Anticipated Queer Films We Cannot Wait to See

Although 2021 was a fantastic year for LGBTQ movies, of course, we are hoping 2022 will be even better. So far, it’s gearing up to be.

As the medium continues to become more diverse and inclusive, there is a ton of great queer content heading to the big screen with LGBTQ characters depicted in a variety of genres. While not all information has been revealed, keep an eye on press and celebrity social media posts. So far, we know that Billy Eichner is creating a groundbreaking rom-com; Harry Styles is playing a queer cop, and there will be a documentary about a transgender woman who participated in a pioneering trans research study.

We are beyond stoked to see what Hollywood has in store for us. Here are a couple major flicks that will be sure to quench the cravings of LGBTQ viewers. 

Am I Ok?

Premiering at Sundance, this film stars Dakota Johnson and Sonoya Mizuno and tells the story of childhood best friends Lucy and Jane. Their friendship is tested when Jane announces that she has earned a promotion and will be moving to London. Lucy also has an announcement of her own—She is in love with Jane. 

Benediction

During World War I, British poet and soldier Siegfried Sassoon was an outspoken critic of the war. He was also semi-closeted about being gay and married to a woman who knew about his true sexuality before they tied the knot. This biopic, written and directed by Terence Davies, shows Sassoon’s life mostly as a young man, played by Jack Lowden, and as a middle-aged man, played by Peter Capaldi, reflecting on his life. The movie includes depictions of Sassoon’s love affairs, including an on-again-off-again romance with openly promiscuous composer-actor Ivor Novello, played by Jeremy Irvine.

Bros

This groundbreaking rom-com from Universal Pictures is the first major-studio film to have an all-LGBTQ principal cast, which includes Saturday Night Live comic Bowen Yang, Ts Madison, Guillermo Diaz, and Luke Macfarlane as Eichner’s love interest. Not much of the Bros plot has been revealed, but Eichner, who co-wrote the screenplay with Director Nicholas Stoller, is the first openly gay man to co-write and star in a major-studio film.

Catch the Fair One

Real-life boxer Kali Reis makes her feature-film acting debut in this brutal crime thriller starring as down-and-out, queer boxer Kaylee Uppeshaw, who goes on a dangerous quest to get revenge on sex traffickers whom she suspects have kidnapped her missing sister. Written and directed by Josef Kubota Wladyka, Catch the Fair One won the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival.

Fire Island

Inspired by Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Bowen Yang and actor-comedian Joel Kim Booster star as two best friends who embark on a weekend vacation to Fire Island, along with a group of eclectic friends and a lot of rosé.

Framing Agnes

Also premiering at Sundance, this documentary is about a trans woman named Agnes Torres who participated in sociologist Harold Garfinkel’s gender health research at UCLA in the 1960s. The study is considered the first in-depth, scientific research into a trans person’s life. The film blends fiction and nonfiction together to bring a new look at an important part of trans history and includes reenactments with trans actors including  Zackary Drucker, Angelica Ross, Jen Richards, Max Wolf Valerio, Silas Howard, and Stephen Ira.

I Wanna Dance With Somebody

This Whitney Houston biopic is expected to not shy away from the legendary singer’s queerness now that her longtime best friend and personal assistant, Robyn Crawford, confirmed in a 2019 tell-all book that she and Houston had a closeted love affair. Directed by Kasi Lemmons and written by Anthony McCarten, I Wanna Dance With Somebody’s cast includes Naomi Ackie as Houston, Nafessa Williams as Crawford, Ashton Sanders as Bobby Brown, and Stanley Tucci as Clive Davis.

My Fake Boyfriend

This rom-com is about the type of problem Grindr does not advertise. Starring Keiynan Lonsdale and Dylan Sprouse, the film follows a young man who creates a fake, online boyfriend so that his awful ex-lover will leave him alone. Things go wrong when Lonsdale’s character meets a new guy who could be his true love, but he struggles to get rid of the fake, online boyfriend.

My Policeman

Based on Bethan Roberts’s 2012 novel of the same name, One Direction’s Harry Styles stars as a bisexual policeman named Tom Burgess who marries a woman played by Emma Corrin after falling in love with a man named Patrick Hazlewood in a time when same-gender relationships were still illegal. Directed by Michael Grandage and written by Ron Nyswaner, the film then catches up with the married couple a few decades later when Tom’s former lover re-enters their life.

What If?

Billy Porter’s directorial debut stars Eva Reign as a high school trans girl who is asked out after the boy who has a crush on her gets some advice online. It’s based on a wonderfully sweet, real-life Reddit post, so we cannot wait to see how cute this high school romance is.