9 Winners Of The Queer Palm & Where To Watch Them
These films won the Queer Palm award at Cannes!
With Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke’s gay western movie Strange Way of Life making waves at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, this is the perfect time to look back at the incredible LGBTQ+ movies that have won the Queer Palm since its inception in 2010.
The Queer Palm is an independently sponsored prize for LGBTQ+ films that are part of the Cannes Film Festival’s official selection. It is one of the most prestigious LGBTQ+ movie awards alongside Berlin’s Teddy Award and Venice’s Queer Lion.
So if you’ve ever scrolled through streaming services searching in vain for an amazing queer movie, PRIDE has got you covered – because nine of the last 12 winners of the Queer Palm are available to rent or stream right now.
All film descriptions are courtesy of their respective studios.
'Kaboom' (2010 winner)
Synopsis: A wild, witty and sex-drenched horror-comedy thriller, KABOOM tells the story of Smith, an ambisexual 18-year-old college freshman who stumbles upon a monstrous conspiracy in a seemingly idyllic Southern California seaside town.
'Beauty' (2011 winner)
Synopsis: Portrait of a closeted gay husband/father living a life of quiet middle-aged desperation who becomes fixated on a friend's handsome collegiate son, leading to an incident.
Where to watch: Rent on Apple TV+
'Laurence Anyways' (2012 winner)
Synopsis: The film follows Laurence Alia, a thirty-year-old high school English teacher and poet, who, after much deliberation, comes out to her long-term girlfriend Fred as a trans woman in the late 1980s.
Where to watch: Netflix
'Stranger by the Lake' (2013 winner)
Synopsis: This film tells what goes on among the men cruising by a beautiful lake in the summer, somewhere in France. The story focuses on a handsome young man who gets attracted to a dangerous man, putting his life at risk.
Where to watch: Kanopy & rent on VUDU
'Pride' (2014 winner)
Synopsis: Based on a true story, it depicts a group of lesbian and gay activists who raised money to help families affected by the British miners' strike in 1984, at the outset of what would become the Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners campaign.
Where to watch: Showtime & Paramount + with Showtime
'Carol' (2015 winner)
Synopsis: Set in New York City during the early 1950s, Carol tells the story of a forbidden affair between an aspiring female photographer and an older woman going through a difficult divorce.
Where to watch: Netflix
'BPM (Beats Per Minute)' (2017 winner)
Synopsis: Members of the advocacy group ACT UP Paris demand action by the government and pharmaceutical companies to combat the AIDS epidemic in the early 1990s.
Where to watch: Tubi & Pluto TV
'Girl' (2018 winner)
Synopsis: A promising teenage dancer enrolls at a prestigious ballet school while grappling with her gender dysphoria.
Where to watch: Netflix
'A Portrait of a Lady on Fire' (2019 winner)
Synopsis: On an isolated island in Brittany at the end of the eighteenth century, a female painter is obliged to paint a wedding portrait of a young woman.
Where to watch: Hulu
