The 15+ Best LGBTQ+ Movies Of 2019, Ranked by Fans

In 2019, queer cinema didn’t quietly sit in the “niche” cornerit staged a full-on takeover.
From glitter-soaked musical biopics to aching festival romances and sharp teen comedies,
LGBTQ+ stories showed up everywhere: in multiplexes, on streaming platforms, at Pride month
marathons, and in endless stan threads arguing about which film deserved the crown.

This fan-powered list pulls together the 15+ best LGBTQ+ movies of 2019, ranked through the lens
of audience love: crowd-voting platforms, audience scores, social media buzz, rewatch culture,
and long-tail fandom. Think of it as a curated snapshot of what real viewers kept talking about,
quoting, crying over, defending on Twitter, and insisting their friends watch “right now.”

How We Built This Fan Ranking

Instead of relying only on critics, this ranking leans into:

• User-vote lists and fan rankings (e.g., community-driven movie lists and polls).
• Audience scores on major platforms (Rotten Tomatoes, IMDb, Letterboxd).
• Ongoing social conversations: memes, fan art, watch parties, and streaming longevity.

The result isn’t a sterile “top 10,” but a living, breathing list of queer films that viewers
actually connected withmessy, emotional, joyful, political, controversial, and unforgettable.

The 15+ Best LGBTQ+ Movies Of 2019, Ranked by Fans

1. Rocketman

Loud, glittery, emotional, and unapologetically gay, Rocketman turns Elton John’s
life into a fantasy-rock musical that leans into his sexuality instead of sidelining it. Unlike
more sanitized musician biopics, fans embraced how frankly it portrays queer desire, addiction,
shame, and eventual self-acceptanceall wrapped in stadium-ready musical numbers. It’s comfort
viewing for anyone who wants a big, bold mainstream film that never treats queerness as a mere
subplot.

2. Booksmart

Is Booksmart “an LGBTQ+ movie”? Fans say yesenthusiastically. Amy’s queer story
isn’t about trauma or coming out; she’s already out, awkward, and trying to flirt with the skater
girl at the pool party. Revolutionary concept: the lesbian co-lead gets to be funny, cringey, and
fully human without being sacrificed for a Very Important Lesson. Queer audiences fell hard for its
mix of sharp writing, wild one-night adventure energy, and casually inclusive world.

3. Portrait of a Lady on Fire

For many viewers, this is the queer film of 2019: a slow-burn romance between painter and
muse that weaponizes eye contact. Every frame feels like a painting; every silence, a scream.
Fans praise it for centering women’s gaze, desire, and agency, and for refusing cheap melodrama.
It’s the go-to recommendation when someone says, “I want a love story that destroys me in a good way.”

4. Giant Little Ones

A tender, nuanced coming-of-age story that resonated deeply with younger queer and questioning
audiences. After an intimate encounter upends a friendship, the film sidesteps labels and instead
explores fluidity, masculinity, and the pressure to “define” yourself on everyone else’s timeline.
Fans connect with its refusal to force tidy answersor punish characters for not fitting a box.

5. The Perfection

Equal parts twisted horror ride and queer revenge fantasy, The Perfection became a
word-of-mouth phenomenon. Two women, a prestigious music academy, trauma, obsession, and a third-act
escalation that made viewers immediately text: “You HAVE to see this.” While polarizing, its wild,
unapologetic embrace of queer women at the center of a genre story helped it earn cult-favorite
status.

6. End of the Century

This quiet Argentine romance snuck up on fans and never left. Two men meet in Barcelona, then realize
they may have met decades earlier. The film drifts between timelines and possibilities, becoming less
about “will they/won’t they” and more about memory, missed chances, and the lives queer people build
(or don’t) when they’re finally allowed options. It’s a staple for viewers who like their queer cinema
introspective, intimate, and honest.

7. My Days of Mercy

A death penalty protest, a divided country, and two women on opposite sides of the issue who fall in
love anyway. Fans praise My Days of Mercy for its chemistry, moral complexity, and
for letting a queer love story sit inside a fraught political landscape without reducing either woman
to a cliché. It’s romantic, sad, thought-provokingand a reminder that queer characters can lead
serious dramas without being tokenized.

8. Wild Nights with Emily

Tired of the tragic, lonely Emily Dickinson myth? This film said “what if we didn’t lie about her
girlfriend?” and audiences loved it. Molly Shannon’s Emily is witty, passionate, and very much in love
with Susan. With its playful tone and researched-backed queerness, fans embraced it as both a reclamation
and a delightfully nerdy queer comedy.

9. Tell It to the Bees

Set in a small Scottish town in the 1950s, this romance between a doctor and a single mother taps into
all the classic forbidden love beats: gossiping neighbors, whispered secrets, stolen moments. While
critical response was mixed, plenty of viewers connected with its lush period aesthetics and emotionally
charged depiction of two women trying to build something real in a world determined to punish them.

10. Vita & Virginia

Literary gays, this one’s for you. Based on the real-life relationship between Vita Sackville-West and
Virginia Woolf, the film draws fans with its costumes, performances, and unapologetically queer framing of
a story often straight-washed in cultural memory. It’s stylish, complicated, and sparks endless debates about
power, art, and who gets to write whom.

11. Gay Chorus Deep South

This documentary follows the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus touring America’s Bible Belt to sing in spaces
shaped by anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and rhetoric. Fans appreciate its emotional sincerity: real conversations,
real stakes, real healingand no guarantee of a tidy resolution. It’s frequently recommended as a must-watch
for allies and skeptics alike.

12. Elisa & Marcela

Based on the true story of Spain’s first recorded same-sex marriage in 1901, this black-and-white drama
attracted viewers for its historical subject and intense central relationship. While reception is divided,
many queer audiences value seeing this piece of history visualized at alland fold it into watchlists focused
on global LGBTQ+ stories.

13. The Blonde One

A slow-burning Argentine drama of glances, near-touches, and suffocating domestic spaces,
The Blonde One thrives on tension. Fans drawn to understated queer cinema celebrate its
focus on desire that doesn’t fit cleanly into labels, and the way it captures the terror and thrill of crossing
invisible lines with someone who might not be “supposed” to want you back.

14. Adam

No 2019 LGBTQ+ list that claims to be “fan-ranked” can pretend Adam didn’t spark conversation.
Directed by a trans filmmaker and based on a controversial novel, it follows a cis teen who lets a lesbian love
interest believe he’s trans. Some viewers defend it as a messy, self-aware critique; many others see it as harmful.
Either way, its presence in fan debates makes it a key cultural reference point for how communities negotiate
representation, accountability, and who stories are really for.

15. J.T. LeRoy

This dramatization of the infamous literary hoaxwhere a queer persona was invented and performedlands in a strange,
liminal queer zone. Fans interested in identity performance, authorship, and media spectacle find it fascinating,
especially with Kristen Stewart and Laura Dern dissecting power and persona. While not a universal favorite, it
remains a notable entry in 2019’s queer film landscape.

16. Baby Jane

A Finnish adaptation of Sofi Oksanen’s novel, Baby Jane dives into a lesbian relationship entangled
with mental health struggles. Audience reactions are mixed, but for some viewers, its raw portrayal of dependency,
anxiety, and burnout within a queer couple feels uncomfortably recognizableand worth discussing alongside the more
polished crowd-pleasers on this list.

17. Sorry Angel

Though originally released earlier in some territories, Sorry Angel remained part of the 2019
streaming and festival conversation for many viewers. Its 1990s-set romance between a young student and an older
writer living with AIDS is tender, literate, and deeply human. Fans who discovered it later fold it naturally into
the era’s canon of must-see queer cinema.

What These Fan Favorites Have in Common

Look across these titles and a pattern emerges:

• Queer characters exist as protagonists, not punchlines.
• Genres expand: horror, biopic, doc, period piece, teen comedy, political drama.
• Stories push beyond “coming out misery” into joy, rage, fantasy, grief, revenge, and mundane everyday love.
• International voices matterfans are actively seeking queer stories beyond Hollywood.

Above all, these films earned their spots because viewers kept returning to them, recommending them, and arguing
about them. That’s real fandomnot a press release.

Experiences: How Fans Actually Watch & Live With These Films

Ranking lists are fun, but the real magic lives in how people experience these movies together. Across fan spaces,
a few patterns show up again and again:

1. The “Emotional Double Feature” Ritual.
Many viewers pair titles to build a whole emotional arc in one sitting. A popular combo:
Booksmart followed by Portrait of a Lady on Fire. First you laugh with a confident, out teen
character who’s allowed joy; then you descend into a slow-burn heartache that reminds you why that joy matters.
Others match End of the Century with Giant Little Ones to trace queer desire from closeted youth
to adult reflectiona quiet, devastating conversation across decades.

2. Community Screenings as Soft Activism.
Films like Gay Chorus Deep South, My Days of Mercy, and Elisa & Marcela show up at
campus events, church basements, grassroots festivals, and living-room watch parties where people pause the movie
to argue, cry, and swap personal stories. Viewers use these screenings not just as entertainment, but as low-barrier
entry points into tough conversations about faith, law, history, protest, and chosen familyespecially in regions
where queer lives are still debated more than protected.

3. Online Fandom as Queer Film School.
After 2019, many young queer viewers built their own “syllabus” out of these films. Watching
Rocketman might lead to Googling real queer music icons; Wild Nights with Emily sends people
straight into Dickinson’s letters; Vita & Virginia pushes them toward modernist literature; reactions
to Adam become case studies in consent, power, and why trans-led criticism is nonnegotiable. The discourse
itself becomes part of the experienceand a way of learning media literacy from inside the community.

4. Representation as Private Lifeline.
Away from the noise, countless viewers meet these films alone on a laptop at 2 a.m.:
a closeted teen watching Booksmart and realizing her future doesn’t have to be tragic;
someone in a small town seeing Tell It to the Bees or The Blonde One and recognizing their own
impossible crush; an older viewer revisiting Portrait of a Lady on Fire or Sorry Angel and feeling
seen in late-in-life longing or loss. Fan “ranking” here is simple: if a film lets you breathe easier or cry out
something you’ve been carrying for years, it’s top-tier.

5. The Ongoing Canon Debate.
Finally, part of the fun (and frustration) is that fans never fully agree. Some insist Adam should be
excluded; others defend its existence but not its execution. Some think Baby Jane or J.T. LeRoy
are minor; others find value in their flawed attempts. These disagreements matter: they show an audience confident
enough to demand better, celebrate wins loudly, and interrogate the misses instead of quietly accepting whatever
scraps the industry offers.

That’s the deeper story behind this list: in 2019, LGBTQ+ movies weren’t just releasedthey were claimed,
argued over, meme’d, archived, and woven into people’s identities. Fans didn’t just watch; they curated.

Conclusion

The best LGBTQ+ movies of 2019 prove that queer cinema is not a genreit’s a perspective that can electrify any
form: musical, rom-com, horror, doc, period drama, or political thriller. Whether you’re building a streaming guide,
programming a Pride lineup, or discovering these films for the first time, this fan-shaped list is a powerful place
to start.