For about as long as there’s been cinema, there’s been queer cinema. I don’t just mean queer subtext, of which there has always been plenty; I mean overtly queer characters as early as Zapatas Bande in 1914, Ich möchte kein Mann sein in 1918, and Anders als die Andern in 1919, all of which were German films made during the country’s Weimar period. There are early examples of films made in Hollywood, too, before the Hays Code was adopted in 1930, that featured LGBTQ+ characters or played with gender identity, albeit in some harmful ways.
We’ve come a long way since then; the past 15 years in particular have been a boon for queer cinema, so much so that there are as many bad movies as good ones. Which means there is space for experimentation and, often, failure for queer and trans cinema where there wasn’t before. And personally, if I’m going to watch a bad movie, I’d prefer it to be at least a little bit gay. But that’s not why we’ve gathered here. No, we are here to instead highlight some of the greatest movies in the canon of queer cinema that are available for you to stream at home. Whether you’re in search of a lesbian yearnfest, a meditative bi coming-of-age story, or a raunchy and surprisingly bloody comedy, we’ve got you covered, below.
Netflix
Carol (2015)
This tragic tale follows the impossible romance between a housewife (Cate Blanchett) and an aspiring photographer (Rooney Mara) in the 1950s. The moment their eyes meet one December day in a department store, they can’t keep away from each other. It’s the slowest of slow burns, but we get one exciting, intimate road trip before it all falls apart.
Stream on Tubi, Hulu, Paramount+, and Peacock.
Shiva Baby (2020)
This tension-packed comedy was an immediate cult favorite. Rachel Sennott plays Danielle, a 20-something who runs into both her ex-girlfriend and her current sugar daddy (plus said sugar daddy’s wife) at a shiva. It’s funny and ridiculous and stressful and, by the end, surprisingly sweet.
Rustin (2023)
This Obama-produced Netflix original is far from the best when ranked alongside the many retellings of the period leading up to the March on Washington in 1963. But as a star vehicle, as a character study, it absolutely excels. Colman Domingo plays Bayard Rustin, the activist who worked closely with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. but, because of his identity as a gay man, stayed mostly on the sidelines. Domingo is equally tender and hilarious, giving a performance that really elevates the script.
The Persian Version (2023)
This semi-autobiographical story centers on Leila, a filmmaker who, in the aftermath of a painful divorce from her wife, has a one-night-stand with an actor she meets at a party, resulting in pregnancy. As she embarks on her messy, chaotic dive into motherhood, she reexamines her perceptions of her own mother. It’s funny, heartfelt, and fast-paced.
Stream on Netflix.
Hulu
Moonlight (2016)
It’s no exaggeration to say that Moonlight significantly altered the landscape of not just queer film but film in general. It’s one of the greatest movies of the 2010s, telling the story of Chiron, a quiet and withdrawn boy growing up in Miami, in three parts. From the precise and careful pacing to the stunning cinematography and the story’s emotional wallop, it’s a perfect movie.
Stream on Tubi.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)
It’s another historical slow-burn forbidden romance (the trope is so common, SNL made a trailer satirizing it), this one set in 1770s France. You should still watch it, though, because the director, Céline Sciamma, understands that a sidelong glance or a not so accidental brush of the hand can be more erotic than actual sex — and that there’s nothing quite so erotic, or romantic, as being fully and completely seen by another.
Stream on Max.
Aftersun (2022)
This meditative coming-of-age story is told almost entirely in flashbacks that the protagonist, Sophie Patterson (played as a child by Frankie Corio and as an adult by Celia Rowlson-Hall), has of a vacation to Turkey she took with her dad (Paul Mescal) when she was 11 years old. It’s first and foremost a tender look at a difficult father-daughter relationship, but its perspective is visibly informed by Sophie’s queer identity.
Stream on Max.
Fire Island
This queer reimagining of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice was an instant rom-com classic for a reason. It’s silly as hell with flawless pacing and excellent comedic performances. It has just enough real sweetness and heart to bring a tear to your eye without feeling overly sappy. Its stacked ensemble cast has amazing collective chemistry. More than anything, it’s a reliably wonderful way to spend an hour and 45 minutes.
Monica (2023)
This slow, artful story about a trans woman returning home to care for her mother is for viewers with patience and an appreciation for subtlety.
Stream on Hulu.
Boys on the Side (1995)
Whoopi Goldberg, Mary-Louise Parker, and Drew Barrymore — in the car and on the run. What more do you need?
Stream on Hulu.
Blue Jean (2022)
This one’s what we call a tearjerker, folks. Set in the U.K. in 1988, when the infamous Section 28 law prohibiting the “promotion of homosexuality” was about to be passed, it follows a very sad and very closeted gym teacher who tries to protect a lesbian student without exposing either of them.
Stream on Hulu.
Max
Persona (1967)
Ingmar Bergman’s Persona manages to convey abstraction and the feeling of a dreamlike stupor with a total clarity of storytelling. It centers on an actress, Elizabeth (Liv Ullmann), who stopped talking while performing onstage one night and hasn’t spoken since. She spends an intimate summer alone with Nurse Alma (Bibi Andersson) at her isolated home, and the two develop an intense relationship that is sometimes erotic, often disturbing.
I Saw the TV Glow (2024)
This film makes powerful use of ’90s suburban aesthetics to create a thoroughly dark universe that feels as suffocating yet inescapable to the viewer as it does to the protagonist, Owen (Justice Smith). He’s a quiet, glum child whose mother seems to be his only real source of warmth or affection — until he meets Maddy (Jack Haven). The two connect over a Buffy-esque television show called The Pink Opaque, from which they both find a riveting source of solace. What follows should be kept a surprise, but just keep in mind that the writer and director, Jane Schoenbrun, has said they wrote it about two months into their gender transition.
Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985)
Following the relationship between cellmates in a Brazilian prison, this Oscar-nominated film made waves when it was first released in the 1980s.
Stream on Max.
Unpregnant (2020)
When popular good-girl Veronica (Hailey Lu Richardson) finds out she’s pregnant, she goes to the only person who can help her travel to Albuquerque for an abortion: her former best friend Bailey (Barbie Ferreira), a lesbian outcast who happens to own a car. The result mostly avoids road-trip-movie clichés for a fun and ultimately heartfelt time.
Stream on Max.
Am I OK? (2024)
After best friends Lucy (Dakota Johnson) and Jane (Sonoya Mizuno) have a falling-out, they each go on a journey of independent self-discovery — and for Lucy, that means figuring out she just might be a lesbian.
Stream on Max.
Criterion Channel
Tongues Untied (1989)
This experimental film blends poetry, reporting, and erotic imagery to create a love letter by and for the Black gay man. Its elegant, dreamlike storytelling left a lasting impression on queer culture — and remains timelessly relevant.
The Watermelon Woman (1996)
Part mockumentary, part comedy, part romance, it all comes together into an absolutely original film. The Watermelon Woman follows Cheryl, a fictionalized version of writer-director-editor Cheryl Dunye, on her quest to learn about the life and identity of an actress she sees in a 1930s film called Plantation Memories who is credited only as “Watermelon Woman.” The parallels between Cheryl’s personal life and her research are clever and impactful without being too on the nose, and her deliciously incisive critique of the white liberal branch of feminist academia makes use of cameos from Sarah Schulman and, in a real jump scare, Camille Paglia.
Nowhere (1997)
A cult favorite for its stylized aesthetic and encapsulation of a generation, Gregg Araki’s incredibly dark comedy applies Lynchian surrealism to a gory, oversaturated Beverly Hills, 90210–esque universe. Almost every Pornhub search term imaginable can be found here, including “alien monsters.”
Saving Face (2004)
This rom-com by Alice Wu deals with cultural clashes among multiple generations of a Chinese American family. Wilhelmina “Wil” Pang (Michelle Krusiec) is a young, talented surgery on track to become chief of surgery at her hospital. Her widowed 48-year-old mother, Hwei-Lan Gao (Joan Chen), is obsessed with getting her married to a man, despite knowing she’s a lesbian. But when Hwei-Lan becomes pregnant out of wedlock, she is kicked out by her parents, Wil’s grandparents, and moves in with her daughter. At the same time, Wil is being romanced by her boss’s daughter, Vivian Shing (Lynn Chen), a free-spirited dancer. Eventually, they each have to come to terms with the ways their loved ones deviate from their traditional ideals, and the process of getting there is silly, emotional, and ultimately charming.
Stream on Pluto TV.
Mubi
Passages (2023)
Chaotic bisexual representation!!! Don’t watch this movie expecting a responsible depiction of polyamory. Really, it’s a movie about how one extremely messy man’s insatiable attractions and total inability to communicate result in his deeply hurting the people he loves. Everyone involved has impeccable style, and yes, of course they all live in Paris.
Crossing (2024)
This drama from Georgian Swedish director Levan Akin centers on Lia, a retired teacher who heads to Istanbul to search for her long-lost transgender niece in the company of a charismatic teenage boy trying to escape from his own family troubles by acting as her translator. It’s an emotional and stunningly beautiful watch.
MGM+
Bottoms (2023)
Sometimes we just need a bit of good old-fashioned horsing around, and that’s exactly what this very silly movie delivers. Come for the lesbian fight club, stay for the gratuitously bloody conclusion.
Disney+
The Favourite (2018)
Shout-out to Yorgos Lanthimos for giving us everything we didn’t know we so desperately needed: an absurdist depiction of 18th-century England starring Olivia Colman as a gay Queen Anne that confronts the anxieties of womanhood while remaining just a bit silly the whole time.
Apple TV+
Pariah (2011)
It’s a family drama, a romance, a coming of age. Alike (Adepero Oduye) is a teenage poet in Brooklyn who’s still coming to terms with her sexuality as she begins dating women. Her parents, meanwhile, refuse to fully see her, and their already troubled marriage strains under the weight of that avoidance. Amid the strife, there are moments of goofy levity, and the story is told with unwaveringly gorgeous cinematography.
Tubi
But I’m a Cheerleader (1999)
But I’m a Cheerleader points out the obvious in a stylized and extremely goofy way: Gay conversion camp is a great place to meet other horny gay people. It satirizes harmful cis-heteronormative ideas about gender and sexuality, hilariously taking them to the color-coded extreme. Still, at its core is a sweet enemies-to-lovers teen romance that prioritizes self-acceptance, with Natasha Lyonne as naïve, endearingly clueless femme lesbian Megan and Clea DuVall as Graham, her hot, greasy-haired crush.
Other
The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love (1995)
This sweet love story is as much a coming-of-age film as it is a tender sapphic romance. It’s an endearing, enduring love letter to the high-school sweetheart, that first love you’ll always remember.
Stream on Amazon Prime Video via Strand Releasing.
Mutt (2023)
This character study covers a single day in the life of Feña (Lío Mehiel), a trans man who manages to encounter an ex, his sister, and his dad in the span of 24 hours. The setting, New York City, is as much a character as Feña, and its frenetic pace underscores the movie’s emotional impact.
Stream on Amazon Prime Video via Strand Releasing.