Summer may be ending, but queer culture certainly isn’t going indoors quietly. Autumn 2026 is bringing witches, vampires, pop stars, video-game camp and some extremely intriguing queer cinema.
Not everything on this list is explicitly an LGBTQ+ story — and that is deliberate.
Some are queer films.
Some feature major LGBTQ+ performers.
And some simply possess enough camp energy that The Gayly Mirror has decided they belong here anyway.
Here are five things on our radar.
Cry to Heaven
Tom Ford adapting Anne Rice already sounds like somebody generated a film specifically for queer audiences.
Add Hunter Schafer and Lux Pascal, and things become considerably more interesting.
Cry to Heaven is based on Rice’s novel about castrati in 18th-century Italy and explores a world of music, sexuality, beauty, power and gender.
A firm release date has not yet been announced, but the project has been targeting an autumn 2026 release, so this remains very much one to watch.
Also appearing in the film?
Adele.
Yes. That Adele.
We have questions.
Practical Magic 2
Some movies are LGBTQ+ stories.
Others simply become queer cultural property.
Practical Magic belongs firmly in the second category.
Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman return as Sally and Gillian Owens in Practical Magic 2, due in cinemas on 18 September 2026.
The original film’s witches, sisterhood, Stevie Nicks-infused atmosphere and slightly chaotic romantic energy have helped turn it into a cult favourite.
Twenty-eight years later, the witches are back.
Frankly, autumn would be offended if they weren’t.
Street Fighter — Yes, Because Orville Peck
No, Street Fighter is not suddenly an LGBTQ+ drama.
But it does feature openly gay country star and masked heartbreaker Orville Peck as Vega.
And that alone earns it a place on our radar.
The new movie is scheduled to arrive in cinemas on 16 October 2026, with Peck transforming from mysterious country cowboy into one of the franchise’s most flamboyant fighters.
Come for the Hadoukens.
Stay because Orville Peck apparently wasn’t content with making cowboys gay enough.
April X
Fans of Heated Rivalry may already know Connor Storrie.
He stars in the psychological thriller April X, which is set for a theatrical release in September 2026.
Storrie plays Max, a man searching a post-Soviet city for his missing twin sister while gradually losing his grip on reality.
This one is not being sold as a queer film, but Storrie’s rapidly growing fanbase means plenty of LGBTQ+ viewers are likely to be paying attention.
And sometimes that is enough to earn a place on the watchlist.
Dreamgirls Is Coming Back to Broadway
Technically not something you watch from your sofa.
But we are making an exception.
Dreamgirls returns to Broadway in autumn 2026, with Jennifer Hudson joining the production as a producer, twenty years after her Oscar-winning performance as Effie White in the film adaptation.
For generations of queer audiences, Dreamgirls has occupied that wonderful space where musical theatre, diva worship and emotional devastation meet.
“And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” alone has probably been performed in enough gay bars to qualify for protected cultural status.
So yes. It counts!
What Are You Watching?
Not every piece of queer culture needs to arrive carrying a rainbow flag.
Sometimes representation is explicit.
Sometimes it comes through LGBTQ+ performers and creators.
And sometimes queer audiences simply look at something involving witches, divas, vampires or an impossibly attractive masked cowboy and collectively decide:
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