The 50 best gay movies: contributors

Kimberley Peirce directed the number two film on our list, ‘Boys Don’t Cry’. She also made ‘Stop-Loss’ and the remake of ‘Carrie'

In alphabetical order
The Conformist
Dog Day Afternoon
Happy Together
Heavenly Creatures
Little Darlings
Mala Noche
Scorpio Rising
Times Square
Tootsie
Victor Victoria

Todd Haynes is the director of ‘Velvet Goldmine’, ‘Far From Heaven’, ‘Carol’ and countless other wondrous works of cinema

In alphabetical order
Brokeback Mountain
Fireworks
Fox And His Friends
Happy Together
Les Amities Particuliere
Madchen In Uniform
Midnight Cowboy
My Own Private Idaho
Strangers On A Train
Un Chant d'Amour

George Takei played Sulu in the original ‘Star Trek’. He’s since become a champion of gay rights and an unstoppable online presence

1. Boys Don't Cry
2. Milk
3. Ma Vie En Rose
4. Philadelphia
5. Beautiful Thing
6. Transamerica
7. Brokeback Mountain
8. The Kids Are All Right
9. The Children's Hour
10. A Single Man

Christine Vachon has produced some of our favourite American indie films, from ‘Kids’ to ‘Velvet Goldmine’ and most recently ‘Carol’

In alphabetical order
Edward II
Female Trouble
The Hours And The Times
The Kids Are All Right
The Killing Of Sister George
The Living End
Longtime Companion
Parting Glances
Poseidon Adventure
Weekend

Xavier Dolan is the exceptionally talented director of five films shot before his twenty-fifth birthday, including ‘I Killed My Mother’ and ‘Mommy’

1. The Hours
2. Mysterious Skin
3. Happy Together
4. My Own Private Idaho
5. Those Who Love Me Will Take the Train
6. Heavenly Creatures
7. Brokeback Mountain
8. Pride
9. Boys Don’t Cry
10. Monster

Writer-director-author-activist John Waters is the legendary Godfather of trash cinema, whose works include ‘Pink Flamingos’ and ‘Hairspray’

1. Scorpio Rising
2. Chelsea Girls
3. Un Chant d’Amour
4. Theorem
5. Pink Narcissus
6. Rope
7. Before Night Falls
8. Blue
9. Fox and His Friends
10. Before I Forget

Jane Czyzselska is the editor of DIVA magazine, a media commentator and a columnist

1. High Art
2. The Hunger
3. Concussion
4. It’s In The Water
5. Stud Life
6. Pariah
7. Stranger Inside
8. Bound
9. Do I Love You?
10. Tomboy

Apichatpong Weerasethakul is the Palme d’Or-winning director of ‘Syndromes and a Century’ and ‘Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives’

1. Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence
2. Hedwig and the Angry Inch
3. The River (1997)
4. Some Like It Hot
5. Querelle
6. Bad Education
7. Orlando
8. Scorpio Rising
9. Mishima
10. Pink Flamingos

Roland Emmerich directed hit blockbusters ‘Independence Day’ and ‘White House Down’. His latest film is ‘Stonewall’

1. Brokeback Mountain
2. Philadelphia
3. Summer Storm
4. Death in Venice
5. The Boys in the Band
6. Velvet Goldmine
7. A Single Man
8. Maurice
9. Gods and Monsters
10. La Cage aux Folles

Paris Lees is a writer and transgender activist. Her memoir will be published in 2016

1. Death Becomes Her
2. The Crying Game
3. Beautiful Thing
4. Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion
5. Satyricon
6. Truth or Dare: In Bed With Madonna
7. Brokeback Mountain
8. Pride
9. Pink Flamingos
10. The Talented Mr Ripley

Ruth Hunt is the chief executive of the LGBT rights organisation Stonewall

1. Pandora's Box
2. Ma vie en rose
3. The World Unseen
4. When Night Is Falling
5. Bound
6. My Beautiful Laundrette
7. Boys Don't Cry
8. Fire
9. Cloudburst
10. Pride

Jamie Babbit is a director, producer and screenwriter whose films include ‘But I’m a Cheerleader’ and ‘The Quiet’

1. Aimee and Jaguar
2. Heavenly Creatures
3. But I'm a Cheerleader
4. Boys Don't Cry
5. Mulholland Drive
6. Born in Flames
7. Orlando
8. Southern Comfort
9. Ma vie en rose
10. The Opposite of Sex

Clive Barker is a bestselling author and filmmaker whose works include the groundbreaking ‘Hellraiser’, and the underrated ‘Nightbreed’

1. Sebastiane
2. Love is the Devil
3. Tabu: A Story of the South Seas
4. Bride of Frankenstein
5. Performance
6. Orlando
7. Arabian Nights
8. The Damned
9. Billy Budd
10. Kismet

Writer-actor Harvey Fierstein found Broadway fame with his iconic play ‘Torch Song Trilogy’. He’s since appeared in countless movies including ‘Mrs Doubtfire’ and ‘Independence Day’

1. The Gay Deceivers
2. The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart
3. The Boys in the Band
4. The Lion in Winter
5. The Fox
6. Staircase
7. Midnight Cowboy
8. The Childrens’ Hour
9. Dog Day Afternoon
10. I’m No Angel

Playwright Jonathan Harvey's works include ‘Beautiful Thing’, ‘Out in the Open’ and ‘Canary’

1. The Celluloid Closet
2. My Brother the Devil
3. My Beautiful Laundrette
4. The Killing of Sister George
5. The Ritz
6. Paris is Burning
7. Transamerica
8. Milk
9. Prick Up Your Ears
10. The Color Purple

Drag king Adam All is the founder of BOi BOX and co-host of the drag king contest Man-Up at The Glory in Dalston

1. But I'm A Cheerleader
2. Boys Don't Cry
3. The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
4. If These Walls Could Talk 2
5. Better Than Chocolate
6. Bound
7. The Color Purple
8. The Birdcage
9. Gia
10. Heavenly Creatures

Lynn Shelton is the writer-director of brilliantly down-to-earth comedies ‘Humpday’, ‘Your Sister’s Sister’ and ‘Laggies’ (aka ‘Say When’)

1. Weekend
2. Brokeback Mountain
3. I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone
4. The Kids Are All Right
5. My Own Private Idaho
6. Milk
7. Another Country
8. Maurice
9. My Beautiful Laundrette
10. Desert Hearts

Actress Rebecca Root is the star of ‘Boy Meets Girl’, the first mainstream British sitcom to cast a transgender actor in a lead transgender role

1. Breakfast on Pluto
2. Death in Venice
3. Boys Don't Cry
4. TransAmerica
5. Normal
6. All About My Mother
7. Bad Education
8. The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of Desert
9. Brokeback Mountain
10. Ma Vie En Rose

Drag legend Jonny Woo’s latest venture is The Glory, a gay venue in Dalston 

1. The Hours
2. Dressed As a Girl
3. The Wizard of Oz
4. Billy Elliott
5. Les Miserables
6. Last Exit to Brooklyn
7. Suddenly Last Summer
8. Cruising
9. The Queen
10. Pink Narcissus

Juliet Jacques is a freelance writer and author of the memoir 'Trans: A Memoir'

In chronological order
Different from the Others
Salomé
Flaming Creatures
Women in Revolt
City of Lost Souls
Beautiful People
Bilokacija
All About My Mother
Wild Side
XXY

Director and novelist Neil Bartlett's latest novel, ‘The Disappearance Boy’, is out in paperback published by Bloomsbury

1. The Terence Davies Trilogy
2. Salo, or The 120 Days of Sodom
3. The Angelic Conversation
4. Fox and His Friends
5. All About My Mother
6. Victim
7. The Killing of Sister George
8. The Dickson/Edison Experimental Sound Film of 1894: Two Boys Dancing
9. Les Invisibles
10. Imitation of Life

Ingo Cando is the creator of Wotever World and Queer Experiments, monthly talks about topics that touch queer art and culture in the Attic at the Hackney Picturehouse

1. Paris is Burning
2. Go Fish!
3. Show Me Love
4. The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
5. Hard Love
6. Something Must Break
7. By Hook By Crook
8. Stories of Our Lives
9. Beautiful Thing
10. Better Than Chocolate

Bill Condon is one of Hollywood’s most respected directors, with works including ‘Gods and Monsters’, ‘Kinsey’, ‘Dreamgirls’ and most recently ‘Mr Holmes’

In order of first viewing
1. Billie
2. Flesh
3. Satyricon
4. The Boys in the Band
5. The Killing of Sister George
6. Sunday Bloody Sunday
7. The Old Dark House
8. Law of Desire
9. Maurice
10. Longtime Companion

Bruce LaBruce is the confrontational filmmaker behind ‘Hustler White’, ‘LA Zombie’, ‘Gerontophilia’ and many, many others

1. Scarecrow
2. L'Homme Blesse (The Wounded Man)
3. Happy Topgether
4. Parting Glances
5. Querelle
6. Come Back To the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean
7. The Killing of Sister George
8. Women in Revolt
9. My Beautiful Laundrette
10. Prick Up Your Ears

Asifa Lahore is Britain's first out Muslim drag queen

1. The Bubble
2. My Brother the Devil
3. Beautiful Thing
4. The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant
5. Love is Strange
6. Hedwig and the Angry Inch
7. Dostana
8. Bol
9. Pakeezah
10. Dunno Y Na Jaane Kyu

Novelist Adam Mars Jones’s books include Pilcrow (2008) and Cedilla (2011)

In alphabetical order
All About My Mother
The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant
Edward II
Far From Heaven
Johnny Guitar
Milk
My Own Private Idaho
The Naked Civil Servant
Theorem
The Terence Davies Trilogy

Director Rose Troche is known for the films ‘The Safety of Objects’, ‘Go Fish’ and ‘Bedrooms and Hallways’

1. Poison
2. High Art
3. Happy Together
4. Stranger Inside
5. Red Without Blue
6. Benjamin Smoke
7. By Hook or by Crook
8. Desperate Living
9. Madame Satã
10. Mona Lisa

Guinevere Turner is an actress and screenwriter. She co-wrote ‘Go Fish’, ‘American Psycho’ and ‘The Notorious Bettie Page’

In alphabetical order
All About My Mother
Beginners
Blue is the Warmest Colour
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
My Own Private Idaho
My Summer of Love
Notes on a Scandal
Orlando
Pariah
The Wizard of Oz