Levi's¨ First Feature Award for first narrative features premiering at Frameline29 (18 eligible films). The awards offer unparalleled cash prizes in the LGBT film festival circuit and serve as testament to Frameline's champion support of LGBT filmmakers. Winners will be announced at the Closing Night Party, as will the winners of the Festival's Audience Awards for Best Feature Film, Best Documentary, and Best Short Film.

Pink Saturday promises to be a one-of-a-kind queer cinematic celebration as Frameline29 welcomes Tammy Faye Massner to the Castro Theatre for a screening of Chris McKim's TAMMY FAYE: DEATH DEFYING, which documents her miraculous battle with cancer. On her heels will be a host of Colt Studio models to welcome in Bay Area filmmaker Pam Doré's ("Mr. Pam") documentary EXPOSED-a behind-the-scenes exposŽ of the making of a Colt Studio porn masterpiece.

For queer families with kids, families with queer kids, or just for the kid in your queer self, Frameline29 is delighted to offer CHARLOTTE'S WEB, by directors Charles A. Nichols and Iwao Takamoto, as our Second Annual Kid's Matinee.

The Festival is honored to be showcasing 7 world-premiere feature films: ENDING AIDS: THE SEARCH FOR A VACCINE is Bill Jersey and Michael Schwarz's insightful documentary regarding the most staggering and complex bio-medical challenges ever; CREATING A PLACE AT THE TABLE is a light-hearted documentary chronicling three multicultural lesbian couples and their families; and David Sampliner gives us TURNING POINTS-STORIES OF LIFE, an insightful and powerful look at how Presbyterians struggle with full inclusion of gays and lesbians.

Of the world-premiere features in Frameline29 more than half are products from local filmmakers. Two docu-mentaries, Sasha Aicken's BLOOD, SWEAT, AND GLITTER and Sean Mullen's TRANNYSHACK, pay unique tributes to the infamous South of Market club; Victor Silverman and Susan Stryker's SCREAMING QUEENS: THE RIOT AT COMPTON'S CAFETERIA documents the pre-Stonewall San Francisco riots transgender prostitutes and gay hustlers waged against police harassment; HEALING SEX is a docudrama by filmmaker Shar Rednour that shows real men and women healing from abuse and trauma; and Keith Wilson introduces us to LESBIAN GRANDMOTHERS FROM MARS in a documentary that showcases two down-to-earth lesbians who make a three-month, cross-country trip to rally support for gay marriage.

Local filmmaker and activist Jenni Olson's THE JOY OF LIFE, being released theatrically this summer by Frameline, addresses the issue of suicide and the Golden Gate Bridge. This sensitive documentary is a tribute to former Frameline Festival Director Mark Finch, who ten years ago took his life by jumping from the bridge.

Frameline29 offers the best multicultural LGBT representation with an outstanding 106 international films representing global filmmaking efforts from 33 countries. A first-time entry from Serbia, TAKE A DEEP BREATH chronicles a lesbian love story from director Dragan Marinkovic. In addition to the opening film, CÔTE D'AZUR, other French gay features include Ilan Duran Cohen's GRAND SONS in which a grieving son struggles to keep his mother's memory alive while his grandmother prefers moving on; Ga‘l Morel's THREE DANCING SLAVES, which focuses on three brothers discovering what it means to be men; and THE LAST DAY, directed by Rudolphe Marconi and starring new heartthrob Gaspard Ulliel from A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT. Frameline is equally supportive of the short film genre, as evidenced by the nearly 180 scheduled domestic and international short films. The Festival is a proven best method for showcasing up-and-coming talented filmmakers. The ever-popular Fun In Boys Shorts and Fun In Girls Shorts programs will make room for the new Fun for Boys and Girls, a collection of short films that gets everyone in the picture. Brand new Aussie shorts comprise Return of the Antipodeans-New Gay Shorts from Australia; Queermation serves up the latest in queer animation; Future Shock is a compilation of sci-fi action shorts; Scary, Mary! is experimental filmmaking on a totally frightening level; Bitchy, Witty & Wise-The Films of David Weissman (producer and co-director of THE COCKETTES) is a program of this longtime San Franciscan's best award-winning short films, including a discussion of his work; and My Hustler, a compilation of shorts exploring the complicated, exotic, and often fulfilling lives of those who sell sex.

Asian cinema continues to explode with exciting queer films and Frameline29 will highlight several new gay features from Asia, including DJ Chen's boy-meets-boy romance FORMULA 17 (Taiwan's top-grossing film of 2004), Julian Lee's Hong Kong Gothic tale NIGHT CORRIDOR, starring Daniel Wu, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul's TROPICAL MALADY, which takes viewers on a mysterious and fascinating trip into the darkness of the human heart. Cui Zi'en delivers NIGHT SCENE, a film based on China's laws against whoredom and homosexuality, and STRYKER is from filmmaker Noam Gonick and deals with Aboriginal and Asian gangs, transgendered street workers, and teen arsonists.

Frameline29 will present two landmark queer films from India. THE JOURNEY is Lily J. Pullappally's debut feature film chronicling a love story between two young women in rural South India. MY BROTHER NIKHIL will have its U.S. premiere at Frameline29. In a country where homosexuality is routinely met with both scorn and pity, and talking about AIDS is still often taboo, this groundbreaking film has been generally met with more admiration than rejection in its native country. Director Onir and star Sanjay Suri will attend the Festival.

Two films offer retrospectives on gay life in the post-Stonewall, pre-AIDS period (1969-1981): GAY SEX IN THE 70s, by Joseph Lovett, looks at a period when gay men experienced unprecedented sexual freedom, and THAT MAN: PETER BERLIN, by Jim Tushinski, is a revealing portrait of a 30-year San Francisco icon.

PURCHASING FESTIVAL TICKETS: Festival passes are now available to purchase by Frameline members. Tickets go on sale to Frameline members Friday, May 27. General public ticket sales begin Friday, June 3. Additional ticket information will be available once tickets go on sale via Trilogy Productions, Inc., the Festival box-office management and ticketing service, which will offer a 24-hour Festival hotline: 925.866.9559. Complete ticket information will also be posted at Frameline's website: www.frameline.org/festival. The official Festival Ticket Outlet counter will be located inside Super Satellite at 474 Castro Street (between Market and 18th Street in San Francisco).

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Frameline29 -- the 29th San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival -- is the oldest and largest event of its kind in the world, and will screen June 16-26, 2005. Frameline29 screens in San Francisco at the Castro Theatre (429 Castro St.), the Roxie Cinema (3117 16th St.), the Victoria Theatre (2961 16th St.) and in Oakland at the Parkway Theater (1834 Park Blvd). Festival passes are currently on sale to Frameline members. Tickets go on sale to Frameline members on Friday, May 27, 2005. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday, June 3, 2005. For more information, please call 925.866.9559 or visit www.Frameline.org.

Frameline29 is presented by Frameline, a nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening the diverse lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community and furthering its visibility by supporting and promoting a broad array of cultural representations and artistic expression in film, video, and other media art.