Queer films, ranked by us
The canon you grew up on and the ones released last month — scored out of five rainbows by people who actually watched them. 🎬
What makes a great LGBTQ+ movie?
The best LGBTQ+ movies are the ones that still mean something now — not the ones that were merely well reviewed in their year. Every film here carries a Jibbi Score: our own rating, from half a rainbow to five, for how well it earns its place in the queer canon. We weigh three things: representation that holds up on a rewatch, whether the queer characters get interior lives rather than lessons, and whether the film is actually good.
Five rainbows currently go to Moonlight, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Brokeback Mountain, Paris Is Burning, Pride, All of Us Strangers and But I'm a Cheerleader. The score is ours and it is meant to be argued with — where we differ from Rotten Tomatoes, we say why on the film's own page.
Last updated
New this month
Queer films released this month, pulled from TMDB and refreshed nightly. Not yet rated — we have to watch them first.
Every film, ranked
DramaAll of Us Strangers
- 2023
- 96% RT
RomancePortrait of a Lady on Fire
- 2019
- 98% RT
DramaMoonlight
- 2016
- 98% RT
ComedyPride
- 2014
- 93% RT
RomanceBrokeback Mountain
- 2005
- 88% RT
ComedyBut I'm a Cheerleader
- 1999
- 43% RT
DocumentaryParis Is Burning
- 1990
- 99% RT
HorrorI Saw the TV Glow
- 2024
- 85% RT
ComedyBottoms
- 2023
- 91% RT
ComedyFire Island
- 2022
- 94% RT
ThrillerThe Handmaiden
- 2016
- 96% RT
RomanceCarol
- 2015
- 94% RT
ComedyTangerine
- 2015
- 96% RT
RomanceWeekend
- 2011
- 95% RT
MusicalHedwig and the Angry Inch
- 2001
- 92% RT
Frequently asked
What is the Jibbi Score?
The Jibbi Score is our own rating, from 0.5 to 5 rainbows, for how well a film earns its place in the queer canon. It is not a quality score — third-party ratings already do that. It weighs representation that holds up, whether queer characters get interior lives, and whether the film still lands today.
What is the best LGBTQ+ movie of all time?
Moonlight (2016) is our pick at five rainbows: three chapters following one Black gay man from childhood to adulthood in Miami, and the rare film that is both a landmark for representation and technically close to perfect. Portrait of a Lady on Fire and Brokeback Mountain are the other two we would put beside it.
Where do the Rotten Tomatoes and TMDB scores come from?
TMDB scores and posters come from the TMDB API, refreshed nightly. Rotten Tomatoes has had no public API since 2018, so Tomatometer figures come from Wikidata, which records many of them under an open CC0 licence. A film with no recorded Tomatometer simply shows no percentage.
What are the best older LGBTQ+ films to start with?
Paris Is Burning (1990) for the ballroom documentary that half of queer vocabulary came from, But I’m a Cheerleader (1999) for camp satire that has aged better than anything else from its year, and Brokeback Mountain (2005) for the one that broke through. Filter the list by Nostalgic to see everything from before 2010.