Celebrate Pride With Out Magazine’s “25 Best Queer Films of the Century”

In 2024, the editors at Out, The Advocate, and PRIDE voted on the best LGBTQ+ films of the century so far.

To celebrate Pride this year, we are highlighting four movies from the list that showcase remarkable filmmakers presenting complex, moving stories about LGBTQ+ lives.

TÁR

Out Magazine writes that “Cate Blanchett delivers another tour de force, playing her [character] with intellectual and manipulative verve” as Lydia Tár in Todd Field’s TÁR. A brilliant conductor who commands the respect of the classical music world, Tár seems to have it all, including a marriage to Sharon (Nina Hoss), the concertmaster of the orchestra. "They do love each other,” Hoss tells Awards Watch. “They meet through this beauty that they’re producing through music.” But when rumors of improper behavior by Tár start to circulate, her perfectly orchestrated world falls apart. Blanchett “creates a study in power, passion, and entitlement in a movie so real it's immersive," writes Variety.

Watch TÁR on Apple TV or Amazon.

Pariah

“Pariah is a heartfelt and lyrical coming-of-age story that excavated the intersections of gender expression and sexual identity well before they became a part of daily discourse,” writes Out Magazine about the importance of Dee Rees’ debut feature. Alike (Adepero Oduye), a Black teen living in Brooklyn, struggles to understand how she fits into the world around her. “She knows she loves women. That's not her struggle,” Rees told NPR. “Her struggle's more how to be in the world." The Playlist writes, Pariah is “a film with a universal sensitivity that relates the pangs of first love, the desirous ache of adolescent sexuality and the excitement of not just discovering yourself but finding those kindred spirits with whom you can share your life.”

Watch Pariah on Apple TV or Amazon.

Milk

Highlighting Milk’s importance, Out Magazine writes, “Gay director Gus Van Sant’s biopic about the pioneering San Francisco politician Harvey Milk is a worthy chronicle of our movement in the 1970s and the life, career, and violent death of Milk, who became the first out gay person elected to office in California.” The film’s sweeping story captures the remarkable people who helped Milk (Sean Penn) rise to power from community activist to political powerhouse, as well as the tragic events that ended his life. The New York Times writes, “Harvey Milk was an intriguing, inspiring figure. Milk is a marvel.”

Watch Milk on Apple TV or Amazon.

Brokeback Mountain

Out Magazine writes that Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain “is a landmark in LGBTQ+ cinematic history, offering an unflinching portrayal of a same-sex romance during a time when such narratives were rarely treated with dignity in mainstream Hollywood.” The story of two cowboys—Ennis del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal)—who meet in the summer of 1963 herding sheep in Wyoming and find a love that will last the rest of their lives has touched nearly everyone who has seen it. As a cultural event, the movie forever shifted the American Western. As a movie, novelist Rick Moody wrote, “It's a great American love story.”

Watch Brokeback Mountain on Apple TV or Amazon.