The 13 Best Gay Movies You Should Already Have Seen By Now! 🏳️‍🌈

Love is love, of course, but sometimes you can get a little tired of the same old ‘boy meets girl’ love stories. Luckily, the next time you feel like watching something exciting, you could choose from one of the many amazing best gay movies that have been made over the years.

Celebrating one’s self is one of the most important things in our life. Being happy with who we are is the key to living a fulfilling life. That’s why we must take every opportunity to make ourselves feel better, more prideful, about ourselves.

Whether that may be by spending time with our loved ones, with our friends, or by taking some time for ourselves and watching a movie. By choosing just the right film, one that we can relate to and that tells a story that makes us feel loved and seen, we can make ourselves feel more confident and prouder of who we are.

The movies in this list are not necessarily the best that gay cinema has to offer, but the stories they tell are certainly bound to touch you. Wherever you come from, these comedies and dramas are sure to awaken your emotions and, hopefully, give you an experience you shall not forget.

If you’re looking for the perfect gay movies to watch this weekend, whether it be alone or with your partner or friend, this is the list for you. The films featured here come from a variety of genres, ranging from delightful comedies to heart-wrenching dramas, so you can choose them according to your liking and mood.

They also come from all places in the world: while gay representation is highly important, it’s also important to remember that gayness is not bound to the United States. Some films on this list of best gay movies come from there, but many are also from other countries, like Spain, Belgium, India, and even South Africa.

If you watch all the films on this list, you’ll get a clear picture of what the gay community is, both in its most joyful and its most tragic moments. So, go get some popcorn, a glass of wine and a blanket, and snuggle in to watch! We can’t promise all happy endings, but we can promise a rich and varied range of gay movies.

Wondering where to watch? It depends on where you live in the world and which streaming services you have. We link to the streaming service we watch on in each case - be it Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apply TV+, or elsewhere.

You can get one month free of Amazon Pride (or a 6-month trial for students) of Amazon Prime and also get immediate access to FREE Two Day shipping, Amazon Video, and Music. While you won't be charged for your free trial, you'll be upgraded to a paid membership plan automatically at the end of the trial period - though if you have already binged all these, you could just cancel before the trial ends.

Apple TV+ also has a one-week trial, and Hulu has a one-month trial (which can be bundled with Disney!). Another option might be using a VPN to access Netflix titles locked to other regions. Netflix is now available in more than 190 countries worldwide and each country has a different library and availability. US Netflix is (understandably) one of the best. 

While we wish everything could just be in one place - for now, it seems these are the best streaming platforms to watch on.

North Sea Texas [Noordzee, Texas] (2011)

Coming from Belgium is this sweet and delicate movie about two young friends falling in love with each other. At times a romance, at times a drama, this coming of age paints an enthralling picture of what it means to be a gay teenager in the Belgian countryside.

While one may associate Europe with a certain level of tolerance and acceptance, this is not the same in every place there. Yet, as the movie shows, love always finds a way, even in the most challenging of circumstances. 

North Sea Texas, by first-time director Bavo Defurne, tells the story of Pim (Jelle Florizoone), a young boy living with his divorced mother in a small town in Belgium. Pim is a sweet and sensitive boy who becomes obsessed with several people throughout the movie, particularly the men who show kindness toward him.

As the movie progresses, Pim meets a boy a little older than him named Gino (Mathias Vergels). He will be Pim’s first love and, this time, his obsession will be returned. However, jealousy, and the problems that not being able to come out brings, will challenge their relationship.

Loev (2015)

Loev was directed, written, and produced by Indian filmmaker Sudhanshi Saria. While this film was his feature directorial debut, it brought him an incredible amount of international success. Both critics and audiences, straight and queer alike, loved this film. It was shown at festivals all over the world, where it won several awards.

However, its most important achievement is the fact that it was one of India’s first films to feature a gay male relationship where the two of them have a happy ending. Since India is usually considered a very homophobic country, seeing its creators and artists produce works like Loev makes one hopeful for the future.

Set in Mumbai, the film focuses on the relationship that develops between two long-time friends: Sahil (Dhruv Ganesh) and Jai (Shiv Panditt). As they drive to a Hindu pilgrimage site, the two friends start to talk about how they could never be together, since they are so different. Of course, this kind of talk leads them to imagine themselves with the other, an idea that turns into reality when they spend a night in a hotel during their travels.

The film shall see the two of them struggling to reconcile their differences and accept each other’s many flaws. But, in the end, it has a positive message for those who are struggling with their sexuality.

Boy Erased (2018)

Boy Erased was directed by the talented actor and filmmaker Joel Edgerton. It tells the true story of Garrard Conley, who, as a teenager, was sent to a conversion therapy camp for being gay. If there’s one thing for sure about this film, it’s that it’ll make you cry.

This is a dark film when it comes to depicting gayness, but it also is necessary for it to be told. The film was praised for daring to portray conversion therapy accurately, and it does a great job of showing just how bad this pseudo-scientific practice is. 

Set in a backward town in Arkansas, the film follows Jared (Joe Alwyn), the son of a preacher who enrolls him in a place called Love in Action. Through guilt-tripping and manipulation, the therapists try to make them stop being gay. Of course, neither the children nor the parents know that this is what happens at the camp.

Once Jared realizes what it’s being done to them, he will try to escape. Luckily, Garrad’s story has a happy ending. Boy Erased is a challenging watch due to the crude nature of its subject, but at its core, it’s a film about being strong and being yourself.

The Wound [Inxeba] (2017)

In the last ten years or so, we’ve seen an increasing amount of great queer films coming from South Africa. The film takes place during the initiation ritual known as ulwaluko, which is practiced by many of the Xhosa people. For those unfamiliar, the Xhosa are one of the largest ethnic groups in the country.

The ritual in question marks the transition from being a child to being an adult. Of course, it carries many of the ideas that these people associate with manliness and manhood. This makes the fact that The Wound explores how these traditions converge with homosexuality all the more interesting.

The Wound, by John Trengrove, follows a plot reminiscent of Brokeback Mountain: two closeted gay men live their lives apart, but meet each year for the ulwaluko ritual. There they take the opportunity to be with each other and enjoy intimate moments.

Their whole love affair is threatened when Kwanda (Niza Jay Ncoyini), the protagonist of the film, realizes what’s going on. The thing is, Kwanda is also gay and also closeted. The Wound will see the three men struggling to keep their facades up while also trying to understand each other’s sexuality better.

Before Night Falls (2000)

Before Night Falls, by Julian Schnabel, is a biographical drama set in Havana during the years after the revolution, when many things were changing for the better, but one of them was not the way people saw homosexuality. Based on Reinaldo Arenas autobiography, the film chronicles the life of the outstanding Cuban author, who happened to be gay.

This film marks the international debut of the great Spanish actor Javier Bardem (who you may have seen in the James Bond film Skyfall or, more recently, in Being the Ricardos). For his performance, he was nominated for his first Academy Award for Best Actor but did not win.

The film shows several moments in Arenas’ life. From his rough childhood living with his single mother to his time studying in Havana to become a writer. This is perhaps the best part of the story: we get to see Arenas as he discovers the lifestyle of other gay writers and finds that he wants to take part in it. The film does end on a sad note, however, since Arenas was one of the many gay men who died due to AIDS in the 1980s.

End of the Century [Fin de siglo] (2019)

End of Century, by Lucio Castro, is one of the best gay movies that explores the idea of change and how different our lives can become without us even realizing it. It was one of the first Latin-American films to ever win an award for Best Feature in the Frameline Film Festival, which has been hosting and judging the best queer films for almost five decades.

Set in present-day Barcelona, it follows two men who get together and enjoy a fun night of casual sex. They come from different backgrounds: Javier (Ramon Pujol) is a native Spaniard but was born and raised in Berlin, while Ocho (Juan Barberini) is from Argentina. As the morning comes, they realize that they have met before, during the end of the past century. 

In 1999, the two men were closeted, but chance had seen the two of them meeting and feeling attracted to each other. They both are each other’s “missed opportunity”. An opportunity that luckily presented itself again.

End of Century explores what it is like to be a closeted gay man from a retrospective perspective: it shows how sometimes it can be really hard to recognize yourself in the past, the way you were, and the things you did. But it also shows how, once you’re out of the closet, you always wish you had come out sooner.

Free Fall (2013)

This German dramatic film by Stephan Lacant about the budding and tumultuous romance between two police officers was a surprise success. Even though the film deals with a controversial topic and had very little production budget, it managed to reach tons of people during its premiere in Germany.

Free Fall’s approach to deconstructing the figure of the macho policeman seems to have struck a chord with the public, particularly in Germany, where homosexuality is very welcomed in some places, but not so much in others.

Perhaps what’s best about the film is that it takes on the problematic aspects of police work and police culture: the toxic masculinity and aggressiveness that can often be found in policemen are addressed throughout the film, which doesn’t pull its punches.

Free Fall sees the life of police officer Marc Borgmann (Hanno Koffler) being turned upside down when he meets Kay Engel (Max Riemelt). The two of them are in training to work in riot control, yet it seems that’s the only thing they have in common. They are constantly bickering and fighting. When one of their fights escalates to a physical confrontation, the two of them decide to make amends with each other and become friends.

This is what marks the beginning of their relationship: they being to spend more time together, and suddenly they find themselves being sexually attracted to each other. While this may not be a big deal to Kay, Marc has always considered himself to be a straight man. When Kay is transferred to Marc’s unit, this newfound closeness will make them feel even worse. 

It is (personally) one of my favorite best gay movies of all time – and was my original introduction to the world of queer cinema. There are perpetual rumors of a sequel, but given the time that has past (and one of the stars has become quite famous), it seems unlikely…

In & Out (1997)

From outstanding director Frank Oz (known for his work The Dark Crystal and Little Shop of Horrors) comes a funny and touching story about a teacher who is forced to deal with the fact that he might, in fact, not be as straight as he thought he was.

Many will surely have heard about this classic gay comedy. In & Out is mostly known for being one of the first mainstream movies to feature a long-lasting and fully-captured gay kiss on camera.

Taking inspiration from Tom Hanks’ speech after winning the Academy Award for Best Actor for Philadelphia, the film tells the story of Howard (Kevin Kline), a literature teacher whose life is turned upside down when one of his former students gives an award-acceptance speech and reveals to the world that Howard is gay.

The thing is: Howard never told anyone that he was gay; he didn’t even think he was. The news shakes his fiancée, family, and the whole town where he lives. With the help of a kind and gay reporter (Tom Selleck), Howard will deal with his sexuality and figure out who he is before it’s too late.

Another Gay Movie (2006)

Another Gay Movie isn’t just another gay movie. This transgressive romantic comedy directed by Todd Stephens sought to capture the wild and unbridled experience of films like American Pie while going beyond the heteronormativity so present in these films. Seeing that people told him that his films weren’t gay enough, Stephens decided to make the most raunchy and in-your-face gay film he could. And he succeeded.

The film follows a group of gay friends (played by Michael Carbonaro, Jonah Blechman, Jonathan Chase, and Mitch Morris) as they all try to lose their virginity. The film presents the hilarious situations throughout that these boys are willing to go through to finally be able to say they had gay sex.

Of course, being the kind of movie that it is, Another Gay Movie sees them all failing miserably in their silly attempts to hook up. By the end of the film, they learn a valuable lesson about how one should approach sex in such a young age.

The Birdcage (1996)

Perhaps one of the best, if not the absolute best, gay comedies ever to be made, The Birdcage tells a lovely story about acceptance and family. The film was directed by Mike Nichols, one of the most notorious creatives in Hollywood, who sadly passed away in 2014.

An outstanding comedian, as well as the director of many TV shows, films, and stage plays, Nichols is one of the few people to have ever won the four most important awards in the entertainment industry (Emmys, Grammys, Oscars, and Tonys).

Adapting a 1978 French-Italian film, The Birdcage focuses on a gay couple whose son wants them to meet his girlfriend’s family. The couple is played by the excellent Nathan Lane and the hilarious Robin Williams: the two of them work at an openly gay bar; the first is a drag performer, and the second the very owner.

While they are OK with the family visiting them, they are not so happy with their son’s other request: for them to pretend to be friends and, in fact, pretend not to be gay. The son argues that it’s because his in-laws are very conservative, but he seems ashamed of them too. The film will see the two families meeting and dealing with their differences in a comedic yet truly touching way.

Make The Yuletide Gay (2009)

Make The Yuletide Gay is a romantic comedy that takes place during Christmas and, very much like the 2020 Happiest Season, revolves around the struggle of a young gay man to both spend time with his boyfriend during the season, and not have his family discover his closeted sexuality.

For those who are familiar with the gay film scene, you may recognize the name of Rob Williams. During his short but prolific career, Williams has made a number of films that take on gay characters and themes without shying away from the topic.

Gay college student Gunn (Keith Jordan) enjoys a happy separation between the life he leads in college and the way he shows himself while with his family. Meaning that, at college, he’s a gay rights activist and an openly gay man, but all that goes away when he visits his family for holidays. This year, however, everything changes when his boyfriend, Nathan (Adamo Ruggiero), comes to visit him in his family home.

Alex Strangelove (2018)

One of the most talked-about movies of 2018, Alex Strangelove, by Craig Johnson, managed to bring romantic teen comedies back into the spotlight. And it did so by telling the story of a young man who is discovering his sexuality and isn’t quite sure whether he likes women or not. The same thing goes for men, of course.

What’s great about this film is that it approaches the subject of a “teenage gay rom-com” in a truly commendable way, meaning that it doesn’t shy away from showing the mishaps that tend to happen in real-life scenarios like this.

The film follows Alex (Daniel Doheny), a high school student who just had his first kiss with a girl (Madeline Weinstein), and is kind of nervous about the prospect of having to have sex with her. He tries to avoid thinking about it and, while out at a party, meets a gay teenager (Antonio Marziale) who he beings to fall in love with.

Stuck between compromise and desire, tied down by societal pressure and guilt, Alex will try to manage the strange feelings of teenagehood as best as he can.

Bad Education [La mala educación] (2004)

Considered one of the best Spanish films of the decade, Bad Education is also one of the most talked about LGBT films ever made. Directed by the great Pedro Almodóvar, whose work is known for its treatment of queer themes, characters, and experiences, the film sees two estranged lovers who finally reunite.

These two lovers are played by Gael García Bernal and Fele Martínez, who are both regarded as some of the sexiest men in Spanish cinema. In fact, those readers familiar with gay movies may have heard of this film before, since it features a truly captivating sex scene between the young versions of these two main characters.

The film begins in 1980, when a film director named Enrique (Martínez) is contacted by his childhood friend Ignacio (García Bernal), asking him to write a screenplay adapting a short story he wrote. The story turns out to be a fictional tale of their time in a Catholic boarding school, where Ignacio portrays himself as a transgender drag queen and as the lover of Enrique.

He decides to adapt the story, but soon finds out that Ignacio is not who he claims to be. Bad Education is one of the best gay films ever, but viewers should be warned that it features sexual abuse as one of its plot points. Still, the movie is completely worth the watch for anyone interested in gay stories and cinema.