Queer cinema: the essential classics to get started

Queer cinema has decades of history, and some films became mandatory reference points — not only for their quality, but for what they meant at the time they came out. Here's a short guide to get started.

The ones that opened the door

• Paris is Burning (1990) — a documentary on New York's ballroom scene, the birthplace of voguing and much of today's queer vocabulary.
• My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) — one of the first gay love stories told without a tragic ending in British cinema.
• The Watermelon Woman (1996) — directed by Cheryl Dunye, a pioneer of independent Black lesbian cinema in the US.

The ones that reached the mainstream

• Moonlight (2016) — Best Picture Oscar winner, the story of a Black gay kid growing up in Miami.
• Carol (2015) — a lesbian romance in 1950s New York, starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara.
• Call Me by Your Name (2017) — a summer and first love between two men in 1980s Italy.
• Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) — a lesbian romance in 18th-century France, directed by Céline Sciamma.

Why they still hold up

Beyond the plot, these films document how storytelling around LGBTIQ+ lives in mainstream cinema changed (and didn't change) — from tragedy as the only narrative destiny to stories where queer love can simply... be a love story.