May your 2026 be twice as nice and triple as queer
I don’t think I need to tell you that 2025 wasn’t great. But, I can tell you something: we all apparently spent a fair amount of time watching boys kissing.
I’m sure that’s not that much of a surprise to you, really. You know your own watching habits, and even if you weren’t tuned into all things gay, I’m sure you’ve seen plenty of edits and memes kicking around social media. What might surprise you, though, is some of the figures behind it.
When movie-tracker-meet-social-media-platform Letterboxd shared a full breakdown of their users’ top-rated films from throughout the year, something really stood out to me: it was a much queerer year on-screen than I had previously realised.
Of course, that’s not saying much – I could list all the shitty cishetero releases from this year, and not only would I make myself unpopular, I’d also probably be here all night – but it still warmed my heart to see an outpouring of love for some fantastic queer art that made the year a little more bearable.
Before we start looking ahead to the next big queer releases of 2026, let’s take a little time to reflect on what was a hit in 2025. Starting with…
What were the top-rated gay romance films on Letterboxd in 2025?
Letterboxd crunched the numbers on its highest-rated romance films released on streaming or in cinemas throughout 2025, and the results were clear: we’ve all been enjoying gay love on screen. We love to see it. Literally.
Although three heterosexual romances took up the top three spots, with Hamnet, Sore: A Wife From The Future, and Eternity taking the podium, the rest of the list was, well… Pretty damn gay. In fact, 50% of the top-rated romance films on Letterboxd featured queer men as the lead couple.
The highest-rated of the bunch was Harry Lighton’s biker dom-com Pillion at number four, which technically shared a rating of 3.7/5 with the next two titles: gay crime drama Plainclothes and hetero rom-com Love Untangled. Ranks seven and eight were then secured by Roshan Sethi’s A Nice Indian Boy and Keishi Otomo’s 10DANCE, which each bagged an average score of 3.6/5. Lastly, spot number 10 was taken by romantic drama Baby.
Now, I appreciate that 50% isn’t exactly a roaring majority, or even a majority at all – and frankly, the figure just reflects roughly how things ‘should’ be. However, as queer rights face attacks around the world, it is rather nice seeing the boys be appreciated on-screen.
Where are my lesbians?
Despite the abundance of queer love appearing among Letterboxd’s top-rated romance films, the whole LGBTQIA+ community wasn’t represented in all of its varied, beautiful glory. For instance, no lesbian films made it into the top ten at all.
It’s not that 2025 wasn’t a big year for sapphic cinema, either. This year alone saw the launch of massive titles like Flat Girls, Manok, The Chronology of Water, Shi Ming, Honey Don’t!, Montreal, My Beautiful, and The Wedding Banquet. The titles just didn’t get the love they maybe deserved.
Similarly, titles with expressly trans characters in lead roles were missing from the genre’s top titles. Notably, Donncha Gilmore’s romantic drama Girls & Boys landed itself a lovely 3.5/5 over on Letterboxd, which is a high enough score to nab it a place in the top ten.
Queer art also made waves across other genres and categories
Of course, queer cinema isn’t just all about romance. Far from it. So, naturally, several other categories and genres also saw wins for LGBTQIA+ titles across the board.
A stand-out example is Eva Victor’s Sorry, Baby bagging a stunning 4.1/5 average rating, making it the fourth-highest-rated comedy. Meanwhile, a long list of queer comedy also shines in the highest-rated comedy specials section, with appearances from Dan & Phil, Jerrod Carmichael, Caleb Hearon, and even John Waters as a part of Sarah Squirm: Live + in the Flesh.
Louise Weard’s Castration Movie Anthology i. Traps nabbed an impressive 4.2/5 rating, earning it the title of being the highest-rated underseen film on the entire platform. Castration Movie Anthology ii. The Best of Both Worlds was also super close behind it, with a solid rating of a 4/5. The third part of Weard’s series, Castration Movie Anthology iii. Year of the Hyaena, is set to land on June 6th, 2026, so consider this a tip-off to start catching up now.
Letterboxd’s top-rated animation also harbored a few big queer wins. Leela Varghese and Emma Hough Hobbs’ Lesbian Space Princess took the spot as the second highest-rated Oceanian film, while Skin Flick takes home the title of the highest-rated animated short. I also couldn’t get through a round-up like this without mentioning the big, shark-shaped elephant in the room. Chainsaw Man The Movie: Reze Arc, wasn’t just the highest-rated animated film on Letterboxd – it was also the highest-rated film overall. Of any of them. Thank you, queer icon Angel Devil (Maaya Uchida/Casey Mongillo), for your service.
Now, if we were to stop and highlight all the ways that queer media was celebrated on Letterboxd for 2025, we’d be here for days. And, I’d probably still miss something. So, be sure to go and check out their 2025 Year in Review for yourself. You never know – you might find your next favourite thing.
It’s not all about films – Heated Rivalry also caught the world’s attention
One of 2025’s biggest queer releases slid in and scored big during overtime (I already looked up if that’s correct hockey terminology, don’t even bother). Who would’ve guessed that the most popular gay romance of the year would arrive with just a few weeks left to spare?
Heated Rivalry unofficially joined Carly Rae Jepsen as Canada’s most significant contribution to queer media when it took the internet by snowstorm at the end of 2025. Since the series aired, it’s just been non-stop shipping, TikTok audios, and ransacked bookstores putting up posters of sad werewolves as everyone clamoured to buy the last of the so-called gay hockey books.
The show’s popularity isn’t overstated by the fandom’s social media presence, either. The sporty miniseries scored itself an almost unheard-of 99% on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer, with a 95% audience score. It even briefly overtook Breaking Bad as having one of the highest-rated episodes of a TV show on IMDb ever, before settling at a wild 9.9/10 average based on more than 60,000 ratings.
Other queer TV also took off in 2025
Heated Rivalry obviously turned heads en masse during the great hockey hysteria of 2025, but it was far from the only queer TV that shaped this year’s media landscape.
Letterboxd isn’t exactly geared towards TV – it’s a social media platform designed for film, after all – but sometimes, mini-series and limited dramas make their way on there. Among them was Prach Rojanasinwilai’s ClaireBell, a lesbian prison drama starring Mable Siriwalee Siriwibool and Pangjie Paphavarin Sawasdiwech. With an average rating of 4.3/5 on Letterboxd making it the fourth-highest-rated narrative miniseries on the platform for the year.
Elsewhere, other queer TV shows also caught eyes and hearts throughout the year. Back in February, Laverne Cox’s Clean Slate bagged itself an impressive 87% on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer. Then, in July, Mokumokuren and Ryōhei Takeshita’s queer coming-of-age body horror series The Summer Hikaru Died came to Netflix and earnt itself a solid 8.03/10 on MyAnimeList, with more than 90,000 ratings.
When did Heated Rivalry come out in the UK?
If you’re based in the United Kingdom, then firstly, my condolences. Secondly, you might be wondering why I’m talking about Heated Rivalry in a round-up of 2025.
Well, our Heated Rivalry release schedule is massively behind Canada and the United States. As you probably guessed from the 800 clips of it you saw on Instagram and TikTok, it aired throughout December over there. Meanwhile, the UK only got Heated Rivalry on January 10th.
Where can I stream Heated Rivalry?
Where you watch Heated Rivalry is going to depend on which country you’re based in:
| Country | Streaming platform |
| United Kingdom | Sky TV; Now TV |
| United States | HBO Max; YouTube TV |
| Canada | Crave |
You should also keep an eye on the JustWatch page to see when those boys slide onto the ice in your local area.
Watch the Heated Rivalry trailer here
Not convinced by all the edits making it to your feed? Make your own mind up here instead.
Toni Oisin H.C. is the Head of Audio at QSO Media. Read more of his writing here.
Dandelion is a Bristol-based harm-reduction service for DIY HRT users. You can support their work here.
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