Pride Collection

★★★★ – Independent. Set in Newcastle in 1988, Georgia Oakley’s fearless and defiant BAFTA-nominated debut focuses on Jean, a closeted gay PE teacher, forced to live a double life as the government’s despised Section 28 legislation looms over the country. But the arrival of a new student threatens to shatter the façade Jean has carefully created.

★★★★ – Time Out. Feeling the full weight of patriarchal familial expectations, Haider cares for his wheelchair-bound father. When he takes a job at a Bollywood-style burlesque theatre, Haider meets and falls in love with a beautiful trans performer, leading to a rift with his family. Pakistan’s first official entry to Cannes (where it won the Queer Palm) is brave, boundary-breaking filmmaking.

★★★★ – Observer. Anais moves merrily through life, charming everyone she meets. When her infatuation with an older married man ends, she finds her attention turning to his wife Emilie, a successful author. As her relationship with Emilie develops, Anais begins to believe that she has finally met her soulmate. Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet’s gloriously sunkissed romantic comedy is filled with real joie de vivre.

“★★★★★ – succeeds in uniting personal and political to electrifying effect” – Observer. Robin Campillo’s César Award-winning drama draws on personal experience of gay activism in 1990s Paris. When Nathan joins anti-AIDS pressure group ACT UP and begins to attend weekly meetings, he discovers that some members want to ramp up their campaign and take a much more radical and direct approach to their protests. Also available on Netflix.

★★★★★ – The Upcoming. Philippe has not seen his daughter Lola in two years: the last time was when he was throwing her out of the family home after she came out as transgender. Since then Lola had continued to be supported by her mother, Catherine, but when she dies suddenly, father and daughter are forced to reconcile to fulfil her last wish.

★★★★ – Empire. Filmed over five years, Peter Murimi’s feature documentary is an intimate portrait of a young Kenyan man torn between balancing duty to his family with his dreams for his future. Moving to Nairobi, construction worker and netball coach Samuel falls for Alex. But the couple must keep their love a secret as they could face lengthy jail terms, or worse, in a country where homosexuality is still a crime.

“★★★★★ – An extraordinarily moving film” – Cinevue. Victor Polster is stunning in his film debut as Lara, a teenage girl following her dream of becoming a ballet dancer as she struggles with gender dysphoria, in this powerful and moving drama. Also available on Amazon Prime.

“★★★★ – Timely, provocative and unique” – Empire. Directed by Stephen Frears, the political and racial climate of Thatcher’s Britain forms the backdrop to Hanif Kureishi’s sharply written Oscar-nominated drama about two young men – one Pakistani, the other white – who dream of building a life together around their fledgling business… their beautiful laundrette.

“★★★★★ – Girlhood director Céline Sciamma’s gripping 18th-century story of obsession demonstrates a new mastery of classical style” – Guardian. This masterfully told story of forbidden love between a painter and her subject – the betrothed daughter of a countess – is utterly compelling, with what is sure to be considered one of the greatest final shots in the history of cinema.

“★★★★ – An unexpectedly insightful look at a piece of lesbian history. Long live magazines!” – Little White Lies. This resonant and compelling new documentary traces the power of lesbian visibility from the early ‘90s to the present day through the success of the best-selling lesbian lifestyle magazine Curve.

★★★★★ – Guardian. Marina (Daniela Vega), a young trans woman in Santiago, has her life thrown into turmoil by the sudden death of her boyfriend, who is twenty years her senior. Grieving for her lover, she finds herself shunned by his family and under intense scrutiny from those with no regard for her privacy. Sebastián Lelio’s Oscar-winning drama is a sublime study of love and loss. Part of our Essential Cinema selection.

“★★★★★ – A superlative thriller and a deeply erotic character study” – Empire. A milestone of LGBT cinema in ultra-conservative South Korea, Park Chan-wook’s acclaimed erotic psychological thriller is a tale of deceit and desire set in the 1930s. When a pair of petty criminals attempt to con a Japanese heiress, feelings start to get in the way and it’s unclear exactly who is being conned. Also on Netflix and MUBI.

“★★★★★ – A joyous film, full of love and warmth” – Time Out. Inspired by the true story of Mark Ashton and his fellow gay rights activists who supported the UK miners strike of 1984, Pride follows Mark and his friends as they travel to the small mining community in Wales that they have been fundraising for. The ensuing culture clash is just another hurdle to overcome in this empowering tale of working class solidarity.

“★★★★★ – Chloë Grace Moretz puts in a career-best turn” – Guardian. Desiree Akhavan’s LGBT+ drama packs a heavy emotional punch. Pennsylvania, 1993, and Cameron (Moretz) is sent to a rural evangelical Christian centre for gay conversion therapy after being caught with the prom queen. Here she meets other teens who are each dealing with issues around their own identities.

“Reflects the agony and the ecstasy of being young and reckless with such eloquence, and reminds us that Dolan at his best is a sublimely talented artist” – Little White Lies. Xavier Dolan (Mommy) directs and stars in this affecting drama about two male friends who share a kiss for the purposes of a student short film, sparking doubts about their preferences that threaten their social circle and, eventually, changing their lives.

“★★★★ – A potent cocktail of style and substance” – Empire. Colin Firth earned an Oscar nomination for his performance as a college professor searching for meaning in his life after the sudden loss of his partner in this adaptation of Christopher Isherwood’s novel from fashion designer-turned-director Tom Ford.

★★★★ – Eye For Film. Cheryl Dunye’s seminal auto-fiction comedy is a highlight of ’90s New Queer Cinema. Keen to leave behind her unfulfilling job in a video store, up-and-coming black lesbian filmmaker Cheryl begins researching a mysterious black actress from a 1930s drama, who was credited only as “the watermelon woman”. Also on MUBI.

“★★★★★ – Tender, funny and unafraid of the naked truth” – Telegraph. After a house party Russell (Tom Cullen) heads out to a gay club; just before the lights come up and everyone goes home, he picks up Glen (Chris New) and they have a one-night stand. That same weekend, the two men get to know each other in a brief encounter that will resonate throughout their lives.

★★★★★ – Guardian. Gorgeous and heart-breaking, Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight scooped the Oscar for Best Picture against the odds, and should be regarded for its beauty and power rather than that La La Land blunder. Split into three chapters, the film follows the life of Chiron – a young black man growing up in Miami – through childhood, adolescence, and adulthood as he struggles with his sexuality.

Based on experiences within his own family, Nicolò Bassetti’s tender documentary follows Nic, Leo, Andrea and Raff as they navigate their transition to a new gender. The four meet in Bologna, where they share their personal stories of hormone treatment and surgery, and provide a unique perspective on the physical, societal and legal hurdles faced by transgender people.