God, I hate scrolling endlessly through streaming platforms on a hot summer night. You know the drill – it’s too damn warm to sleep, you’re sprawled in front of the fan in your underwear, and you just want something good to watch that matches the season’s vibe.
But every recommendation feels wrong.
After spending way too many summers curating the perfect watchlist (my friends mock this obsession, but they always ask what to watch), I’ve assembled these thirteen films that capture that distinct summer energy we crave.
From European getaways that’ll make you consider maxing out your credit card for a plane ticket to beachside romances that remind you why summer flings hit different, each film here delivers something essential about the season while showcasing queer experiences that’ll make you feel seen.
1. Summer of 85 (Été 85, 2020)
Leave it to the French to make a summer romance that’s equal parts sensual and existential, where the prospect of dancing on your lover’s grave seems like a reasonable promise to make.
Cast: Félix Lefebvre, Benjamin Voisin, Philippine Velge
Fun Fact: Director François Ozon pairs the story with an absolutely killer 80s soundtrack featuring The Cure and Rod Stewart that’ll have you creating a summer playlist immediately after watching.
Why it’s perfect for summer: This film understands summer’s emotional whiplash – how joy and tragedy feel amplified by heat and freedom. The bright, saturated scenes of Alex and David racing through seaside towns on a motorcycle, wind in their hair and hands wandering where they shouldn’t while driving, capture that intoxicating summer recklessness.
Their relationship has that perfect summer quality of burning too bright to last, where obsession feels like love because everything is heightened by sun and hormones. The film’s darker turns remind us why summer romances feel so intense – their beauty exists partly because we sense their inevitable end.
2. Fire Island (2022)
Jane Austen never envisioned her characters in speedos doing body shots, but Joel Kim Booster’s brilliant update proves her observations about social hierarchies work perfectly in America’s gayest summer destination.
Cast: Joel Kim Booster, Bowen Yang, Conrad Ricamora
Fun Fact: Booster wrote the screenplay while actually vacationing on Fire Island – and honestly, the authenticity shows. He knows exactly how the ferry’s arrival feels like the opening of gay Olympics.
Why it’s summer essential: If you’ve never experienced a week in the Pines, this film is both an invitation and a warning. It captures everything about the gay summer ritual – the chosen family dynamics, the elaborate pre-tea dance preparation rituals, the beach days that turn into night hunts, all with the particular intensity that comes from cramming a month’s worth of drama into a week.
Plus, watching Noah and his friends navigate the complex mating rituals against stunning sunset backgrounds perfectly captures that summer feeling where rejection stings harder and connection feels more electric simply because you know the clock is ticking on your time together.
3. Shelter (2007)
Nothing says California summer like surfboards, bonfires on the beach, and falling for your best friend’s older brother when you’re supposed to be focusing on your art school portfolio.
Cast: Trevor Wright, Brad Rowe, Tina Holmes
Behind the Scenes: Those surf scenes? Mostly the actual actors after crash-course training, which makes the ocean sequences feel authentically hot rather than stunt-doubled into blandness.
Why it’s summer gold: Some films just smell like summer, and Shelter reeks of salt water, board wax, and the particular kind of sweat that comes from attraction rather than just heat.
Zach’s working-class summer reality – where seasonal freedom competes with responsibility – creates a relatable tension that makes his unexpected romance with Shaun feel both earned and precarious.
4. Call Me By Your Name (2017)
“Summer, somewhere in Northern Italy.” Six words that promise everything you want in a summer escape – especially when they lead to Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer circling each other for weeks in short shorts.
Cast: Timothée Chalamet, Armie Hammer, Michael Stuhlbarg
Behind the Scenes: Before filming, the cast actually lived in the Italian villa together, which explains why their dynamic feels so lived-in and intimate.
Why it’s summer perfection: Even if you’ve somehow avoided this film (how?), you’ve seen the screenshots that have dominated gay social media for years – those sun-drenched bike rides, the azure swimming pool where tension simmers like heat off pavement, and Elio’s barely-there swimming trunks that should honestly have their own Instagram account.
Yes, there’s that infamous peach scene, but the film’s genius lies in capturing those quiet summer moments – the lazy afternoons reading side by side, midnight conversations with feet dangling in pools, and the specific ache of wanting someone who’s right there in your space but still feels unreachable.
By the time Sufjan Stevens starts playing over the final shot of Elio’s face, you’ll remember exactly why summer romances ruin us for all other seasons.
5. The Way He Looks (2014)
This Brazilian gem proves that summer’s most intense sensations aren’t always visual – sometimes it’s about the feeling of water against skin, the warmth of breath on your neck, and the subtle shift when friendship evolves into something more.
Cast: Ghilherme Lobo, Fabio Audi, Tess Amorim
Behind the Scenes: Before becoming a feature, this started as a short film called I Don’t Want to Go Back Alone that went viral for its gentle portrayal of blindness and awakening sexuality.
Why it’s summer perfection: Set during school vacation in Brazil, the film captures that particular teenage summer freedom – when parents work but you don’t, creating days of unstructured possibility.
Leonardo’s blindness makes the film’s sensory elements feel universal – the coolness of pool water, the closeness of Gabriel’s body during dance lessons, the warmth of sun on skin – reminding us that summer’s most powerful moments aren’t always what we see but what we feel.
6. Weekend (2011)
Two guys meet at a club on Friday, spend 48 hours together, and part on Sunday – proving that sometimes a weekend can contain more truth than years of dating.
Cast: Tom Cullen, Chris New
Behind the Scenes: Director Andrew Haigh shot the film chronologically in just 17 days, which explains why the connection between Russell and Glen feels so authentically developed – we’re watching it actually unfold.
Why it’s summer essential: While not explicitly set during summer, few films capture that particular summer feeling of compressed time and temporary intimacy better than Weekend.
The walks through the city with no particular destination, those languid morning conversations with sheets barely covering bodies, the slightly dreamlike quality of hours that stretch and contract when you’re getting to know someone intensely over a short period – it’s summer romance distilled to its essence.
7. Three Months (2022)
Summer’s limbo state – that weird pause between life phases – becomes literal when a recent high school graduate spends the season waiting for HIV test results that will determine his future.
Cast: Troye Sivan, Viveik Kalra, Javier Muñoz
Fun Fact: Pop star Troye Sivan didn’t just act in this – he created original music for it, adding to the film’s distinctly summery soundtrack that perfectly captures teenage emotional landscapes.
Why it’s summer perfection: Set during that specific post-graduation summer before real life begins, this film nails the suspended animation feeling of waiting for what comes next.
The Florida setting provides a sun-drenched, occasionally suffocating backdrop that feels authentically summer – where even nighttime offers little relief from the heat or your thoughts.
The film’s smaller moments – biking through neighborhoods at dusk, convenience store hangouts, rooftop conversations – capture those summer rituals that cost nothing but somehow mean everything when you’re young and figuring yourself out.
8. Just Friends (‘Gewoon Vrienden’, 2018)
This Dutch charmer proves that sometimes the best summer stories aren’t about dramatic vacation flings but finding unexpected connection in your everyday surroundings. And – it features the amazingly handsome Josha Stradowski – of The Wheel of Time fame.
Cast: Josha Stradowski, Majd Mardo
Behind the Scenes: The film’s natural, unforced feel comes partly from director Ellen Smit allowing the actors to improvise certain scenes, creating dialogue that feels authentically spontaneous rather than scripted.
Why it’s summer gold: With its scenes of biking through sun-dappled Dutch neighborhoods, impromptu swims, and meals eaten outdoors, this film captures summer’s casual intimacy perfectly.
The slow-burn romance between Joris and Yad develops with that particular summer quality where there’s time for things to unfold at their own pace – no need to rush when daylight stretches past 9pm.
It’s a gentle film that somehow makes an ordinary summer in a small town feel like exactly where you want to be.
9. Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party (2015)
A single summer day can contain multitudes – especially when it involves a pool party where evangelical Christianity and awakening sexuality create a potentially explosive combination.
Cast: Cole Doman, Pat Healy, Elizabeth Laidlaw
Fun Fact: The entire film takes place over just 24 hours, creating that concentrated summer day feeling where everything seems to happen at once and time moves differently.
Why it’s perfect for summer: If you’ve ever spent a summer day navigating the complex social ecosystem of a pool party, this film will feel eerily familiar. The constantly present water – people getting in and out of the pool, changing clothes, navigating new levels of physical awareness – creates that distinctive summer environment where bodies are simultaneously exposed and scrutinized.
Set during a Christian teenager’s birthday celebration, the film uses its suburban backyard setting to explore the particular tension that arises when religious conviction meets summer’s more liberated atmosphere.
10. My Fake Boyfriend (2022)
Sometimes summer calls for something lighter – a rom-com where the stakes aren’t life and death, just whether you’ll find happiness while looking unreasonably good in casual summer clothes.
Cast: Keiynan Lonsdale, Dylan Sprouse, Sarah Hyland
Behind the Scenes: This playful rom-com intentionally leans into tropes while subverting them, giving us the gay summer romance we deserved in mainstream cinema decades ago.
Why it’s summer essential: With its bright visual palette and breezy tone, this film delivers that particular summer mood where problems seem solvable and new beginnings feel possible.
The story of creating a fake social media boyfriend that spirals out of control has that specific summer comedy-of-errors energy – where misunderstandings multiply like mosquito bites.
11. Free Fall (2013)
Summer’s isolated environments can create perfect conditions for desire to flourish where it’s usually forbidden – especially when physical training means constantly seeing each other’s bodies in various states of exertion and undress.
Cast: Hanno Koffler, Max Riemelt, Katharina Schüttler
Behind the Scenes: The film earned the nickname “Germany’s Brokeback Mountain” upon release, but its police academy setting and contemporary story create a pressure cooker of desire that feels distinctly its own.
Why it’s summer perfection: The training camp setting creates that summer environment where normal rules feel suspended – intense physical activity, shared showers, and separation from everyday life create a perfect storm for unexpected connections.
The physicality of Marc and Kay’s relationship – beginning with training exercises and developing into something undeniable – captures summer’s embodied quality, where physical sensations are heightened by heat and proximity.
12. The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
Summer’s seductive power reaches dangerous heights in this psychological thriller that proves desire and envy are a potentially lethal combination when baked under the Mediterranean sun.
Cast: Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow
Fun Fact: The seaside scenes were filmed in Positano and on the island of Ischia – locations that remain premier summer destinations for the wealthy and those who wish to observe them up close.
Why it’s summer gold: While not exclusively marketed as a gay film, the homoerotic tension between Tom Ripley and Dickie Greenleaf creates one of cinema’s most compelling portraits of obsessive summer infatuation.
The Italian Riviera setting is summer escapism at its most gorgeous – azure waters, sun-bleached buildings, and beautiful people displaying their bodies like works of art.
Jude Law’s performance as the golden boy Dickie represents every summer crush who seemed too beautiful and careless to be real – and perhaps was. It’s a darker take on summer’s power to fuel obsession, reminding us that the season’s intensity can sometimes take troubling turns.
13. Giant Little Ones (2018)
A single summer night can change everything – especially when it involves your best friend, too much alcohol, and feelings neither of you are prepared to name.
Cast: Josh Wiggins, Darren Mann, Taylor Hickson
Behind the Scenes: Director Keith Behrman crafted this story specifically to avoid typical coming-out narratives, focusing instead on sexual fluidity and the messy reality of teenage exploration.
Why it’s perfect for summer: With its swimming team setting, pool parties, and late-night bicycle rides through empty suburban streets, this film captures the distinctive freedom of teenage summer.
The story hinges on an intimate encounter between two best friends that changes their relationship, representing summer’s potential for moments that divide your life into before and after.
The film’s refusal to neatly label its characters feels particularly suited to summer’s more fluid boundaries – a season where identities can be tried on and discarded like clothing. It’s a nuanced portrayal of how summer’s freedom can lead to discoveries about yourself that the structured school year never allowed.
So grab something cold, position yourself in front of the nearest fan, and let these films transport you. Who knows – they might even inspire you to create your own summer story worth remembering when winter returns.