With the Toronto International Film Festival for 2025 almost here, film goer’s are getting their schedules ready for all the films, shorts, and more to come. To get you ready for TIFF 2025, we’ve together a list of 10 LGBTQ+ films to check out! From sapphic discoveries to forests where time collapses on itself and peculiar plagues in small towns, there’s a wide range of queer feature films to check out!
MORE: 10 Most Anticipated TIFF 2025 Films
1. Erupcja
Directed by: Pete Ohs
Starring: Charli xcx, Will Madden, Lena Góra
Summary: While on vacation in Poland, Bethany (Charli xcx) breaks away from a romantic itinerary planned by her doting boyfriend, Rob (Will Madden), fearing that a marriage proposal is imminent. Reuniting instead with an old friend, Nel (Lena Góra), the two women rekindle a uniquely combustible chemistry over the course of a few days in a chaste but burning tryst predicated on sapphic synchronicity and a mutual penchant for poetry.
However, Bethany’s impulsive behaviour is a star-crossed sonnet that is all too familiar for Nel, and as a lovelorn Rob wanders Warsaw in search of answers, the trio find themselves parsing the difference between destiny and serendipity.
2. Sk+te’kmujue’katik (At the Place of Ghosts)
Directed by: Bretten Hannam
Starring: Blake Alec Miranda, Forrest Goodluck
Summary: Mise’l (Blake Alec Miranda) and Antle (Forrest Goodluck) are siblings who have drifted apart after experiencing unimaginable horrors in their shared past. But when Mise’l returns to their home community following an unexpected visit by a malicious spirit, the pair must put their estrangement aside in order to rid themselves of the ghosts that haunt them. In order to do so, they will have to journey through Sk+te’kmujue’katik, a forest where time collapses on itself.
3. Julian
Directed by: Cato Kusters
Starring: Nina Meurisse, Laurence Roothooft
Summary: Full of beauty, warmth, and poignancy, the first feature by Belgium’s Cato Kusters celebrates a true-life love story, one whose impact and importance extends far beyond the two extraordinary people at its centre. It begins with a fleeting but fateful encounter as Fleur (Nina Meurisse) and Julian (Laurence Roothooft) catch each other’s eyes while attending a concert. Soon, the two women are head over heels and thinking about next steps. But an intriguing idea arises during a dinner conversation with friends. In order to raise public awareness about all the places where gay people cannot marry, could it be possible to say “I do” in every country where they can?
4. Steal Away
Directed by: Clement Virgo
Starring: Angourie Rice, Lauren Lee Smith, Mallori Johnson
Summary: [Steal Away] tells the story of a pair of young women the film’s subtitle calls “two princesses.” The first is Fanny (Angourie Rice), a sheltered teenager whose knowledge of the world barely extends beyond the stately manor house belonging to her glamorous and magnanimous mother Florence (Lauren Lee Smith), which is located in a mysterious country that variously evokes occupied Europe, Algiers, and the Antebellum South.
Into her life comes Cécile (Mallori Johnson), a charismatic visitor who’s one of countless people seeking asylum from the conflicts that consume this alternate and highly stylized reality.
5. The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo (La misteriosa mirada del flamenco)
Directed by: Diego Céspedes
Starring: Tamara Cortés, Paula Dinamarca, Matías Catalán
Summary: Some looks can actually kill. At least, that’s how it is starting to feel in this dusty, remote mining town somewhere in Chile in 1982, where several men have lost their lives to a “plague” that is said to spread through sustained stares.
In this charged environment, things aren’t exactly easy for 11-year-old Lidia (Tamara Cortés), who’s being raised by a loving queer community led by Boa (Paula Dinamarca), a strong matriarch figure, and by Flamingo (Matías Catalán), who looks after her. Lidia faces ignorance and fear from the miners and aggression from other young locals.
MORE: 15 Films Directed by Women Heading to TIFF 2025
6. Between Dreams and Hope
Directed by: Farnoosh Samadi
Starring: Fereshteh Hosseini, Sadaf Asgari
Summary: A window into the burgeoning underground queer community of Iran, Between Dreams and Hope centres on a young pair with dreams like many others — to live joyfully without restrictions on their love. Azad (Fereshteh Hosseini), a trans man, and his partner Nora (Sadaf Asgari) thrive amongst like-minded friends, a haven of self-expression and acceptance, in bustling Tehran. They live blissfully, but when Azad takes steps towards medically transitioning, he is troubled to learn that his estranged father must grant his permission or the process would be halted indefinitely. Although wary, the couple travel to Azad’s hometown to plead their case to his family. The return is not welcome, and when Azad disappears during a row, Nora must find her lover, with little assistance or care from the local authorities.
7. Blue Moon
Directed by: Richard Linklater
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Andrew Scott, Bobby Cannavale, Margaret Qualley
Summary: Blue Moon [is a] riveting chamber piece set in real time at Sardi’s on the historic night in 1943 of Richard Rodgers’ (Andrew Scott) greatest triumph: the premiere of Oklahoma! Ethan Hawke delivers a charming, lived-in performance as Rodgers’ former collaborator, lyricist Lorenz Hart, an alcoholic and marginally closeted raconteur grappling with the fact that Rodgers’ biggest success now belongs to a new partnership with Oscar Hammerstein.
8. Bouchra
Directed by: Orian Barki, Meriem Bennani
Starring: Meriem Bennani
Summary: Bouchra is a queer, Moroccan Coyote and filmmaker living in New York, preoccupied with how her sexuality has impacted her relationship with her mother (also a Coyote). The daughter is anxious to move on with her life and career but is plagued by doubts — and convinced that the only way to move on is to use her art to confront the tensions and unresolved issues with her parent.
9. Blood Lines
Directed by: Gail Maurice
Starring: Dana Solomon, Derica Lafrance
Summary: Storyteller and store clerk Beatrice (Dana Solomon) is completely taken by a new woman who arrives in her Métis community looking to find her biological family. Beatrice decides to help Chani (Derica Lafrance) in order to spend more time with her.
10. Maddie’s Secret
Directed by: John Early
Starring: John Early, Eric Rahill, Kate Berlant
Summary: In Maddie’s Secret, essential alt-comedian cum director John Early plays the titular Maddie Ralph, a major foodie who works as a dishwasher at a trendy Los Angeles food content creation company. While her life seems picturesque — perfect hubby (Eric Rahill), wild lesbian bestie (Kate Berlant), and a cupboard full of women-owned ethically-sourced chili crisp to boot — she simultaneously conceals a dark past with a severe eating disorder. Knowing her history of self-harm conflicts with the perfect image she puts forth to her followers, she continues to hide her bulimic tendencies from friends and family, even when she begins to relapse.
What are you looking forward to during TIFF 2025? Let us know in the comments below!
Queerly Not Straight posts Saturdays on Fangirlish with opinion pieces, listicals, reviews, and more focused on the LGBT community. Posts are ONLY published on Fangirlish.
