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stands for “gay best friend,” and it’s an acronym that’s been used to refer to a woman’s gay friend, often in a tokenizing way.

Synopsis: Best friends Mimmi and Rönkkö work after school at a food court smoothie kiosk, frankly swapping stories of their frustrations [More]

Starring: Aamu Milonoff, Linnea Leino, Sonya Lindfors, Cécile Orblin

Directed By: Alli Haapasalo

#26

Critics Consensus: Buoyed by Karan Soni and Jonathan Groff's appealingly sweet performances, A Nice Indian Boy navigates cultural mores and romance with an infectiously kind heart.

The film tells the stories of three individuals [More]

Starring: River Gallo, Alicia Roth Weigel, Sean Saifa Wall

Directed By: Julie Cohen

#23

Critics Consensus: For viewers in search of an uncommonly smart, tender, and funny coming-of-age story, The Half of It has everything.

Synopsis: In Uganda, openly gay David Kato and his fellow activists work to defeat new legislation in their country that would [More]

Starring: David Bahati

Directed By: Katherine Fairfax Wright, Malika Zouhali-Worrall

#21

Critics Consensus: An illuminating documentary that dispels misinformation and creates an informative space for the intersex community to reach Every Body through the trials and tribulations of gender expression and life.

cult gay movies

But what they don’t see coming is the close-knit group of female friends they find along the way.

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6

Bros (2022)

Despite all the drama that surrounded its release, Bros shouldn’t be overlooked in the history of queer cinema. [More]

Starring: Zoé Héran, Malonn Lévana, Sophie Cattani, Mathieu Demy

Directed By: Céline Sciamma

#40

Critics Consensus: Gods and Monsters is a spellbinding, confusing piece of semi-fiction, featuring fine performances; McKellen leads the way, but Redgrave and Fraser don't lag far behind.

Synopsis: While at a Jewish funeral service with her parents, a college student has an awkward encounter with her sugar daddy [More]

Starring: Rachel Sennott, Molly Gordon, Polly Draper, Danny Deferrari

Directed By: Emma Seligman

#35

Critics Consensus: An urgent drama grounded in its observant depiction of reservation life, Fancy Dance establishes director/co-writer Erica Tremblay as a rising filmmaking talent.

Synopsis: Three years ago, Will Ferrell was filming a movie when he received a most surprising email: his‬ dear friend of [More]

Starring: Will Ferrell, Harper Steele

Directed By: Josh Greenbaum

#8

Critics Consensus:Kokomo City is a rousing docu effort that illuminates trans lives within a world of adverse circumstance and invariable optimism.

—TB

161 Best LGBTQ+ Movies of All Time

The latest: With out latest update, we’ve added the most recent Certified Fresh films, including Backspot, Good One, Challengers, Bird, Love Lies Bleeding, Queer, Problemista, Fitting In, Housekeeping for Beginners, I Saw the TV Glow, In the Summers, The People’s Joker, National Anthem, Good Grief, Sebastian, FRIDA, Cuckoo, Fancy Dance, Femme, A Nice Indian Boy, and The Wedding Banquet!

The [More]

Starring: Maddie Ziegler, Emily Hampshire, Djouliet Amara, D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai

Directed By: Molly McGlynn

#44

Critics Consensus: Elevated by a remarkable Franz Rogowski performance, Passages adds another smart, deeply humanistic film to director/co-writer Ira Sachs' estimable filmography.

“Not if I kill you first,” Vienna replies, and it feels like a kiss. —MP

  • “The Long Gray Line” (1955)

    What it is: Marty Maher (Tyrone Power), an Irish immigrant, spends decades as an athletic instructor at West Point. Oh, and RuPaul.

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    5

    Bottoms (2023)

    The only rule about this fight club?

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    Starring: Tom Cullen, Chris New, Jonathan Race, Laura Freeman

    Directed By: Andrew Haigh

    #53

    Critics Consensus: Shaped by Todd Haynes' deft direction and powered by a strong cast led by Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, Carol lives up to its groundbreaking source material.

    Synopsis: After the death of her mother, teenage Manuela (Hertha Thiele) is sent off to a boarding school run by the [More]

    Starring: Hertha Thiele, Dorothea Wieck, Emilia Unda

    Directed By: Leontine Sagan

    #7

    Critics Consensus: Endearing and heartfelt, Will & Harper is an ode and testament to long-lasting love, acceptance and evolution within a friendship.

    The barriers to adultery among 1940s bourgeois English suburbanites are achingly clear here, but decades later, and still in many societies, the realities of impossible love have rarely been so emotionally portrayed.

    Synopsis: One night in his near-empty tower block in contemporary London, Adam (Andrew Scott) has a chance encounter with a mysterious [More]

    Starring: Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Jamie Bell, Claire Foy

    Directed By: Andrew Haigh

    #31

    Critics Consensus:The Handmaiden uses a Victorian crime novel as the loose inspiration for another visually sumptuous and absorbingly idiosyncratic outing from director Park Chan-wook.

    After all, “Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death.” —MP

  • “Valley of the Dolls” (1967)

    What it is: Three women — good girl Anne, self-destructive starlet Neely (inspired by Judy Garland), and voluptuous Jennifer — navigate love, careers, and an addiction to pills in this camp classic.

    Why it’s gay: What makes it gay?

    Tragically the boy dies, with his wife and her grief downplayed beyond her telling him, “We have so many fine boys here.” Needless to say, none of this was noted as the film reached a wide audience. When she tells Patrick’s trustee that she won’t allow him to marry her nephew off to “some Aryan from Darien with braces on her brains,” you can practically hear the queer audiences booking their tickets to go live with her, too.

    But, despite having their whole lives ahead of them, they feel like they missed out on the high school experience—specifically, the parties. Here, we have teenage cheerleader Megan Bloomfield (Natasha Lyonne) who is sent to a conversion therapy camp to try to “cure” her lesbianism. Every movie here is Certified Fresh. And we recognize that some of the films in the list will re-ignite healthy debates that have been fixtures of discussion around LGBTQ+ films — straight actors playing gay characters, cis actors playing trans characters, and the historical dominance of white male perspectives.