The LGBTQ+ community’s ties to Hollywood and cinema have been deeply intertwined from the early days of the medium. And yet, the fight for authentic representation of queer people in film continues to be a rarity (especially when it comes to high-profile movies). With the 2025 movie schedule here (and Pride Month coming up very soon!) there’s quite a few LGBTQ+ titles to look forward to, and we’ve rounded up what to look forward to below.
Coming Soon
Ponyboi - June 27, 2025
Last January, I caught Ponyboi at the Sundance Film Festival, and it reminded me of Uncut Gems, except it focused on a really important story about an intersex person. Starring newcomer River Gallo (who also wrote Ponyboi), the story follows a queer sex worker living in New Jersey who gets caught up with drug dealers thanks to her very shady pimp (played by Dylan O’Brien). It’s as tense as it is moving, and it’ll be out in time for Pride Month.
The Old Guard 2 - July 2, 2025
Back in 2020, Charlize Theron starred in Netflix’s The Old Guard, which was a massive hit on the streaming service. The action movie based on the comic of the same name memorably had two prominent queer love stories within it – between Marwan Kenzari and Luca Marinelli’s Joe and Nicky along with Charlize Theron and Veronica Ngô‘s Andy and Quynh. After the first movie allowed queer stories to be explicitly part of a movie about romance across centuries, we’re excited to see where things go with the sequel.
Honey Don’t! - August 22, 2025
In 2024, Ethan Coen and wife Tricia Cooke made Drive-Away Dolls, which they called the first of their planned “Lesbian B-Movie Trilogy”, which continues with this summer’s Honey Don’t. The dark comedy once again stars Margaret Qualley as a lesbian private eye named Honey Donahue who gets embroiled in a series of strange deaths tied to a mysterious church in the movie also starring Aubrey Plaza, Charlie Day, Billy Eichner and Chris Evans. I can’t wait for this one.
Twinless - September 5, 2025
During the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, James Sweeney’s black comedy Twinless premiered to positive reviews from critics. The movie starring Dylan O’Brien, Sweeney himself and Lauren Graham, is about two queer men who strike up a sexually intense friendship after meeting at a support group for twinless twins. Per Collider’s review, the movie’s approach to its LGBTQ+ themes is “subtle and seamlessly integrated”. Now it officially has a fall release date.
Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale - September 12, 2025
Robert James-Collier’s Thomas Barrow is set to return as the Yorkshire country estate’s openly queer head butler. After the TV show and the past movies have explored Barrow’s sexuality intersected with what it meant to be gay in in early 1900s rBritain, we’re hoping his storyline will continue in the upcoming third Downton Abbey movie, officially named The Grand Finale. There is a rather massive cast including Hugh Bonneville, Paul Giamatti, Imelda Staunton and Dominic West, so here’s hoping the character doesn’t get lost in the mix.
The History Of Sound - September 12, 2025
Gladiator II’s Paul Mescal and Challengers’ Josh O’Connor are set to star as gay lovers in the backdrop of New England during World War I with The History Of Sound. Based on the short story with the same name by Ben Shattuck, it’s the story of two men who travel together in the summer of 1919 to record the folk songs of their countrymen in New England.
After The Hunt - October 10, 2025
One of my favorite queer filmmakers right now is Luca Guadagnino, who always bring an LGBTQ+ flair to his movies whether it's a straight forward queer film like Call Me By Your Name or literally his movie Queer, or through his genre work in Suspiria, Bones And All or last year’s Challengers. His latest film is about a college professor (played by Julia Roberts) who finds herself between a rock and hard place when her star pupil makes a serious allegation against one of her colleagues. Per Deadline, the inciting event leads to a “dark secret from her own past to come to light.” Bisexual actresses Ayo Edebiri and Chloë Sevigny are also in the cast along with Andrew Garfield.
Kiss Of The Spider Woman - October 10, 2025
Jennifer Lopez and Diego Luna star in a new musical adaptation of the 1976 novel, Kiss Of the Spider Woman by Manuel Puig, which is considered a classic in queer literature. It’s about the unlikely friendship of two cellmates, one of whom is a gay hairdresser named Molina, in an Argentinian prison strike. Lopez plays a classic movie actress which Tonatiuh’s Molina imagines as “The Spider Woman” whilst Diego Luna plays Molina’s cellmate, Valentin. The movie premiered at Sundance to a standing ovation from audiences and positive reviews.
Blue Moon - October 24, 2025
Acclaimed filmmaker Richard Linklater, who has done the Before Sunrise movies, School of Rock and Boyhood, has made a musical biopic about American lyricist Lorenz Hart, who struggled throughout his life with shame over his queer identity. Ethan Hawke is playing Lorenz with Margaret Qualley, Bobby Cannavale and Andrew Scott (playing Richard Rodgers) also among the cast. Hart famously wrote songs like “Blue Moon,” “The Lady Is A Tramp,” and “My Funny Valentine,” and famously worked alongside Richard Rodgers on 28 stage musicals.
Scream 7 - February 27, 2026
While the Scream movies haven’t always explicitly been LGBTQ+ movies, they’ve pretty much always had a following from the community due to its queer subtext. The original writer of the movie Kevin Williamson is gay himself and while he’s said before was “very hesitant” to present this side of himself in the 1990s, audiences noticed a queer subtext regarding the original Ghostface killers, Matthew Lillard and Skeet Ulrich’s Stu and Billy. More explicit queer representation has been part of the new Scream movies with the addition of Jasmin Savoy-Brown’s Mindy Meeks-Martin being a LGBTQ+ character, who we’re excited to see return in the seventh movie alongside a mix of new and legacy actors including Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Matthew Lillard, Scott Foley, Joel McHale, Mason Gooding, Anna Camp, Celeste O’Connor and Mckenna Grace.
Completed Movies With TBD Release Dates
Cactus Pears
The LGBTQ+ community of India is getting even more rare representation after Karan Soni’s and Jonathan Groff’s affecting movie, A Nice Indian Boy. The romantic drama is helmed by first-time filmmaker Rohan Parashuram Kanawade, and is about a man named Anaud who returns to his hometown after a death in his family and sparks fly when he reconnects with a childhood friend, Balya. It already premiered at Sundance Film Festival and won the Grand Jury Prize in the Dramatic category.
Jimpa
Another Sundance LGBTQ+ movie without a release date yet is Jimpa, starring Olivia Colman as the mother of nonbinary teen Frances, who travel to Amsterdam to visit their gay grandfather Jim (known as Jimpa and played by John Lithgow). When Frances asks her mom if she can live with Jimpa for a year, Colman’s character is faced with reexamining her relationship with her child.
The Chronology Of Water
Last summer, Kristen Stewart finally helmed her directorial debut, The Chronology of Water, which is an adaptation of queer author Lida Yuknavitch’s memoir of the same name. Stewart has been talking about making the movie since 2021, but it took her some years to get the financing (and likely, time) to finally make the passion project.
I Wish You All The Best
13 Reasons Why’s Tommy Dorfman (who came out as trans in 2021) has made her directorial debut with I Wish You All The Best. The movie based on the book with the same title (from nonbinary author Mason Deaver) is about Ben De Backer (Corey Fogelmanis), who comes out as nonbinary to their parents, only to be thrown out of their home and moves in with their estranged sister Hannah and her husband, Thomas (played by Alexandra Daddario and Cole Sprouse). The coming-of-age queer film was compared to Heartstopper in tone by The Hollywood Reporter.
Mother Mary
Anne Hathaway and Michaela Coel are set to play lovers in A24’s Mother Mary, from The Green Knight filmmaker David Lowery. Hathaway will play a pop star and Coel will play her iconic fashion designer. The movie will feature original tunes by Charli XCX and Jack Antonoff. We can’t wait to see these two leads mothering in what’s been called an “epic melodrama." You can check out the first dazzling look at the movie on Vanity Fair’s Instagram.
In Production
The Light Fantastic
In October 2024, Variety reported that the true story of a 30-something gay firefighter who aspires to be a professional ballroom dancer is set to become a comedy movie starring Rupert Everett, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett and Jeremy Irvine. The movie is set to begin production in early 2025 in the United Kingdom with choreography set to be provided by mother-son duo Shirley and Mark Ballas.
Christy Martin Biopic
Back in November, Sydney Sweeney wrapped production on a boxing biopic where she’ll be portraying Christy Martin. When the movie was announced as Sweeney’s next project in May 2024, director David Michôd described it as “female Rocky”. The movie will explore Christy Martin’s identity as a gay woman who grew up in a conservative town in West Virginia in the 1990s. Michôd shared that she used boxing to “express herself and her rage”. She initially married James V. Martin, who attempted to murder her in 2010 before being found guilty of attempted second-degree murder. She later married former ring rival Lisa Holewyne in 2017.
Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma
After director Jane Scheonbrun made one of the best LGBTQ+ movies of last year, that even got a shoutout from Martin Scorsese, I Saw The TV Glow, the trans filmmaker has another movie on the way, per Deadline. It’s called Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma, and it’s about a famed slasher franchise called Camp Miasma that’s getting rebooted again, but the director starts to become obsessed with the reclusive actress who originally played the franchise’s “final girl,” the project takes a turn. The movie is set to star Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson. It’s going to be filmed this summer.
In Development
Burning Rainbow Farm
Sebastian Stan and Leo Woodall are expected to star as a real-life gay couple in rural Michigan who build a “pot-friendly utopia called Rainbow Farm”, per The Hollywood Reporter. However, when their young son is taken from them after local authorities catch wind of them, “one of the largest and most dramatic sieges involving police and the FBI” ensues. The events happened back in 2001 and the story was previously told through a book by Dean Kuipers.
The Heartstopper Movie
After Heartstopper has had us in our feelings for three seasons on Netflix, it has been announced that Nick and Charlie’s romance will get a sendoff via a movie called Heartstopper: The Final Chapter. It’ll be about the couple’s struggles as they deal with the realities of being long distance when they go to different universities. Joe Locke and Kit Connor will not only star, they are also executive producing.
Red, White And Royal Blue Sequel
After Red, White And Royal Blue had us feeling all the feelings with an Amazon Prime subscription, it was announced in May 2024 that a sequel is on the way. From what we know about Red, White And Royal Blue 2, Taylor Zakhar Perez and Nicholas Galitzine will reprise their roles as Alex Claremont-Diaz and Prince Henry and the original novel’s author Casey McQuiston is co-writing the movie with Matthew López. We cannot wait to learn what’s to come next after the first movie was one of our favorite rom-coms in recent years.
The Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo
One of the best mainstream LGBTQ+ novels in recent years that’s among upcoming book adaptations is a movie version of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. The Taylor Jenkins Reed book is about an iconic movie star from Old Hollywood who recounts the truth of her love life across her career to a reporter. The screenplay is being written by Little Fires Everywhere’s Liz Tigelaar and will be directed by Russian Doll co-creator Leslye Headland.
Will any of these be regarded as some of the best LGBTQ+ movies once they are released? We’ll keep you updated here and look forward to supporting these queer films.
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