At 67 years old, BFI London Film Festival is definitely the oldest one around the globe that Queerguru covers.  Its program is not totally queer ……like our favorite BFI London Flare Fest …. but kudos to its very talented set of programmers who have scheduled some of the very best new queer cinema. This year they include the UK premieres of the two most highly anticipated new films: ‘ ELSINORE and LA BOLA NEGRA,  and so much more.

As is our custom, we set our whole team of reviewers to scour the full BFI programme to come out with our TOP LIST OF MUST SEE MOVIES . Here they are in alphabetical order: 

Black Church Bay is the debut feature from Welsh/Irish filmmaker Rhys Jones, filmed in his native Wales. It’s about a man whose world unravels after an intimate encounter with a younger man and explores the lengths someone will go to to hide their true self.  Starring Welsh actor Tom Cullen (a straight actor who earned his queer ally card in Andrew Haigh’s Weekend),  and also Heartbreaker’s openly gay Joe Locke.

La Bola Negra (The Black Ball) is a narrative triptych about the lives of three different Spanish men at various times: a meditation derived from Lorca about the secret history of gay men’s sexuality, which has been erased, excluded or denied – sexuality transfigured into a mysterious, restorative poetry of the soul. In Lorca’s words, “only mystery keeps us alive” and in fact the small regret I have about this superlatively acted and beautifully shot film is that once the connection between the three narrative strands is explained, some of the mystery and poetry is lost.  Winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes 

Jordan Firstman is the hunky, hairy, handsome man who is known most popularly as a content creator who does comedic impressions on Instagram  However, he is also a runway model and an actor,  He first came onto Queergurus’ radar when we read he had approached the multi-award-winning filmmaker Sebastián Silva (a real Queerguru favorite) to direct a hilarious satirical film he wanted to make.  Silva, in turn, asked Michael Cera to lead the film, but Cera declined due to the graphic sexual content.  So Jordan Firstman stepped out of his clothes and took the very naked starring role instead.

Now Firstman has added writer and director to his resume with his feature directorial debut Club Kid in which he also stars. This comedy-drama film  also stars Cara Delevingne, Diego Calva, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, and Colleen Camp.  In it, Firstman plays washed-up underground party promoter Peter whose life takes an unexpected turn when he is forced to care for Arlo, a 10-year old son he never knew he had.  The film is already making waves as it had its world premiere at the Un Certain Regard section of the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, where it was nominated for the prestigious Caméra d’Or and the Queer Palm.

Congratulations to queer Belgian filmmaker Lukas Dhont, whose two stars in his latest film COWARD (which is only his 4th!) Valentin Campagne and Emmanuel Macchia both won Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival.  It’s part of a mutual love affair between Dhont and the Festival that began with his first film GIRL, which won him both the Caméra d’Or and the  Queer Palm and a nomination for  Prix Un Certain Regard

On the western front in the First World War, Belgian soldiers got permission to form a theatrical troupe, often in drag, to entertain their comrades when they are behind the lines and raise their morale. Directed and co-written by this story of a gay affair in the army is heartfelt and well acted, if rather earnestly researched.   Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian wrote  Lukas Dhont’s war-set gay romance is a heartfelt examination of cowardice and lives lived in secret amid the brutality of battle

This highly anticipated film that tells the story of the Scottish actor Ian Charleson  takes its title ELSINORE from Hamlet. Charleston died at the age of just 40 just eight weeks  after performing the title role in a run of Hamlet, in Richard Eyre‘s production at the Olivier Theatre.  The day following Charleson’s final Hamlet performance, when Ian McKellen was given the Evening Standard Award for Best Actor for his Iago in Othello, McKellen offered thanks, but said that, having seen “the perfect Hamlet” at the National Theatre the previous night, he thought that not he but Charleson was truly the Best Actor of 1989, and he gave Charleson his statuette. We think Andrew Scott will be getting at least one for his performance: probably from the Academy itself 

This is the most unmissable movie in the whole Fest: we suggest you take a whole box of tissues with you 

Theatre/film Director Sean Mathias (Bent) may have been married to his husband for almost 20 years, but he is still linked professionally to his ex-partner, Ian McKellen.  (Queerguru had the joy of interviewing Mathias in 2019 when he directed him in his play Prayer for Angels ….see HERE) In the delightful ‘Frank and Percy ‘, McKellen’s co-star is Roger Allam, and it’s an adaptation of the West End hit, about finding connection beyond your sixties.  Plus, it has one of the most star-studded supporting casts we have ever seen, including Stephen Fry, Joanna Lumley, Derek Jacobi, Ncuti Gatwa, Sheila Hancock, Siân Phillips, and Wayne Sleep, etc etc,

The whole Queerguru team are not always in total agreement when it comes to new movies, but anything and everything from queer filmmaker IRA SACHS is unanimously welcome.  The man who has brought us such gems such as Keep the Lights On, Passages,  Little Men and last year’s Peter Hujar’s Day  latest movie is THE MAN I LOVE. With a mesmerizing performance from Academy Award winner Rami Malek, who plays a gay theater actor living in 1980s New York City as he navigates his life while being diagnosed with AIDS.  UNMISSABLE

Queerguru’s David Allen wrote, most movies are a passive watch where we sit at home or in a movie theatre and the story unfolds before us. ‘MASC’ from writer/director/producer Bertil Nilsson makes you work. This is by no means a bad thing, but it doesn’t make for a straightforward movie to review, not least because I don’t want to prejudice (or spoil) anyone’s experience. So, rather than too much detail, be prepared for a fair amount of adjectives.

‘MASC’ plays out as a theatrical, experimental, almost Mike Leigh/Ken Loach movie with a unique structure that will put you on the back foot and make you wonder where you are with it. Told over a number of scenarios, we follow our lead Robin (played by Joshua Griffin, who also co-wrote the story) as he modifies his look and manner through each of them.  As the pieces slot into place in one scene, another takes its place, and you start again.  It takes a minute to get used to, and I don’t want to suggest this is deliberately obtuse, obscure, or hard to watch because the closer you get to the conclusion, the greater the reward you receive.

When it comes to queer cinema, British filmmaker Derek Jarman was an iconic force whose influence can still be spotted in the work of so many filmmakers some 30 years after his death. Now, this new film Queer Edward 11 is an archival tour de force that takes us behind the scenes of Derek Jarman’s Edward II, set against the backdrop of the anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation of 1980s Britain. In 1991, Jarman started production on Edward II, just as queer life in the UK was under renewed threat from the British government. Seamus McGarvey captured all the drama on set in a previously unseen treasure trove of behind-the-scenes footage.  As our community keeps maturing, it is so essential that we repeat and share our history/

The 67th BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express will run 4-15 Oct 2023.

for full reviews on over 2000 queer films,  check out www.queerguru.com and whilst you are there be sure to subscribe to get all the latest raves and rants on queer cinema .                                best of all its FREE