Gay Movies &LGBTQ TV Shows

1990 · Jennie Livingston

The ballroom documentary every single thing you love is descended from.

2016 · Barry Jenkins

Three chapters of one Black gay life, and the most beautiful film on this list.

2005 · Ang Lee

The one that made straight America finally sit down and watch.

2017 · Luca Guadagnino

A summer in Italy and the best monologue about heartbreak ever written for a parent.

2019 · Celine Sciamma

Two women, one island, and the gayest painting in cinema history.

2015 · Todd Haynes

1950s longing in a fur coat, shot like every glance is a crime.

2011 · Andrew Haigh

Two days, two men, and the most honest gay conversation on film.

2017 · Francis Lee

Yorkshire sheep farm, two men, almost no dialogue, all feeling.

1994 · Stephan Elliott

Three queens, one bus, the Australian desert. Pure camp scripture.

2001 · John Cameron Mitchell

A rock musical about a botched surgery and an even more botched love story.

1999 · Jamie Babbit

Conversion camp as a bubblegum-pink satire, and a romance that actually lands.

1996 · Hettie Macdonald

Two boys on a South London estate, and the sweetest ending in queer film.

1991 · Gus Van Sant

River Phoenix at a campfire, saying the thing out loud.

2015 · Sean Baker

Christmas Eve in Hollywood, shot on an iPhone, and it moves.

2016 · Park Chan-wook

A con, a heist, and two women who rewrite the whole plan.

2011 · Dee Rees

A Brooklyn teenager figuring out who she is, one outfit change at a time.

2017 · Sebastian Lelio

A trans woman grieves her partner while everyone questions her right to.

2023 · Andrew Haigh

A lonely writer visits his dead parents and comes out to them at 40.

1997 · Wong Kar-wai

A couple falls apart in Buenos Aires, beautifully.

1996 · Mike Nichols

A drag club, a conservative in-law dinner, and Nathan Lane at full volume.

2021 · Lisa Ambjörn, Lars Beckung and Camilla Holter

A Swedish prince, a boarding school, and the best teen queer romance on streaming.

2018 · Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Steven Canals

Ballroom on primetime, with the largest trans cast ever on scripted TV.

2021 · Russell T Davies

Five friends in eighties London, and the losses nobody was allowed to name.

1999 · Russell T Davies

The Manchester original that refused to apologize for anything.

2022 · Alice Oseman

The gentle one. Two boys, a rugby team, and no tragedy.

2023 · Ron Nyswaner

Forty years of one affair, from the Lavender Scare to the AIDS crisis.

2009 · RuPaul Charles

The show that took drag from the bar to the living room.

2014 · Andrew Haigh

Three friends in San Francisco, dating badly, talking honestly.