It’s officially Pride Month, which not only means a boatload of corporations will be brandishing rainbow flags, but that also a suite of important and impactful movies will join our watchlist.
Film has long been an essential medium for the portrayal of LGBTQIA+ stories, highlighting everything from the tragedies to the hilarious messiness that comes with being queer. We’ve come a long way in terms of this representation (heck, Neil Patrick Harris played the straightest character TV had ever seen on How I Met Your Mother), which is reason enough to celebrate.
In honor of Pride Month, we’re sorting through the best LGBTQIA+ movies to watch alongside your chosen family. Dig in, divas!
10. Fire Island (2022)
While it didn’t have much to say in terms of groundbreaking queer messages, Fire Island is worthy of a place on this list for sheer hilarity alone. The Joel Kim Booster-starring comedy follows a group of queer friends as they embark on a trip to the gay mecca that is Fire Island music festival. Naturally, a whole heap of debauchery queer in-jokes ensue. It’s a nice reminder that not all gay movies must end in death and tragedy.
9. Bottoms (2023)
Following along the comedy line, 2023’s Bottoms was the sleeper hit that took gay audiences by storm, starring Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri as a pair of high-schoolers who begin a fight club to lose their virginity. The Superbad-adjacent film adds a queer flair to all the loveable tropes of the high-school comedy, and Sennott’s sheer charisma is unmissable.
8. The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert (1994)
What happens when a bus full of drag queens and a transgender woman take their cabaret show to the remote ends of Australia? You not only get enough dazzling costumes to be the envy of anyone’s closet, but you also get the iconic film The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert. The Australian film was groundbreaking for its early portrayal of drag culture, and news recently broke that there’s a sequel in the works, which is all the more reason to get caught up now.
7. All of Us Strangers (2023)
Perhaps the saddest entry on this list, All of Us Strangers brings the waterworks with the quiet story of two neighbors whose chance encounter punctures the rhythm of their lives. We can’t go on without giving too much away, but did we mention that it co-stars the internet’s daddy Paul Mescal and hot priest Andrew Scott?
6. The Favourite (2018)
While his subsequent films have become even more outlandish, Yorgos Lanthimos had a bucketload of fun with The Favourite, the 2018 black comedy starring Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz and Olivia Coleman. The sapphic love triangle that underpins the entire plot is truly sumptuous, and it earned Coleman her first-ever Oscar.
5. Carol (2015)
Sapphic yearning? Check. Rooney Mara, Sarah Paulson, and Cate Blanchette in one of her best performances? Check. 2015’s Carol showcases a beautiful love story set in 1950s Manhattan, which is about as chic of a setting as you could ask for. Come for the dazzling costumes and set design, and stay for the tender reflection of the consequences that come with queer love.
4. Call Me By Your Name (2017)
Leave it to Luca Guadagnino — director of the bisexual parable Challengers and the upcoming Queer — to deliver one of the most candid and heartbreaking love stories in recent memory. With Call Me By Your Name, the director faithfully adapts the already heart-wrenching story of coming-of-age as a gay teenager, set against the backdrop of 1980s Italy. You’ll never look at a peach the same way.
3. Moonlight (2016)
An incisive look at the queer Black experience, Moonlight is a groundbreaking feat in storytelling and cinematography. It stars the scene-stealing Mahershala Ali as a young boy coming to terms with his sexuality on the streets of Miami, and it was more than worthy of its (albeit slightly delayed) Best Picture win in 2017.
2. Boys Don’t Cry (1999)
The real-life story of transgender man Brandon Teena is handled with utmost compassion in the 1999 biopic Boys Don’t Cry. Starring Oscar-winner Hilary Swank, the Kimberly Peirce-directed film opened hearts and minds to trans identities long before it had become a topic of conversation, laying bare the experiences of love, sensuality, and ultimate tragedy.
1. Brokeback Mountain (2006)
Brokeback Mountain remains the highest-grossing gay romance film of all time, and for good reason. The heart-wrenching tale of a pair of sheep-herders in 1960s Wyoming hasn’t lost an ounce of relevance in the decades since its release, featuring career-best performances by Jake Gyllanhall and the late Heath Ledger. Quotes like “I wish I knew how to quit you” are etched in the collective gay conscience, and there’s simply not enough Kleenex every time we rewatch.
