The 30 Best LGBTQ+ Movies of All Time

“Blue Is the Warmest Colour” is a movie about youth, art, heartbreak, and the self-exploration journey to discover one’s own identity. The drama holds a Freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes of 89%. The site’s critics consensus describes the film as “raw, honest,” and “deliciously intense.”

“Law of Desire” follows the story of three gay men. One is a director who breaks up with his boyfriend and becomes involved with an obsessive and jealous fan. The provocative film, which is one of the early feature films by now famous director Pedro Almodóvar, has a perfect critics score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Based on a true story, “Green Book” is about a white driver, Frank Vallelonga, and his black employer, musician Don Shirley. The movie centers on Vallelonga’s journey from racist to respectful employee. The fact that Shirley is gay is addressed in only one scene — when Shirley is arrested in Memphis for having sex with a man. The film won three Oscars, including for best picture.

“The Boys in the Band” tells the complex experience of being a gay man in the late ’60s and early ’70s, a period when being gay was demonized. The movie is set at a birthday party where all but one guest are gay. The movie was remade in 2020.

“Maurice” tells the story of two Cambridge students who fall for each other at the university in the early 20th century. Eventually, one marries a woman and seeks political office, while the other struggles to come to terms with being gay in a conservative society. The film is “a powerful love story brought to life by the outstanding efforts of a talented cast,” according to Rotten Tomatoes’ Critics Consensus.

Whoopi Goldberg earned her first Oscar nomination for her role in “The Color Purple.” The film is the second movie of her career. Goldberg plays a black Southern woman who was abused by her father and husband and is struggling with her identity. The 1985 drama was nominated for a total of 11 Oscars, including best picture.

“120 Beats Per Minute” is centered on the Paris faction of ACT UP, an international advocacy group formed at the height of the AIDS epidemic in the early ’90s. The group denounced the French government and big drug companies for not responding to the HIV/AIDS health crisis quickly enough. The film is “moving without resorting to melodrama,” according to Rotten Tomatoes’ Critics Consensus.

“The Perks of Being a Wallflower” is a coming-of-age film about a young introvert who finds confidence thanks to two stepsiblings who take him under their wing at school. One of those two siblings, however, is gay and is struggling with a self-dstructive lifestyle. Critics praised the movie for its strong acting performances and directing.

“Love, Simon” is the first teen romantic comedy produced by a major studio to feature a gay lead character. The movie tells the story of a closeted high school senior who finds the courage to be himself. Critics have called the movie smart, funny, and emotional.

“Milk” is a true story, based on the life of gay rights activist and first openly gay elected official Harvey Milk. The majority of the film covers Milk’s political rise and accomplishments. The film was nominated for eight Oscars, winning two — for best actor (Sean Penn) and for best original screenplay.

“Weekend” is about what it’s like to be gay in modern Great Britain thought the lives of two men whose casual hookup at a gay bar grows into something much more serious. Critics have described the film as superb, invigorating, and moving.

“Pride” tells the story of how a group of young gay activists raised money to help Welsh coal miners and their families during their long strike in the summer of 1984. To the gay campaigners, the British government’s treatment of the miners mirrored their own persecution. The movie holds a Freshness rating of 92%.

Stephan Elliott’s film about two drag queens and a trans woman was quite rebellious for its time. “The Adventures of Priscilla,” which was made 15 years before Ru Paul’s popular “Drag Race” show, reached cult status and even opened up the film industry to more positive and mainstream representations of the LGBTQ community. The film is still certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

“Beautiful Thing” is a story about the emerging friendship and later an intimate relationship between two working-class teenagers in south London. The film is “an engaging slice of life drama that happens to double as a gay coming-of-age story,” according to Rotten Tomatoe’s Critics Consensus.

Only the second feature film directed by Ang Lee, “The Wedding Banquet” tells the story of a gay Taiwanese immigrant in the United States who marries a Chinese woman at his parents’ behest. The movie, which was described as entertaining, sweet, and satisfying by critics, was nominated for an Oscar in the best foreign film category.

“Call Me by Your Name” tells the story of two young men — a handsome doctoral student and the son of the family he is staying with — who fall in love over the course of a summer in 1980s Italy. It is based on the André Aciman novel of the same name. The movie was very well reviewed, with 94% of critics and 86% of moviegoers giving it positive reviews. The movie was nominated for four Academy Awards, winning one for best adapted screenplay.

Benedict Cumberbatch plays legendary computing pioneer Alan Turing in, who was tasked with cracking allegedly unbreakable codes the Nazis used during World War II. “The Imitation Game” also tells how Turing is forced to conceal his homosexuality, which was illegal at the time in the U.K. When authorities discover he is gay, they convict Turing and force him to take hormones to “cure” him. He becomes ill and eventually takes his own life. “The Imitation Game” was nominated for eight Oscars, winning one for best adapted screenplay. About 90% of critics and audience members reviewed the film positively.

“Farewell My Concubine” is the story of two men who meet as apprentices at an opera training school where they are abused. The two remain friends for decades. Nominated for an Oscar for best foreign movie, critics have called “Farewell My Concubine” entertaining and remarkable.

“The Way He Looks” tells the story of a blind teenager whose life completely changes when he meets a new student at school. The Brazilian coming-of-age film is “compassionate, emotionally detailed, and populated with resonant characters,” according to Rotten Tomatoes’ Critics Consensus.

“Pain and Glory” is a Spanish film from Oscar-winning filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar. The film tells the story of a director in a creative drought who draws on past experiences of romance, family, addiction, success, heartbreak, and more to make his next film. “Pain and Glory” was nominated for Best International Feature Film, and Antonio Banderas was nominated for best actor for his work in the film.

“Hedwig and the Angry Inch” is a rock musical-turned cult classic film, with high marks from critics and audiences alike. The film centers on an aspiring singer who had a botched gender reassignment surgery as she tries to flee from East Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall. She tells her life story while tailing an ex-boyfriend who stole her songs.

In “God’s Own Country,” Josh O’Connor plays young farmer Johnny Saxby. Saxby has been forced into taking over his family farm after his father’s stroke. Sullen and bitter at his lot in life, Saxby uses drinking and casual relationships with men to fend off his boredom. But everything changes when he hires Gheorghe (Alec Secareanu), a Romanian immigrant and farmworker. Gheorghe shows Josh how to be more mature both professionally and romantically. Nearly all reviewers on Rotten Tomatoes gave the film positive reviews.

Released in 1961, “Victim” proved to be well ahead of its time. Rotten Tomatoes describes the film as “an eloquent and emotionally affecting argument against prejudice,” as it takes place in a time when homosexuality was considered a crime in the U.K. through anti-sodomy statutes. The film follows Melville Farr (Dirk Bogarde), a married but closeted lawyer. He is roped into a blackmail scheme in which gay men are blackmailed and threatened with being outed unless they pay a ransom for incriminating photos. Farr fights back against the blackmailers while coming to terms with his own sexuality.

Matthew McConaughey stars as homophobic Dallas hustler Ron Woodroof, who learns that he is HIV positive and that a then-experimental drug to treat the condition is unavailable in the U.S. He finds a way to obtain the life-saving medication and begins to supply it to others who have AIDS. The film received six Oscar nominations. McConaughey took home the Oscar for best actor, and his co-star, Jared Leto, won best supporting actor.

While detailing the romance between two men in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, “And Then We Danced” explores what is it like to be a member of the LGBTQ community in the conservative country where the push for gay rights has been met predominantly with resentment. Critics have described the movie as wonderful, full of life, and moving.

1975’s “Dog Day Afternoon” was based on the true story of a failed Brooklyn bank robbery from just a few years earlier. The film appears to be a straightforward story of a heist gone awry. But once police get involved and hostages are taken, the real motive for the robbery is revealed — the leader of the crew (Al Pacino) needs money to pay for his wife’s gender reassignment surgery. The film was nominated for six Oscars, winning for Best Writing, Original Screenplay.

Park Chan-wook transposes Sarah Waters’ crime novel “Fingersmith” from Victorian London to Korea in the 1930s. The film follows a woman who is hired as a handmaiden but is secretly working to defraud her employer. The handmaiden and her employer fall in love. The movie has a Freshness rating of 95% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Pedro Almodóvar‘s Oscar-winning melodrama tells the story of a woman on a journey to find the father of her son who has recently died. The father now goes by the name of Lola and is expecting a baby with a young nun. The movie is certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with an almost perfect score of 98%.

This 18th century French period piece explores the relationship between young painter Marianne, hired to do the wedding portrait of a bride, Héloïse, who is getting cold feet. The romantic drama about two women in love at a time when love between gay people was forbidden is critically acclaimed with an almost perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes among both critics and viewers.

“C.R.A.Z.Y.” follows a young French-Canadian teenager who, after growing up in a conservative Catholic family, struggles with his emerging homosexuality. The movie, which has a perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes, has been described by critics as powerful, intelligent, and wildly entertaining.