GLOBAL QUEER CINEMA GEMS WE LOVED IN 2025

10 GLOBAL QUEER CINEMA GEMS WE LOVED IN  2025

Each year we are excited to share a genre- and geography-diverse selection of queer feature films, shorts, documentaries, and animated queer stories we absolutely loved from around the world. All films are 2025 international  theatrical & festival releases. Watch, share, add your favorites!

FULL LIST

BEL AMI (2024) 

France｜dir. Geng Jun

A quirky black comedy about queer desire in frozen northeast China: a closeted husband exploring his sexuality; a lesbian couple seeking a sperm donor and a restaurant owner who dreams of uniting all the town's gays. Shot in dreamy, muted black and white with superb performances by an ensemble cast, this delightfully absurdist tale is a hilarious and unapologetic ode to queer desire. An absolute must see. 

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CACTUS PEARS (2025) 

India, UK, Canada｜dir. Rohan  Kanawade

Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, this quietly resounding Marathi-language drama is a soulful and patient exploration of family, tradition, queer desire and resilience in rural India. A young man returns to his remote village to mourn his father where he reconnects with cultural traditions, family, and his childhood friend. As their romance blossoms, the two bond over memories of mango tries, grief, tradition, societal pressures to marry, and cactus pears. A beautifully crafted and hopeful love story about the power of being seen. 

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BOUCHRA (2025) 

Italy, Morocco, USA 

dir. Orian Barki & Meriem Bennani 

A queer Moroccan coyote navigating the immigrant experience (and her complicated relationship with her mother) between New York City and Casablanca. This visually singular CG feature set in a world of anthropomorphic animals blends the queer immigrant narrative with inventive CG animation bridging animation and live action. A deeply personal film, Bouchra explores the queer immigrant experience with unique character and world building. It’s like nothing you’ve seen before. An absolute must see. 

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TWO BLACK BOYS IN PARADISE (2025)  UK  | dir. Baz Sells

"These two Black boys are free. These two Black boys are happy." A heartfelt stop-motion animation based on Dean Atta’s eponymous poem, it follows the blossoming relationship of two unapologetic Black queer teens. A loving yet challenging journey of self-acceptance, this inspiring short is a celebration of queer love, vulnerability, belonging, and the power of embracing YOU. 

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1 GIRL INFINITE (2024) 

USA｜dir. Lilly Hu

A color-drenched portrait of friendship and queer desire as a codependent relationship is transformed by opportunity, jealousy, and the ever-consuming obsession to hold on to the illusion of someone. A poignant and raw coming-of-age story inspired by the filmmaker’s own experiences, this impressive debut feature is a candid exploration of friendship, loneliness, love, rebellion and alienation of Chinese youth.

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FLOWER GIRL (2025) 

The Philippines｜dir. Fatrick Tabada

This candy-colored queer extravaganza from the Philippines is one woman's hilarious journey to learning how to be whole without her, well, hole or "poochy" as she calls it, magicked away by a trans fairy for telling her to use the men's room at a gas station. With poochy gone, a wilting flower is her countdown (and her last shred of hope) to find true love without her “essentials” and experience new perspectives on womanhood and humanity - her own and that of others.

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WE WILL BE WHO WE ARE (2025) 

Sierra Leone | dir. Priscillia Kounkou Hoveyda

A poetic, visually captivating experimental short about two friends who decide to marry each other in an attempt to escape society's pressures to conform to traditional gender roles. "This film explores love; what happens when we give up on who we are,  and why we should continuously become who we should always have been." (source)

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QUEERPANORAMA (2025) 

USA, Hong Kong | dir. Jun Li

A candid and provocative exploration of intimacy and connection, this erotic Hong Kong “urbanscapade” follows a gay man who impersonates men he has had sex with. By assuming the persona of his latest hookup, he poses as a scientist, a teacher, an actor - a fleeting moment of otherness while sharing sensual, sometimes violent intimacies with strangers. Jayden Cheung stuns with a remarkable debut performance as the anonymous young man navigating urban connect, alienation, and hookup culture in stark, poetic black and white (and all the greys in-between). 

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I ONLY REST IN THE STORM (2025) 

Portugal, France, Brazil, Romania 

dir. Pedro Pinho

Expat life and neo-colonial dynamics at play as a Portuguese environmental engineer travels from Lisbon to Guinea-Bissau, West Africa, to scout for his company's road construction plans and gets tangled up in a complicated relationship with two locals. A patient (it runs 211 minutes) and complex exploration of postcolonial power dynamics wrapped in a culturally and sexually fluid narrative. 

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INKWO FOR WHEN THE STARVING RETURN (2024) 

Canada｜dir. Amanda Strong

"Are you a girl? Are you a boy?" the toad asks Dove. "I'm not attached to either of those", says Dove. "I'm both." 

They are both walrus - protector of water and caribou - protector of the land.  This visually singular stop-motion animation is based on the short story Wheetago War by Richard Van Camp. It follows Dove, a gender-shifting warrior who uses Indigenous medicine (Inkwo) to protect their community from terrifying, possessed creatures that crave human flesh. 

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MORE GLOBAL QUEER CINEMA GEMS 

we loved in 2025

2025 international theatrical & festival releases - features, shorts, documentaries, animation and more.

ONE DAY THIS KID (2024) dir. Alexander Farah

GRANDMA NAI WHO PLAYED FAVORITES (2025) dir. Chheangkea

COME SEE ME IN THE GOOD LIGHT (2025) dir. Ryan White

LLOYD WONG, UNFINISHED (2025) dir. Lesley Loksi Chan

DANDELION (2025) dir. Fiona Obertinca

FULL LIST