Only in LA
Screenings & Events
Festivals, Special Guests, Retrospectives and more "one night only" queer cinema screenings.
Break the Game
Eastwood Performing Arts Center
Director Jane M. Wagner
Fundraiser for Trans Defense Fund Los Angeles
After coming out as a trans woman, world-record-holding gamer, Narcissa Wright loses her massive fan base. To win them back, she attempts to set a new world record in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, while live-streaming every minute of her mythic quest. Drawing from an archive of more than 3,000 hours of Narcissa’s livestreams, intimate verite, and 8-bit animation, BREAK THE GAME is a moving exploration of gamer culture, the realities of online harassment, and the mental health implications of living a digital life.
The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love
Mazer Lesbian Archives
Touching and poignant, the acclaimed coming-of-age comedy The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls In Love tells the story of two teenagers whose unexpected friendship grows into the joyful wildness of first love. Randy (Laurel Holloman), a rebellious working class tomboy, meets the beautiful, popular, well-to-do Evie (Nicole Ari Parker) when she brings her Range Rover into the repair shop where Randy works after school. Immediately intrigued by each other, the two girls start a romance that delights and disrupts their lives, causing Evie to lose her friends, Randy to lie to her parents, and sending the two of them on the run. Sensitive and romantic, funny and sincere, this daring film was hailed as a crossover success upon its release and is now celebrated as an iconic part of the 1990s queer cinema canon. Beloved by audiences, it was often referred to, with relief, as one of the few lesbian movies with a “happy ending where no one dies.”
ASCO: Without Permission
LA Latino International Film Festival
TCL IMAX Theater
Opening Night
The film tells the story of a revolutionary Chicano art group who turned 1970s Los Angeles into their canvas. Merging activism with radical art-making, ASCO challenged the established order of Hollywood, museums, and media. Unrecognized by mainstream institutions during their time, they are now considered amongst the 20th century's most significant artists. Director Travis Gutiérrez Senger mirrors their boundary-pushing spirit weaving nonfiction and fiction together with a new generation of Latinx artists.
Linda
LA Latino International Film Festival
TCL Chinese Theaters
Self-assured, mysterious, and captivating Linda agrees to work at an affluent home in Buenos Aires. Her charm sparks strong sexual attraction among all members of the family, exposing how fragile their externally happy veneer really is.
Trans Los Angeles
LA Latino International Film Festival
Regal LA Live 13
TRANS LOS ANGELES is an anthology of four stand-alone short films and their unifying theme is that they all feature a Trans character in the lead and they all take place in a different part of Los Angeles. These stories are character-driven/slices of life and they demonstrate the rich diversity within the trans community.
Rope
on Nitrate
Academy Museum
Is this the original "be gay do crimes" movie? Though heavily censored, this one-take Hitchcock thriller (from out screenwriter Arthur Laurents) is based off the real-life Leopold and Loeb case, where two gay students killed a boy just to see if they could get away with it.
Two men attempt to prove they committed the perfect crime by hosting a dinner party after strangling their former classmate to death.
Bona
Whammy Analog Media
Openly gay director Lino Brocka was one of the Philippines' greatest directors, and suffered censorship and jail for his art and activism. (His nephew, Q. Allan Brocka, is also a queer filmmaker in LA). See this new restoration of Bona, a tale of showbiz obsession.
Middle class school girl Bona (Nora Aunor) skips class to hang around the sets of bit actor Gardo (Philip Salvador). When her father attempts to beat some sense into her, Bona moves into Gardo’s shack in the slums, delighted to play house–only to find herself not the wife, but the maid.
The Little Mermaid
New Beverly Cinema
This Disney classic, about a mermaid who dreams of being human, was co-written by out lyricist Howard Ashman. Ashman was openly gay during his career in the Disney Renaissance, and died of complications of AIDS while Beauty and the Beast was still in production.
This colorful adventure tells the story of an impetuous mermaid princess named Ariel who falls in love with the very human Prince Eric and puts everything on the line for the chance to be with him. Memorable songs and characters -- including the villainous sea witch Ursula.
Papá Melissa
LA Latino International Film Festival
TCL Chinese Theaters
World Premiere
In the heart of Mexico City, Melissa and Claudia, a married couple for over 20 years and the proud parents of five, navigate Melissa's own version of gender identity. Through laughter, conflict, and unconditional love, they challenge binary thinking and embrace Melissa's paradoxical evolving self — a bold and uncanny celebration of identity, resilience, and the challenges of the path of becoming one's true self.
Theatrical runs
Now In Theaters
Prefer your movies with popcorn and trailers? Here some the queer films at LA cinemas right now...
The Wedding Banquet
Frustrated with his commitment-phobic boyfriend Chris and running out of time, Min makes a proposal: a green-card marriage with their friend Angela in exchange for her partner Lee's expensive IVF. Elopement plans are upended, however, when Min's grandmother surprises them with an extravagant Korean wedding banquet.
On Swift Horses
In the 1950s, a seemingly sensible newlywed and her wayward brother-in-law undertake parallel journeys of risk, romance, and self-discovery.
Perfect Endings
Like the perfect ending of a great film - that is the way filmmaker João describes the end of his 10-year relationship with Hugo. Despite breaking up, they remained best friends. However, reentering the dating scene brought a whirlwind of emotions, revealing that reality can’t be controlled like a movie script.
Brokeback Mountain: 20th Anniversary
Rodeo cowboy Jack and ranch hand Ennis are hired as sheepherders in 1963 Wyoming. One night on Brokeback Mountain, they spark a physical relationship. Though Ennis marries his longtime sweetheart and Jack marries a fellow rodeo rider, they keep up their tortured, sporadic love affair for 20 years.
