The LGBTQ+ community’s ties to Hollywood and cinema have been deeply intertwined from the early days of the medium. And yet, the fight for authentic representation of queer people in film continues to be a rarity (especially when it comes to high-profile movies). With the 2025 movie schedule here, there’s quite a few LGBTQ+ titles to look forward to, and we’ve rounded up what to look forward to below.
Coming Soon
A Nice Indian Boy - April 4, 2025
Deadpool’s Karan Soni and Mindhunter’s Jonathan Groff play lovers who have to navigate family dynamics after falling in love and planning their own big Indian wedding in A Nice Indian Boy. When CinemaBlend spoke to Soni back in 2022, he shared he was making a gay rom-com with his partner, Roshan Sethi, whom he previously made an indie title called 7 Days with. The movie premiered at Sundance at the top of 2025 to a 100 percent Rotten Tomatoes score, with reviews that call it “charming,” “refreshing” and “moving”.
The Wedding Banquet - April 18, 2025
Following Lily Gladstone’s historical award season for her performance in Killers Of The Flower Moon and her queer role in Fancy Dance, the actor is moving to lighter fare with a remake of 1993’s The Wedding Banquet. The movie is directed by Fire Island’s Andrew Ahn as a “reimagination” of the Ang Lee classic, per IndieWire. The original movie centered on a gay Taiwanese man, and this time around the remake will feature two same-sex couples and Korean family dynamics. Bowen Yang, Kelly Marie Tran and Joan Chen are in the cast with Gladstone.
On Swift Horses - April 25, 2025
On Swift Horses has Will Poulter and Daisy Edgar-Jones playing a married couple who attempt to start a new life in California after Poulter’s Lee returns from his time serving the Korean War alongside his charismatic younger brother Julius (Jacob Elordi). But, things go into an unexpected direction for the three of them. Julius escapes to Vegas where he begins a queer relationship with a casino worker (Diego Calva) and Edgar-Jones’ Muriel explores her queer sexuality with her neighbor (played by Sasha Calle). The movie premiered at TIFF to positive reviews and was acquired by Sony Pictures Classics. However, a release date has yet to be determined.
I Don’t Understand You - June 6, 2025
Nick Kroll and Andrew Rannells play a wealthy Los Angeles gay couple in I Don’t Understand You who celebrate their 10th anniversary with a trip to Italy, and are on the verge of adopting a baby. In this horror comedy, their trip starts to go very wrong with a series of incidents that challenge their baby moon. It premiered at SXSW last year to favorable reactions calling it fun, funny with great performances by its leads.
Ponyboi - June 27, 2025
Last January, we caught Ponyboi at the Sundance Film Festival, and it reminded me of Uncut Gems, except it focused on a really important story about an intersex person. Starring newcomer River Gallo (who also wrote Ponyboi), the story follows a queer sex worker living in New Jersey who gets caught up with drug dealers thanks to her very shady pimp (played by Dylan O’Brien). It’s as tense as it is moving, and it’ll be out in time for Pride Month!
The Old Guard 2 - July 2, 2025
Back in 2020, Charlize Theron starred in Netflix’s The Old Guard, which was a massive hit on the streaming service. The action movie based on the comic of the same name memorably had two prominent queer love stories within it – between Marwan Kenzari and Luca Marinelli’s Joe and Nicky along with Charlize Theron and Veronica Ngô‘s Andy and Quynh. After the first movie allowed queer stories to be explicitly part of a movie about romance across centuries, we’re excited to see where things go with the sequel.
Downton Abbey 3 - September 12, 2025
Robert James-Collier’s Thomas Barrow is set to return as the Yorkshire country estate’s openly queer head butler. After the TV show and the past movies have explored Barrow’s sexuality intersected with what it meant to be gay in 1920’s Britain, we’re hoping his storyline will continue in the upcoming Downton Abbey movie. There is a rather massive cast including Hugh Bonneville, Paul Giamatti, Imelda Staunton and Dominic West, so here’s hoping the character doesn’t get lost in the mix.
Completed Movies With TBD Release Dates
The History Of Sound
Gladiator II’s Paul Mescal and Challengers’ Josh O’Connor are set to star as gay lovers in the backdrop of New England during World War I with The History Of Sound. Based on the short story with the same name by Ben Shattuck, it’s the story of two men who travel together in the summer of 1919 to record the folk songs of their countrymen in New England.
Twinless
During the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, James Sweeney’s black comedy Twinless premiered to positive reviews from critics. The movie starring Dylan O’Brien, Sweeney himself and Lauren Graham, is about two queer men who strike up a sexually intense friendship after meeting at a support group for twinless twins. Per Collider’s review, the movie’s approach to its LGBTQ+ themes is “subtle and seamlessly integrated”.
Kiss Of The Spider Woman
Jennifer Lopez and Diego Luna star in a new musical adaptation of the 1976 novel, Kiss Of the Spider Woman by Manuel Puig, which is considered a classic in queer literature. It’s about the unlikely friendship of two cellmates, one of whom is a gay hairdresser named Molina, in an Argentinian prison strike. Lopez plays a classic movie actress which Tonatiuh’s Molina imagines as “The Spider Woman” whilst Diego Luna plays Molina’s cellmate, Valentin. The movie premiered at Sundance to a standing ovation from audiences and positive reviews.
I Wish You All The Best
13 Reasons Why’s Tommy Dorfman (who came out as trans in 2021) has made her directorial debut with I Wish You All The Best. The movie based on the book with the same title (from nonbinary author Mason Deaver) is about Ben De Backer (Corey Fogelmanis), who comes out as nonbinary to their parents, only to be thrown out of their home and moves in with their estranged sister Hannah and her husband, Thomas (played by Alexandra Daddario and Cole Sprouse). The coming-of-age queer film was compared to Heartstopper in tone by The Hollywood Reporter.
Mother Mary
Anne Hathaway and Michaela Coel are set to play lovers in A24’s Mother Mary, from The Green Knight filmmaker David Lowery. Hathaway will play a pop star and Coel will play her iconic fashion designer. The movie will feature original tunes by Charli XCX and Jack Antonoff. We can’t wait to see these two leads mothering in what’s been called an “epic melodrama." You can check out the first dazzling look at the movie on Vanity Fair’s Instagram.
In Production
The Light Fantastic
In October 2024, Variety reported that the true story of a 30-something gay firefighter who aspires to be a professional ballroom dancer is set to become a comedy movie starring Rupert Everett, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett and Jeremy Irvine. The movie is set to begin production in early 2025 in the United Kingdom with choreography set to be provided by mother-son duo Shirley and Mark Ballas.
The Chronology Of Water
Last summer, Kristen Stewart finally helmed her directorial debut, The Chronology of Water, which is an adaptation of queer author Lida Yuknavitch’s memoir of the same name. Stewart has been talking about making the movie since 2021, but it took her some years to get the financing (and likely, time) to finally make the passion project.
Christy Martin Biopic
Back in November, Sydney Sweeney wrapped production on a boxing biopic where she’ll be portraying Christy Martin. When the movie was announced as Sweeney’s next project in May 2024, director David Michôd described it as “female Rocky”. The movie will explore Christy Martin’s identity as a gay woman who grew up in a conservative town in West Virginia in the 1990s. Michôd shared that she used boxing to “express herself and her rage”. She initially married James V. Martin, who attempted to murder her in 2010 before being found guilty of attempted second-degree murder. She later married former ring rival Lisa Holewyne in 2017.
In Development
Red, White And Royal Blue Sequel
After Red, White And Royal Blue had us feeling all the feelings with an Amazon Prime subscription, it was announced in May 2024 that a sequel is on the way. From what we know about Red, White And Royal Blue 2, Taylor Zakhar Perez and Nicholas Galitzine will reprise their roles as Alex Claremont-Diaz and Prince Henry and the original novel’s author Casey McQuiston is co-writing the movie with Matthew López. We cannot wait to learn what’s to come next after the first movie was one of our favorite rom-coms in recent years!
The Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo
One of the best mainstream LGBTQ+ novels in recent years that’s among upcoming book adaptations is a movie version of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. The Taylor Jenkins Reed book is about an iconic movie star from Old Hollywood who recounts the truth of her love life across her career to a reporter. The screenplay is being written by Little Fires Everywhere’s Liz Tigelaar and will be directed by Russian Doll co-creator Leslye Headland.
Will any of these be regarded as some of the best LGBTQ+ movies once they are released? We’ll keep you updated here and look forward to supporting these queer films.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
