What LGBTQ+ audiences should see at the TCM Classic Film Festival
04/24/25
trudestress
What to see if you're at the TCM Classic Film Festival
Grauman's TCL Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles, California
Sergii Figurnyi/Shutterstock
The TCM Classic Film Festival, held every spring in Los Angeles, is movie fan heaven. The festival takes over multiple theaters — this year, the TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX, the adjacent Chinese Multiplex, and the Egyptian Theatre — to show films from the silent era to the 21st century, often with stars, directors, or film experts talking about them. “I think that every single year the programming is unique, in that we rarely show films more than once at the festival, even 15-16 years later,” Genevieve McGillicuddy, director of the festival, tells The Advocate. This year's fest has a few returnees, among them Sunset Boulevard, for the wonderful people out there in the dark, plus many first-time offerings. The festival also includes panel discussions and other events at Club TCM in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. As with most of the TCM fests, this year there are some films that are clearly LGBTQ+, some LGBTQ-adjacent, and some simply LGBTQ-beloved, such as musicals or movies featuring great divas like Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, and Barbara Stanwyck. Among the other 2025 festival features are a salute to Michael Schultz, "probably the longest-working African American director in film," McGillicuddy says. He'll appear at screenings of his films Car Wash and The Last Dragon, and in conversation in Club TCM. "He really was groundbreaking in a lot of different ways," McGillicuddy adds, and he's still working today. Plus the Robert Osborne Award, named for TCM's well-loved, late original host, will be presented to George Stevens Jr., a writer, director, producer, playwright, author, and champion of American film. And the opening night gala screening will be of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, with director George Lucas in the house.
The festival opens Thursday and runs through Sunday. People who've bought a pass for the whole fest are seated first, but tickets to individual films (except for the opening night gala screening) are available to others on a standby basis after passholders are admitted. And recognizing that most of those reading this won't be at the festival (but may be motivated to make it next year), we're providing where to stream, rent, or buy the films we recommend most for Advocate readers, plus you'll likely film them on TCM at some point. Scroll on to see our picks, and find the full list of fest offerings here.
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The Ritz
Rita Moreno and Treat Williams in The Ritz
Courtesy TCM Classic Film Festival
This hilarious film, adapted by Terrence McNally from his play, has Jack Weston as a straight man hiding in a gay bathhouse because mobsters are after him. Rita Moreno pretty much steals the show as bathhouse entertainer Googie Gomez, the world's worst cabaret artist, and hunky Treat Williams is on hand as an undercover detective with a voice that sounds like he's inhaled helium. With an introduction by Mario Cantone, the gay comic and perennial festival favorite. McGillicuddy predicts the screening will be a highlight of the fest and says the movie should definitely be seen with an audience. Sunday, 5:45 p.m., Chinese Multiplex House 1.
Available on Prime Video and DVD.
The Birdcage (1996)
From left: Robin Williams and Narhan Lane inThe Birdcage
Courtesy TCM Classic Film Festival
This was a late addition to the festival schedule, according to Genevieve McGillicuddy, director of the festival, in honor of the late Gene Hackman, who plays a conservative senator whose son is engaged to the son of a gay couple — the owner of a drag club (the great Robin Williams) and the club's star (the likewise great Nathan Lane). Hilarity ensues as Williams's and Lane's characters try to pass as a straight couple, and when the truth comes out, so to speak, the right-wing senator learns a lesson and embraces a new side of himself. "I think it definitely showcases Gene Hackman's comedic talents which he didn't get to do very often," McGillicuddy says. Mike Nichols directed this adaptation of the 1978 French film La Cage aux Folles, which was also the basis of a beloved Broadway musical. Saturday, 6:15 p.m., Chinese Multiplex House 1. Film critic and former Advocate editor Alonso Duralde will speak. He's the author of several books, including 2024's Hollywood Pride: A Celebration of LGBTQ+ Representation and Perseverance in Film.And the audience will undoubtedly join in when Williams shouts "Fosse, Fosse, Fosse! Twyla, Twyla, Twyla! Madonna, Madonna, Madonna!"
Available on Hulu and Prime Video.
All That Jazz (1979)
Roy Scheider inAll That Jazz
Courtesy TCM Classic Film Festival
In this film from the great director-choreographer Bob Fosse, Roy Scheider stars as Joe Gideon, a director-choreographer based on, well, Bob Fosse. Gideon is confronting his mortality and the people he’s wronged. Leland Palmer plays his ex-wife, based on Gwen Verdon, and Ann Reinking portrays one of Gideon’s loves, a character based on herself. Jessica Lange is the Angel of Death, and Ben Vereen, who’ll be at the screening, portrays a talk-show host who provides acerbic commentary on Gideon. Yes, Gideon, like Fosse, is completely heterosexual, but the very sexy number “Airotica” features both opposite-sex and same-sex pairings. And who doesn’t love a musical about a tortured artist? Friday, 9:45 p.m., Egyptian Theatre.
Streaming on Tubi and available on DVD and Blu-ray.
Blithe Spirit (1945)
Kay Hammond, Rex Harrison, and Constance Cummings in Blithe Spirit
Courtesy TCM Classic Film Festival
Blithe Spirit was one of the great (and gay) playwright and multihyphenate Noël Coward's biggest successes. He gave the film rights to director David Lean, and the comedy proved as popular on the screen as on the stage. Rex Harrison stars as proper Englishman Charles Condomine (a double entendre?), whose life with his second wife, Ruth (Constance Cummings), is disrupted by the appearance of the ghost of his first wife, Elvira (Kay Hammond). Margaret Rutherford adds to the hilarity as Madame Arcati, a medium recruited by Charles to get rise of Elvira, and Coward narrates. The film's print is one of several made available to the festival by the British Film Institute. Christine Ebersole, who played Elvira in the 2009 Broadway revival that starred Angela Lansbury as Madame Arcati, will be on hand for the screening. Thursday, 9:30 p.m., Chinese Multiplex House 4. By the way, House 4, which is small, is notorious among festivalgoers for filling up quickly, so get in line early.
Available to stream on Max, AMC+, Prime Video, and more.
Morocco (1930)
Gary Cooper and Marlene Dietrich inMorocco
Courtesy TCM Classic Film Festival
The iconic Marlene Dietrich is always worth watching, but especially in Morocco, her first American film, in which she dons a tuxedo and kisses a woman (a moment featured in The Celluloid Closet), and then romances Gary Cooper. Directed by fellow legendary German emigré Josef von Sternberg. Journalist Tara McNamara, an expert on pre-Code films and woman-driven storytelling, will speak at the screening. Saturday, 6:30 p.m., Chinese Multiplex House 4.
Available on DVD and Blu-ray.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
Tim Curry, Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon in The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Courtesy TCM Classic Fi,lm Festival
Everyone's favorite gender-bending midnight movie gets a midnight screening at the festival. Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon are Brad and Janet, a newly engaged couple who end up at the home of Dr. Frank-N-Furter (Tim Curry), a mad scientist and "sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania." Yes, the language is outdated, but the film and its songs — "Sweet Transvestite," "Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me," "Time Warp," and more — are still hilariously enjoyable. Bostwick will be at the screening, along with Larry Viezel, president of the film's fan club. It will also feature a performance by the Happy to Be Here Shadow Cast acting ensemble, who will do callouts of notable lines from the film and prod the audience for responses. In the spirit of many midnight screenings, viewers are encouraged but not required to wear costumes, and prop bags will be handed out, although no outside props will be allowed. Friday, 12 midnight, Chinese Multiplex House 1.
Available on Prime Video, DVD, and Blu-ray.
Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)
Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Clift, and Kataharine Hepburn inSuddenly, Last Summer
Courtesy TCM Classic Film Festival
There's plenty of gay talent behind this film — Gore Vidal adapted Tennessee Williams's play — and it stars three actors who can justifiably be called icons. Beautiful, supertalented, and bisexual actor Montgomery Clift plays a doctor treating Catherine Holly (Elizabeth Taylor), who's had a breakdown after witnessing the brutal murder of her cousin Sebastian on a European vacation. Mrs. Venable (Katharine Hepburn), Catherine's aunt and Sebastian's mother, wants Catherine lobotomized so she can't reveal the unsavory truth about Sebastian. Filmmaker Nick Davis will speak; he's the grandson of screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz, great-nephew of writer-director-producer Joseph Mankiewicz, and cousin of TCM host Ben Mankiewicz. Thursday, 9 p.m., Chinese Multiplex House 6.
Available on Prime Video, DVD, and Blu-ray.
To see more Hepburn at the festival, catch Pat and Mike with her as an athlete managed by Spencer Tracy, and Bringing Up Baby, the great screwball comedy in which Cary Grant announces, "I just went gay all of a sudden!"
Mildred Pierce (1945)
Joan Crawford and Ann Blyth in Mildred Pierce
Courtesy TCM Classic Film Festival
Joan Crawford won a well-deserved Oscar for her title role in Mildred Pierce, the story of a divorced woman building a successful business and trying to please the most ungrateful daughter of all time, Veda (Ann Blyth). The script strays a bit from James M. Cain's novel of the same name — the 2011 Todd Haynes-directed miniseries starring Kate Winslet was a more faithful adaptation — but the 1945 film is a classic of the cinema just the same. The able supporting cast includes Zachary Scott, Bruce Bennett, Butterfly McQueen, Jack Carson, and the great Eve Arden as Mildred's sharp-tongued right-hand woman: "Veda's convinced me that alligators have the right idea. They eat their young." Mario Cantone will undoubtedly be hilarious and insightful in introducing the film, another provided by the BFI. Saturday, 2:15 p.m., Egyptian Theatre. Another Joan Crawford melodrama will screen at the fest as well, Daisy Kenyon, Saturday, 9 a.m., at the Egyptian.
Available on Prime Video, DVD, and Blu-ray.
The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989)
Beau Bridges, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Jeff Bridges in The Fabulous Baker Boys
Courtesy TCM Classic Film Festival
Brothers Jeff and Beau Bridges and Michelle Pfeiffer are all fabulous in this tale of a singer who joins the Baker brothers' duo piano act and ends up disrupting their relationship. Pfeiffer won acclaim as singer Susie Diamond, among other things delivering a hugely sexy rendition of "Makin' Whoopee." There's lots more great music in the movie as well. Pfeiffer will be a guest at the screening and will put her handprints and footprints in cement at the Chinese Theatre beforehand. Handprint and footprint ceremony Friday, 10:30 a.m., in the Chinese forecourt; screening, 2:45 p.m. Friday, TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX.
Available on DVD and Blu-ray.
The Lady Eve (1941)
Henry Fonda and Barbara Stanwyck inThe Lady Eve
Courtesy TCM Classic Film Festival
Barbara Stanwyck, one of the greatest portrayers of strong women, is famed for dramas like Double Indemnity, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, and Sorry, Wrong Number, but she excelled at comedy as well. Her comic talent is on ample display in The Lady Eve, from the wonderful writer-director Preston Sturges. She portrays a cardsharp who's out to swindle a naive brewery heir (Henry Fonda) but ends up falling in love with him. Stany's beauty is on display too, in glamorous gowns by Edith Head. Comic Dana Gould will speak at the screening. Friday, 6:30 p.m., Chinese Multiplex House 1.
Available to stream on Prime Video; also on DVD and Blu-ray.
Now, Voyager (1942)
Paul Henreid and Bette Davis inNow, Voyager
Courtesy TCM Classic Film Festival
Bette Davis, an icon to LGBTQ+ audiences and everyone else, stars in this classy soap opera as a repressed and dowdy woman breaking free of her domineering mother (Gladys Cooper) and emerging independent and glamorous. She falls in love with unhappily married man Paul Henreid, who memorably lights two cigarettes at once for them. In support are Claude Rains as her therapist, Mary Wickes, Ilka Chase, and Lee Patrick. Last year's Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown, had Dylan and girlfriend Sylvie Russo seeing the film at a revival house. If you can't get enough Bette, the festival is also showing All This, and Heaven Too, and both will be introduced by Mario Cantone. Now, Voyager, Friday, 9 p.m., Chinese Multiplex House 1; All This, and Heaven Too, Sunday, 9 a.m., Chinese Multiplex House 4.
Now, Voyager is available to stream on Max and Prime Video and is on DVD and Blu-ray; All This, and Heaven Too is on Prime and DVD.
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
William Holden and Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard
Courtesy TCM Classic Film Festival
Gloria Swanson stars as the diva to end all divas, forgotten silent film star Norma Desmond, who's determined to make a comeback by enlisting the help of struggling screenwriter Joe Gillis (William Holden) and taking him in as her kept man. Esteemed filmmaker Erich von Stroheim costars as her former director and ex-husband, and several early Hollywood figures have cameos. Directed and co-written by Billy Wilder, one of filmdom's true geniuses. "I am big. It's the pictures that got small." Actor, producer, musician, and entrepreneur Cliff “Method Man” Smith will speak. Sunday, 3:30 p.m., TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX.
Available on Paramount+, Prime Video, DVD, and Blu-ray.
The American President (1995)
Michael Douglas inThe American President
Courtesy TCM Classic Film Festival
In these times, it's a good escape to see a movie about a president who does the right thing. Michael Douglas is American President Andrew Shepherd, who’s up for reelection and waffling on some of the liberal positions he’s taken, as he’s being challenged by the right-wing Sen. Rumson (Richard Dreyfuss), who seems to be based on Newt Gingrich, President Bill Clinton’s chief nemesis in the ’90s. Shepherd is also widowed (one review called him a “virile widower”) and falls in love with environmental lobbyist Sydney Ellen Wade (Annette Bening). Their relationship is complicated by politics, naturally. Will love and liberalism triumph? Well, the film’s written by Aaron Sorkin, who’d go on to give us The West Wing, and directed by Rob Reiner, so you can guess the answer. Martin Sheen, later president in The West Wing, and Michael J. Fox costar as presidential aides, with the latter’s character echoing George Stephanopoulos. Reiner, a great LGBTQ+ ally, will speak onstage at the screening, and Sorkin is also scheduled to be present. Friday, 9:15 p.m., TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX.
Available on Prime Video, DVD, and Blu-ray.
To Be or Not to Be (1942)
Carole Lombard, Jack Benny, and Charles Halton inTo Be or Not to Be
Courtesy TCM Classic Film Festival
Resistance to tyranny is still relevant today, and it was portrayed to great comic effect in legendary director Ernst Lubitsch's To Be or Not to Be. A Polish theatrical troupe, led by "that great, great Polish actor, Joseph Tura" (Jack Benny) and his actress wife, Maria (Carole Lombard), becomes involved in an anti-Nazi plot. In 1942, audiences weren't ready to laugh at Nazis, but the film has become well-regarded, proof that comedy can be an effective weapon to expose despots. Sadly, it was Lombard's last film; she was killed in a plane crash in 1942, returning from a trip selling bonds to support the World War II effort. Jeopardy! host Ken Jennings will introduce. Saturday, 3:45 p.m., Chinese Multiplex House 4.
Available on Max, DVD, and Blu-ray.
The Wiz (1978)
Nipsey Russell, Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, and Ted Ross in The Wiz
Courtesy TCM Classic Film Festival
Before there was Wicked, there was The Wiz. This reworking of The Wizard of Oz in a New York City setting came to film after being a Broadway hit. Diana Ross stars as a sheltered schoolteacher who enters a fantasy land, with Nipsey Russell, Michael Jackson, and Ted Ross as her companions. Music is by Charlie Smalls, Quincy Jones, Nick Ashford, and Valerie Simpson. You'll be dancing in your seat to "Ease on Down the Road" and more. The world premiere restoration will screen Saturday, 9:30 p.m., Chinese Multiplex House 1.
Mamma Mia!
Mamma Mia!
Courtesy TCM Classic Film Festival
Who doesn't love them some ABBA? The Swedish quartet's greatest hits provide the soundtrack for this comedy about a resort owner (Meryl Streep) whose daughter (Amanda Seyfried) invites three men who could be her biological father to visit: Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, and Stellan Skarsgard. The always reliable Christine Baranski and Julie Walters are on hand as Streep's best friends. Thursday, 7:30 p.m., poolside at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.
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