10 LGBTQ+ Movies We're Excited To Watch At 2023 NewFest

It’s NewFest season!

It’s time to get gay and go to the movies because we are officially in NewFest season!

Now in its 35th year, the queer film festival that was started as a response to the HIV/AIDS crisis, has grown into one of the most important – and flyest – film festivals of the year. NewFest has become one of the most diverse and inclusive film fests. Every year there are more films with narratives from queer women, trans folks, and non-binary babes. It’s where underrepresented stories come to life, encouraging creators—and audiences— to celebrate the queer experience.

I love film festivals, I love gay film festivals, and I love gay film festivals where queer women are actually part of the conversation and not left out. So to celebrate, here are the 10 films with queer babes that I’m most excited about at Newfest 35!

Scroll through to check out which movies we're excited to see at the 2023 NewFest. For more information about NewFest, check out the festival's official website.

A Place Of Our Own

Laila and Roshni are besties who get evicted from their apartment and are trying to find a new one. They are two trans women in India, so they have a lot of barriers to get overcome while on the search for what will hopefully be their forever home.

Beyond the Aggressives: 25 years later

A follow-up to the original film “The Aggressives” shown at NewFest 17, where four BIPOC folks let the world into their everyday lives as masc presenting individuals. Now, we meet up with them to see how their lives have changed and what they want for the future.

Clashing Differences

There is such a thing as “checkbox inclusivity and diversity”. In this film, a group of women — POC and white — are at a retreat and suddenly the hidden agenda behind it all comes to life.

May December

An actress is trying to go deep into a film role, so she heads down south to shadow the woman she is going to be playing. The origins of the woman’s relationship with her much younger husband used to be all over the tabloid pages, and while doing her research for the role she finds out there is a whole lot more to their story.

Truth Be Told

Being Black, Queer, and in the church can be very difficult. This documentary explores the Black Church and what it’s like to be a queer person who grew up in, or is coming back to the oftentimes very religious and judgemental world.

Sweetgreen

Never go to the grocery store hungry…also never go on a date with your partner when y’all are both hangry and running late and decide that NOW is the best time to talk about your problems.

Dilating For Maximum Results

A Black trans woman is ready to hook up IRL with her online boyfriend. She hasn’t dilated in four years and decides “Hey, no time like the present!!”

I Identify As Me

Eight folks who identify as Black, Brown, Trans, gender-diverse, or masculine-presenting, chat through the social construct of gender.

Dismantle Me

Possibly the short I am most excited for, this film explores powerplay when a trans woman helps a heartbroken trans man clean up his room. ABSOLUTELY EVERYONE — ABSOLUTELY.

Cousins

Two cousins hang out and reunite one night in Brooklyn — then an ex shows up and things start to get hella chaotic.