The 2024 edition of Autostraddle’s The 100 Best Lesbian Films of All Time list came out this week and, like many of you, my opinion does not perfectly align with the tallied votes. Yes, I cheated and gave myself more than ten picks, but still there are many films I love that didn’t make the cut.
Here are ten movies that didn’t make the list — and my pitch for why they should make the next one.
10. Lianna
dir. John Sayles, 1983
1 vote – Lea DeLaria
When this film came out in 1983, its story about a woman leaving her husband to be a lesbian felt fresher than it does today. (Although it wasn’t the first — A Woman Like Eve beat it by four years.) But I think modern audiences would be surprised to revisit this classic and discover how sharp and moving it remains.
9. Second Star on the Right
dir. Ruth Caudeli, 2019
Over the past half a decade, Ruth Caudeli has been prolific. All of her work is worth checking out, but my favorite — so far — is this creative explosion of bisexual storytelling. It’s funny and dramatic and formally inventive. I wish it was more widely available to stream!
8. Tahara
dir. Olivia Peace, 2020
I feel like this movie was dismissed because it came out the same year as Shiva Baby and is also a very Jewish queer dramedy with Rachel Sennott. But why can’t there be two?? Beyond those surface level comparisons, this is a vastly different film. There have been a lot of queer girl coming-of-age movies in recent years, but this is one of the best.
7. La Llamada (Holy Camp!)
dir. Javier Ambrossi, Javier Calvo, 2017
There are two love stories in this musical from the creators of Veneno. One is between a queer girl and a nun, the other is between the queer girl’s best friend and God — who appears as an older man singing Whitney Houston. What else do I have to say?
6. The Children’s Hour
dir. William Wyler, 1961
1 vote – Jes Tom
I already wrote a whole essay about why this film deserves a better reputation. Yes, it’s an important touchstone of lesbian cinema with a tragic ending. But it’s also beautiful and romantic and challenging!
5. Set Me Free
dir. Léa Poole, 1999
This is a deeply underrated movie from the lesbian filmmaker who would go on to make Lost and Delirious. Where that film is all melodrama, this one is quiet and real. It’s not flashy, but it is a queer girl coming-of-age story told really, really well.
4. A Date for Mad Mary
dir. Darren Thornton, 2016
Everyone is always saying they want more lesbian rom-coms, so why don’t more people talk about this Irish gem? A woman needs to find a date to her best friend’s wedding and through the process of searching realizes she’s been in love with her best friend all along. A perfect romcom premise! Sure, the main character is getting out of prison and with that the film has a dramatic streak, but it’s still an excellent — and funny! — rom-com.
3. Blue Gate Crossing
dir. Yee Chih-yen, 2002
I have a soft spot for movies about queer girls and their straight dude besties and this is a lovely entry in that niche subgenre. It’s a beautiful tale of friendship — deeply felt and gorgeously crafted. It’s a perfect snapshot of adolescent loneliness and an ode to the people who make it a bit more tolerable.
2. In Between
dir. Maysaloun Hamoud
1 vote – me!
Beyond holding a place in my heart for being the first film I reviewed for Autostraddle, Maysaloun Hamoud’s debut feature is a great movie about living in an impossible world. Following three very different Palestinian women as they navigate Tel Aviv amid both patriarchy and Israeli apartheid, the film shows the challenges — both chronic and acute — of moving through the world with multiple marginalized identities. It’s a film of stolen joyful moments as its characters connect and find escape and fulfillment despite their circumstances. This is not a film of easy resolutions, but it understands the stakes are too high to give up hope.
1. Glen or Glenda
dir. Shirley Wood (it’s the name he preferred!), 1953
1 vote – me!
Shirley Wood’s long-maligned first feature has finally achieved some recognition as a classic of trans cinema. It’s time it receive the same reputation as a lesbian film. Combining documentary and narrative, this sometimes misguided, yet deeply personal, film about transness contains within it the wish fulfillment of a queer trans woman who wants desperately to be out to her cis woman partner. Wood cast his real-life fiancée in the film and after a fantastic nightmare sequence of anxieties had her embrace his identity as he understood it at the time — a crossdresser who could outgrow it with acceptance. In reality, Wood never outgrew these desires and the fiancée left him. But on-screen, there’s a beautiful display of queer love — radical for the 1950s, radical for some even today.
Comment your favorite films that didn’t make the list and see if any of our experts agreed with you!