Best Movies for Pride Month

Pride is the time we all celebrate our uniqueness under the LGBTQIA+ banner and encourage everyone who feels safe to do so, to come out and wave their flags high and proud. We want to help you explore the modern LGBTQIA+ world, community, and spaces where people congregate, both on and offline.

Here’s a great list of representative movies for Pride month and beyond.

LGBTQIA+ Best Movies for Pride Month

2 in the Bush: A Love Story (2018)

2 in the Bush: A Love Story is an unconventional romantic comedy about dungeons, a fish named Archimedes, and the many forms that love takes.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 97 mins.

A Fantastic Woman (2017)

Rating: NR
Runtime: 125 mins.

Adam (2019)

Awkward teen Adam spends his last high school summer with his big sister, who throws herself into NYC’s lesbian and trans activist scene. In this coming-of-age comedy, Adam and those around him encounter love, friendship, and hard truths.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 95 mins.

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994)

Two drag performers and a transgender woman travel across the desert to perform their unique style of cabaret.
Rating: R
Runtime: 104 mins.

Ahead of the Curve (2020)

Ahead of the Curve chronicles the outrageous adventures of Franco Stevens, the woman who started the most successful lesbian magazine in the world in the ’90s, and her journey to understand what queer women need today.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 98 mins.

Aimee & Jaguar (1999)

In 1943 Berlin, a Nazi officer’s wife meets and starts a passionate affair with a Jewish woman.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 125 mins.

Am I Okay (2022)

Lucy and Jane have been best friends their entire lives. Only when Lucy embarks on a personal journey, will she face a test of her friendship, and her sense of self, on a path she may not be entirely ready to take. 
Rating: R
Runtime: 86 mins.

READ: Am I Okay Review

Ammonite (2020)

1840s England, acclaimed but overlooked fossil hunter Mary Anning and a young woman sent to convalesce by the sea develop an intense relationship, altering both of their lives forever.
Rating: R, for graphic sexuality, some graphic nudity, and brief language
Runtime: 120 mins.

And Breathe Normally (2018)

Two women’s lives will intersect while trapped in circumstances unforeseen. Between a struggling Icelandic mother and an asylum seeker from Guinea-Bissau, a delicate bond will form as both strategize to get their lives back on track.
Rating: TV-14
Runtime: 95 mins.

Beginners (2010)

A young man is rocked by two announcements from his elderly father: that he has terminal cancer and that he has a young male lover.
Rating: R
Runtime: 105 mins.

Below Her Mouth (2016)

An unexpected affair quickly escalates into a heart-stopping reality for two women whose passionate connection changes their lives forever.
Rated: NR
Runtime: 94 mins

Benedetta (2021)

A 17th-century nun in Italy suffers from disturbing religious and erotic visions. She is assisted by a companion, and the relationship between the two women develops into a romantic love affair.
Rated: NR
Runtime: 131 mins
How to watch: Benedetta is now streaming on Hulu.

Better Than Chocolate (1999)

Maggie, 19, works at a lesbian/LGBT bookstore. Her mom’s getting divorced and has invited herself to stay with Maggie. Maggie hasn’t told her, she’s lesbian. Her new girlfriend moves in as well.
Rated: R
Runtime: 101 mins

The Birdcage (1996)

A gay cabaret owner and his drag queen companion agree to put up a false straight front so that their son can introduce them to his fiancée’s right-wing moralistic parents.
Rating: R
Runtime: 117 mins.

Bit (2019)

A transgender teenage girl on summer vacation in Los Angeles fights to survive after she falls in with four queer feminist vampires, who try to rid the city’s streets of predatory men.
Rated: TV-MA
Runtime: 90 mins

Bloomington (2010)

A coming-of-age drama about a former child actress attending college in search of independence and who ends up becoming romantically involved with a female professor.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 83 mins

Blue Is the Warmest Color (2013)

Adèle’s life is changed when she meets Emma, a young woman with blue hair, who will allow her to discover desire and to assert herself as a woman and as an adult. In front of others, Adèle grows, seeks herself, loses herself, and ultimately finds herself through love and loss.
Rating: NC-17, for explicit sexual content
Runtime: 180 mins.

Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

The story of the legendary British rock band Queen and lead singer Freddie Mercury, leading up to their famous performance at Live Aid (1985).
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 134 mins.

Bound (1996)

Tough ex-con Corky and her lover Violet concoct a scheme to steal millions of stashed mob money and pin the blame on Violet’s crooked boyfriend Caesar.
Rating: R
Runtime: 109 mins.

Boys (2014)

A sexually awakening gay teen athlete finds himself in a budding relationship with his mutually attracted relay race teammate.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 78 mins.

Boys Don’t Cry (1999)

A young man named Brandon Teena navigates love, life, and being transgender in rural Nebraska.
Rating: R
Runtime: 118 mins.

The Boys in the Band (1970)

At a birthday party in 1968 New York, a surprise guest and a drunken game leave seven gay friends reckoning with unspoken feelings and buried truths.
Rating: R
Runtime: 121 mins.

BPM (Beats Per Minute) (2017)

Members of the advocacy group ACT UP Paris demand action by the government and pharmaceutical companies to combat the AIDS epidemic in the early 1990s.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 143 mins.

Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Ennis and Jack are two shepherds who develop a sexual and emotional relationship. Their relationship becomes complicated when both of them get married to their respective girlfriends.
Rating: R
Runtime: 134 mins
How to watch: Brokeback Mountain is streaming on Peacock and available for rent or purchase on Amazon Prime Video and iTunes.

But I’m a Cheerleader (2000)

A naive teenager is sent to rehab camp when her straitlaced parents and friends suspect her of being a lesbian.
Rating: R
Runtime: 85 mins
How to watch: But I’m a Cheerleader is streaming on Tubi, and Pluto TV, and is available for rent or purchase on Amazon Prime Video and iTunes.

Call Me by Your Name (2017)

In 1980s Italy, romance blossoms between a seventeen-year-old student and the older man hired as his father’s research assistant.
Rating: R
Runtime: 122 mins.

Carol (2015)

An aspiring photographer develops an intimate relationship with an older woman in 1950s New York.
Rating: R
Runtime: 118 mins
How to watch: Carol is streaming on Tubi, and Pluto TV and available for rent or purchase on Amazon Prime Video and iTunes.

Camp Belividere (2014)

Camp Belvidere is the story of camp leader Rose and how her friendship with Gin, the camp nurse, evolves into a passionate love affair.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 92 mins.

The Celluloid Closet (1995)

A documentary surveying the various Hollywood screen depictions of homosexuals and the attitudes behind them throughout the history of North American film.
Rating: R
Runtime: 102 mins.

Circus of Books (2019)

In 1976, Karen and Barry Mason had fallen on hard times and were looking for a way to support their young family when they answered an ad in the Los Angeles Times. Larry Flynt was seeking distributors for Hustler Magazine. What was expected to be a brief sideline led to their becoming fully immersed in the LGBT community as they took over a local store, Circus of Books. A decade later, they had become the biggest distributors of gay porn in the US. The film focuses on the double life they led, trying to maintain the balance of being parents at a time when LGBT culture was not yet accepted. Their many challenges included facing jail time for a federal obscenity prosecution and enabling their store to be a place of refuge at the height of the AIDS crisis. Circus of Books offers a rare glimpse into an untold chapter of queer history, and it is told through the lens of the owners’ own daughter, Rachel Mason, an artist, filmmaker and musician.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 38 mins.

Cocoon (2020)

Berlin-Kreuzberg is Nora’s microcosm. Nora, the silent observer, is always tagging along: At parties, at school, at the pool, on rooftops, and in apartments. Nora drifts around the monotonous housing blocks with her big sister and her friends, witnessing events that seem to cross-fade in the summer light. Girls who want to be slim and pretty, boys who say dumb things to provoke or because they are in love. Ruthless smartphone cameras and fragile teenagers. But Nora has her own way of looking at the world, and when she meets Romy, she realizes why. Music is in the air, Nora’s body is changing, and caterpillars are spinning their cocoons. Realistic and taking on the protagonist’s perspective, this film captures a summer of change.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 99 mins.

The Corruption (1986)

A beautiful wife, neglected by her husband, her sensual maid, who holds the reigns. La Bonne is an affair, an exploration, of desire, of force, and control…
Rating: NR
Runtime: 82 mins.

Cruising (1980)

A police detective goes undercover in the underground S&M gay subculture of New York City to catch a serial killer who is preying on gay men.
Rating: R
Runtime: 102 mins.

The Danish Girl (2015)

A fictitious love story loosely inspired by the lives of Danish artists Lili Elbe and Gerda Wegener. Lili and Gerda’s marriage and work evolve as they navigate Lili’s groundbreaking journey as a transgender pioneer.
Rating: R
Runtime: 119 mins.

Dating Amber (2020)

Two school friends decide to start a pretend straight relationship in an effort to fit in.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 92 mins.

The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson (2017)

Victoria Cruz investigates the mysterious 1992 death of black gay rights activist and Stonewall veteran, Marsha P. Johnson. Using archival interviews with Johnson, and new interviews with Johnson’s family, friends and fellow activists.
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 105 mins.

Death Drop Gorgeous (2020)

A dejected bartender and an aging drag queen try to survive the eccentric and hostile nightlife of a corrupt city, as a masked maniac slaughters young gay men and drains them of blood.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 104 mins.

Desert Hearts (1985)

While waiting for her divorce papers, a repressed professor of literature is unexpectedly seduced by a carefree, spirited young lesbian.
Rating: R
Runtime: 91 mins.

Disclosure (2020)

An in-depth look at Hollywood’s depiction of transgender people and the impact of those stories on transgender lives and American culture.
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 108 mins.

Disobedience (2017)

A woman returns to her Orthodox Jewish community that shunned her for her attraction to a female childhood friend. Once back, their passions reignite as they explore the boundaries of faith and sexuality.
Rating: R, for some strong sexuality
Runtime: 114 mins.

The Dutch Boys (2021)

A married factory worker confronts his feelings as they bubble to the surface, two boxers fight for more than just keeps, a countryside coming out doesn’t quite go to plan, while at the beach a boy makes an unreal discovery. Come and explore a thoroughly Dutch view on life and love.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 98 mins.

Edward II (1991)

In this Derek Jarman version of Christopher Marlowe’s Elizabethan drama, in modern costumes and settings, Plantagenet king Edward II hands the power-craving nobility the perfect excuse by taking as lover besides his diplomatic wife, the French princess Isabel, not an acceptable lady at court but the ambitious Piers Gaveston, who uses his favor in bed even to wield political influence – the stage is set for a palace revolt which sends the gay pair from the throne to a terminal torture dungeon.
Rating: R
Runtime: 87 mins.

Elïose’s Lover (2009)

A young woman is hospitalized and in a coma after a serious accident. Through flashbacks we learn of her feelings for another woman.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 92 mins.

The Fear Street Trilogy (2021)

Fear Street: Part One: 1994
A circle of teenage friends accidentally encounters the ancient evil responsible for a series of brutal murders that have plagued their town for over 300 years. Welcome to Shadyside.
Rating: R
Runtime: 107 mins.

Fear Street: Part Two: 1978
Shadyside, 1978. School’s out for summer and the activities at Camp Nightwing are about to begin. But when another Shadysider is possessed with the urge to kill, the fun in the sun becomes a gruesome fight for survival.
Rating: R
Runtime: 109 mins.

Fear Street: Part Three: 1666
The origins of Sarah Fier’s curse are finally revealed as history comes full circle on a night that changes the lives of Shadysiders forever.
Rating: R
Runtime: 114 mins.

How to watch: The Fear Street Trilogy is streaming on Netflix.

First Girl I Loved (2016)

17-year-old Anne just fell in love with Sasha, the most popular girl at her LA public high school. But when Anne tells her best friend Clifton – who has always harbored a secret crush – he does his best to get in the way.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 90 mins.

Flawless (1999)

An ultraconservative security guard suffers a debilitating stroke and is assigned to a rehabilitative program that includes singing lessons, with the drag queen next door.
Rating: R
Runtime: 112 mins.

God’s Own Country (2017)

Spring. Yorkshire. Young farmer Johnny Saxby numbs his daily frustrations with binge drinking and casual sex, until the arrival of a Romanian migrant worker for lambing season ignites an intense relationship that sets Johnny on a new path.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 104 mins.

Go Fish (1994)

A romantic tale about finding a soulmate. The only difference here is that both partners are women…in Chicago’s lesbian community.
Rating: R
Runtime: 83 mins.

Greta (2019)

Pedro, a 70-year-old gay nurse, is taking care of Daniela, his ailing transgender friend. In order to find her a vacant hospital bed, he decides to help an arrested and wounded criminal to escape.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 97 mins.

Happy Together (1997)

A couple take a trip to Argentina but both men find their lives drifting apart in opposite directions.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 96 mins.
How to watch: Happy Together is streaming on HBO Max and Kanopy.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)

A gender-queer punk-rock singer from East Berlin tours the U.S. with her band as she tells her life story and follows the former lover/band-mate who stole her songs.
Rating: R
Runtime: 95 mins.
How to watch: Hedwig and the Angry Inch is available for rent or purchase on Amazon Prime Video and iTunes.

High Art (1998)

A young female intern at a small magazine company and a drug-addicted lesbian photographer slowly fall in love while exploiting each other to advance their respective careers.
Rating: R
Runtime: 101 mins.

How to Survive a Plague (2012)

The story of two coalitions — ACT UP and TAG (Treatment Action Group) — whose activism and innovation turned AIDS from a death sentence into a manageable condition.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 110 mins.
How to watch: How to Survive a Plague is available for rent or purchase on Amazon Prime Video.

If These Walls Could Talk 2 (2000)

Trio of stories about lesbian couples in three different decades.
Rating: R
Runtime: 96 mins.

Jump, Darling (2020)

A rookie drag queen, reeling from a break-up, escapes to the country, where he finds his grandmother in steep decline yet desperate to avoid the local nursing home.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 90 mins.

Keep the Lights On (2012)

In Manhattan, film-maker Erik bonds with closeted lawyer Paul after a fling. As their relationship becomes one fueled by highs, lows, and dysfunctional patterns, Erik struggles to negotiate his own boundaries while being true to himself.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 101 mins.

The Kids Are All Right (2010)

Two children conceived by artificial insemination bring their biological father into their non-traditional family life.
Rating: R
Runtime: 106 mins.

Looking for Langston (1989)

A black and white, fantasy-like recreation of high-society gay men during the Harlem Renaissance, with archival footage and photographs intercut with a story. A wake is going on, with mourners gathered around a coffin. Downstairs is an elegant bar where tuxedoed men dance and talk. One of them has a dream in which he comes upon Beauty, who seems to reject him, although when he awakes, Beauty is sleeping beside him. His story and his visits to the jazz and dance club are framed by voices reading from the poetry and essays of Hughes and others. The text is rarely explicit, but the freedom of gay Black men in the 1920s in Harlem is suggested and celebrated visually.
Rating: R
Runtime: 45 mins.

Love Is Not Perfect (2012)

Elena is a beautiful, 35-year-old accomplished woman who has an unhealthy obsession with perfection. Elena’s well-ordered life is thrown into chaos, however, when she meets Adriana, an 18-year-old seductive young woman who offers passion and excitement, and Hector, an older man who offers Elena stability and security. Elena quickly realizes though that Adriana is too immature and too young for her, so she tries to end their romance, but for Adriana the rejection is just another game to play.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 92 mins.

Love, Simon (2018)

Simon Spier keeps a huge secret from his family, his friends, and all of his classmates: he’s gay. When that secret is threatened, Simon must face everyone and come to terms with his identity.
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 110 mins.
How to watch: Love, Simon is available for rent or purchase on Amazon Prime Video, iTunes, YouTube, and Google Play

Love! Valor! Compassion! (1997)

Gregory invites seven friends to spend the summer at his large, secluded 19th-century home in upstate New York. The seven are: Bobby, Gregory’s “significant other,” who is blind but who loves to explore the home’s garden using his sense of touch; Art and Perry, two “yuppies” who drive a Volvo and who celebrate their 14th anniversary together that summer; John, a dour expatriate Briton who loathes his twin brother James; Ramon, John’s “companion,” who is physically attracted to Bobby and immediately tries to seduce the blind man; James, a cheerful soul who is in the advanced stages of AIDS; and Buzz, a fan of traditional Broadway musicals who is dealing with his own HIV-positive status.
Rating: R
Runtime: 108 mins.

Madchen in Uniform (1931)

At an all-girls boarding school, Manuela falls in love with a teacher, to terrific consequences.
Rating: Passed
Runtime: 87 mins.

Moonlight (2016)

A young African-American man grapples with his identity and sexuality while experiencing the everyday struggles of childhood, adolescence, and burgeoning adulthood.
Rating: R
Runtime: 111 mins.
How to watch: Moonlight is streaming on Showtime and Kanopy, and available for rent or purchase on Amazon Prime Video and iTunes.

My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)

An ambitious Pakistani Briton and his white boyfriend strive for success and hope when they open a glamorous laundromat.
Rating: R
Runtime: 97 mins.
How to watch: My Beautiful Laundrette is available on Pluto TV.

My Days of Mercy (2017)

The daughter of a man on death row falls in love with a woman on the opposing side of her family’s political cause.
Rating: R
Runtime: 98 mins.

My First Summer (2020)

Isolated Claudia hides away on a remote property after her mother’s death. Shocked when spirited local teen Grace appears in her garden, the pair find support and love in each other.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 80 mins.

My Own Private Idaho (1991)

Two best friends living on the streets of Portland as hustlers embark on a journey of self discovery and find their relationship stumbling along the way.
Rating: R
Runtime: 104 mins.

Mysterious Skin (2004)

A teenage hustler and a young man obsessed with alien abductions cross paths, together discovering a horrible, liberating truth.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 105 mins.

Nighthawks (1978)

A homosexual man is forced to hide his sexuality by day while living his secret life by night.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 113 mins.

Nimby (2020)

Mervi and Kata, a lesbian couple living in Helsinki, are considering coming out of closet. They soon realize that they are not the only ones with secrets.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 94 mins.

Nitrate Kisses (1992)

Visually structured around four couples making love, one couple at a time; narratively structured around four chapters in lesbian life: older women talking about what it was like in the 30s, 40s and 50s; a look at the hidden eroticism of movies; the repression of gays under the Third Reich; and, the work of the Lesbian Herstory Archives in New York City. The narrative voices and the couples making love share the film with photographs, movie outtakes, newsreel archives, and individuals relating events in their lives. The film calls lesbians to tell their stories; it also dramatizes the importance of telling the story of the loss of stories.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 67 mins.

The Normal Heart (2014)

A gay activist attempts to raise H.I.V. and A.I.D.S. awareness during the early 1980s.
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 132 mins.

The Novice (2021)

A college freshman joins her university’s rowing team and undertakes an obsessive physical and psychological journey to make it to the top varsity boat, no matter the cost.
Rating: R
Runtime: 97 mins.

O Fantasma (2000)

Young and handsome Sergio works the night shift as a trash collector in Lisbon, Portugal. He can’t force himself to connect with his pretty female co-worker Fatima, who displays an avid interest in him, so instead Sergio roams the city with the trash company’s pet dog. Eventually Sergio becomes fascinated with a sleek motorcycle, and then also its owner, João – a young man totally indifferent to Sergio. The frustrated trash collector’s surfacing sexual desires unleash his darkest impulses, sending him down a dangerous path of violence, depravity and degradation.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 87 mins.

Orlando (1992)

After Queen Elizabeth I commands him not to grow old, a young nobleman struggles with love and his place in the world.
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 94 mins.

Pain and Glory (2019)

A film director reflects on the choices he’s made in life as the past and present come crashing down around him.
Rating: R
Runtime: 103 mins.

Pariah (2011)

A Brooklyn teenager juggles conflicting identities and risks friendship, heartbreak, and family in a desperate search for sexual expression.
Rating: R
Runtime: 86 mins.

Paris Is Burning (1990)

A chronicle of New York’s drag scene in the 1980s, focusing on balls, voguing and the ambitions and dreams of those who gave the era its warmth and vitality.
Rating: R
Runtime: 71 mins.
How to watch: Paris Is Burning is now streaming on the Criterion Channel and available for rent or purchase on iTunes.

Parting Glances (1986)

As Michael and Robert, a gay couple in New York, prepare for Robert’s departure for a two-year work assignment in Africa, Michael must face Robert’s true motives for leaving while dealing with their circle of eccentric friends, including Nick, who is living with AIDS.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 90 mins.

Pink Flamingos (1972)

Notorious Baltimore criminal and underground figure Divine goes up against a sleazy married couple who make a passionate attempt to humiliate her and seize her tabloid-given title as “The Filthiest Person Alive”.
Rating: NC-17
Runtime: 93 mins.

Pixote (1980)

The life of a boy on the streets of Sao Paulo, involved with crimes, prostitution, and drugs.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 128 mins.

Poison (1991)

A boy shoots his father and flies out the window. A man falls in love with a fellow inmate in prison. A doctor accidentally ingests his experimental sex serum, wreaking havoc on the community.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 85 mins.

Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)

On an isolated island in Brittany at the end of the eighteenth century, a female painter is obliged to paint a wedding portrait of a young woman.
Rating: R
Runtime: 122 mins.

Pride (2014)

U.K. gay activists work to help miners during their lengthy strike of the National Union of Mineworkers in the summer of 1984.
Rating: R
Runtime: 119 mins.

The Queen (1968)

The behind the scenes of a national drag queen contest in New York City, including the rehearsals leading up to the contest, the conversations in the dressing room and the jealousies that emerge before and after the competition.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 68 mins.

Querelle (1982)

A handsome sailor is drawn into a vortex of sibling rivalry, murder, and explosive sexuality.
Rating: R
Runtime: 108 mins.

Rift (2017)

Two men in a secluded cabin are haunted by their dead relationship.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 111 mins.

How to watch: Rift is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

Room in Rome (2010)

A hotel room in the center of Rome serves as the setting for two young and recently acquainted women to have a physical adventure that touches their very souls.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 107 mins.

Saving Face (2004)

A gay Chinese-American and her traditionalist mother are reluctant to go public with secret loves that clash against cultural expectations.
Rating: R
Runtime: 91 mins.

The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister (2010)

A look at the life of 19th century Yorkshire landowner Anne Lister (1791-1840), who lived openly as a lesbian and kept diaries chronicling the details of her daily life.
Rating: TV-14
Runtime: 92 mins.

A Secret Love (2020)

Falling in love in 1947, two women — Pat Henschel and pro baseball player Terry Donahue — begin a 65-year journey of love and overcoming prejudice.
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 81 mins.

Shelter (2007)

When his college dreams are sidelined by family obligations, a young man finds comfort in surfing with his best friend’s brother.
Rating: R for language, some sexual content and brief drug use
Runtime: 97 mins.

Shiva Baby (2021)

At a Jewish funeral service with her parents, a college student runs into her sugar daddy and ex-girlfriend.
Rating: R
Runtime: 77 mins.
How to watch: Shiva Baby is now streaming on HBO Max.

Silverlake Life: The View From Here (1993)

A documentary about two gay men as they live through their last months of life with AIDS.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 99 mins.

Sinful (2020)

On the run after committing a horrific crime, newlywed couple Remy and Salem find themselves trapped in a mysterious house as a terrifying darkness closes in on them.
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 74 mins.

Strawberry and Chocolate (1993)

This Oscar-nominated film is the story of two men who are opposites: one gay, the other straight; one a fierce communist, the other a fierce individualist; one suspicious, the other accepting; and how they come to love each other.
Rating: R
Runtime: 108 mins.

The Summer of Sangaile (2015)

17 years old, Sangaile is fascinated by stunt planes. She meets a girl her age at a summer aeronautical show. Sangaile allows Auste to discover her most intimate secret and in the process finds the only person that truly encourages her to fly.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 90 mins.

Summertime (2015)

A young woman moves from the French countryside to Paris and begins a passionate love affair with a feminist leader in this drama set in 1970s France.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 105 mins.

Swan Song (2021)

A formerly flamboyant hairdresser takes a long walk across a small town to style a dead woman’s hair.
Rating: R
Runtime: 105 mins.
How to watch: Swan Song is now streaming on Hulu.

The Swimmer (2021)

Sees the discriminative tendencies in sports against LGBTQ people, and how a sportsman learns to accept and love himself despite that.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 83 mins.

Tahara (2020)

A queer, coming-of-age drama set in Rochester, NY about an anxious teen girl who is manipulated into a romantic encounter with her best friend during the funeral service of their former Hebrew school classmate.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 78 mins.

Tangerine (2015)

A hooker tears through Tinseltown on Christmas Eve searching for the pimp who broke her heart.
Rating: R
Runtime: 88 mins.

Taxi Zum Klo (1980)

Frank Ripploh is a rascal: he is a shaggy-haired, bearded teacher who is gay and has a very active sex life plus an interest in making films. He keeps his personal life separate from his personal life, though sometimes he corrects student papers in public toilets as he waits to score. He cruises constantly. One evening, he meets Bernd and they become lovers. Bernd is attentive and caring, but Frank gets bored with him and continues his polymorphous perverse ways. How long will Bernd and Frank tolerate each other’s habits, and how long can Frank keep his sexual orientation outside of the classroom? Things “come to a head” (no pun intended) during Berlin’s annual Queen’s Ball and the morning after.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 98 mins.

Tell It To The Bees (2018)

In 1950s small-town Britain, a doctor develops a relationship with her young patient’s mother.
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 98 mins.

The Times of Harvey Milk (1984)

A documentary of the successful career and assassination of San Francisco’s first elected gay city supervisor.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 90 mins.

To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995)

Three drag queens travel cross-country until their car breaks down, leaving them stranded in a small town.
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 109 mins.

Tongues Untied (1989)

A documentary about the experiences of black homosexual men living in the United States of America.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 55 mins.
How to watch: Tongues Untied is streaming on Kanopy.

Velvet Goldmine (1998)

In 1984, British journalist Arthur Stuart investigates the career of 1970s glam superstar Brian Slade, who was heavily influenced in his early years by hard-living and rebellious American singer Curt Wild.
Rating: R
Runtime: 118 mins.
How to watch: Velvet Goldmine is now streaming on Prime Video.

Water Lillies (2007)

After meeting at a local pool over their summer break, a love triangle forms between three adolescent girls, which proves difficult to sustain as they each desire the love of another.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 85 mins.

The Watermelon Woman (1996)

A young black lesbian filmmaker probes into the life of The Watermelon Woman, a 1930s black actress who played ‘mammy’ archetypes.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 90 mins.
How to watch: The Watermelon Woman is streaming on Showtime and is available for rent or purchase on iTunes.

The Way He Looks (2014)

Leonardo is a blind teenager searching for independence. His everyday life, the relationship with his best friend, Giovana, and the way he sees the world change completely with the arrival of Gabriel.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 96 mins.

Weekend (2011)

After a drunken house party with his straight mates, Russell heads out to a gay club. Just before closing time he picks up Glen but what’s expected to be just a one-night stand becomes something else, something special.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 97 mins.
How to watch: Weekend is streaming on the Criterion Channel and available for rent or purchase on Amazon Prime Video and iTunes.

When Night is Falling (1995)

An uptight and conservative woman, working on tenure as a literacy professor at a large urban university, finds herself strangely attracted to a free-spirited, liberal woman who works at a local carnival that comes to town.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 94 mins.

Wig (2019)

Wigstock was an annual drag festival that glamorously signaled the end of summer for the gay community in New York City for almost 20 years. Late one night in 1984, Lady Bunny and a few friends drunkenly wandered from the Pyramid Club in the East Village to Tompkins Square Park and staged an impromptu drag show in the bandshell. This would soon become an annual drag bacchanal that lasted up until 2001. And now, Lady Bunny has brought it back. This past summer, the festival returned, bringing together legendary queens with some of the new children of drag, into one of the largest drag performances ever staged. Wig explores the origins and the influence of the historic festival through rich archival footage, as well as provides a look into the contemporary drag movement that the festival served as a foundation for. Wig is a celebration of New York drag culture, and those personalities and performances that contribute to the ways we understand queerness, art, and identity today.
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 91 mins.
How to watch: Wig is available to stream on HBO Max.

With Every Heartbeat (2011)

A young woman engaged to be married finds herself in an affair with her soon-to-be stepmother’s lesbian daughter.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 95 mins.

The World Unseen (2007)

A drama centered on two women who engage in a dangerous relationship during South Africa’s apartheid era.
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 93 mins.

Word Is Out (1977)

26 diverse lesbian and gay people are interviewed about their lives and the challenges they experience in a homophobic culture. A groundbreaking documentary is now an artefact of a different time.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 124 mins.

The World To Come (2020)

Somewhere along the mid-19th century American East Coast frontier, two neighboring couples battle hardship and isolation, witnessed by a splendid yet testing landscape, challenging them both physically and psychologically.
Rating: R
Runtime: 95 mins.

XXY (2007)

The story of an intersex 15-year-old. She lives with her parents, who have to cope with the challenges of her medical condition.
Rating: NR
Runtime: 86 mins.

Yossi & Jagger (2002)

Romance blooms between two soldiers (Knoller, Levi) stationed in an Israeli outpost on the Lebanese border.
Rating: R
Runtime: 65 mins.

Did we miss any of our favorite LGBTQIA+ movies? Leave a comment below!