The 50 Best LGBT Movies Ever Made
Here are the best movies that depict the queer experience in all its complexities
Movies teach us how to be. We learn morals, ethical lessons, how to interact with others, how to fall in and out of love. And we learn from movies how to view others—and how to view ourselves.
This has been truly evident in how film has depicted queer characters from its earliest days as visual medium. We have seen people like us reduced to stereotypes—sometimes based in truth, sometimes played by queer performers eager to find work and express their own identities in front of a camera, for better or for worse. Film has also depicted queer people as villains, victims, heroes, and outcasts. More often than not, films about the LGBT community are made not for those of us within it, but rather viewers who consider themselves a part of the straight world. Film teaches us about empathy, about understanding difference. Many films featuring queer characters have succeeded at that mission, while many others have failed.
As with any other marginalised group, it's tricky to make a movie about the queer community—even if the filmmakers responsible are members of the tribe. There's a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't nature to the audience's response. Are these characters trying to assimilate into the straight world? Are they too queer? Do they represent the vastly intricate inner lives that make up the LGBT community? Most likely they don't—just as any other straight character in film cannot possibly stand as an Everyman or Everywoman, representing the entire human experience.
Here, in honor of LGBT Pride Month, we rank the 50 best feature films about queer people. These are films that took major risks and attempted to depict the queer experience in a variety of ways. This is a collection of movies that, at the very least, express to its viewers that—no matter what end of sexual or gender spectrum in which they feel most comfortable—they are not alone.
50. The Hunger (1983)
Directed by: Tony Scott
Catherine Deneuve plays a vampire who grows tired of her companion, played by David Bowie, when he slowly begins to age and die. Ditching Bowie seems like an unlikely scenario—that is until you realize that her replacement for him is the equally sexy Susan Sarandon.
49. Cruising (1990)
Directed by: William Friedkin
Al Pacino goes undercover into the dark underbelly of New York's gay S&M scene to track a serial killer preying on gay men. It's problematic for sure, but it's become a cult classic for its unapologetic depiction of gay sexuality before the AIDS epidemic.
48. The Opposite of Sex (1998)
Directed by: Don Roos
Roos's biting comedy skewered all notions of late-'90s political correctness, with Christina Ricci playing a foul-mouthed pregnant runaway who seeks refuge with her older half-brother—only to run off with his boyfriend. A cross-country chase ensues, with an acerbic and bitter Lisa Kudrow along for the ride.
47. Viva (2015)
Directed by: Paddy Breathnach
The life of Cuba's "transformistas" is captured beautifully in this father-son story about a boy who wants to perform drag and his father, newly released from prison and unable to accept who his son is. Shot beautifully, with great music and a close look at Havana in all its run-down and colorful glory.
46. Desert Hearts (1985)
Directed by: Donna Deitch
The quintessential '80s lesbian romantic drama, Desert Hearts follows an English professor and a young sculptor as they fall in love at a Nevada ranch in the 1950s. Unique for its time, it sets its romance in a warm, affirming environment and lets its leads enjoy their relationship without angst or fear of death.
45. GBF (2013)
Directed by: Darren Stein
Everyone deserves a silly teen comedy—even gay teens! Darren Stein's charming comedy follows a high school boy who becomes the most popular kid in school once he's outed, with the queen bees all scrambling to claim him as their Gay Best Friend.
44. Weekend (2011)
Directed by: Andrew Haigh
An honest, unglamorous depiction of queer courtship. Russell and Glen hook up for a one-night stand that stretches through the weekend. Weekend captures the uneasy thrill of learning to trust someone new in a cold world, and the challenge of living an authentic life.
43. Happy Together (1997)
Directed by: Wong Kar-wai
Wong Kar-wai won Best Director at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival for this film about two Hong Kong men who emigrate to Buenos Aires, after the handover of Hong Kong to China put LGBT lives in jeopardy.
42. Keep the Lights On (2012)
Directed by: Ira Sachs
Ira Sachs's autobiographical drama packs a hard punch as it follows a filmmaker, Erick, throughout his relationship with a young lawyer, Paul, which begins as a random sexual encounter and implodes following Paul's drug and sex addiction.
41. The Watermelon Woman (1996)
Directed by: Cheryl Dunye
Dunye directs and stars in this microbudget indie about an African-American lesbian searching for an uncredited black actress from a 1930s film. Along the way, she falls in and out of love, and meets the real Camille Paglia.
40. The Kids Are Alright (2010)
Directed by: Lisa Cholodenko
Julianne Moore and Annette Bening play lesbian mothers to two teenagers whose blissful modern family is rocked when their kids seek out their sperm-doner father played by Mark Ruffalo. The family unit falls into crisis when his sudden appearance into their lives causes a rift between the two women as well as their kids.
39. The Children's Hour (1961)
Directed by: William Wyler
Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine play headmistresses at a school for girls who are accused by a student of being in a lesbian relationship. While the accusation is false, it nearly ruins the women's standing in their community and threatens their friendship—and forces one of them to reevaluate her own identity.
38. Personal Best (1982)
Directed by: Robert Towne
Starring Mariel Hemingway and a raft of real-life track and field stars, Personal Best follows a young bisexual pentathlete vying for a spot on the U.S. Olympic Team and exploring a relationship with her lesbian coach—played by Olympic hurdler Patrice Donnelly.
37. Ma vie en Rose (1997)
Directed by: Alain Berliner
This Belgian film about a seven-year-old trans girl and her bewildered family was rated R by the MPAA in 1997, though it contains little in the way of language, sex, or violence. What it does bring is a rare, tender look at trans issues from the perspective of a child.
36. My Own Private Idaho (1991)
Directed by: Gus Van Sant
Gus Van Sant's loose Shakespearean adaptation brought the New Queer Cinema movement into the mainstream, with River Phoenix as a young, narcoleptic hustler and Keanu Reeves as his best friend and unrequited love interest.
35. Maurice (1987)
Directed by: James Ivory
"Don't you know I would have gone through life half-awake if you'd had the decency to leave me alone?" All the lushness of a Merchant Ivory production, with gay men at its center. Even if this weren't a beautiful, affecting film, Hugh Grant's hair alone would earn it a spot on this list.
34. Heavenly Creatures (1994)
Directed by: Peter Jackson
Peter Jackson was journeying through fantasy worlds long before Lord of the RIngs—albeit one conjured up by two very real New Zealand school girls (played by then-newcomers Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey) who escape their own realities through their imaginations. But their connection turns intense and dangerous when they conspire to commit murder in one of the most notorious true crime stories of all time.
33. Go Fish (1994)
Directed by: Rose Troche
An antidote to the "soft-focus" lesbian movies of yore, Go Fish is urban, black-and-white, and shot on a shoestring budget. Starring co-writer Guinevere Turner and directed by Rose Troche, Go Fish was the lesbian film of the '90s indie-movie boom.
32. Making Love (1982)
Directed by: Arthur Hiller
The first wide-release studio film with a homosexual relationship at its center (and for decades, the last). Making Love follows Michael Ontkean's Zack, who is married to Claire (Kate Jackson) but exploring his homosexuality with Harry Hamlin's Bart. It's not a perfect film, but it took a giant risk, and gives us a rare snapshot of Los Angeles' gay life in the moment just before AIDS.
31. The Wedding Banquet (1993)
Directed by: Ang Lee
Long before his groundbreaking Brokeback Mountain, Ang Lee directed this sweet, comic tale about a Taiwanese immigrant living in New York with his partner. When he offers to marry a Chinese woman so she can obtain a green card, the marriage of convenience spirals out of control when his parents find out and throw a lavish wedding party.
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