In our latest thorough update to the list, we added titles like the documentary Welcome to Chechnya, about LGBTQ+ activists risking their lives for the cause in Russia Certified Fresh comedy Shiva, Baby and Netflix’s The Old Guard, a rare movie about super beings that showed a same-sex relationship between two of its heroes. There are broad American comedies ( The Birdcage), artful Korean crime dramas ( The Handmaiden), groundbreaking indies ( Tangerine), and landmark documentaries ( Paris Is Burning). Our list of the 200 Best LGBTQ+ Movies of All Time stretches back 90 years to the pioneering German film, Mädchen in Uniform, which was subsequently banned by the Nazis, and crosses multiple continents, cultures, and genres. Read: Critic Valerie Complex on Pariah, and how it changed her lifeĪll of these films stand on the shoulders of other LGBTQ+ films that have come before.Read: Critic Manuel Betancourt on seminal LGBTQ+ comedy The Birdcage.Read: Critic Ian Thomas Malone on seminal trans film A Fantastic Woman.Watch: Cinematographer James Laxton breaks down the swimming lesson from Moonlight.Meanwhile comedy Midas Judd Apatow is currently producing a gay rom-com starring Billy on the Street’s Billy Eichner, which will hit theaters in Summer 2022. And it wasn’t the last: A lesbian romance lies at the center of critically acclaimed high school flick, Booksmart, as well as last year’s Christmas rom-com, The Happiest Season.
In 2020, Pedro Almadóvar’s Pain and Glory would make a dent on the awards circuit, as would Celine Sciamma’s romance Portrait Of A Lady On Fire, one of the best-reviewed movies of recent years. Meanwhile, Love, Simon made history in 2018 as the first mainstream, wide-release teenage rom-com to focus on a gay character (a spin-off TV series, Love, Victor, enters its second season on Hulu this year).
At the 2019 Oscars, Olivia Colman was named Best Actress for playing the lesbian queen Anne in The Favourite, beating out Can You Ever Forgive Me?‘s Melissa McCarthy, who played lesbian writer Lee Israel. In 2016, Carol earned six Oscar nominations, and just a year later, for the first time in history, Moonlight became the first LGBTQ+-themed movie to win Best Picture. While David does experience a relationship with a female character in its first season, it’s his romance with a closeted gay man in its third that really breaks new ground and quickly proves itself to be one of the best representations of a male same-sex relationship on TV that easily puts other LGBT shows to shame.It’s been a big few years for LGBTQ films. His city character being forced to live in the middle of nowhere makes for numerous laugh-out-loud, fish-out-of-water scenarios, but the show also manages to explore him with sensitivity and earnestness that’s both endearing and relatable.
The series features a variety of now-iconic characters skillfully played by perfectly cast actors, but the standout star is the openly-gay series creator, Daniel Levy, who plays the pansexual son, David Rose. Schitt’s Creek follows the hilarious misadventures of a rich family who suddenly find themselves out of pocket and are forced to move to a small rural town called, well, Schitt’s Creek.
Starring: Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Dan Levy