Time Out recently picked their top fifty LGBT movies of all time.

Time Out:

These are the most essential LGBTQ+ films ever made.

With the help of leading directors, actors, writers and activists, we count down the best LGBTQ+ films of all time.

LGBTQ+ cinema has never been better. Where, in years gone by, the majority of films have focused on the lives of (predominantly white) gay men, over the past decade there’s been a steady stream of quality films exploring the full gamut of the queer experience. Now, nearly every corner of the LGBTQ+ community lays a claim to the silver screen.

Of course, 2005’s Brokeback Mountainpushed queer cinema out of the closet, but in the nearly 20 years since films like Love, Simon, the first teen romantic comedy produced by a major studio to feature a gay lead character, Barry Jenkins’s Oscar winner Moonlight, 2017’s A Fantastic Woman, Céline Sciamma’s sumptuous Portrait of a Lady on Fire, vital French AIDS drama 120 Beats Per Minute and the groundbreaking Tangerine, shot entirely on iPhones, have provided brilliant, urgent and essential representations of all the different facets of queer life. There are even LGBTQ+ Christmas movies, like the Kristen Stewart-starring Happiest Season and Netflix’s Single All The Way, released in 2021.

Things in 2022 are only going to get better, too: comedian Billy Eichner will become the first openly gay man to write and star in a romatnic comedy for a major Hollywood studio with his film Bros, and the legendary Billy Porter makes his directorial debut with What If?, which is about a trans high school student who gets asked out by a boy she has a crush on. Pop heartthrob Harry Styles also stars in My Policeman, a period drama set in 1950s Brighton about a police officer who marries a woman while also embarking on a love affair with a gay museum curator.

Of course, there is still a long way to go before queer cinema is entirely mainstream, and as documentaries such as Disclosure demonstrate, there is a lot of work to be done, especially in terms of trans representation on screen. Nevertheless, it’s worth celebrating how far things have come in recent years. To celebrate, we asked some LGBTQ+ cultural pioneers and Time Out writers to help us put together the most essential LGBTQ+ films ever made. Here are the best 50 gay movies.

Here’s what made the cut:

50. The Children’s Hour (1961)

49. Bad Education (2004)

48. Show Me Love (1998)

47. Pariah (2011)

46. Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen (2020)

45. Stranger Inside (2001)

44. Paris Is Burning (1990)

43. Midnight Cowboy (1969)

42. A Fantastic Woman (2018)

41. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2020)

40. The Wizard of Oz (1939)

39. Parting Glances (1986)

38. By Hook or By Crook (2001)

37. Longtime Companion (1989)

36. 120 Beats Per Minute (2017)

35. Pink Narcissus (1971)

34. Moonlight (2016)

33. Fellini-Satyricon (1969)

32. Edward II (1991)

31. Pink Flamingos (1972)

30. The Terence Davies Trilogy (1983)

29. The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972)

28. God’s Own Country (2017)

27. Death in Venice (1971)

26. Bound (1996)

25. But I’m a Cheerleader (1999)

24. Transamerica (2005)

23. Scorpio Rising (1964)

22. Maurice (1987)

21. The Kids Are All Right (2010)

22. Shiva Baby (2020)

20. Pride (2014)

19. The Boys in the Band (1970)

18. Heavenly Creatures (1994)

17. The Hours (2002)

16. Fox and His Friends (1975)

15. Un Chant d’Amour (1950)

14. Weekend (2011)

13. The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Dessert (1996)

12. Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)

11. My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)

10. Orlando (1992)

9. Beautiful Thing (1996)

8. Call Me by Your Name (2017)

7. Ma Vie en Rose (1997)

6. The Killing of Sister George (1968)

5. All About My Mother (1999)

4. My Own Private Idaho (1991)

3. Happy Together (1997)

2. Boys Don’t Cry (1999)

1. Brokeback Mountain (2005)