13 star-studded LGBTQ+ films you need to see at BFI London Film Festival 2025
London Film Festival is taking place 8-19 October. (London Film Festival)
This year’s BFI London Film Festival includes a number of LGBTQ+ must-watch movies.
The film festival, which takes place between 8 and 19 October, includes some of the most exciting titles still to come this year. From horny period dramas to biopics of sporting legends, here are some of the best ones to look out for.
100 Nights of Hero
Julia Jackman’s adaptation of Isabel Greenberg’s graphic novel screens on the festival’s closing night. The feminist fairy-tale plot is inspired by One Thousand and One Nights (also known as Arabian Nights), the legendary collection of folk tales.
The cast includes Black Mirror star Emma Corrin, as well as Nicholas Galitzine, a favourite of LGBTQ+ film-goers, Richard E Grant and Brat superstar Charli XCX.
The film chronicles a bet about whether Manfred (Galitzine) can seduce Cherry, the wife of his friend Jerome (Amir El-Masry) within 100 nights.
Meanwhile, Cherry’s maid Hero (Corrin) tries to intervene, which leads to a yearning between the pair.
You can buy tickets here.
After the Hunt
Following the success of Challengers and Queer, there’s a lot of hype surrounding Luca Guadagnino’s latest project. The psychological thriller follows Yale professor Alma, played by Pretty Woman star Julia Roberts, whose promising career is threatened by a scandal facing her colleague and friend Hank (Andrew Garfield, who played Spider-Man three times between 2012 and 2021).
The film also stars The Bear’s Ayo Edebiri, and Chloë Sevigny, who worked with the director in Bones & All and the HBO series We Are Who We Are.
Michael Stuhlbarg, who played Timothée Chalamet’s father in Call Me By Your Name, is another star reunited with the Italian director. Trans actor Lio Mehiel is also in the cast.
You can buy tickets here.
Blue Moon
Five-time Oscar-nominee Richard Linklater’s latest outing is a biographical musical.
The film focuses on American lyricist Lorenz Hart, played by four-time Academy-Award-nominee Ethan Hawke, one half of the Broadway titans Rodgers and Hart, and explores the navigation of sexuality and shame over the years.
The supporting cast includes Margaret Qualley and Ripley star Andrew Scott, who won the Silver Bear for best supporting performance at the Berlin Film Festival for his role as Richard Rodgers.
You can buy tickets for here.
Christy
Euphoria and The White Lotus star Sydney Sweeney steps into the ring to play Christy Martin in this biopic of the lesbian boxer.
Christy chronicles the boxing star’s rise to fame in the 90s, intertwined with the saga of her personal life. Sweeney trained fo0r months to prepare her body for the role and said Martin’s strength and perseverance inspired her.
“Having a character [who] has so many layers and depths, that’s a dream as an actor. I loved every part of it,” she said.
You can buy tickets here.
The Chronology of Water
Kristen Stewart’s feature directorial debut, The Chronology of Water, is based on Lidia Yuknavitch’s 2011 memoir, and examines violence, sexuality, addiction, self-destruction and survival.
The “hard to watch” film charts a young Olympic hopeful, played by Imogen Poots, who flees her abusive home to pursue a swimming scholarship in Texas. All the while, she’s wrestling with addiction and motherhood.
The film is the first from Nevermind Pictures, the production company set up by Stewart, her wife, screenwriter-producer Dylan Meyer (the pair married in April), and producer Maggie McLean.
You can buy tickets here.
Father Mother Sister Brother
Jim Jarmusch’s latest film is a comedy drama anthology, featuring House of Gucci’s Adam Driver, Carol star Cate Blanchett and Vicky Krieps.
Following members of an estranged family as they to try reconnect, despite underlying unresolved tensions, it won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
You can buy tickets here.
Hedda
The Marvels star Tessa Thompson leads Nia DaCosta’s stylish reimagining of Henrik Ibsen’s 19th-century play Hedda Gabler.
A newlyweds’ party is the setting for a dramatic story of secrets, sexuality and salaciousness, as Hedda is torn between a past love and her present. Her hunger to live outside societal conventions strains her relationships, leading to the eruption of long-repressed desires.
In one dramatic evening, Hedda’s life changes forever.
The cast also includes Imogen Poots, Tom Bateman and Nina Hoss.
You can buy tickets here.
The History of Sound
The History of Sound is one of the most highly anticipated LGBTQ+ films of the year.
Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor star in the WWI gay romance, directed by Oliver Hermanus (Mary & George) and based on a short story by Ben Shattuck.
The film chronicles the relationship between two young soldiers who meet in the trenches in 1916 and travel to rural New England after the end of the conflict, where they record folk songs.
You can buy tickets here.
Lurker
When rising pop star Oliver, played by Saltburn’s Archie Madekwe, meets retail worker Matthew (Théodore Pellerin, who was seen in Boy Erased), their ensuing friendship seems perfect.
However, the relationship soon begins to border on obsession in Alex Russell’s directorial debut, a nail-biting psychological thriller that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to rave reviews.
You can buy tickets here.
Peter Hujar’s Day
Paddington and James Bond star Ben Whishaw plays the gay US photographer, a well-known figure in New York’s cultural scene of the 70s and 80s, and one of the many victims of the Aids pandemic that ravaged that city.
Peter Hujar’s Day focuses on him as he captures the gay liberation movement and the Stonewall riots in 1969. He took the Come Out! image that the Gay Liberation Front used.
Directed by Ira Sachs, who worked with Whishaw on Passages, the film also charts Hujar’s relationship with writer Linda Rosenkrantz (Rebecca Hall).
You can buy tickets here.
Pillion
Harry Lighton’s directorial debut, adapted from the 2020 novel Box Hill by Adam Mars-Jones, is a kinky exploration of BDSM.
Although the film has been tagged as graphic, reviewers have noted it isn’t hardcore in its depiction of gay sex, despite reports of Alexander Skarsgård’s full-frontal nudity. It’s also been described as a “filthy romance with heart”.
The romantic drama follows the dom/sub relationship between young gay man Colin, played by Harry Melling, best-known as Dudley Dursley in the Harry Potter films, and leather-clad bike gang leader Ray’s (Succession’s Skarsgård.
You can buy tickets here.
Twinless
Teen Wolf favourite Dylan O’Brien stars in this queer black comedy, opposite James Sweeney, who also wrote, directed and produced the film.
The black comedy psychological drama premiered at the Sundance Film Festival where it generated a lot of buzz over the sex scenes. It took home the audience award for US drama, and The Maze Runner star O’Brien won the dramatic special jury gong for his performance.
The film follows Roman (O’Brien) as he mourns the death of his twin brother. To help deal with the loss, he begins attending a support group, where he strikes up an unlikely friendship with Dennis (Sweeney).
Roman sees a lot of his late brother in his new friend: cultured, travelled and gay, and the pair quickly become joined at the hip as they both crave a similar co-dependency.
You can buy tickets here.
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
The third in Rian Johnson’s series, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, is said to be the best yet, with the canonically queer Benoit Blanc, played by Daniel Craig, back to solve another mystery.
The cast also includes Josh O’Connor, Cailee Spaeny and Fleabag‘s Andrew Scott as well as Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington and Thomas Haden Church. However, Hugh Grant, who played Blanc’s long-suffering partner, appears to be missing.
The film follows Jud (O’Connor), a new fire-and-brimstone priest in the tiny town of Chimney Rock. But when a murderer strikes, it’s time to call in Blanc.
You can buy tickets here.
The 69th BFI London Film Festival takes place at venues in London and across the UK.
Tickets go on sale on 16 September but BFI Members can book from 9 September. American Express card-holder can access pre-sale from 12 September.
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