Week of Sep 29
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October arrives this week, and LA's cinemas fill up with new and classic horror films as we lead up to the Queer high holiday of Halloween. This is always a fun and stressful time at QFLA, because it's hard to pick what horror films belong on our list, cause if we are honest the whole genre is Queer coded. Bodily transformation, forbidden desires, societal menace... so many horror tropes resonate with Queer audiences.
So we'll aim to pick films this year that have out creators, Queer characters, or are otherwise significant. Otherwise we'll be here all month posting about every vampire film ever.
To get started with some horror films made by Queer creators, check out the horror-themed Time to Murder and Create program at the Hollywood Queer Short Film Festival--one of four short film blocks of all Queer films!
Hollywood Queer Short Film Festival
Animation Is Film Festival
LA's annual animation film festival returns October 17 - 19. This year's Queer picks include the LA premiere of 2025 Teddy winner Lesbian Space Princess, the 3D restoration of ParaNorman, and a panel with creators of pilot Pretty Pretty Please I Don’t Want to be a Magical Girl.
Queer Picks at Animation is Film
Circa Queer Histories Festival
The annual Circa: Queer Histories festival returns, Sep 28 - Oct 31 with an abundance of panel talks, exhibitions, readings, parties, and screenings across Los Angeles to celebrate local and global Queer history.
This year, be sure to check out exhibition The Sky is Always Falling: HIV/AIDS Activists Unleashing Power in Los Angeles Then and Now, and accompanying screenings with work by Reza Abdoh and Ron Athey.
Circa: Queer Histories Program
Support the Transgender Film Center
Grab a limited edition T-shirt, tank, or cap from this collaboration between Super Yaki, Fantastic Fest 2025, and the Transgender Film Center. What better way to show your support of Queer cinema than to wear it? All proceeds benefit the Transgender Film Center.
This Week
Griffin in Summer
Sep 29 & 30, 7:00 PM @ Vidiots Eagle Theater
Griffin is the most ambitious playwright of his generation. He’s also fourteen years old. When his mom hires a handsome 25-year-old handyman, Griffin’s life and his new play take an inspired turn.
FREE: The Serpent's Skin
Sep 30, 10:00 PM @ Los Feliz 3
Editor Vera Drew in person
Two young women form a romantic bond after discovering they have supernatural powers. Their insecurities unknowingly release a demon, which possesses one of their exes and begins feeding on their friends. As the bodies pile up, it becomes up to the women to face their pasts and stop the growing evil.
Ed Wood
Oct 01, 7:30 PM @ Academy Museum
Makeup Oscar Winner Rick Baker in person
Tim Burton's biopic of legendary "worst director of all time" 1950s B-movie king (and lifelong crossdresser) Ed Wood turns 30! Make it a double feature with Glen or Glenda, Wood's 1953 first movie about gender-crossing characters.
The Night of the Hunter
Oct 04, 4:00 PM @ Vidiots Eagle Theater
It's not just the camp value of Lillian Gish with a shotgun--this film is the only directorial effort from closeted actor Charles Laughton, and through that lens you can't help but see more in its serial-killing preacher targeting women whose sexual freedom he resents.
Jeanne Córdova: Butches, Lies & Feminism
Oct 04, 7:00 PM @ Los Angeles LGBT Center
Filmmakers Gregorio Davila & Todd A. Henry and Minki Hong in person
Jeanne Córdova: Butches, Lies & Feminism creatively employs the few surviving archival interviews to illuminate a forthright, outspoken, dynamic and sexy, feminist, old school butch who was unstoppable in her quest for equality & fairness for lesbians, women and the queer community.
Double Feature with Paradise: Revisiting South Korea’s Gay/Queer Pasts.
SOLD OUT: The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Oct 04, 7:15 PM @ Hollywood Forever Cemetery
If you love Queer cinema, you probably watched this movie a lot in high school. Rocky Horror needs no intro--but when do you get a chance to see it on the big screen IN A CEMETERY?
Queens of the Dead
Oct 05, 6:00 PM @ Aero Theater
Filmmaker Tina Romero and actors Nina West and Riki Lindhome in person
When a zombie apocalypse breaks out in Brooklyn on the night of a giant warehouse party, an eclectic group of drag queens, club kids, & frenemies must put aside their drama and use their unique skills to fight against the brain-thirsty, scrolling undead.
Psycho
Oct 05, 7:00 PM @ Old Town Music Hall
It's probably the OG problematic gender-crossed serial killer movie, but there's more Queer connections to Psycho. Anthony Perkins was boyfriend to Tab Hunter before his star turn in Psycho, and died of AIDS in 1992. The film was also remade in 1998 by gay director Gus Van Sant.
Tickets from Old Town Music Hall
Next Week
Queer Ukrainian Shorts
Oct 06, 7:30 PM @ LOOK Dine-In Glendale
A very special one night only screening of a selection of queer Ukrainian short films made under the duress of war. They are fearless, queer AF, gorgeous works that must be seen! Also the screening is a beautiful benefit for Sunny Bunny the Ukrainian LGBTQ film festival.
Madame Behave
Oct 06, 7:00 PM @ One Gallery
A cross-dressing farce, adapted from “Madame Lucy” by Jean Arlette, in which to help a friend in a lawsuit, Jack Mitchell disguises himself as the mysterious “Madame Brown,” a missing witness important to the case of the plaintiff. He attracts the romantic attention of two old roués and one hot Broadway showgirl.
The Skin I Live In
Oct 10, 8:00 PM @ Eastwood Performing Arts Center
A brilliant plastic surgeon creates a synthetic skin that withstands any kind of damage. His guinea pig: a mysterious and volatile woman who holds the key to his obsession.
Naked Lunch
Oct 11, 7:30 PM @ Academy Museum
Star Peter Weller in person
Luca Guadagnino's Queer is adapted from a semi-autobiographical novel by outlaw beat writer William S Burroughs, as is Naked Lunch, which director David Cronenberg describes as the story of a closeted man trying to cure himself of his homosexuality.
The Conformist
Oct 12, 4:00 PM @ Los Feliz 3
Bertolucci's towering, relevant masterpiece follows a repressed man who joins the Italian fascist party and agrees to assassinate his mentor, all in the hopes of finding his way to belong in society.
Tickets from American Cinematheque
In Cinemas
Plainclothes (Opened Sep 19)
In 1990s New York, an undercover police officer receives an assignment to lure and arrest gay men. However, he’s surprised to discover a scintillating connection with one of his targets. As their secret connection deepens and internal pressure to deliver arrests intensifies, he finds himself torn between duty and desire.
Fairyland (Opens Oct 10)
A young girl recounts growing up in San Francisco in the ’70s and ’80s with her gay dad, activist and author Steve Abbott.
