30 Days of Pride: Your Ultimate LGBTQ+ Film Guide

June 205 marked 55 years since the first Pride march took place in New York City on June 28, 1970. While there are countless ways to celebrate Pride Month, from marches and parades to supporting LGBTQ+ businesses, we love how film has played a pivotal role in shedding light on the experiences, struggles, joys, and triumphs of the LGBTQ+ community for over a century. Ever since two men slow-danced together in the 1895 short film The Dickson Experimental Sound Film, LGBTQ+ stories have always shined on screen. To celebrate this year’s major milestone, we’ve curated a playlist of 30 LGBTQ+ stories, one for every day of Pride Month. From documentaries about history-changing pioneers to heartfelt romances celebrating queer love, these films underscore the boundless creativity and impact of LGBTQ+ directors, people, and culture. Stream all 30 films now on Kino Film Collection, and happy Pride Month! 

Skin Deep (2023)

Winner of the Queer Lion at the Venice Film Festival, "Skin Deep" subverts genre and gender as it flows between body swap thriller and intimate relationship drama. While on a retreat to try to salvage their relationship, Leyla and Tristan join another couple in a ritual to exchange bodies. What emerges is a story that embraces the endless fluid possibilities of what it means to truly love someone.

Little Trouble Girls (2025)

During a weekend choir trip, an introverted Catholic school girl must navigate unfamiliar surroundings, complex teenage social structures, and her own awakening sexuality. This stunning and electrifying feature debut by award-winning Slovenian filmmaker Urška Djukić had its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival and won the Best Cinematography prize at Tribeca.

Private Desert (2021)

When his gender-fluid internet girlfriend Sara goes missing, suspended police academy instructor Daniel drives 2,000 miles across Brazil to look for her. What follows is a journey of the heart and a triumphant affirmation of queer love and humanity. Venice Film Festival winner “Private Desert” is a swooning sun-baked romance and a powerful examination of masculinity.

Don't Call Me Son (2016)

When a Brazilian teenager learns he was stolen at birth, he's forced to leave his working-class home for his wealthy biological family. But his gender expression and identity clash with their expectations, challenging ideas of family, acceptance, and belonging in this bold coming-of-age drama and Berlin Film Festival winner.

Tom of Finland (2017)

The proudly erotic drawings of artist Touko Laaksonen, known to the world as Tom of Finland, shaped the fantasies of a generation of gay men, influencing art and fashion. This stirring biopic follows his life from the trenches of WWII and repressive Finnish society through to when he and his art were finally embraced amid the sexual revolution of the 1970s.

Daddy & The Muscle Academy (1992)

Tom of Finland (born Touko Laaksonen) is one of the major icons of the gay world. Taking inspiration from his World War II army days, 1950s American bodybuilding magazines and biker movies, Tom's erotic drawings of uniformed and leather-clad beefcake have become a permanent fixture of 20th-century iconography. Completed shortly before his death in 1991, this definitive documentary of the man and the artist combines interviews with Tom himself, commentary from his "leather men," hundreds of original drawings and steamy fantasy scenes inspired by his work. 

Coming June 11, 2026

Aimee & Jaguar (1999)

In 1943 Berlin, a Nazi officer's wife meets and starts a passionate affair with a Jewish woman.

Sebastian (2024)

Max is a young writer living in London and paying his dues working at a literary magazine. On the cusp of finding success, by night he moonlights as a sex worker in order to research his debut novel. This Sundance Film Festival selection from writer-director Mikko Mäkelä explores the transgressive power of queer sexuality and the transformative impact that can result from embracing a new identity.

When Night Is Falling (1995)

In Patricia Rozema’s lesbian love story, Camille, a professor at a Protestant college meets Petra, a wry and flamboyant performer in a modern Felliniesque circus troupe, and is inexplicably drawn. Camille pursues this sensual, dream-like woman, throwing her whole conservative life, not to mention her engagement to a respected minister, into disarray.

Drifter (1974)

A West Coast response to Midnight Cowboy, Drifter observes the odyssey of an emotionally ambivalent bisexual hustler (Joed Adair) as he wanders through a series of relationships with men and women, yearning for a sense of belonging in a Southern California characterized by impersonal pick-ups and sex for hire.

Poison (1991)

Winner of the Grand Jury Prizes at both the Sundance and Berlin Film Festivals, "Poison", directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Todd Haynes ("Carol"), is a groundbreaking American indie film and a trailblazing landmark of queer cinema that made national headlines when it was attacked by right-wing figures.

Denise Ho: Becoming the Song (2020)

"Denise Ho – Becoming the Song" profiles the openly gay Hong Kong singer and human rights activist Denise Ho. Drawing on unprecedented access, the film explores her remarkable journey from Cantopop superstar to outspoken political activist and artist who has put her career on the line to support the determined struggle of Hong Kong citizens to maintain their identity and freedom.

The Man With the Answers (2020)

"The Man with the Answers" is a picture-postcard travelogue and tender story of self-discovery that follows a former Greek diving champion and an eccentric German student who take an adventurous road trip of rediscovery from Bari to Bavaria after an unexpected phone call summons him to Germany.

Against the Current (2021)

Veiga Grétarsdóttir is the first person in the world to attempt to kayak over 2,000 kilometers around Iceland, counter-clockwise and “against the current.” Veiga’s personal journey is no less remarkable. She was born 44 years ago as a boy in a fishing village and at the age of 38 decided to undergo gender reassignment.

Prey For Rock and Roll (2003)

This fist-pumping LGBTQ+ touchstone and rock and roll cult classic stars the electrifying Gina Gershon as Jacki, a rocker who worries she may never make it big. Along with bandmates played by Drea de Matteo, Lori Petty, and Shelly Cole, she has spent years of struggle playing gigs up and down the Sunset Strip. But when that break finally arrives, their lives are turned upside down.

Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt (1989)

Started in a San Francisco storefront by the NAMES Project, the AIDS Memorial Quilt grew to 8,288 handmade panels by 1988, each honoring a life lost. Filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman witnessed the quilt’s early days and captured the personal stories woven into this monument, a powerful record of grief, resilience, and activism that won the 1989 Academy Award for Best Documentary.

Caravaggio (1986)

Derek Jarman's profound reflection on art, sexuality and identity retells the life of the celebrated 17th-century painter through his brilliant, nearly blasphemous paintings and his flirtations with the underworld. The painter's precise aesthetic makes up the movie's visuals, and touches Jarman's major concerns: history, homosexuality, violence and the relationship between painting and film.

Flaming Ears (1992)

This pop sci-fi lesbian extravaganza set in the year 2700 in the fictional burned-out city of Asche follows the tangled lives of three women. Truly underground and shot on Super 8, "Flaming Ears" is original for its playful disruption of narrative conventions, its witty approach to film genre, and its punk visual splendor.

Colonel Redl (1984)

Set in the lead up to WWI, István Szabó's Cannes Grand Jury-winning and Academy Award nominated film charts the rise of Alfred Redl to head of counterintelligence of the Austro-Hungarian Army. His hidden homosexuality, however, is used against him by enemies of the state, putting both his professional standing and his country's security in dire straits.

The Wound (2017)

Shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, "The Wound" is an exploration of tradition and sexuality set amid South Africa’s Xhosa culture that caused controversy and sparked crucial conversations in its home country.

The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye (2011)

This tender portrait of music pioneer Genesis P-Orridge and their partner, dominatrix Lady Jaye, was filmed over the course of seven years and completed following Lady Jaye’s sudden death in 2007. Integrating home movies, stylishly staged tableaux, and archival footage, this documentary poignantly centers on the body modification that brought the couple together.

The Garden (1990)

Directed by Derek Jarman and starring Tilda Swinton, this kaleidoscopic film shows the filmmaker’s genius at its most coruscating, featuring an over-the-top Hollywood-style musical number, nightmare images of tar-and-feather queer persecution, and footage of the particularly menacing-looking nuclear power plant that overlooks Jarman’s own garden.

Loving Highsmith (2022)

This unique look at celebrated author Patricia Highsmith is based on her diaries, notebooks, and reflections of her lovers, friends, and family. Focusing on her quest for love and her troubled identity, the film sheds new light on the thriller writer’s life and oeuvre. Many of her novels were adapted for the big screen, including Alfred Hitchcock's “Strangers on a Train” and Todd Haynes' “Carol."

Wittgenstein (1993)

A humorous portrait of one of the 20th century’s most influential philosophers, Ludwig Wittgenstein. This self-tortured Viennese eccentric, who preferred detective fiction and the musicals of Carmen Miranda to Aristotle, is a fitting subject for Derek Jarman’s irreverent imagination. A profoundly entertaining work about modern philosophy and the dark genius that revolutionized it.

Kamikaze Hearts (1986)

Alternately distressing, instructive, contestable, and fascinating, Juliet Bashore’s quasi-documentary plunges into the 1980s porn industry and takes an unsparing look at issues of misogyny, drug abuse, and exploitation via the story of two women—the naive newcomer Tigr and her partner, the magnetic, imperious porn veteran Sharon Mitchell — caught in a toxic romance.

Pasolini (2019)

Abel Ferrara's "Pasolini"​ stars frequent collaborator Willem Dafoe as film director Pier Paolo Pasolini and chronicles the final hours before his death. Facing persecution from the public, politicians, and critics, Pasolini visits with his beloved mother and friends - all the while cruising in his Alfa Romeo for adventure and connections with beautiful younger men in the dark streets of Rome.

The Man Who Drove With Mandela (1998)

In 1962, at the height of oppression in apartheid South Africa, a gay white theater director was arrested with Nelson Mandela. His name was Cecil Williams. This is his story. Winner of the Best Documentary award at the 1999 Berlin Film Festival.

A Bigger Splash (1974)

In this intimate and innovative film about artist David Hockney, director Jack Hazan creates an improvisatory narrative-nonfiction hybrid. The result is at once a time capsule of hedonistic gay life in the 1970s and an honest-yet-tender depiction of gay male romance. A true classic, "A Bigger Splash" is an invaluable view of art history in action.

52 Tuesdays (2013)

16-year-old Billie's reluctant path to independence is accelerated when her mother reveals plans for a gender transition and their time together becomes limited to Tuesday afternoons.