We ran a similar poll in 2011. Your Favorite Gay Films: 30 Years of LGBT Cinema. 3 years ago I put together a list of 375 Milestones of Gay and Lesbian Cinema
Todd Haynes’ atmospheric lesbian love story, Carol, has been named the best LGBT film of all time in a top 30 list that stretches to a Weimar-era pupil-teacher romance from 1931.
Carol, which was released last year and stars Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, came top of a poll compiled to mark the 30th anniversary of the London lesbian and gay film festival, BFI Flare.
Just behind Carol was Andrew Haigh’s 2011 film, Weekend, followed by Wong Kar-wai’s 1997 Hong Kong romance, Happy Together, and at No 4, Ang Lee’s tearjerker Brokeback Mountain.
But it was Carol, an adaptation by Phyllis Nagy of Patricia Highsmith’s 1952 novel, The Price of Salt, which topped a poll of more than 100 film experts that included past and present festival programmers.
It was a film adored by critics, including the Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw who called it intoxicating. He added: “It is almost as if the transgression, secrecy and wrongness must paradoxically emerge in the well-judged rightness and just-so-ness of all its period touches.”
It got six Oscar nominations and nine Bafta nominations, although it came home empty-handed from both award ceremonies.
Top 30 and runners up on the BFI Flare list:
The top 30
1. Carol (2015)
Director Todd Haynes
2. Weekend (2011)
Director Andrew Haigh
3. Happy Together (1997)
Director Wong Kar-wai
4. Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Director Ang Lee
5. Paris Is Burning (1990)
Director Jennie Livingston
6. Tropical Malady (2004)
Director Apichatpong Weerasethakul
7. My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)
Director Stephen Frears
8. All about My Mother (1999)
Director Pedro Almodóvar
9. Un chant d’amour (1950)
Director Jean Genet
10. My Own Private Idaho (1991)
Director Gus Van Sant
11=. Tangerine (2015)
Director Sean S. Baker
11=. The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972)
Director Rainer Werner Fassbinder
11=. Blue Is the Warmest Colour (2013)
Director Abdellatif Kechiche
14=. Mädchen in Uniform (1931)
Director Leontine Sagan
14=. Show Me Love (1998)
Director Lukas Moodysson
14=. Orlando (1992)
Director Sally Potter
17. Victim (1961)
Director Basil Dearden
18. Je, tu, il, elle (1974)
Director Chantal Akerman
19. Looking for Langston (1989)
Director Isaac Julien
20=. Beau Travail (1999)
Director Claire Denis
20=. Beautiful Thing (1996)
Director Hettie MacDonald
22=. Stranger by the Lake (2013)
Director Alain Guiraudie
22=. Theorem (1968)
Director Pier Paolo Pasolini
22=. The Watermelon Woman (1996)
Director Cheryl Dunye
22=. Pariah (2011)
Director Dee Rees
22=. Mulholland Dr. (2001)
Director David Lynch
27=. Portrait of Jason (1967)
Director Shirley Clarke
27=. Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
Director Sidney Lumet
27=. Death in Venice (1971)
Director Luchino Visconti
27=. Pink Narcissus (1971)
Director James Bidgood
27=. Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971)
Director John Schlesinger
27=. Tomboy (2011)
Director Céline Sciamma
27=. Funeral Parade of Roses (1969)
Director Toshio Matsumoto
The following films received five votes or more.
7 votes
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994)
Blue (1993)
Bound (1996)
Boys Don’t Cry (1999)
Cabaret (1972)
Desert Hearts (1985)
Edward II (1991)
Go Fish (1994)
6 votes
Fox and His Friends (1975)
Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)
The Kids Are All Right (2010)
Law of Desire (1987)
Nighthawks (1978)
Pride (2014)
Querelle (1982)
Scorpio Rising (1964)
A Single Man (2009)
The Times of Harvey Milk (1984)
Young Soul Rebels (1991)
5 votes
Born in Flames (1983)
But I’m a Cheerleader (1999)
The Crying Game (1992)
Fireworks (1947)
Heavenly Creatures (1994)
I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone (2006)
Michael (1924)
Mysterious Skin (2004)
Poison (1991)
Sebastiane (1976)
Tongues Untied (1989)
