18 Best LGBTQ+ Movies to Stream Now

For about as long as there’s been cinema, there’s been queer cinema. I don’t just mean queer subtext, of which there’s 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 there are good ones. Which means there is space for experimentation and, often, failure for queer 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 yearnfest, a meditative coming-of-age story, or a raunchy and surprisingly bloody comedy, we’ve got you covered below.

Netflix

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.

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 one another. It’s the slowest of slow burns, but we get one exciting, intimate road trip before it all falls apart.

Shiva Baby (2020)

This tension-packed comedy was an immediate cult favorite; Rachel Sennott is 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.

Mutt (2023)

This character study covers a single day in the life of Feña (Lio Mehiel), a trans man who manages to encounter an ex, his sister, and his dad in the span of 24 hours. Its setting, New York City, is as much a character as Feña is, and its frenetic pace underscores the movie’s emotional impact.

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.

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 walloping, it’s a perfect movie.

Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)

Another historical slow-burn forbidden romance (after all, the trope is so common, SNL made a trailer satirizing it), but this one is set in 1770s France. Still, you should watch it because the director, Cèline 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.

Aftersun (2022)

This meditative coming-of-age story is told almost entirely in flashbacks 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.

Max

Persona (1967)

Ingmar Bergman’s Persona manages to convey abstraction, as well as the feeling of a dreamlike stupor, with a total clarity of storytelling. It centers on an actress, Elizabeth (Liv Ullmann), who stopped speaking 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). Owen is a quiet, glum child whose mother seems to be his only real source of warmth or affection — until he meets Maddy (Jack Haven), and the two of them 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.

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, credited only as “Watermelon Woman.” The parallels between her 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.

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 him 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 and confronting 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.