Celebrating Pride is something that you can do year-round, but the month of June marks the official celebration. Aside from the usual festivities and protests (remember: the first Pride event was an actual riot), a Pride Month film festival can take place wherever you and your streaming services of choice happen to be, particularly when you pack a portable projector.
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Homophobes and transphobes were performatively loud on social media, tearing up Targets and bashing Bud Light, leading to scaled-back Pride displays in stores this year. Instead of witnessing their antics, you can watch some excellent, meaningful movies and shows to celebrate and support LGBTQIA+ culture. We present our suggestions in no particular order. Note: We assume that the massive popularity of RuPaul’s Drag Race means you’re already watching, so we haven’t included it on this list. (Roxxxy Andrews has our vote for All Stars 9 winner.)
1. BottomsPJ and Josie are two high schoolers who can’t meet girls. So they do what countless others in their positions have done in movies before them: start a fight club. This movie is hilarious and surreal and nothing at all like the genre it came from.
2. Good Grief (Netflix)Dan Levy wrote and directed this film which takes place in the City of Lights. It has some sparkling moments set against its darker theme of a man struggling after the sudden loss of his husband and the readjustment of his friend group.
3. Call Me By Your Name (Prime Video)T.S. Eliot was the first to ask, “Do I dare to eat a peach?” in a work of literature. But André Aciman made it current in his novel Call Me By Your Name. The Luca Guadagnino film brings to life the characters Elio Perlman, a 17-year-old who lives with his family in Lombardy, and Oliver, his father’s research assistant, who have an intense summer relationship they’ll remember for a lifetime.
4. Tangerine (Fubo)In Tangerine, hell hath no fury like a trans sex worker scorned: Sin-Dee sets out on Christmas Day to get revenge on her boyfriend and pimp, who has cheated on her. This dramedy was shot on three iPhone 5Ss.
5. Carol (Fubo)A Todd Haynes film based on a Patricia Highsmith novel and starring Cate Blanchett, Carol was a classic before it was even released. Blanchett plays the title character, a wealthy woman in the middle of a divorce who could lose her daughter if she lives her life openly as a lesbian in 1950s New York.
6. Fire Island (Hulu)Pride and Prejudice has been reimagined many times in movies, and this is one of the most fun instances. A group of friends spends one last summer at their Fire Island house share, while a class war (and romance) breaks out between those who party in the Pines part of the island and the tonier inhabitants of Cherry Grove.
7. My Beautiful Laundrette (Hoopla, Pluto TV)A young Pakistani man’s London laundromat is attacked by neo-Nazis, who happen to be led by his ex-lover. The two reunite and try to run the business together, despite the many obstacles to them being together.
8. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Hulu)In eighteenth-century Brittany, artist Marianne is secretly commissioned to paint a portrait of Héloïse, a bride-to-be who has just left the confines of a convent. The pair form a bond that turns into something more.
9. Everything Everywhere All at Once (Netflix)A woman’s choices about everything, from getting her taxes done to accepting her lesbian daughter, have multiplying consequences across parallel universes.
10. Heartstopper (Netflix)This show is based on the YA graphic novel of the same name. Charlie faces some initial heartbreak and school ridicule as one of the only out students at his school, but he’s hopeful after making friends with Nick, a fellow student and popular rugby player. Their romance is just the right amount of rocky and super sweet.
11. Muxes (Max)This short, beautiful documentary follows the lives of muxes, a third gender among the Zapotecs of Mexico.
12. Sort Of (Max)In Sort Of, Sabi Mehboob is trying to balance their nonbinary identity with their Pakistani-Canadian one while also wrangling two kids at a nanny job and working as a bartender at a bookstore café.
13. Veneno (Max)La Veneno, as transgender singer and TV personality Cristina Ortiz Rodríguez was known, was a huge hit on Spanish TV in the 90s. Not much was known about her life beyond what she chose to share. That is, until Los Javis (partners, producers, and Drag Race España judges Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi) brought this series to the small screen.
14. Shiva Baby (Max)Jewish anxiety is the real star of Shiva Baby. Bisexual college student Danielle has to dodge uncomfortable questions about her life at a shiva, while her super-successful ex-girlfriend and her sugar daddy (and his wife and baby) are in the room.
15. Happy Together (Max)Wong Kar-wai will tear your heart out beautifully every time. In Happy Together, a Hong Kong couple has a falling out after a disastrous trip to Argentina. They reconcile, but whether the film lives up to the title—well, consider the director’s oeuvre.
16. Anne+ The Film (Netflix)There are a million reasons to procrastinate writing a novel, and in Anne+ The Film, the main character has several to choose from. She’s facing an international move from Amsterdam to Montreal, and she’s opened up about her relationship with her now long-distance girlfriend, causing her endless confusion. The movie is the continuation of a television series simply titled, Anne.
17. Disclosure (Netflix)Hollywood’s depiction has been the only lens through which some people have seen transgender life, and those distortions have done the community no favors. This documentary looks at the fallout.
18. Passing (Vimeo)Three trans men of color share their stories in this short documentary.
19. Monica (Rent on Apple TV+)It’s taken 20 years and the imminent death of her mother for Monica, a trans woman, to return to her midwestern hometown. Trace Lysette plays the title role, for which she has received well-deserved praise.
20. But I’m a Cheerleader (Fubo, Roku Channel, Tubi)Natasha Lyonne is the cheerleader in question, playing Megan Bloomfield, who believes she is a straight teenage girl with a football player boyfriend. Her parents suspect otherwise because of her taste in music and her refusal to eat meat, so they send her to a gay “conversion” camp, where she discovers (surprise!) that she’s a lesbian and loves it.
21. The Other Two (Max)This comedy series was cut short at just three seasons. It started as the story of the two older siblings of a Justin Bieber-like brother, but it’s become so much more.
22. Bros (Peacock)In a perfect rom-com setup, two people who definitely do not want commitment (or at least that’s what they say) fall in love. They then have to figure out what being together means for them, who they really are, and what they want as individuals.
23. Anais In Love (Hulu)Anais is in love—but with who? Even she doesn’t know. In this French film, a woman believes she doesn’t love her boyfriend, doesn’t love the married man who falls for her, but probably loves that man’s wife.
24. Uncle Frank (Prime Video)A gay literature professor drives his teenage niece from New York to South Carolina to attend his father’s funeral. His arrival—and the reading of the will that exposes his life—causes him, his family, and his partner considerable distress but offers a chance at reconciliation.
25. The Queen (Kanopy)The Miss All-American Camp Beauty Pageant of 1967 is the star of this documentary. It’s a rare and stunning look behind the scenes and on the stage.
26. Viva (Prime Video)A Havana hairdresser feuds with his formerly estranged but now-returned father over his dream of becoming a drag performer.
27. Chrissy Judy (Rent on Apple TV+) A drag queen loses her onstage partner and best friend to a new relationship. She’s forced to find her way on her own, in life and in her art. The film is unexpectedly shot in black and white.
28. Wig (Max)The Wigstock drag festival was one of the major events of downtown New York for nearly two decades, until it shut down after 9/11. This documentary follows its revival in 2018 with its founder, Lady Bunny, along with help from Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka. The archival footage is what really makes this worth a watch.
29. The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (Roku Channel, Kanopy, Tubi, Pluto TV, Hoopla)”Priscilla” is a beat-up old bus, and that is not a metaphor. It’s the vehicle that two drag performers use to traverse the Australian outback, where they do indeed have adventures (both welcome and unwelcome).
30. Transparent (Prime Video)In this series, the Pfeffermans adjust to life with a trans parent (get it?), Maura. Over five seasons, you get to know each member of the loving but chaotic family—maybe a little too well, in some cases.
31. Trixie Motel (Max)Renovation shows are pretty much all the same—but not Trixie Motel. Businesswoman Trixie Mattel sets about renovating a dilapidated Palm Springs motel along with help from some celebrity friends, including Orville Peck and Lisa Vanderpump. A second season, with Trixie renovating her new house, starts on June 1.
32. Parting Glances (Tubi)A couple prepares to spend two years apart in this film that takes place in a 24-hour span in 1980s New York. It’s one of the first movies to deal with AIDS and provides Steve Buscemi’s first roll.
33. Beautiful Darling: The Life and Times of Candy Darling (Mubi)One of Andy Warhol’s superstars, Candy Darling was a trans pioneer who finally gets her due in this documentary.
34. Moonlight (Max)This beautifully filmed movie takes place over three phases of the life of Chiron, who starts as a young, bullied boy in Miami; has an encounter that changes him in his teenage years; and comes to terms with who he has become as an adult.
35. To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything! Julie Newmar (Rent on Apple TV+)Three drag queens (played by Wesley Snipes, Patrick Swayze, and John Leguizamo) are traveling by Cadillac DeVille to a competition in Los Angeles—when they’re stranded in a small, narrow-minded town.
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36. Paris is Burning (Max)Has any other documentary burned up the screen like this look at the 1980s New York ballroom scene? It’s filled with endlessly quotable lines, enviable looks, and larger-than-life characters who will break your heart.
37. Blue Is the Warmest Color (Rent on Apple TV+)A high school student has more than one chance meeting with a painter. The two eventually become lovers, but over the years, their relationship gets complicated.
38. Love, Victor (Hulu)Love, Victor takes place in the world of Love, Simon (a movie you can also watch on Hulu). This series has Victor navigating life in a new town and a new school while struggling with his sexuality.
39. Grey Gardens (Max)This cult-classic documentary is part of the gay canon. Albert and David Maysles captured the unique lives and even more unique diction of the two Edith Bouvier Beales (a mother-daughter duo with the same name) in their crumbling East Hampton home. Big Edie and Little Edie, who are also the respective aunt and cousin of Jackie Onassis, recount their former lives of glory while they bicker, and all forms of wildlife frolic in their house.
40. Crush (Hulu)A high school student just wants to pursue art and her crush but is forced to join the track team, where she discovers new passions.
41. Drag Me to Dinner (Hulu)Drag king Murray Hill hosts this show in which drag queens compete to throw the best dinner party. The winners are crowned by Neil Patrick Harris, drag queen Bianca Del Rio, and actress Haneefah Wood.
42. Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Rent on Apple TV+) John Cameron Mitchell wrote, directed, and stars in this rock-musical film about Hedwig, an East German singer who has to come to terms with the men in her life who have wronged her and her place in the world.
43. Milk (Rent on Prime Video)This biopic is about assassinated gay rights activist and icon Harvey Milk. Sean Penn stars as the San Francisco Board of Supervisors member who was the first openly gay elected official in California.
44. Brokeback Mountain (Rent on Prime Video)Two cowboys find life-changing love and eventual heartbreak in lonely Wyoming. This movie, based on a short story by Annie Proulx and filmed by Ang Lee, should have won the Best Picture Oscar.
45. Kissing Jessica Stein (Rent on Prime Video) A New York journalist answers a personals ad that is perfect for her, except that she thinks she’s straight, and the ad was placed by a woman.
46. The Boys in the Band (Rent on Prime Video) This film about a group of friends celebrating a birthday was originally a play. In it, a dinner party turns into a game of telephone that turns the tables on its originator.
47. The Birdcage (Prime Video)In this American version of La Cage Aux Falles (which you can watch on Tubi and Kanopy), an engaged couple warily brings together their families: One is a conservative senator and his wife who are in the midst of a scandal, and the other a Miami nightclub owner and a drag performer who have to put on a show for the future in-laws.
48. The Watermelon Woman (Max)In this part fictional documentary, part drama, a Black lesbian filmmaker looks into the life of an actress who played stereotypical roles in 1930s and 1940s films.
49. Jeffrey (Prime Video)Steven Weber plays a gay man in 1990s New York who swears off sex because of his fear of contracting AIDS. He doesn’t doubt his decision until he meets the perfect man, who happens to be HIV positive.
50. We’re Here (Max)In this series, a trio of drag queens who made their names on RuPaul’s Drag Race set out across the country to help members of the LGBTQ community and their allies put on drag shows while they heal some of the wounds caused by living in an increasingly hostile America.
51. Before Night Falls (Rent on Prime Video)Based on the autobiography of Reinaldo Arenas, this Julian Schnabel–directed film details the writer’s persecution for his politics and sexuality under Fidel Castro’s regime and his eventual move to the United States.
52. Shortbus (Kanopy)The spirit of early-2000s New York pervades Shortbus, a film that features unsimulated sex and a group of people who belong to an artistic salon, coupling and uncoupling in all senses of the words.
(Credit: Supergiant Games, Dontnot Entertainment, Game Grumps, Steam)
What? You’ve already watched everything on this list? No problem. Head on over to The 8 Best Queer Games to Play During Pride Month (and Beyond). And don’t miss “8 Queer Comics to Read in 2023” from our sister site, IGN, and 9 Children’s books to read for Pride Month from Mashable.
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