The very first Best Picture Oscar-winner is the WWI-set story of a pair of rivals who become good friends. Very good friends,  though it's just ambiguous enough that it didn't raise suspicions at the time. 

The famous tracking shot across a number of tables in a bar includes a lesbian couple just on the verge of a kiss as the camera sweeps by, but it's the death scene between our two pilots that really seals the deal: If their tender caresses and kiss can't quite be described as overtly gay, the scene is certainly queer in its portrayal of male affection. Also available on Tubi.

The story of troubled schoolgirl Manuela who quickly gets hot for teacher at her all-girls school, Mädchen in Uniform arrived at a pivotal moment in German history: Paragraph 175, outlawing homosexuality, had been repealed a couple of years earlier. With queer women behind the camera and plenty of lesbian longing, and snogging, onscreen, the movie was a hit in much of Europe, while lobbying by no less than Eleanor Roosevelt ensured that American audiences also got to see the film (a detail I adore). It’s a beautifully realized piece about romantic longing that never devolves into melodrama; it also invites us to imagine the kinds of female-centric movies we might have had if there had been more women behind the camera during the golden age of Hollywood. 

However we choose to define Greta Garbo’s real-life gender and sexuality—some say bisexual is closest to the mark, others say lesbian; she referred to herself as male most of the time and signed letters as “Harry,” so there are layers—there’s no question her gender-fluid screen persona, in roles that were at least bisexual-coded, made her a huge box office draw in a very different era. Here, she plays the unconventional, bisexual Swedish queen involved in not only affairs of state, but dalliances with costars John Gilbert and Elizabeth Young. All that aside, it’s a beautiful historic romance about a powerful, complicated woman with a killer (and often referenced) final shot.

Unavailable for decades, Olivia is almost shockingly forthright: The premise involves an all-girls school divided into cliques whose loyalty is fought over by the lesbian couple who run things. The student-teacher angle is troubling to modern eyes, but this isn’t exactly a lascivious movie, despite the setup. It’s the title character’s coming-of-age story, smart in its exploration of how we have to choose the person we want to be, even as we’re constantly being pulled in different directions.

Dirk Bogarde plays a married barrister who is one of a large group of closeted London men who become targets of a blackmailer. The unmistakably political taboo buster was one of the first films to address homophobia head-on, a cry of protest against British laws forbidding homosexuality, and a sobering indictment of social intolerance and puritanism. Also available on HBO Max.

This documentary follows the contestants of a New York City drag pageant overseen by queen, activist, and trans icon Flawless Sabrina. Crystal LaBeija memorably steals the show at its finale by calling out the racist undercurrents of a largely segregated community, a rallying cry that would lead to the growth of the Ball culture of subsequent decades. It's a (mostly) loose and joyful portrait of a distinct time in queer history.

Sonny and Sal are first-time bank robbers. Sonny is desperate for money to pay for his trans wife’s gender-reassignment surgery, so he plans the heist with friend Sal, the result being a violent debacle. With an eye on queer liberation, the movie tackles the failures of the counterculture while gleefully thumbing its nose at the cops. It’s a fabulous heist movie—one of the best movies of its era, period—and doesn’t look down on its lead character’s bisexuality, nor his marriage to a trans woman.  Also available on Paramount+

Begins with a focus on white feminists, but shifted perspective over the three years of production to center Black women in a story about the punk power of queer women of differing social classes uniting in collective action.  In the face of increasing government oppression, two women and the factions they represent come to see that liberation, ultimately, requires more than just talk.