This is not only important for telling the story of those who are not nearly as represented as heterosexual relationships and life experiences.
But also opens the door to a lot more beautiful, hilarious, tear-jerking, action-packed, thought-provoking movies that we would not have seen otherwise simply because there was lesbian representation.
So, whether you are a lesbian and are looking for movies that you can deeply relate to or are just interested in broadening your views, then you should watch these 23 lesbian movies available on Amazon Prime.
1. Carol
Based on a novel entitled ‘The Price of Salt’ written by Patricia Highsmith in 1952, this movie is set in the same period of the 1950s and tells a love story between two women played by Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara.
Even though these two women are already in relationships with men, they cannot help but be drawn to one another, and begin to explore a romantic connection with one another.
Because of this, it brings forth the issues surrounding discrimination which were so prevalent at this time.
This begs the question of whether their love will conquer these challenges or the pressure of society and those around them will prove to be too much.
2. Disobedience
Having been alienated from her Orthodox Jewish community, a woman played by Rachel Weisz now lives in Manhattan and works as a photographer.
However, having heard that her father back home has died, she flies back to the same place that exiled her.
It is here that she bumps into her childhood best friend (Rachel McAdams) and it doesn’t take long for them to reconnect and together push the boundaries placed on them from their religion regarding sexuality and faith.
3. My Days Of Mercy
Along with her older sister, a woman called Lucy (Elliot Page) are protesting against the death sentence of their father who was wrongfully jailed and on death row.
It is at one of these protests that Lucy meets a girl called Mercy who is played by Kate Mara.
Despite the fact that Mercy is a police officer and is essentially fighting against what Lucy is protesting against, they form an understanding and romantic relationship with one another.
But of course, it is not all smooth sailing and soon the high tension and lawyer drama surrounding the father’s death row case poses problems for Lucy and Mercy’s relationship.
4. Portrait Of A Lady On Fire
If you ask almost anyone what lesbian movie to watch, this movie will likely be the first one that they say.
This French movie is about a painter who is hired by someone to paint a portrait of a woman who is soon to be married but has not allowed a proper portrait to be painted of her.
Therefore, the painter (Noémie Merlant) is tasked to paint the other woman (Adèle Haenel) without her really noticing. This leads to them growing closer and exploring the isolated island in Brittany and each other.
5. But I’m A Cheerleader
This movie may have been released in 1999, but still stands up as a lesbian coming of age story that you will undoubtably enjoy.
It starts off like any other high school movie, the main character named Megan is a cheerleader played by Natasha Lyonne who is dating one of the most popular jocks.
It sounds like the perfect American high school experience, but Megan doesn’t really like it when she has to kiss her boyfriend even though she knows that she should in theory.
This then sends her into a bit of a sexuality crisis and sadly is sent to a conversion camp, however this is where she meets a girl named Graham in which she falls in love with.
6. Saving Face
This is another movie that was released a good few years ago in 2004 but is still very worth watching today.
It tells the story of a Chinese girl called Wil (played by Michelle Krusiec) who is a lesbian but is too afraid to tell her widowed mother who is very much a traditionalist along with her grandparents.
However, things start to get a bit confusing as Wil’s mother falls pregnant which then leads to the grandparents kicking her out as she will not tell them who the father is.
Her mother moves in with Wil and deep secrets are uncovered.
7. Raven’s Touch
Even though this movie is a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to reviews, it is still a movie that you should not completely write off when you come across it on Amazon Prime.
It stars a woman called Raven (Dreya Weber) who secludes herself in a cabin in the woods as she blames herself for a tragic accident. She wanders these woods in a lost daze, trying to process what has happened.
In these woods is where Raven meets a woman called Kate who has taken her technology addicted teenagers on a camping trip.
With the help of one another, Raven and Kate begin the process of healing and even find happiness.
8. First Girl I Loved
The lesbian relationship in this movie begins almost as soon as the movie starts. A girl called Anne (Dylan Gelula) is at a softball game where the team star called Sasha (Brianna Hilderbrand) catches her eye.
The two cross paths due to a yearbook interview and start to form a close friendship.
Anne has an ex-boyfriend who she splits up with once she realizes her feelings for Sasha, but the boyfriend doesn’t take it very well and sets out to sabotage Anne and Sasha’s growing friendship.
This is just one of the events that tests the relationship between Anne and Sasha.
9. Blue Is The Warmest Colour
‘Blue is the warmest colour’ is a very well-known movie, especially in the lesbian community. It is a French film released in 2013 and is still very much a talking point.
It stars a woman called Adèle (Adèle Exarchopoulos) who struggles with friendships and relationships as she is quite introverted and is still figuring out who she is and how to be confident.
One night she gathers the courage to go to a gay bar which is where she meets Emma (Léa Seydoux) who has blue hair.
They strike up a friendship but since Adèle is still fighting with the fact that she is a lesbian, starts to push Emma away.
It does not take long however for Adèle to realize that she likes Emma.
They begin a passionate relationship that you follow throughout the movie as they begin to settle into careers, but this is where they face some of their biggest challenges which may tear them apart or make their relationship stronger.
10. City Of Trees
This movie stars a woman called Ainsley played by Alexandra Swarens who goes back to her small hometown for the holidays.
Ainsley’s mother starts to talk about this other woman called Sophie in passing conversation who went to the same high school as Ainsley and was a cheerleader and very popular.
The mother mentions how empathetic and kind Sophie is now as a fully fledged adult.
The two women cross paths and Ainsley finds it hard to be fully kind towards Sophie because she feels like they are teenagers again and expects Sophie to look down on her because she isn’t one of the cool kids in high school.
Slowly this barrier begins to drop, and Ainsley accepts that Sophie has grown and changed – this then opens the door to a very close friendship between them both which progresses into a romantic one.
11. More Beautiful For Having Been Broken
Max is a female FBI agent played by Zoe Ventoura and finds herself in the countryside after being suspended from struggling with the passing of her mother in which she was very close to.
It is in this countryside where she befriends a woman called Samantha who is the mother of a young boy with special needs called Freddie.
It is due to Freddie that these two women get closer as he teaches Max how to let down her guard and persevere.
A relationship between Max and Samantha is formed but the secrets encircling the small town shake things up and really tests the two on their love and Max’s healing process.
12. When Night Is Falling
This movie really shows you how opposites can attract sometimes when it comes to relationships.
Camille (Pascale Bussières) is literature professor at university and is in a long-term relationship with a man called Martin – a fellow professor.
Camille and Martin share a dog together who unfortunately runs away one day and is found dead on the street by Camille.
This leaves her distraught and finds it hard to stop herself from crying in the laundromat where a woman called Petra approaches her and tries to console her.
Camille and Petra cross paths again though and end up kissing. This throws everything that Camille thought she was up in the air and makes her reevaluate her life, including her long-term relationship with Martin.
13. Cloudburst
Even though representation of young lesbian people and their relations is important, it is also important that the older generations are included.
This movie does just that as lesbian couple in this movie have been together for over 30 years and are now on the run from a nursing home.
The couple involve Stella and Dotty who are played by Olympia Dukakis and Brenda Fricker.
The story begins when Dotty is moved into a nursing home but is broken out by Stella and taken to Nova Scotia which is where they decide they want to get married.
We learn so much about these interesting characters by listening in on them as they have conversations with a young hitchhiker called Prentice who they picked up on their way to Nova Scotia.
The three characters share stories, thoughts, and experiences and form a beautiful bond, making this a very unique and heart-warming movie that everyone should watch – lesbian or otherwise.
14. Freeheld
This is another movie on this list starring the talented Elliot Page who plays a character called Stacie who is a car mechanic. Julianne Moore also stars and plays Laurel, a police detective who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Freeheld is based on a true story and narrates the struggle that Laurel and Stacie face with having Laurel’s pension benefits being passed onto Stacie once she dies.
It really shows how things were a lot harder for those who did not have conventional relationships and had to tirelessly fight for basic rights.
15. The World To Come
The World to Come is set all the way back in 1856 and stars a woman called Abigail (Katherine Waterston) who lives a quiet, solitary life among farmers in the countryside with her husband Dyer.
Abigail and Dyer are still reeling from the passing of their daughter Nellie and are left childless.
Then, another couple move into a house close beside them and Abigail becomes almost infatuated with the woman called Tallie (Vanessa Kirby).
In a time where men were the only voice to be heard, Abigail and Tallie grow and blossom together behind closed doors, but will they be able to live their truth without shame?
16. Tell It To The Bees
Once again, we are turning back the clock and going back to the 1950s where being a lesbian was almost unheard of because so much shame and discrimination was put upon it.
It stars a woman called Lydia (Holliday Grainger) who is trying to be strong for her young son but is in a marriage that is failing.
One day Lydia makes a trip to the local doctor, Jean (Anna Paquin) who happens to be new to the area and initially forms a bond with Lydia’s son over his love of bees.
Things start to go wrong though when Lydia and her son are evicted from their home once her marriage fully disintegrates and are left with no choice but to move in with Jean.
In a perfect world, no questions would be raised and everyone could live happily ever after – however this is the 1950s in rural Scotland and unfortunately society was not that progressive.
17. The Secret Diaries Of Miss Anne Lister
As the title suggests, this biographical movie is based off of diary entries by Anne Lister who was a young woman living in Yorkshire, England in the 19th century.
She was unmarried but instead of having her sights set on a man, she was entranced by a woman called Mariana in which she had a secret romantic relationship with.
It is in this diary that Anne documents her thoughts and adventures with Mariana.
However, Mariana falls under the pressure of society and marries a man. Anne’s story gets even more troublesome from here and with the help of her diary entries, you are taken along for the ride.
18. Dating Amber
Amber (Lola Petticrew) is a young girl in Ireland who is being bullied at school due to being a lesbian.
In order to stop the bullying and fit in, she hatches a plan with her friend who is gay himself that they should date as girlfriend and boyfriend.
Amber wants to escape the small Irish town that makes her feel squashed by its small mindedness. She has her heart set on London and is doing her best to save up to move there.
Both Amber and her friend Eddie make trips to Dublin so that they can comfortably explore their sexuality and true selves without fear of judgement.
With Amber’s confidence growing, she finds the courage to come out to her family and we get to see the journey of her coming out experience as a young lesbian in a small town – a very important story that needs to be told.
19. Ammonite
Even though there is no hard evidence that Mary Anning was a lesbian, there is no evidence that states otherwise either, so this movie handles this topic with grace and beauty.
If you are not aware of who Mary Anning was, she was one of the leading fossil collectors in the 18th century who found a lot of dinosaur bones that are now displayed in numerous museums.
Due to the fact that she was a woman and they had very little rights back then, her work was adopted by men, and she didn’t get half as much recognition as she deserved.
Ammonite tells the story of Mary Anning who is played by Kate Winslet and her isolated life of collecitg fossils, running her shop, and caring for her sickly mother.
Color is added to her life when a young woman (Saoirse Ronan) is brought to stay with her by her husband to treat her depression.
20. Vita & Virginia
‘Mad’ Mary (Seána Kerslake) is released from prison and tries to reconnect with her friends including her best friend Charlene who is getting married.
Mary wants to bring a plus one to the wedding so makes it her task to go find a man to bring despite many failed attempts.
At Charlene’s wedding, Mary starts talking to the photographer called Jess and the two of them get closer until their feelings become more than platonic.
22. Benedetta
This movie is loosely based on a non-fiction book written in 1986. It is set in 17th century Italy and follows Benedetta Carlini (Virginia Efira) who is a devout nun.
But she starts a very forbidden love affair with another woman and starts to have religious and erotic visions.
As you’re watching this movie, you will likely feel uncomfortable as it is a psychological drama that will keep you on edge, but all the while entranced.
23. The Miseducation Of Cameron Post
In 1993, Cameron (Chloë Grace Moretz) is caught making out with a girl called Coley by her boyfriend.
This leads to Cameron’s aunt to send her to conversion therapy for teenagers which is run by those who claim that they used to be gay before being ‘rescued’ by the camp.
Alongside two other members of the camp, Cameron remains a skeptic regarding the camp’s practice. Cameron receives a letter from Coley that blames Cameron for seducing her and making her sin.
As you may have guessed, this movie isn’t about a wholesome lesbian relationship that blossoms and grows despite everything, it is more about the reality of conversion camp and how members of the LGBTQIA+ community are brainwashed and ashamed for simply being who they are.
Some of these movies may be much higher rated than others, but that does not mean that you shouldn’t give them a chance!
From psychology dramas, romances, comedies, coming of age, and horror, there will be a lesbian movie on Amazon Prime that you are bound to enjoy.
It is also a great idea to watch lesbian movies that tell different types of stories as being a member of the LGBTQIA+ community is anything but linear and experiences will vary greatly.
Hello, my name is Gay Worlley - no, really - and I love learning about all things queer. I am also a qualified gardener and enjoy traveling in my spare time.
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