The 10 Best LGBTQ+ Movies With Great Acting, Ranked (2025)

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The 10 Best LGBTQ+ Movies With Great Acting, Ranked (1)

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The 10 Best LGBTQ+ Movies With Great Acting, Ranked (2)

The wheels of progress turn slowly, but they do eventually turn. Before the Restoration, women weren't allowed to step foot on stage, and throughout film history, black actors were cast in demeaning roles perpetuating harmful stereotypes. If they appeared on the stage or screen at all (the 'Hayes Code' of 1934 prohibited content and characters classified as "immoral," meaning homosexual, in film until 1968), LGBTQ actors were reduced to tropes and comic relief for straight audiences.

Eventually, viewers were introduced to risqué, "immoral" content and characters, including 1985's My Beautiful Laundrette and the lesbian staple Desert Hearts. Movies like the '94 cult classic The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert featured two drag queens, and a trans woman played with a splendid flourish by dramatic English actor Terence Stamp. Modern audiences don't have to look hard to find LGBTQ+/queer characters. Thankfully, nuanced and thought-provoking roles are featured more prominently in movies, and these are examples of their impactful performances.

10 'The Kids Are All Right' (2010)

Directed by Lisa Cholodenko

The 10 Best LGBTQ+ Movies With Great Acting, Ranked (3)

Teenagers Joni (Mia Wasikowska) and Laser (Josh Hutcherson) embark on a clandestine mission to locate their sperm donor without their parents, Nic (Annette Bening) and Jules Allgood's (Julianne Moore) knowledge. The kids meet their biological father, organic restauranteur, and all-around cool breeze, Paul (Mark Ruffalo), but their paternal secret is too big to hide from their moms. Paul's introduction to the family catalyzes a relationship eruption after a culmination of years of unspoken grievances between couple Nic and Jules. The kids might be all right, but Nic and Jules must unpack their resentments and apply patches to their sinking marital ship.

Before The Kids Are All Right, Lisa Cholodenko gifted the LGBTQ+ community (and everyone else) with Shakespearean-level cinematic indie treats like High Art and Laurel Canyon. However, mainstream access and success of The Kids Are All Right is primarily due to the acting acquisition of superstars Moore and Bening, paired with Ruffalo's irresistible charm. Through Moore, viewers are privy to Jules' underappreciated perspective and sympathize, while Ruffalo delivers Paul's all-natural persona with a side of hidden glutens. Bening likely didn't set out to eclipse everyone in every scene, but her performance as the emotionally and often physically unavailable physician, Nic, was transcendent, garnering audience empathy. Despite exasperated sighs and eye-rolls from viewers who didn't appreciate the plot device used to derail Nic and Jules' union, The Kids Are All Right is a worthy entry into the annals of extraordinary LGBTQ+ cinema.

The Kids Are All Right

R

Comedy

Documentary

Drama

Where to Watch

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Release Date
July 9, 2010
Director
Lisa Cholodenko
Cast
Julianne Moore , Annette Bening , Mark Ruffalo , Mia Wasikowska , Josh Hutcherson , Yaya DaCosta

Runtime
104

Main Genre
Comedy
Writers
Lisa Cholodenko , Stuart Blumberg

Tagline
Nic and Jules had the perfect family. Until they met the man who made it all possible.

9 'Call Me By Your Name' (2017)

Directed by Luca Guadagnino

The 10 Best LGBTQ+ Movies With Great Acting, Ranked (8)

Elio Perlman (Timothée Chalamet) is a seventeen-year-old tri-lingual piano-playing bookworm who lives with his parents in a rural Italian villa in the summer of 1983. Elio's reading regimen and quiet introspection are interrupted by the arrival of Oliver (Armie Hammer), an American graduate student hired to assist Elio's father (Michael Stuhlbarg), a professor. Elio's initial nonplussed assessment of Oliver slowly develops into an intense crush that both parties are hesitant to acknowledge. As the summer unfurls, so does their undeniable connection and tender romance set against the stunning backdrop of Crema, Italy.

Many critics have called Luca Guadagnino's 2017 film Call Me By Your Name a masterpiece and a career-best for young Chalamet. The dexterous actor is at ease in the vintage locale, comfortably borrowing from his surroundings in his convincing portrayal of Elio, the young man on a journey of self-exploration. Hammer adds depth and texture to their slow-burn affair by perfectly blending mystery and self-possession in his depiction of Oliver, the handsome interloper. Despite dissension among viewers regarding straight actors in queer roles, Guadagnino's assertion that the leads were cast based on their chemistry and not their sexual preference proved fruitful (literally). If Stuhlbarg's moving speech and Chalamet's tearful closing credit sequence don't stir something within, it might be time to plan a trip to Italy.

Call Me By Your Name

R

Drama

Romance

Release Date
January 19, 2018

Director
Luca Guadagnino
Cast
Armie Hammer , Timothée Chalamet , Michael Stuhlbarg , Amira Casar , Esther Garrel , Victoire Du Bois

Runtime
132 minutes

Main Genre
Drama

Writers
Luca Guadagnino , James Ivory , Walter Fasano , André Aciman

Tagline
Is it better to speak or die?

8 'The Favourite' (2018)

Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos

The 10 Best LGBTQ+ Movies With Great Acting, Ranked (13)

The Favourite is a dark comedic reimagining of the eighteenth-century reign of Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) and her two closest female confidantes during the War of the Spanish Succession. Lady Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough (Rachel Weisz), is Anne's lover, companion, and behind-the-scenes shot-caller in the ongoing war with France. One day, Sarah's disgraced cousin Abigail (Emma Stone) arrives seeking employment after her degenerate gambler father loses her in a card game. Abigail observes her cousin's relationship with the Queen and quickly plans to enter Anne's inner sanctum to restore her societal status. Winning is relative in a hysterically absurd contest to win Anne's affection at any cost.

Visionary director Yorgos Lanthimos garnered international praise for his early work Dogtooth, followed by his 2015 critically acclaimed, conventional-adjacent film, The Lobster. Before production began on the director's eye-for-an-eye piece, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, the screenplay for The Favourite found its way to his audacious eyes. The project wasn't an easy sell with its female-centric cast and lesbian storyline, but Lanthimos was resolute and ultimately correct in his casting of Colman as Queen Anne. Stone and Weisz joined a cast featuring Taylor Swift's ex, Joe Alwyn, Nicholas Hoult, and seventeen rabbits. Audiences were smitten and endlessly entertained by the film's dueling divas and their devotion to an irreverent, unpredictable Queen. The on-screen spectacle continued during the 2019 awards season as audiences relished countless envelopes containing Colman's name and subsequent comedic acceptance speeches.

The Favourite

R

History

Comedy

Where to Watch

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Release Date
November 23, 2018
Director
Yorgos Lanthimos
Cast
Olivia Colman , Rachel Weisz , Emma Delves , Faye Daveney , Emma Stone , Paul Swaine

Runtime
120 minutes
Main Genre
History

Writers
Deborah Davis , Tony McNamara

Tagline
A Film By Yorgos Lanthimos

7 'All of Us Strangers' (2023)

Directed by Andrew Haigh

The 10 Best LGBTQ+ Movies With Great Acting, Ranked (19)

Adam (Andrew Scott), a reclusive screenwriter living alone in a London apartment building, encounters a drunk neighbor, Harry (Paul Mescal), who needs company, but Adam declines. Unable to write one evening, Adam travels to his childhood home, where he dines with the ghosts of his parents (Jamie Bell and Clare Foy), who died when he was twelve. Upon his return home to his flat, Adam notices Harry and apologizes for not being more hospitable before, and the pair soon enter into a relationship. As their romance blossoms, Adam achieves a slow catharsis through visiting his deceased parents, but his happiness is incomplete. The writer decides to introduce Harry to the apparitions of his parents, revealing truths that were previously too painful to see.

If All of Us Strangers hurt your feelings, you're not alone. Adam's metaphysical opportunity to have honest exchanges with his dead parents as adults is both heartbreaking and restorative. The premise is heavy, but Scott is a gifted artisan who wears the weighted shroud of decades-long grief and the lightness of new love with the understated elegance of a seasoned professional. The camera gravitates towards Scott, but Mescal's turn as the lonely love interest oozes with mystery and an authentic vulnerability many actors don't possess. Meanwhile, Bell and Foy's rendition of time-traveling relics thrust into a present where there are worse things than an openly gay child is a poignant piece audiences won't soon forget.

All of Us Strangers

R

Drama

Fantasy

Romance

Where to Watch

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Not available

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Release Date
January 26, 2024
Director
Andrew Haigh
Cast
Andrew Scott , Paul Mescal , Jamie Bell , Claire Foy

Runtime
105 minutes

Main Genre
Drama
Writers
Andrew Haigh

6 'Philadelphia' (1993)

Directed by Jonathan Demme

The 10 Best LGBTQ+ Movies With Great Acting, Ranked (21)

Attorney Andrew Beckett (Tom Hanks) is a senior associate at a large firm in Philadelphia. He's good at his job, works hard, and also happens to be an HIV-positive gay man. Andrew leaves important case documents with an assistant to file before the deadline, but the files mysteriously vanish, and Andrew is fired. The accomplished attorney believes he was fired not for incompetence but for his sexual orientation and AIDS diagnosis and searches for legal counsel. It becomes evident that no one is willing to represent him, including personal injury lawyer Joe Miller (Denzel Washington). However, Miller happens upon an overtly public display of discrimination against Beckett and has a change of heart, taking the case.

Philadelphia was released in the twilight of 1993 to critical praise but discord among voices in the LGBTQ+ community, like Larry Kramer, who later re-evaluated his original dissension. The movie was groundbreaking for being one of the first positive mainstream depictions of homosexuals and for addressing the controversial HIV/AIDS crisis from the patient's perspective. Hanks was 100% cast as the gay protagonist because of his on-screen palatability, which was also how a film like Philadelphia secured a green light. Regardless of why he was chosen to play Andrew Beckett, Hanks transformed his body and the hearts and minds of audiences during a dark time in American History. Washington's performance was also pivotal, crafting a tonal shift through the attorney's metamorphosis from a man afraid of what he doesn't understand to a champion for equality. The acting team of Hanks and Washington, coupled with Bruce Springsteen's powerful, Oscar-winning original song "Streets of Philadelphia," is best paired with a box of Kleenex.

Philadelphia

PG-13

Drama

Release Date
January 14, 1994
Director
Jonathan Demme
Cast
Tom Hanks , Denzel Washington , Roberta Maxwell , Buzz Kilman , Karen Finley , Daniel Chapman , Mark Sorensen Jr. , Jeffrey Williamson

Runtime
125 Minutes

Main Genre
Drama

Writers
Ron Nyswaner

5 'Boys Don't Cry' (1999)

Directed by Kimberly Peirce

The 10 Best LGBTQ+ Movies With Great Acting, Ranked (22)

Based on the true story of slain trans man Brandon Teena (Hilary Swank), Boy's Don't Cry daringly depicts the tragic trajectory of his final days until his death at the age of twenty-one. Brandon left his home in rural Nebraska following a bar fight and subsequent police involvement to begin a new life where he was unknown. After relocating to Falls City, Nebraska, in 1993, Brandon meets and falls in love with Lana Tisdale (Chloë Sevigny), showering her with grandiose gestures paid for by forged checks. However, before he could be reprimanded for his crime, Lana's homophobic friends enacted their brand of violent justice by brutally raping and murdering Brandon because of his gender.

First-time director Kimberly Peirce knew she had to tell Brandon Teena's story after reading a 1994 article in The Village Voice about his murder. Indie film darling Sevigny was cast as Lana, but with four weeks until filming began, Peirce hadn't found an adequate personification of Brandon. Auditions continued until Swank walked in, then a relatively unknown actress. Sevigny and Swank understood the assignment, altering their physical appearances and mannerisms to varying degrees, from dieting to dyed, cropped coifs. The actresses were honored for their portrayals at the 2000 Academy Awards in the Best Actress and Supporting categories. Swank accepted the Best Actress trophy with a heartfelt thank you to Brandon Teena for being an inspiration and non-conformist. Through Peirce, Sevigny, and Swank, Brandon's story brought hate crime awareness to the masses with its unflinching portrayal of his fatal violation of human rights.

Boys Don't Cry

Run Time
1 hr 58 min

Director
Kimberly Peirce

Release Date
October 22, 1999

Actors
Hilary Swank, Chloë Sevigny, Peter Sarsgaard, Brendan Sexton III, Alison Folland

4 'Moonlight' (2016)

Directed by Barry Jenkins

The 10 Best LGBTQ+ Movies With Great Acting, Ranked (23)

Young Chiron (Alex R. Hibbert), who goes by the name "Little," is discovered hiding in a Miami crack house by a drug dealer named Juan (Mahershala Ali). Juan learns that Little is navigating life virtually alone, as his mother, Paula (Naomie Harris), is an addict. Juan and his girlfriend Teresa (Janelle Monáe) become a stable presence in his life, and Juan mentors the young boy, providing valuable life lessons. As Little ages, he reverts to his name, Chiron (Ashton Sanders), and is relentlessly tormented for presenting physical traits his peers deem effeminate. A tender, though complex, relationship develops with his childhood friend Kevin (Jharrel Jerome), but the reality of their union is impossible. In adulthood, Chiron has left Miami, adopting a new persona, "Black" (Trevante Rhodes), but he returns home, unable to escape the bond he once shared with Kevin (André Holland).

Based on Tarell Alvin McCraney's semi-autobiographical play, Moonlight is a three-part coming-of-age drama told by three different actors from the perspective of its protagonist, Chiron. The powerful film made headlines for several reasons, including the infamous 2017 Academy Awards Best Picture Winner snafu. However, Moonlight impacted audiences because of its authentic storytelling and the capable actors who brought McCraney and director Barry Jenkins' story to life. Harris is excellent as Paula (masterfully executed in an unbelievably tight three-day shoot), as is every actor portraying each iteration of Chiron and Kevin. Though he appeared in the film for a mere twenty minutes, Ali's performance as the mild-mannered, emotionally mature, street-savvy Juan is unforgettable. While Harris and Ali were (deservedly) recognized for their work during the awards season, the entire cast was integral in delivering Moonlight's emotional punch. Movies are consumed, and life goes on, but Moonlight is a cinematic example of viewing digestion that permeates thanks to the vulnerability of its gifted cast.

Moonlight

R

Drama

Where to Watch

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Release Date
October 21, 2016

Director
Barry Jenkins
Cast
Janelle Monae , Edson Jean , Alex R. Hibbert , Mahershala Ali , Ashton Sanders , Duan Sanderson , Jaden Piner , Shariff Earp , Patrick Decile , Naomie Harris , Rudi Goblen

Runtime
111 Minutes

Writers
Barry Jenkins

Budget
$1.5–4 million

Studio(s)
A24

Distributor(s)
A24

3 'Tár' (2022)

Directed by Todd Field

The 10 Best LGBTQ+ Movies With Great Acting, Ranked (29)

On the cusp of recording a career-defining symphony, renowned conductor Lydia Tár (international treasure Cate Blanchett) 's life and reputation are plunged into syncopated ruin by her own hand. The brilliant maestro's ascent to become the first female chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic is exposed, revealing an egregious misuse of dominion and sexual misconduct directed at young women. Her spouse, Sharon (Nina Hoss), the orchestra's concertmaster, literally has a front-row seat to witness Lydia's overt flirtations and short-sided pursuits. The ominous foreboding of a ticking metronome calibrates the audience's unease and uncertainty regarding Lydia's actions and those of her supposed victims in director Todd Field's exquisitely shot commentary on the perils of unchecked power.

Audiences worldwide expect no less than excellence when Blanchett's name is attached to a project. Unsurprisingly, she doesn't disappoint and brings the musical ruckus to Tár. The piano-playing, multilingual, full-bodied channeling of legends like conductor Leonard Bernstein reminded moviegoers of Blanchett's astonishing (seemingly endless) abilities. Fans waited in a suspended parade rest for the past sixteen years until auteur filmmaker Field returned, penning the role for Blanchett specifically. The insidiously delicious score, written and performed by Icelandic cellist Hildur Guðnadóttir and Tár's cavernously provocative art direction, assist in Blanchett's unbelievable embodiment of the misbehaving maestro. To her surprised delight, the Australian actress has become a lesbian icon following sapphic turns in Notes on a Scandal, Carol, and her Ocean's 8 character, Lou. Lydia Tár is a brilliant, certified mess; but she's an exquisitely executed, incomparable Field/Blanchett-made mess.

TÁR (2022)

Psychological

Drama

Release Date
October 7, 2022
Director
Todd Field
Cast
Cate Blanchett , Noemie Merlant , Nina Hoss , Sophie Kauer , Julian Glover

Runtime
2 hr 38 min

2 'Brokeback Mountain' (2005)

Directed by Ang Lee

The 10 Best LGBTQ+ Movies With Great Acting, Ranked (30)

Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) sign up for a summer of sheep herding in the mountains of Wyoming in 1963. The two cowboys arrive at Brokeback Mountain as strangers, but their connection sparks a flame that burns long after their work is done. Before the men depart from the mountain, emotions build to a fever pitch, and the new lovers come to blows. Ennis returns home and marries his longtime love, Alma (Michelle Williams), and the pair have two children. Meanwhile, Jack meets and marries Lurleen (Anne Hathaway), a spirited rodeo cowgirl in Texas. Try as they might, Ennis and Jack's affection for Alma and Lurleen couldn't hold a candle to their love for each other.

Ang Lee's hands-off directing style allowed Gyllenhaal and Ledger to settle into their Wranglers and channel the essence of their circa 1963 star-crossed cowboys in a 2005 ode to forbidden romance. While the film polarized some audiences, Brokeback Mountain's delivery and impact on mainstream cinema was epic. Gyllenhaal's frustrated line, "I wish I knew how to quit you," will live in infamy, as will his work as the lovelorn Jack Twist. The late Ledger is remembered for many roles, namely his spellbinding turn as the Joker in The Dark Knight, but his portrayal of Ennis Del Mar was singular in its quiet depth. Despite minimal dialogue, audiences felt the agonizing push and pull of Ennis's tortured existence as a rugged cowboy torn between societal norms and the reality of his heart. Oscar snubs and naysayers be damned, Brokeback Mountain is so much more than a "gay cowboy" movie.

Brokeback Mountain

R

Drama

Romance

Western

Where to Watch

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Release Date
September 10, 2005
Director
Ang Lee
Cast
Heath Ledger , Jake Gyllenhaal , Randy Quaid , Valerie Planche , Michelle Williams , Anne Hathaway

Runtime
134 minutes

Main Genre
Drama

Writers
Annie Proulx , Larry McMurtry , Diana Ossana

Studio
Focus Features

Tagline
Love is a force of nature

1 'Carol' (2015)

Director: Todd Haynes

The 10 Best LGBTQ+ Movies With Great Acting, Ranked (35)

Based on Patricia Highsmith's novel, The Price of Salt, Carol is a romance about an intimate relationship that develops between an older woman named Carol Aird (Cate Blanchett) and a young photographer, Therese Belivet (Rooney Mara), in the forbidden '50s. Carol is shopping at a New York City department store when she encounters Therese, who is employed as a sales clerk. Something undeniable passes between them, and the two women find clever, clandestine ways to see each other away from the prying eyes of Carol's estranged husband and Therese's clueless boyfriend. As their affection intensifies, so do the stakes of their scandalous affair, forcing them to choose between a life of happiness or social conformity.

Todd Haynes' nostalgically lush, full-blast big-screen Blanchett-led lesbian love story is a timeless gift to humanity. It's difficult to gauge if Highsmith would've approved of her semi-autobiographical work brought to life. Still, she'd be a lady-loving fool not to applaud Blanchett's make-a-wish fulfillment to queer women worldwide as the complacent housewife with a penchant for reticent younger women. Mara was paid to gaze longingly at Louis Vuitton's alabaster ambassador as Therese, the bashful shutterbug seduced by Blanchett, er, Carol's low timbre and dizzying collection of berets. The film's fandom is a global, ever-expanding phenomenon that celebrates 'Carol Day' (April 17th), Mara's birthday, and the filming date of Carol and Therese's sexual encounter. Audiences swooned, critics raved, and Blanchett added another Highsmith adaptation to her catalog in this rare example of a gay 'happy ever after.'

Carol

R

Drama

Documentary

Romance

Where to Watch

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*Availability in US

Release Date
November 20, 2015
Director
Todd Haynes
Cast
Cate Blanchett , Rooney Mara , Kyle Chandler , Sarah Paulson , Jake Lacy , John Magaro

Runtime
118

Main Genre
Drama

Writers
Phyllis Nagy , Patricia Highsmith

Tagline
Some people change your life forever.

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