50 of the Best LGBTQ Films to Watch All Year Long
There’s something for everyone here.
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Movies are a place to experience catharsis, joy, a sense of connection connection, and a good cry (or laugh). They can be an escape for when the real world gets especially challenging. For the LGBTQIA+ community, representation in film is particularly needed right now.
Fortunately, the past few years have offered a plethora of new LGBTQIA+ stories. But don't forget the classics either (yes, there are some). Pride may only be celebrated for one month out of the year, but there are enough classic queer films and brand new releases to keep you busy for eons. There’s comedy, drama, documentary, and lots of historical romance.
Below are some of the best movies made by, for, and about the queer communities to keep you company on many, many movie nights.
Strange Way of Life
Pedro Almodóvar is debuting his new film Strange Way of Life in May, and it has so much going for it. It stars Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal, who has been dominating our lives for the last six months and is welcome to continue indefinitely. The story follows two cowboys who haven't seen one another in 25 years. They reconnect after one rides across the desert to see the other, but after a night of reminiscing about their friendship, things get complicated.
Premieres May 2023.
Bros
Bobby and Aaron are two men who can never quite commit to a relationship so they decide to band together for a little casual company. Their different personalities create a push and pull that might just change who they are forever. Produced by Judd Apatow, the film stars Billy Eichner, Luke Macfarlane, Monica Raymund, Guillermo Díaz, Guy Branum, and Amanda Bearse.
They/Them
Nothing like a campy horror movie to address queer issues through storytelling. In They/Them, kids are sent to Whistler Camp where they have been forced into conversion therapy by their abusive parents. As if that wasn't bad enough, a masked killer is loose in the campsite slashing and stabbing. These LGBTQ+ teens are on the case, trying to survive both murder and sexual suppression before summer ends.
Bottoms
Starring Rachel Sennott and The Bear's Ayo Edebiri, Bottoms focuses on the two most unpopular, queer girls in high school who are determined to get laid before they graduate. This raunchy comedy explores their plan to start a fight club as a way to hook up with cheerleaders, so it's kind of a queer twist on a classic coming-of-age scenario. The teen sex comedy is directed by Emma Seligman who co-wrote the screenplay with Sennott, and produced by Elizabeth Banks.
Streaming date TBA.
Knock at the Cabin
While it's not strictly a movie about queer identity, Knock at the Cabin does center around a gay couple and their adopted daughter, so the subject is obliquely explored in this thriller mystery directed by M. Night Shyamalan. The family is forced into an impossible ultimatum when three home invaders tell them they have to choose one of them to die to stave off the apocalypse.
Moonlight
Moonlight famously won an Academy Award for Best Picture after what was the most talked about on-air moment at the Oscars until 2022. It follows Chiron Harris (Trevante Rhodes) from childhood to his adulthood, as he’s guided by a drug dealer named Juan, played by the incredibly compelling Mahershala Ali. Chiron’s story isn’t necessarily one with a happy ending, but it’s full of poignant observations about growing up with a queer identity.
Fire Island
Based on Pride & Prejudice, this film follows a group of queer best friends who spend one week every summer at the Fire Island Pines. Love affairs quickly disrupt their usual patterns, but there's a traditional happy ending.
Everthing Everywhere All at Once
The star of Everything Everywhere All at Once is definitely Michelle Yeoh, who is a pleasure to watch. But the heart of the story is her relationship with her daughter Joy. Joy has been struggling with introducing her girlfriend to her mom, and if she doesn't get some love and support from her mother, she just might destroy the universe.
My Policeman
Starring Harry Styles, this story follows a love triangle in the 1950s between a policeman, a schoolteacher, and a museum curator, though in Brighton, homosexuality is illegal.
Tár
Lydia Tár is not a good person, but she is a very, very good conductor. Cate Blanchett gives an incredible performance that will have viewers wondering who Tár is based on. She's fictional, but she feels so real.
Ammonite
A paleontologist named Mary Anning makes most of her money by selling fossils to tourists, but one day a wealthy man brings his wife by with the intention of making her Mary's problem. The young woman ends up changing Mary's life.
The Boys In the Band
Set mostly in the late ‘60s, this film, based on a play of the same name, is about a group of gay men who are all navigating their sexuality and love lives in a turbulent time. Most of the drama takes place over one wild night: a birthday party that quickly turns into much more after an old friend shows up out of the blue.
The Prom
Produced by Ryan Murphy and based on the musical of the same name, this story follows some Broadway stars who aren't doing too hot as they attempt to gain some attention by heading to a small Indiana town, where a teen is trying to go to the prom with her girlfriend. Enjoy the catchy show tunes and queer love triumph.
Shiva Baby
A college student goes to sit Shiva with her parents, only to encounter both her ex-girlfriend and her sugar daddy. Who will she leave this funeral with?
Single All the Way
After discovering his boyfriend is secretly married to a woman, Peter is embarrassed to show up to his family holiday gathering without a boyfriend. He begs his roommate Nick to pose as his lover for the weekend, but before long, they're not pretending at all.
The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson
Marsha P. Johnson was a beloved LGBTQ activist and trans woman, who was at the original Stonewall riot. Johnson died quite young, and her death was ruled a suicide. This documentary makes the case that Johnson was murdered—a danger trans people, and trans women in particular, face at horrifyingly high rates still. It also discusses her life, which was truly legendary.
Disclosure
This documentary is both a fascinating account of trans actors through history and a general lesson on the development of film over the last century. Both are deeply intertwined, as the passionate and knowledgable interviewees explain.
Disobedience
Ronit Krushka is a photographer living in NYC who heads to London after hearing her estranged father has died. Ronit once belonged to an Orthodox Jewish community, where she had a childhood friend named Esti. But it wasn't only a friendship. On her trip, the two women reconnect and a spark of passion ignites.
Crush
This is the perfect angsty teen romance movie, featuring a love triangle with a twist—the two possible love interests are sisters. The film stars Rowan Blanchard as a teen navigating college applications, her artistic aspirations, and a track team she joined just to get close to her sweetheart. Or two sweethearts.
Cowboys
This coming-of-age story follows a dad and his trans son as they try to escape oppressive forces led by the boy's unaccepting mother. While it does contain a certain amount of drama, it also makes understanding one's own gender another marker on the path of growing up in a way anyone can relate to.
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