7 LGBTQ+ hit movies at Cannes Film Festival
The 2026 Cannes Film Festival showcases the best upcoming LGBTQ+ cinema. (Cannes Film Festival/MUBI/Jac Martinez)
Every year, the Cannes Film Festival sets the scene for new releases, and the 79th edition has seen the premieres of many thrilling LGBTQ+ films.
From a blood-soaked horror comedy to a moving portrait of the AIDS crisis, the 79th edition has boasted some of the most anticipated films of the year.
Here are seven titles we can’t wait to see in the cinema:
The Black Ball
Los Javis, Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, may no longer be together, but their creative partnership is as strong as ever. The pair are back with The Black Ball, an epic drama following the interconnected lives of three gay men. The plot shifts between 1932, 1937, and 2017.
Loosely adapted from the work of renowned Spanish poet and playwright Federico García Lorca, The Black Ball stars some big names, like Penélope Cruz and Glenn Close. However, early reviews praise the film for its period-drama ambition and scale.
Speaking to ScreenDaily, the pair emphasised their focus was honouring the queer community. Ambrossi shared: “One of the main driving forces was this question: as part of the LGBTQIA+ community, do we honour like we should the people who were murdered, who endured repression, who fought for our rights? Would they look at us and be proud? I ask myself this very often.”
Calvo also added: “We also wanted to explore the idea of inheritance – the inherited hatred and shame – and how that is pervasive even today.”
The Man I Love
One of the most anticipated films in Cannes is The Man I Love from Passages director Ira Sachs. A musical fantasy drama set in the 1980s follows a New York theatre performer’s life after he’s diagnosed with AIDS.
Rami Malek plays the theatre performer Jimmy George facing an impending death with so much live left to live. Malek has shared he was hesitant to be part of the film. He said he feared The Man I Love’s themes were “too similar” to his portrayal of Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody: “I started to really think about what I was afraid of.”
Malek also shared: “Was it the similarities? Was it the singing? Was it what was going on in the period? I knew I had to address the fear. If there’s anything Freddie taught me, it was address the fear.”
The film also stars Tom Sturridge as Jimmy’s boyfriend Dennis, Luther Ford, Rebecca Hall and Ebon Moss-Bachrach.
Speaking to Dealdine, Sachs shared that the film felt like “an autobiography”. He explained: “Because the personal resonance of being in New York and being a young gay man in that time of incredible energy but also a lot of darkness is very close to me.”
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma
Another highly anticipated title is Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, a horror comedy featuring The X-Files star Gillian Anderson and Hacks actress Hannah Einbinder. The film is the third feature from non-binary filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun, following We’re All Going to the World’s Fair and I Saw The TV Glow. The film premiered to a 100% Rotten Tomatoes critic rating, a very impressive feat.
In Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, Einbinder plays a filmmaker who is handed the reins of a slasher franchise. Anderson plays the enigmatic woman who starred in the original films. The enthusiastic young director kickstarts the project, but then the original movie star, a reclusive actress shrouded in mystery, returns. The pair fall into a spiralling, blood-soaked universe of desire, fear, and delirium.
Speaking about their film, Schoenbrun shared that they aimed for this film to feel like: “We’re hanging out. We’re sharing a joint on the porch and eating candy and talking about real things — which isn’t like an academic lecture. It’s like a conversation with a friend. And that’s really how I hope the movie feels.”
Club Kid
One festival surprise has been how many critics have fawned over comedian Jordan Firstman’s Club Kid. The comedy drama follows washed-up underground party promoter Peter (Firstman) as his life takes an unexpected turn. Suddenly, he is forced to care for 10-year-old Arlo, his son, whom he never knew he had.
Firstman wrote, directed and stars in the film, alongside Cara Delevingne and Diego Calva. In typical comedic fashion, the director was elated that his film was premiering at the Théâtre Claude Debussy. He announced: “What an honour to play in the Debussy theatre. I love Debussy. I can’t wait for my film to screen in Debussy.”
Following the film’s screening, a bidding war erupted between six studio competitors for the film. In the end, Club Kid secured a $17million sale to A24. “A psychic told me last week it was going to be A24,” Firstman shared with Variety.
Coward
It’s 1916, in the midst of the First World War, and young soldier Pierre (Emmanuel Macchia) is serving at the Belgian front alongside his comrades. He is desperate to prove himself in the trenches, but one day, Pierre meets the flamboyant Francis (Valentin Campagne).
Francis is unlike the other men, and Pierre joins him to stage a theatre show to entertain the troops. A burgeoning romance blossoms in this unlikely location, where their lives are already on the line. Both seek an escape and a shared investment in theatrics gives them a reprieve, even if only for a moment.
Lukas Dhont, director of Girl and Close, received a 12-minute standing ovation following the premiere. The film holds a personal connection to him, having grown up in Belgium, surrounded by cemeteries from the war.
“I found out that throughout many wars, not only the World War I in all the armies, men, while they were waiting to fight, they created these small performances for one another,” Dhont said of the film’s plot. “These men live in a time where their love had to be unspoken, had to be incredibly silent.”
Another Day
Jeanne Herry’s French drama spans eight years in its tale of Garance (Adèle Exarchopoulos), a struggling actress with an alcohol addiction. The film charts Garance embarking on a journey of self-transformation. Her journey kickstarts an intimate and sexual revolution in her life.
The film has received some mixed reviews from critics. However, there has been unanimous praise for Exarchopoulos’s performance as a troubled actor.
Exarchopoulos shared with Deadline: “Jeanne was very careful to avoid any sensational effect and she wanted to really show the reality.
“I went to the hospital in Paris and I sat with a support group for substance abuse addicts to listen to their stories and that inspired my a lot and showed me what an uphill battle it is and the feat that they have of going back into it.”
Bitter Christmas
Legendary gay filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar returns to the big screen with Bitter Christmas. The Spanish tragicomedy follows cult filmmaker Raúl (Leonardo Sbaraglia) experiencing a creative crisis. When Elsa’s (Bárbara Lennie) mother dies and her life is thrown into crisis, Raúl uses it as a source of inspiration.
Raúl places himself in Elsa’s shoes and begins to write a journey that mirrors hers. Elsa becomes Raúl’s alter ego, two filmmakers mirroring one character. However, this work of autofiction may create a life, but it also has the power to destroy it.
At Cannes, film is just the start of a conversation. Almodóvar has said that filmmakers have a “moral duty” to speak up about politics.
“I don’t want to judge anyone, but I think artists have to speak out about the situation in which they live in contemporary society,” he also said.
“Silence and fear is a symptom that things are going badly, it’s a serious sign democracy is crumbling,” he continued. “In Europe we have laws […] we have to act as a shield against this madness.”
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