Excellent Films to Stream for Trans Awareness Week

To help you celebrate Trans Awareness Week, we’ve compiled a list of 10 semi-recent (or recently released) films/series available to stream now (in the US)! On the list, you’ll find a couple films we loved that got released before Frameline47, a trio of outstanding features from the FL47 program, a stunning remaster of a major, early work of trans cinema, a great Completion Fund title, a marvelous Frameline Distribution film, and two bold TV series currently available on MAX.

Monica (2022)
Directed by Andrea Pallaoro 🇮🇹🇺🇸

If you need proof that Trace Lysette (Transparent, Hustlers) is one the finest young actors working today, don’t miss her quietly mesmerizing turn as the titular Monica. If all were right in the world, Lysette would be a staple in anyone’s Best Actress dialogue this year. Also starting the great Patricia Clarkson and Adrianna Barraza, Monica had its world premiere in competition at last year’s Venice Film Festival. Stream it now On Demand or on AMC+.

L’immensità (2022)
Directed by Emanuele Crialese 🇮🇹🇫🇷

Channeling Sofia Loren as vividly as she did in Volver, Academy Award winner Penélope Cruz plays a mother of three in an unhappy marriage whose eldest child (played by incredible newcomer Luana Giuliani) begins to explore his transgender identity without the vocabulary to articulate it. Officially coming out as a trans man at the film’s world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, Emanuele Crialese (Respiro, Golden Door) used his own childhood experiences to shape his first film in over a decade with breathtaking results. Stream it now On Demand or on Prime Video.

Kokomo City (2023)
Directed by D. Smith 🇺🇸

Audience Award winner at the Sundance and Berlin Film Festivals, Kokomo City follows a quartet of Black trans sex workers in America, captured through stunning back-and-white photography. This unforgettable doc portrait marks the impressive directorial debut of two-time Grammy-nominated songwriter/producer D. Smith, whose powerful, singular vision is one to keep an eye on. Stream it now On Demand.

Mutt (2023)
Directed by Vuk Lungulov-Klotz 🇺🇸

Over the course of a summer day in New York City, twentysomething (Lío Mehiel) finds his refreshing new life as a trans man disrupted by the return of three key figures from his pre-transitioned life: his cishit ex-boyfriend (Cole Doman), his younger sister (MiMi Ryder), and his estranged father (Alejandro Goic). Told with lively humor and striking visuals, Mutt announces the arrival of two exciting new talents: Vuk Lungulov-Klotz, making his feature directorial debut, and Lío Mehiel, whose first starring role won a Special Jury Award at Sundance. Stream it now On Demand or on Netflix.

Theater Camp (2023)
Molly Gordon & Nick Lieberman 🇺🇸

Though not exactly a film about the trans experience, one of the biggest hits of Frameline47, Theater Camp, features one of our favorite trans superstars Patti Harrison (as the villainous Caroline Krauss, who is looking to buy out the film’s central camp) alongside the likes of Amy Sedaris, Ben Platt, and Ayo Edebiri. Stream it now On Demand and on Hulu.

Dressed in Blue (Vestida de azul) (1983)
Directed by Antonio Giménez Rico 🇪🇸

Discover this long-lost trans classic, newly restored and remastered. Originally screened in 1984 as part of Frameline9, Dressed in Blue explores the lives and loves of a group of six transgender women in Madrid in the years following Spain’s transition to democracy. Antonio Giménez-Rico’s trailblazing documentary is serving as the inspiration for Javier Calvo & Javier Ambrossi’s sequel to their hit limited series Veneno. Stream it now On Demand or on Criterion Channel.

North by Current (2021)
Directed by Angelo Madsen Minax 🇺🇸

Recipient of a Frameline Completion fund, North by Current is vanguard trans filmmaker Angelo Madsen Minax’s documentary essay on family ties, trans identity, and personal grief as he travels home to Michigan after the mysterious death of his niece and the wrongful convictions against his sister and brother-in-law. Minax delivers a sophisticated, complex tapestry, which also manages to confront issues of religious hypocrisy and our deeply flawed criminal justice system. Stream it now On Demand or on Kanopy.

Instructions for Survival (2021)
Directed by Yana Ugrekhelidze 🇩🇪

Winner of both Teddy Jury Award at the Berlin International Film Festival and the Best Documentary prize at the Ann Arbor Film Festival, Instructions for Survival is an exquisite and timely documentary portrait featuring outstanding filmmaking craft and a profoundly honest window into the struggles of a couple — a transgender man and a cisgender woman — wishing to live openly in the Soviet republic of Georgia. A Frameline Distribution release, Instructions for Survival captures both the heartbreak and profound joy of ordinary love in extraordinary circumstances. Stream it now On Demand.

We Are Who We Are (2020)
Directed by Luca Guadagnino 🇮🇹🇺🇸

A sensational cast of exciting newcomers and familiar favorites (Chloë Sevigny, Alice Braga, Tom Mercier, and Scott “Kid Cudi” Mescudi) inhabit an American army base in Italy in this sumptuous, “revelatory” limited series from master auteur Luca Guadagnino (Call Me by Your Name, Suspiria). We Are Who We Are weaves multiple storylines and an extensive roster of characters across its 8 episodes — the strongest of which concerning Caitlin (played by Jordan Kristine Seamón), a teenager who begins exploring gender with the help of the newly arrived colonel’s queer son Fraser (Jack Dylan Glazer) on the base. Stream the entire HBO series on MAX or rent it On Demand.

Sort Of (2021-2023)
🇨🇦

This tremendously funny and uncommonly moving half-hour series from Canada centers on a non-binary, Pakistani nanny Sabi (Bilal Baig, who created the show with Fab Filippo). One of the best series to emerge during COVID, catch up with the first two seasons of Sort Of before the third and final season makes its way onto MAX.