36 Top LGBTQ+ Movies of All Time

A documentary set in New York City, Paris is Burning is an intimate look at the 1980s through the eyes of the queens and queers of the city's African-American and Latin American Harlem drag-balls. The film portrays the ball culture of the African-American, gay, Latino,  and transgender communities, and also explores themes like class, gender, sexuality and race in the 1980s America.

Park Chan-wook's "The Handmaiden" is set in the backdrop of Japan's occupation of Korea in the 1930s. The film centers on a woman who gets into a romantic relationship with the Japanese heiress whose fortune she has been hired to help rob.

Due to his amazing vocal abilities, Freddie Mercury, along with his rock band, Queen, manages to achieve stardom. However, along with his success, he also finds himself struggling with his sexuality and a fatal illness.  

This comedy drama film tells the story of a French Canadian teen boy named Zachary. He is struggling with his sexual identity, but things get complicated because he belongs to a conservative family, and his father is a devout Catholic.

Set in the summer of 1983, it is a story of a blossoming romance. Seventeen-year old Elio Perlman is spending his vacation with family at their villa in Lombardy, Italy, where he meets 24-year old doctorate student Oliver who comes to work as an intern for Elio’s father. Their initial friendship soon blooms into true love, changing their lives forever. 

The story focuses on an Argentine nurse, overseeing donor organ transplants in a Madrid hospital. Also single mother, she loses her only son in a road accident and after donating his heart, moves to Barcelona to find her son’s father, a transgender woman. Winner of multiple awards, the film successfully deals in such complex issues as homosexuality, transsexualism, AIDs, and faith.

Pride is a historical drama film which revolves around gay activists in 1984, who lend their help to the the strike of the National Union of Mineworkers.

The Celluloid Closet is a documentary film which highlights the historical context that LGBT people have occupied in the history of cinema in North America.

High school student Simon Spier is looking for love but hasn’t told anyone that he is gay. When a closeted gay student posts an online confession under the pseudonym Blue, Simon starts communicating with him under the pseudonym Jacques. As Simon tries to deduce the identity of Blue, he must also find a way to come out.  

Teenager Manuela is sent off to an all-girls boarding school, after the death of her mother. Manuela gets into a shell due to her anger of being sent away and the grief of the death of her mother. However, a young teacher Elizabeth von Bernburg helps her break the wall that she has built around her. However, things turn ugly when Manuela's fondness towards her teacher turns into a romantic attachment.

AIDS activists and members of Act-Up try to fight the hostility and indifference related to AIDS, which was regarded as a death sentence affecting communities, like the LGBT ones. In the late 1980s, these activists played a pivotal role in bringing down the number of AIDS-related fatalities in the United States.

A youngster in rural Yorkshire whiles away his days with alcohol and casual sex until his life is changed upon the arrival of a Romanian migrant worker.

The story revolves around two drag queens, Anthony and Adam, who decide to take their act of performing their unique style of cabaret on the road along with transsexual Bernadette. As they travel across the desert in their colorful bus, Priscilla, performing for homophobic locals and enthusiastic crowds, Bernadette and Adam realize a truth about Anthony and the reason why he took the job. The truth may not only pose a threat to their act but will also affect their friendship.

Nine-year-old shy African-American boy Chiron living with his drug addicted mother is ironically cared for by his mother's drug dealer and his girlfriend. As a 16-year- old, he is still bullied and is struggling with his sexual identity. Finally, he grows up to become a drug dealer himself and comes to terms with his sexuality.

Saving Face is a romantic comedy drama film which tells the story of a lesbian woman named Wil, who is hesitant to tell her widowed mother about her sexuality. However, she is soon shocked to find out that she is not the only one in her family with romantic secrets, after learning that her mother is pregnant at the age of 48.

A group of young activists try to effect action to end the AIDS epidemic in Paris in the 1990s. Arguments about the group's strategy ensue as they pressure the city's pharmaceutical labs into releasing the HIV trial results sooner than the scheduled date.

Aspiring photographer Therese Belivet runs into the glamorous Carol Aird while working at Frankenberg's department store in Manhattan. When the two women later develop a bond, it blossoms in love and relationship. But Carol’s bitter divorce proceedings threaten the relationship with heartbreak. 

Pariah is a drama film which revolves around a teenager in Brooklyn, who is struggling through her sexual identity. At the same time, she is in conflict with her family and friends.

A Fantastic Woman is a drama film which revolves around the story of Marina, a transgender waitress and singer, who gets into a romantic relationship with a man named Orlando, who is much older to her. However, her life turns upside down, when she becomes a suspect, after Orlando dies all of a sudden.

This heartbreaking tale is based on the true story of Danish painters, Lili Elbe and Gerda Wegener. When Gerda asks her husband, Einar Wegener, to pose as a woman, it triggers his dormant gender identity as a woman. Einar adopts the name Lili and undergoes the world’s first gender reassignment surgery but sadly dies of complications. 

Irma and her husband, Roy, have been married happily for twenty-five years. However, their lives take a turn when Roy tells his friend Reverend Dale that he is a woman trapped in a man’s body, and he wants to have a sex-change operation.   

A young African-American filmmaker decides to investigate the life of the Watermelon Woman, an actress who was quite well-known in the 1930s.

Sin-Dee Rella, a transgender sex worker serves a 28-day jail sentence. Once out, Rella meets her friend Alexander who reveals that Chester, Rella's boyfriend has been cheating on her with a cisgender woman. The two friends set out to teach Chester and his new lover a lesson.

Nic and Jules are a lesbian couple raising their two children Laser and Joni together. When the children contact the sperm donor Paul, to get to know him better, he becomes a part of their family and even starts having an affair with Jules. Complications arise leading the family to a confrontation. 

Desert Hearts is a romantic drama film which tells the story of an English professor named Vivian Bell, who works at Columbia University in New York City. She is waiting for her divorce papers to get finalized, but her life takes an unexpected turn when she is acquainted with a carefree and confident woman.

This romantic drama film tells the story of Alex, a fifteen year old intersexual teenager, whose parents are trying hard to cope with their child’s medical condition. When Alex's mother invites a friend from Buenos Aires, along with their 16 year old son Alvaro, things get complicated because Alex begins to develop feelings for the young man, leading both families to face their worst fears.   

In an effort to fit into a homophobic society, Eddie and Amber decide to fake a relationship to stop everyone from speculating their sexuality. While Eddie wants to follow the footsteps of his father and join the Irish Army, Amber wants to escape into a more liberal environment.

The Hanging Garden is a drama film which revolves around a young gay teen named William, who is forced to run away at the age of fifteen, and cut off all contacts with his dysfunctional family. However, when he learns that his sister is getting married, he returns home after a long time, but is surprised to see that very little has changed.

This 1985 British comedy-drama film directed by Stephen Frear explores the complex relationship between members of the Pakistani and English communities. The film also showcases the romance between Omar, a young Pakistani man living in London, and his childhood friend, Johnny.

The Seventh Victim is a drama horror mystery film which tells the story of a young woman who is in search of her missing sister. She soon learns about a Satanic cult in New York’s Greenwich Village, and feels that it might have something to do with the disappearance of her sister.  

Freak Show is a comedy drama film which tells the story of Billy Bloom, a teen known for his outrageous fashion sense. When he is sent to an ultra conservative high school, Billy doesn’t seem to care about any of the bullies, and sets out to make a big statement in his own way.

Mary Anning is an acclaimed fossil hunter whose is forced by circumstances to care for the wife of a rich visitor. They soon develop an intense bond that might change their lives forever.  

This documentary film revolves around survivors and former leaders of the ‘Pray the Gay Away’ movement which involved a conversion therapy that claimed to change an individual’s sexual orientation from gay to straight.

Walt is a former security guard, who must begin physical therapy after his hospital stay. His recovery program also includes speech therapy, by taking singing lessons, and he is paired with Rusty, a vocal instructor, who is also his neighbor. But Rusty is gay and since Walt is extremely conservative, their relationship becomes uneasy.

After seeing the friendship of their children, the parents become good friends as well. The film revolves around these three parents, as they try to stop their daughters from losing their virginity on prom night. 

Bruised is a sports drama film which tells the story of Jackie, a former MMA fighter who is now forced to work as a house-cleaner, and is relying on alcohol to cope with her daily life. She is forced to fight against her own demons when her six-year-old son Manny, whom she has not seen since he was an infant, returns to her life.