Best gay films
55 of the Leading LGBTQ Films of All Time
'Bottoms' (2023)
If ever there was a Superbad for queer girls, Bottoms is it. The second film from director Emma Seligman (Shiva Baby) follows two uncool elevated school seniors (Ayo Edebiri and Rachel Sennott) who launch up a university fight club to try and hang up with their cheerleader crushes (Kaia Gerber and Havana Rose Liu).
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'Bound' (1996)
In the Wachowskis’ landmark erotic thriller predating the Matrix trilogy, butch ex-con Corky (Gina Gershon) is the newly-hired handyperson at an apartment building when she meets her next-door neighbors: mobster Caesar (Joe Pantoliano) and kept woman Violet (Jennifer Tilly). As Corky and Violet strike up an affair, they hatch a plan to flee Violet’s abusive relationship—and steal $2 million of Caesar’s mafia money along the way.
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'Circus of Books' (2020)
Southern Californians will likely recognize Circus of Books as the famed porn shop and dirty bookstore that has presided over the gayborhood of West Hollywood since the first 1980s. For those who are not familiar—and even for those who are—this documentary,
The 30 Best LGBTQIA+ Films of All Time
In this first major critical survey of LGBTQIA+ films, over 100 production experts including critics, writers and programmers such as Joanna Hogg, Mark Cousins, Peter Strickland, Richard Dyer, Nick James and Laura Mulvey, as well as past and present BFI Flare programmers, own voted the Uppermost 30 LGBTQIA+ Films of All Period. The poll’s results represent 84 years of cinema and 12 countries, from countries including Thailand, Japan, Sweden and Spain, as adv as films that showed at BFI Flare such as Orlando (1992), Stunning Thing (1996), Weekend (2011) and Navy Is the Warmest Colour (2013).
The winner is Todd Haynes’ award-winning Carol, closely followed by Andrew Haigh’s Weekend, and Hong Kong intimate drama Happy Together, directed by Wong Kar-wai, in third place. While Carol is a surprisingly recent film to superior the poll, it’s a feature that has moved, delighted and enthralled audiences, and looks place to be a modern classic.
“The festival has long supported my work,” said Haynes, “from Poison and Dottie Gets Spanked in the preceding 1990s through to Carol which is screening on 35mm later this week in BFI Flare’s Best of Year programme. I’m so pr
The 50 Best LGBTQ+ Movies
50) The Living End (1992)
"Fuck The World." The motto of The Living End's protagonists might stand as a slogan for the whole of filmmaker Greg Araki's career. A key shitkicker in the early '90s Recent Queer Cinema movement, Araki took a baseball bat to hetero-normative culture and explored gay existence on the margins during Bush's administration in films by turns funny, frank and anguished. The Living End is his optimal picture, a so-called 'gay Thelma & Louise', as film critic Jon (Craig Gilmore) and drifter Luke (Mike Dytri), both diagnosed as HIV-positive ("the Neo-Nazi Republican final solution," says Jon about AIDS), kill a homophobic cop and go on the lam, offing any bigot who remain in their way. Rather than pity themselves, these characters unleash their nihilism on the planet, tempered by a kind of freewheeling anarchy and enhanced by Araki's eye-catching images and hop cuts. As the film's dedication puts it, it's a punch in the gut to "a Big White House full of Republican fuckheads".Buy on Amazon UK
49) Go Fish (1994)
Made in 1994 – the identical y
While Queer films have been in existence for the entirety of cinema (here’s a great article about some of the earliest examples at the Nerdist), there’s certainly been a notable—or perhaps, simply more highlighted—boom in LGBTQ+ storytelling in the 21st century as studios have change into more open to inclusivity in their stories.
Film has always, and will hopefully continue to be, a window for empathy for audiences who get to see aspects of existence, love, and community that isn’t accessible to them in their everyday lives. It’s what makes so many of the choices below not just fantastic films (and they are) but significant ones in their ability to actively champion diverse storytelling. For Pride but, really, for every other month too, we chose our 60 favorite LGBTQ+ films of the century so far, from musicals and mayhem to coming-of-age tales to a dialogue-free character examine. There is no one way to be a Queer film and to try and cram them all under an umbrella would be disingenuous—if anything, this list below is indicative of the wealth of Queer voices and storytelling available to us, and this is merely the tip of the iceberg.
Hedwig and the Angry Inch (20