Name a famous gay movie. Now tell me who’s still alive when the credits roll.
Brokeback Mountain? Not Jack. Philadelphia? Not Andrew. For decades, Hollywood seemed to follow a simple rule for gay love stories: let them fall in love, then kill one of them off before the second box of tissues runs out. (We’ve had a few thoughts about that.)
So I went looking for the opposite. These are 13 gay movies where the guys make it to the end credits. Some are big and glossy, some are scrappy cult favorites you might have rented on VHS, and none of them will leave you crying for the wrong reasons. A couple might still get you for the right ones.
One promise before we start: no spoilers beyond the one that matters. You already know nobody dies. How they get there is for you to find out.
And a practical note: many of these are included with Prime Video right now, so if you have Prime (or start a free trial), your weekend just planned itself.
1. Trick (1999)
Gabriel, a shy office temp who dreams of writing Broadway musicals, finally catches the eye of Mark, the go-go boy he’s been staring at. One problem: it’s one night in Manhattan and they have nowhere to go. His roommate needs the apartment, his friends keep getting in the way, and Tori Spelling will not stop talking about her play.
Cast: Christian Campbell, John Paul Pitoc, Tori Spelling, Miss Coco Peru
Behind the Scenes: Writer Jason Schafer first wrote the story as a stage musical called Gay Boy. His friend Anthony Rapp (yes, from Rent) told him it should be a movie instead. It came full circle in 2025, when Trick was turned into a stage musical after all.
Why it’s a cult classic: If you went out in the late ’90s, this is a time capsule, right down to the go-go boxes and the payphones. Coco Peru steals her one scene and Tori Spelling is gloriously exhausting. Underneath the farce, it’s a sweet little movie about how the best nights are often the ones where nothing goes to plan.
Where to watch: Prime Video (included with Prime)
2. Fire Island (2022)
Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, relocated to the gay summer paradise of Fire Island Pines. Noah and his chosen family arrive for their annual week away, only to learn it might be their last one. Then Noah meets a lawyer who seems to think he’s “not hot enough to be that annoying.”
Cast: Joel Kim Booster, Bowen Yang, Conrad Ricamora, Margaret Cho
Behind the Scenes: The project started life as a comedy series for Quibi, the short-lived streaming app. When Quibi shut down, Searchlight Pictures bought Booster’s script and turned it into a movie. Quibi’s loss.
Why you’ll love it: It’s one of the very few gay movies that gets gay friendship exactly right, down to the merciless ranking of everyone at the party. Bowen Yang is the heart of the whole thing, and Jane Austen has never been this thirsty.
Where to watch: Hulu
3. Red, White & Royal Blue (2023)
America’s First Son and a British prince can’t stand each other. Then a very public incident involving a very expensive wedding cake forces them into a fake friendship for the cameras. You can guess where it goes from there – but the fun is in the getting there.
Cast: Taylor Zakhar Perez, Nicholas Galitzine, Uma Thurman, Stephen Fry
Behind the Scenes: Author Casey McQuiston, who wrote the novel, has a cameo as the president’s speechwriter. And a sequel, Red, White & Royal Wedding, is already on the way.
Why you should watch it: This is the big, shiny, studio-budget gay rom-com we waited most of our lives for. Enemies to lovers, secret texts, stolen moments in palace hallways – it hits every beat a straight rom-com would, and doesn’t apologize for any of it.
If you’ve already seen it, you know the rewatch is the point.
Where to watch: Prime Video (included with Prime)
4. Ideal Home (2018)
Erasmus is a flamboyant TV chef. Paul is his long-suffering partner, who also happens to produce his show. They bicker like a couple who’ve been together far too long. Then a 10-year-old boy shows up at their dinner party, claiming to be the grandson Erasmus never knew he had.
Cast: Steve Coogan, Paul Rudd, Jack Gore, Alison Pill
Behind the Scenes: This isn’t Paul Rudd’s first time playing gay. Back in 1998, he played the gay best friend Jennifer Aniston falls for in The Object of My Affection.
Why it’s worth your time: Two middle-aged gay men who’ve never so much as owned a pet, suddenly negotiating school runs and a kid who will only eat Taco Bell. It’s very funny, but what sneaks up on you is how real Coogan and Rudd feel as a couple. They drive each other up the wall, and they keep choosing each other anyway.
Bonus: it’s one of the only movies on this list where the gay couple is our age.
Where to watch: Prime Video
5. Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (2021)
Jamie is 16, lives in Sheffield, and has one dream: to be a drag queen. He also wants to wear a dress to his prom, which his school is not thrilled about.
Cast: Max Harwood, Sarah Lancashire, Richard E. Grant
Behind the Scenes: It’s based on a true story. The real Jamie, Jamie Campbell, was the subject of a BBC documentary, Jamie: Drag Queen at 16, which became a hit West End musical before it became this film.
Why you should watch it: Richard E. Grant plays a retired drag queen called Loco Chanelle. That should be enough of a pitch.
But it’s also a film about a boy and his mom. Sarah Lancashire, as Jamie’s fiercely loyal mother, gets a song called “He’s My Boy” that will flatten anyone who had a parent in their corner – or wished they had.
Where to watch: Prime Video (included with Prime)
6. Breaking Fast (2020)
Mo is a gay Muslim doctor in Los Angeles who’s sworn off love after a painful breakup. Then, on the first day of Ramadan, he meets Kal – and the two start getting to know each other over the nightly iftar, the meal that breaks the day’s fast.
Cast: Haaz Sleiman, Michael Cassidy, Amin El Gamal
Behind the Scenes: Writer-director Mike Mosallam made it because he’d never seen anyone like himself in a movie. He has said he pictured a classic Julia Roberts rom-com – just with a gay Muslim Arab man in West Hollywood in the lead role.
Why it’s special: A month of nightly dinners is basically the most romantic rom-com structure ever invented. It has a 96% score on Rotten Tomatoes, and it shows a corner of gay life we almost never get to see on screen.
Where to watch: Prime Video
7. Mambo Italiano (2003)
Angelo, the son of Italian immigrants in Montreal, shocks his family by moving out without getting married. Then he shocks them even more by telling them he’s gay. His boyfriend Nino, a cop and his childhood best friend, is in no hurry to tell his own Sicilian mother.
Cast: Luke Kirby, Peter Miller, Paul Sorvino, Ginette Reno, Mary Walsh
Behind the Scenes: It’s based on a play by Steve Galluccio, drawn from his own experience of growing up gay in Montreal’s Italian community.
Why you’ll love it: Critics compared it to My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and that’s fair. It’s loud, broad, and full of family dinners that turn into screaming matches. But if your coming out was treated like a family tragedy – with everyone still making sure you’d eaten – you’ll recognize more of it than you’d expect.
Where to watch: Prime Video (Rent / Buy on Prime)
8. Were the World Mine (2008)
Timothy is openly gay at his all-boys school, which mostly means getting shoved around by the rugby team – including the captain he has a crush on. Then he’s cast as Puck in the school production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and finds the recipe for Shakespeare’s love potion. Suddenly, the whole homophobic town is falling for people of the same sex.
Cast: Tanner Cohen, Nathaniel David Becker, Wendy Robie, Zelda Williams
Behind the Scenes: It’s a feature-length version of director Tom Gustafson’s 2003 short film, Fairies, and it won the Grand Jury Award at Outfest. And yes, Zelda Williams is Robin Williams’ daughter. Hold that thought.
Why you should give it a chance: It’s a low-budget indie musical, and it shows. It’s also a fantasy almost every gay teenager had at some point: what if, just for one day, they all understood? Plus, rugby players singing Shakespeare.
Where to watch: Prime Video
9. Dating Amber (2020)
Ireland, 1995. Eddie and Amber are two teenagers everyone at school already suspects are gay. Their solution? Pretend to date each other until they can get out of town.
Cast: Fionn O’Shea, Lola Petticrew, Sharon Horgan
Behind the Scenes: Catastrophe co-creator Sharon Horgan plays Eddie’s mom – and if she looks familiar, she’s also in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (number 5). The film holds a 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Why it’s worth streaming: If you ever had a “girlfriend” in high school who was really your best friend and your alibi, this one will hit close to home. It’s a fake-dating comedy where the real love story is the friendship, and it’s very, very Irish.
Where to watch: Prime Video
10. Benjamin (2018)
Benjamin is a young filmmaker with a new movie coming out and a crippling fear that it – and he – are terrible. Then, at a party, he meets Noah, a French singer, and things start going well. Which, for Benjamin, is the most terrifying thing of all.
Cast: Colin Morgan, Phénix Brossard, Joel Fry, Jessica Raine
Behind the Scenes: Writer-director Simon Amstell based it on his own experiences, and Colin Morgan will be familiar to anyone who watched him play the young wizard in Merlin.
Why it’ll get under your skin: This is for every gay man who has ever sabotaged something good because something good felt suspicious. It’s awkward and funny, and it gets surprisingly deep about why some of us find it so hard to let someone in.
Where to watch: Prime Video (included with Prime)
11. The Birdcage (1996)
Armand owns a drag club in South Beach. His partner Albert is its star. Their son is about to marry the daughter of an ultra-conservative senator, and the in-laws are coming to dinner. So, obviously, everyone has to pretend to be straight.
Cast: Robin Williams, Nathan Lane, Gene Hackman, Dianne Wiest, Hank Azaria
Behind the Scenes: Robin Williams turned down the role of Albert because he’d just done his share of dresses in Mrs. Doubtfire, so he played Armand instead. Nathan Lane was already committed to a Broadway show, but director Mike Nichols persuaded the producer to push it back so Lane could take the part. The film opened at number one and stayed there for weeks.
Why it’s a must: Thirty years later, it’s still one of the funniest gay movies ever made, and one of the most quotable. Hank Azaria’s Agador alone deserves his own franchise. It also came out at a time when most gay characters on screen were dying, and the biggest gay movie in America was a comedy about a long-term couple who simply get to be happy.
Where to watch: Rent it on Prime Video
12. My Policeman (2022)
Brighton, 1957. Tom is a young policeman. Patrick is a museum curator. Marion is the schoolteacher Tom marries. Forty years later, the three of them are back under one roof, and old secrets start coming out.
Cast: Harry Styles, David Dawson, Emma Corrin, Rupert Everett, Linus Roache, Gina McKee
Behind the Scenes: The story is inspired by the real relationship between novelist E.M. Forster and a policeman named Bob Buckingham. One of the film’s producers is Robbie Rogers, the former soccer player who came out in 2013.
Why you should watch it: Fair warning: nobody dies, but this is the weepiest film on the list. Critics were split on the movie, but almost everyone agreed that David Dawson, as Patrick, is wonderful.
And yes, Harry Styles spends a lot of it in uniform. You’re welcome.
Where to watch: Prime Video (included with Prime)
13. Uncle Frank (2020)
It’s 1973, and 18-year-old Beth has just moved to New York for college, where her favorite uncle, Frank, is a professor. She soon finds out the family secret: Frank is gay, and has been living with his partner, Wally, for over ten years. Then the family patriarch dies, and Frank has to drive home to South Carolina for the funeral – with Beth in the passenger seat and Wally following uninvited.
Okay, technically somebody dies in this one. It’s Frank’s father, it happens at the start, and once you meet him, you won’t be wearing black for long.
Cast: Paul Bettany, Sophia Lillis, Peter Macdissi, Margo Martindale, Steve Zahn, Judy Greer
Behind the Scenes: It’s deeply personal for both of its leading men. When writer-director Alan Ball (Six Feet Under, American Beauty) came out to his mother, she told him she thought his late father might have been gay too. And Bettany told The Hollywood Reporter: “I grew up with a gay father, who came out at the age of 63.”
Why you need to watch it: Frank carries something heavy from his past, and the film takes its time letting you in on it. But Wally – funny, patient, stubborn, completely devoted – is the boyfriend we all deserve, and Margo Martindale is quietly brilliant as Frank’s mother. Keep the tissues close. These are the good kind.
Where to watch: Prime Video (included with Prime)