The 10 best LGBTQ+ films of 2023

This year’s crop of queer films has proven much more diverse and rich than in past years. In 2023, queer women and people of color occupied the screen space where cisgender gay white men once ruled. Also, the old storylines of struggle under queerphobia gave way to queer folks of all ages defiantly finding their power and unapologetically standing in the foreground.

This list shares 10 of the best queer films of the year. While it no doubt excludes a handful of other great queer cinema offerings, it nonetheless demonstrates how our stories as depicted onscreen have become much more vibrant and willful, even as our enemies redouble their efforts to attack and erase us.

Related:

These 6 LGBTQ+ holiday movies are a must-watch this Christmas

Let’s make the yuletide gay.

Cassandro

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In this upbeat biopic, award-winning actor Gael García Bernal plays Saúl Armendáriz, a Mexican immigrant who gains fame as Cassandro, a real-life gay exótico (drag) lucha libre wrestler who was known for wearing makeup and animal prints in the ring and for drawing power from the homophobic opposition he faced in the traditionally macho sport.

Starring alongside Latinx actors Bad Bunny and Raúl Castillo (who appeared in the gay HBO series Looking), Bernal’s fantastic chemistry with his female coach and closeted boyfriend makes for a glorious drama filled with jaw-dropping wrestling scenes that have delighted and inspired viewers.

Bottoms

Lesbian high school underdogs PJ (Rachel Sennott) and Josie (Ayo Edebiri) are helplessly infatuated with two seemingly straight female cheerleaders. When they’re falsely accused of assaulting the school’s babyfaced star football player, the girls claim the alleged attack was actually just a part of their new female self-defense club.

Though they hope the club will make them seem more attractive to their cheerleader crushes, the scheme soon devolves into hilariously violent chaos as other female misfits join the club, eager to finally disrupt their school’s social hierarchy.

Lesbian film fans may also be interested in the much more serious 2023 film Nyad, which features ally Annette Benning as Diana Nyad, a real-life lesbian swimmer who became the first person ever to swim from Cuba to Florida.

Kokomo City

Because of the violence and oppression they face, Black trans women sex workers are often depicted as tragic victims-in-waiting. But this debut film from trans music producer D. Smith showcases surprisingly humanizing and insightful interviews with four Black trans sex workers in Atlanta, Georgia, and New York City (as well as some of their cis-male clients) in a way that feels fresh, immediate, endlessly engaging, and definitely overdue.

The women’s matter-of-fact views on navigating male sexuality underscore the women’s raw power and depict a rarely seen underworld. Sadly, one of the women, Rasheeda Williams (aka. Koko da Doll) was murdered a few months after the film’s Sundance debut. It’s worth noting that another 2023 documentary, The Stroll, provides an alternate, historic look at Black and Latina trans sex workers who frequented New York City’s Meatpacking District in the 1980s and ’90s.

Saltburn

Bisexual desire and class consciousness boil over in this darkly comedic tale of Oliver, an Oxford University student who befriends his rich classmate, Felix, and joins him for a stay at his family’s palatial estate. While the film delights in the cutting, deprecating dialogue of Felix’s family and the debauchery of young people enjoying excesses of pleasure, a dark intensity runs throughout the film as its twists reveal what’s underneath Oliver’s fascination with Felix and his family.

Every Body

Although an estimated 1.7% of the world population is intersex, roughly totaling the entire population of Japan, intersex folks are rarely portrayed in film. Every Body challenges that unfortunate trend — as well as the oppressive conservative belief in the gender binary — by presenting three thriving intersex adults who have navigated the childhood shame and secrecy surrounding their biological identities.

The film doubles as activism, advocating against the non-consensual childhood surgeries that some intersex individuals endure and offering a model of how strong-willed individuals can challenge a system that seeks to force everyone into a “male-or-female” checkbox.

Nimona

Based on the 2015 futuristic graphic novel of the same name, this hyperactive children’s film and trans allegory follows a plucky young outcast shapeshifter (voiced by queer actress Chloë Grace Moretz) who teams up with a gay rogue knight (voiced by British-Pakistani rapper Riz Ahmed) who must evade capture after he’s accused a dastardly crime.

Naturally, the lower-born knight and his magical apprentice both demonstrate the various ways that “respectable society” mistreats and suspects outsiders. But the fluid animation style and nonstop action make it perfect for young viewers or a family film night.

Frybread Face and Me

Eleven-year-old Billy wants to spend his summer attending a Fleetwood Mac concert and hanging out in his hometown of San Diego. Unluckily for him, his father sends him to his grandmother’s sheep ranch on an Arizona reservation, where he befriends an adolescent boy nicknamed Frybread Face and slowly becomes acquainted with a Native American culture that he’s never experienced.

This light-hearted coming-of-age tale doesn’t feature any explicitly queer scenes, but its gay director Billy Luther provides weighty ponderous moments as Billy explores the feminine and masculine influences in his own life. It’s worth noting that another 2023 film, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, also explores a coming-of-age friendship between two boys who don’t always feel connected to their ethnic identities.

All of Us Strangers

Gay British director Andrew Haigh is best known among gay viewers for his 2011 mumblecore gay romance film Weekend and his short-lived gay HBO romantic series Looking. His latest film presents a loose adaptation of a 1987 novel by Japanese author Taichi Yamada.

Just as Adam (played by gay actor Andrew Scott) strikes up an unexpected romance with his mysterious neighbor, Harry, he feels compelled to visit his childhood home. There, he discovers his parents living together, just as they did when he was young, even though they’ve been dead for decades. The resulting ghost story offers a moving double-portrait of romantic and familial love and an exploration of how each one shapes our future and past.

Mutt

Earlier this year, trans actress Trace Lysette appeared in Monica, a heartbreaking film about a pensive and standoffish trans woman who tries to reconnect with her estranged mother who is dying of dementia-like symptoms. Comparatively, Mutt throws off the tragic trope of trans people inarticulately reconnecting with their disapproving parents by presenting Feña, a young trans man who returns to his New York City family whom he grew distant from while transitioning.

The film follows Feña as he reconnects with his ex-boyfriend, younger sister, and parents, running errands while navigating microaggressions and misunderstandings as his newly transitioned self. While the hustle and bustle of the city establish a somewhat exhausting emotional pace, Feña emerges as a defiant hero determined to live authentically and to love fiercely, even as others push against his male identity.

Rotting in the Sun

Some gay film fans have fawned over the hilariously raunchy (and very gay) musical Dicks, which is kind of like Disney’s The Parent Trap, except with a gay dad, a gay God, Megan Thee Stallion, and two sewer gremlins. But most viewers have overlooked Rotting in the Sun, a drug-fueled, metafictional dark comedy with tons of male frontal nudity, something that’s notable considering how timid most films remain around depicting gay sexuality.

In the film, Chilean director Sebastián Silva plays a ketamine-addicted version of himself who becomes sexually and professionally involved with Jordan Firstman, a real-life comedian who also plays a self-absorbed version of himself. When the two meet on a gay nude beach, Firstman propositions Silva to help him develop his upcoming TV show.

But when Silva goes missing, Firstman begins antagonizing Silva’s meek housekeeper and imploring his social media followers to track down his hot meal ticket. The end result provides a metafictional look at how white U.S. expats have taken over Mexico City to pursue their underfunded dreams and the tolls their presence takes on the city’s poorer natives.