"I feel that to lie with my head on her breast is to feel what life can hold"

115 media recommendations for Sapphic September

Happy Sapphic September! I’m back with another post dedicated solely for sapphic media (more or less all my posts with media recs contain sapphic media because that’s what I read/watch the most). Down below you will find recommendations on literature, film, and tv series. As always, let me know if you’ve read and/or watched any of the titles mentioned in this post! More sapphic recommendations can be found in the post (linked below) that I created in honour of Pride Month.

Disclaimers: Please check trigger warnings for the titles before reading/watching!

Still from Good Manners (2017).

Horror baddies

• Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022)
  A group of rich 20-somethings plan a hurricane party at a remote family mansion, and one of the party games turns deadly.

• Jennifer’s Body (2009)

  A demon possesses a high school cheerleader who gets an unsatisfied appetite for human flesh, only targeting the men at her school.

• The Fear Street trilogy (2021)

  A group of teenagers accidentally uncovers a series of brutal murders that have plagued their town for over 300 years.

• The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020)

  A tv series that follows an au pair hired to look after a girl and a boy at a country house. When arriving at the estate she sees apparitions that haunts the premises.

• I Saw the TV Glow (2024)

  A lonely girl and a seventh grader bond over their love of a supernatural late-night tv series. The tv series is mysteriously cancelled and soon the view of reality begins to crack.

• Good Manners (2017)

  Clara is hired as a housekeeper and nanny for a wealthy woman, and realises that the pregnancy is more complicated than she thought.

• Carmilla (2019)

  15-year-old Laura lives in total isolation in her family home and struggling to find an outlet for her flourishing sexuality she becomes enchanted by Carmilla, which soon turns into a passionate relationship.

• First Kill (2022)

  A tv series that follows a vampire and a vampire hunter that falls in love with each other. Things get even more complicated as they both are ready to make their first kill.

• Lucy Undying (2024) by Kiersten White

  A gothic fantasy where a vampire escapes Dracula and embarks on her own search for self-discovery and true love.

• Fruiting Bodies (2022) by Kathryn Harlan

  A collection of short stories that ranges from fantastical to gothic to uncanny. Follows (mainly) queer women on the verge of change.

• Thirst (2020) by Marina Yuszczuk

  A woman grapples with her mother’s terminal illness and her relationship with motherhood. She encounters a vampire at a cemetery, which ignites something and there’s no turning back.

• The Lost Girls (2021) by Sonia Hartl

  Three vampires seek revenge against their mutual ex, the man who turned them when they were teens.

Still from La Cérémonie (1995).

Can you match my freak?

• Thelma (2017)

  A college student starts experiencing extreme seizures, seizures which she soon learns are a symptom of, often dangerous, supernatural abilities.

• Heavenly Creatures (1994)

  Teenager Juliet transfers from England to New Zealand and forms a bond with Pauline through their shared love of Mario Lanza. Their friendship quickly becomes intense and unhealthy, and when they are threatened to be kept apart they decide to run away.

• Eileen (2023)

  A young secretary becomes enchanted by the glamorous new counsellor at the prison where she works. Their relationship takes a turn when the counsellor reveals a dark secret. Based on the book Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh.

• La Cérémonie (1995)

  Sophie is hired as a maid for a rich countryside family and befriends a post-office clerk who encourages her to rebel against her employers.

• Birds of Paradise (2021)

  Two girls’ is tested at an elite Parisian ballet academy as they compete for a contract to join the company of the Opéra national de Paris.

• Dead Ringers (2023)

  A tv series following two twins who share everything from lovers to drugs. They both work as midwives and continue to push the borders of medical ethics in an effort to challenge antiquated practices and to call attention to women’s health care.

• Yellowjackets (2021–)

  A high school soccer team are on their way to Seattle for a national tournament but the plane crashes deep in the Canadian wilderness. Follows their time as teenagers in the wilderness and them as adults. (Season three will air in 2025).

• Big Swiss (2023) by Jean Beagin

  Greta works transcribing a therapist’s client sessions and as she listens to one women she gets fixated on her, nicknaming her Big Swiss, and stalks her until they start having an affair.

• Paradise Rot (2009) by Jenny Hval

  University student Jo’s senses become increasingly heightened and lines between dream and reality starts to blur.

Still from Under the Bridge (2024).

Mystery / detective

• Under the Bridge (2024)

  Tv mini series set in a small town in Canada in the 90s, chronicles the real-life murder case of Reena Virk (Vritika Gupta), a 14-year-old girl who was killed following a bullying incident under a bridge.

• Bodkin (2024–)

  Tv series following a pair of podcasters and an investigative journalist who sets out to investigate the mysterious disappearance of three strangers in an Irish coastal town.

• Vigil (2021–)

  Tv series following the conflict between the police, the Navy and British security services as there is a mysterious disappearance of a Scottish fishing trawler and a death onboard a Trident nuclear submarine.

• Monster (2003)

  Biographical crime drama film following the serial killer Aileen Wuornos who murdered seven of her clients at the end of the 90s.

• Drive-Away Dolls (2024)

  Fresh out of an ugly breakup, Jamie convinces her best friend Marian to join her on a road trip to Florida. Things quickly go awry when they cross paths with a group of criminals.

• Anatomie d’une chute (2023)

  A woman is suspected of her husband's murder and their blind son faces a moral dilemma as the sole witness.

• Set It Off (1996)

  A group of four women struggle with their finances and decide to start robbing banks, which attracts the attention of an obsessive detective.

• Kajillionaire (2020)

  Two con artists have spent 26 years training their only daughter to swindle, scam and steal. During a heist, they charm a stranger to join them, only to have their entire world turned upside down.

• Mulholland Drive (2001)

  Rita is the sole survivor of a brutal car accident but suffers mass amnesia. She wanders the streets of Los Angeles in a daze before taking refuge in an apartment where she is discovered by Betty. Together they attempt to solve the mystery of Rita’s true identity.

• Fingersmith (2002) by Sarah Waters

  Sue, an orphan, is raised in a family of thieves in London. One day she is sent by her adoptive mother to help Richard to seduce a wealthy heiress. (Was turned into a tv mini series in 2005.)

• Cursed Bread (2023) by Sophie Mackintosh

  Loosely based on historical events, Cursed bread tells about the mass poisoning of an entire town in the 1950s, and it is suspected that the cause of the poisoning was the local baker's bread.

• The Girls I’ve Been (2021) by Tess Sharpe

  Nora, the daughter of a con artist, gets caught in the middle of a bank heist with her girlfriend Iris and ex-boyfriend Wes.

• Scorched Grace (2023) by Margot Douaihy

  An amateur sleuth who also happens to be a heavily tattooed, sapphic nun investigates the arson of Saint Sebastian’s School.

• Where Echoes Die (2023) by Courtney Gould

  Two sisters travel to an isolated Arizona town to investigate its connection to their mother’s death.

Still from Everything Sucks! (2018).

Back 2 School

• Bottoms (2023)

  Unpopular best friends PJ and Josie start a high school fight club to meet girls and lose their virginity.

• Mean Girls (2024)

  Musical version of the 2004 film of the same name. New student Cady Heron transfers to North Shore High School after being homeschooled her whole life.

• First Girl I Loved (2016)

  Anne falls in love with the most popular girl in her high school.

• Crush (2022)

  A young girl is forced to join her high school track team and uses it as a chance to pursue the girl whom she’s had a crush on.

• Booksmart (2019)

  Academic overachievers Amy and Molly decide on the eve of graduation to cram four years of missed out teenage years in one night.

• The Half of It (2020)

  A shy, straight-A Chinese-American student helps the school jock charm a girl whom she secretly desire.

• Everything Sucks! (2018)

  Tv series set in Oregon in 1996, centered around the A/V Club and the Drama Club of Boring High School.

• Amelia Westlake (2018) by Erin Gough

  Two girls who are polar opposites (read: enemies to lovers) team up to create a hoax to expose the flaws in their private girls’ school.

• You Should See Me in a Crown (2020) by Leah Johnson

  As a means of getting out of Campbell to study at Pennington College on a music scholarship, Liz puts together a plan to become prom queen.

• Plain Bad Heroines (2020) by Emily M. Danforth

  Set at a girls’ boarding school during 1902 and present day New England, Plain Bad Heroines follows two students who attended Brookhants School for Girls and who were obsessed with each other and the writer Mary MacLane. As a means of showing their devotion to MacLane they establish a secret club and meet in an orchard where they eventually die. In present day we follow the film production, based on a book detailing the history of the boarding school and the girls.

Still from Elisa y Marcela (2019).

Black and White

• Girl with Hyacinths (1950)

  After a young woman commits suicide, her neighbors try to piece together her mysterious life through her acquaintances.

• Persona (1966)

  Stage actress Elisabeth is sent to seaside to recover from an emotional breakdown with only Anna, a nurse, as company.

• Queen Christina (1933)

  A biographical film following Christina who is crowned ruler in 1632 after her father, the king of Sweden, dies on the battlefield.

• Elisa y Marcela (2019)

  Elisa and Marcela meet in 1885 and form a great friendship, which soon turns into a relationship that they have to keep hidden. In order to marry each other they pose as a heterosexual couple in 1901.

• Dracula’s Daughter (1936)

  Tells the story of Countess Marya Zaleska, the daughter of Count Dracula who kidnaps a psychiatrist’s assistant and takes her to Transylvania.

• Je, Tu, Il, Elle (1974)

  A young girl ventures out in the world after a self-imposed exile and experiences lonely love affairs.

• Olivia (1951)

  Captures the awakening passions of an English adolescent sent away for a year to a small finishing school outside Paris.

• La Garçonne (1936)

  Garçonne Monique Lerbier leaves home to escape a marriage of convenience to a man she does not love which her parents have forced on her.

• La fuga (1964)

  A young woman, unhappy in her marriage, is tempted into a lesbian relationship with an interior decorator.

• A Woman’s Affair (1901) by Liane de Pougy

  Courtesan Annhine de Lys (Liane de Pougy) meets Flossie (Natalie Clifford Barney) and everything changes as they begin a love affair.

• Diana Victrix (1897) by Florence Converse

  Two spinsters come to board with the Dumarais family in New Orleans over one winter.

• Deephaven (1877) by Sarah Orne Jewett

  Two aristocratic young ladies from Boston share their experiences, delight and yearning in a small harbor village in Maine.

• A Sunless Heart (1894) by Edith Johnstone

  Gasparine is rescued from despair by Lotus, a teacher at the local ladies’ College, and fixates on her despite Lotus finding happiness with a woman student.

• Regiment of Women (1917) by Clemence Dane

  Set in a small town in Edwardian England, Regiment of Women explores the relationship between two teachers at a private girls’ school.

Still from The World Unseen (2007).

Historical

• Entre Nous (1983)

  Two different women are unhappily married in occupied France and after meeting each other they develop an emotional relationship bordering on romance.

• Aimée & Jaguar (1999)

  A dangerous love affair blossoms between two women in Nazi Germany.

• Farewell, My Queen (2012)

  A fictional account of the relationship between Marie Antoinette and one of her readers, during the first days of the French revolution.

• Hilma (2022)

  Explores the life of Swedish artist and mystic Hilma af Klint.

• The Favourite (2018)

  The status quo at the court in early 18th-century England is upset when a new servant arrives and endears herself to a frail Queen Anne.

• The World Unseen (2007)

  Amina co-owns a cafe in 1950s Cape Town, and one day when beautiful housewife Miriam visits the cafe, Amina is instantly smitten.

• Irma Vep (2022)

  A modern remake of the French silent film classic Les Vampires and the 1996 film. The tv mini series follows Mira, an American movie star who comes to France to star as Irma Vep in a remake of the French silent film classic Les Vampires.

• The Decameron (2024)

  Tv series set inspired by the 14th century short-story collection The Decameron. Follows ten people who are concealed in a remote countryside villa to escape the plague-ridden Florence.

• Ammonite (2020)

  In the 1840s, paleontologist Mary works alone selling common fossils to tourists to support her ailing mother, but her life changes as she is hired to take care of a visitor’s wife.

• The Tower (2024) by Flora Carr

  A reimagining of Mary, Queen of Scot when she was held hostage in a remote Scottish castle with a handful of women in 1567.

• The Disenchantment (2023) by Celia Bell

  Set in 17th century Paris, The Disenchantment tells the story of a love affair between two noblewomen seeking freedom from their repressive society.

• Learned by Heart (2023) by Emma Donoghue

  Reimagining of the relationship between Eliza Raine and Anne Lister in 19th century England.

Still from Respire (2014).

Coming of Age

• Respire (2014)

  Based on the novel of the same name, Respire follows two teenage girls who develop an intense and dangerous friendship.

• Billie & Emma (2018)

  Billie moves to the province and meets Emma, and together they go through the experience of first love.

• Light Light Light (2023)

  Mariia vists her childhood home and revists the memories of her first love as 15 during the summer of 1986.

• Girl Picture (2022)

  Three young girls at the cusp of womanhood try to defy the persistent winter darkness, and in the process they fall in love and experience pleasure, friendship, dream and reality.

• Pariah (2011)

  Teenage Alike embraces her identity as a lesbian and is looking for her first lover, but her mother doesn’t like her clothes nor her friendship with openly lesbian Laura and forces her to wear feminine clothing and to befriend a girl from her church.

• The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love (1995)

  Randy begins an unlikely friendship with one of her school’s popular girls and when they fall in love they struggle with having to reveal their relationship to friends and family.

• Rubyfruit Jungle (1973) by Rita Mae Brown

  Autobiographical account of Brown’s youth as she grows up in Florida struggling with her sexuality and later as she runs away to New York to pursue a career as a filmmaker and a life among lesbians.

• Under the Udala Trees (2015) by Chinelo Okparanta

  Ijeoma grows up in war-torn Nigeria and must come to terms with her sexuality and the conflict this presents in society.

Still from Warrior Nun (2020–2022).

Holy Camp!

• Alucarda (1977)

  Two teenage orphans living at a Catholic covent unleashes a demonic force and become possessed.

• But I’m a Cheerleader (1999)

  17-year-old high school senior Megan is sent to conversation therapy, but at the camp Megan realises that she indeed is lesbian and comes to embrace her sexuality.

• Novitiate (2017)

  Set in the early 1960s, a young woman is training to become a nun and struggles with issues of faith, the changing church and her sexuality.

• Disobedience (2017)

  Ronit returns to the same Orthodox Jewish community that shunned her decades earlier for her childhood attraction to Esti. Their reunion soon reignites their burning passion and together they explore boundaries of faith and sexuality.

• You Can Live Forever (2022)

  When Jaime is sent to live in a Jehovah’s Witness community she falls hard for a devout girl and together they embark on an intense affair.

• Holy Camp! (2017)

  Two rebellious teenagers attend a Catholic summer camp that changes their lives forever.

• Circumstance (2011)

  The love between two teenage Iranian girls, Atafeh and Shireen, is threatened by the families, Atafeh’s brother’s newgound conservatism, and the double standards set for women.

• Warrior Nun (2020–2022)

  Tv series following an orphaned teen who discovers she possesses superpowers as the chosen Halo Bearer for a secret sect of demon-hunting nuns.

• The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2012) by Emily M. Danforth

  A 12-year-old girl who has to live with her conservative aunt and grandmother after the death of her parents. When the romantic relationship she develops with her best friend is discovered she is sent to a conversion camp. (Was adapted into a film in 2018).

• These Letters End in Tears (2024) by Musih Tedji Xaviere

  Set in Cameroon, a country where being gay is punishable by law, this novel tells the story of forbidden love between a Christian and a Muslim girl.

• You Exist Too Much (2020) by Zaina Arafat

  A 12-year-old Palestinian-American girl is yelled at by a group of men outside the Chruch of the Nativity because she exposed her legs. Their judgment as well as her mom’s reaction to her coming out as sapphic echoes through her adolescence.

• Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (1985) by Jeanette Winterson

  Jeanette is adopted and brought up by her mother as one of God’s elect but then she falls for one of her converts, and at 16 she decides to leave church, her home and family for the woman she loves.

• Immodest Acts (1985) by Judith C. Brown

  A study of the life of the 17th century nun Sister Benedetta Carlini.

• Matrix (2021) by Lauren Groff

  Set at an abbey in the 12th and 13th century, Matrix follows two real historical characters, poet and noblewoman Marie de France and duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine.

• The Henna Wars (2020) by Adiba Jaigirdar

  Nishat struggles with bullying at her Catholic school, and her Muslim parents’ disapproval when she comes out as a lesbian. When her childhood friend Flávia transfers to her school, she develops a crush on her.

Still from Sirens (2022).

Music lovers

• Hearts Beat Loud (2018)

  Single dad and record store owner Frank and his daughter become an unlikely songwriting duo in the last summer before she leaves for college.

• Les jours heureux (2023)

  Orchestra conductor Emma navigates her toxic relationship with her father as well as a budding relationship with Naëlle.

• Sirens (2022)

  Shery and Lilas, members of an all-woman metal band, navigate their friendship, future and identities on the outskirts of Beirut.

• The Runaways (2010)

  Joan Jett and Cherie Currie become the frontwomen for the Runaways, the legendary group that paved the way for future generation women rockers.

• Beautiful Rebel (2024)

  Chronicles the life and career of Italian singer-songwriter Gianna Nannini.

• Rise to the Sun (2021) by Leah Johnson

  Olivia and Toni are at the Farmland Music Festival, both excited to experience the magic of live music and friendship when a romance starts blooming between them.

Still from Reaching for the Moon (2013).

Fellow writers

• Colette (2018)

  Colette decides to pursue her own career as a writer after being forced to ghostwrite her husband’s novels.

• Reaching for the Moon (2013)

  Portrays the love story between American poet Elizabeth Bishop and the Brazilian architect Lota de Macedo Soares.

• Vita & Virginia (2018)

  Virginia Woolf meets fellow author Vita Sackville-West in London in the 1920s, and they embark on a love affair that inspires Woolf’s novel Orlando.

• Violette (2013)

  Novelist Violette Leduc struggles to find her voice as a writer when she meets Simone de Beauvoir in post-WW2.

• A Bookshop of One’s Own: How a Group of Women Set Out to Change the World (2024) by Jane Cholmeley

  Recounts the true story of Silver Moon, a feminist bookshop founded by three women in Thatcher’s Britain against the backdrop of homophobia and misogyny.

• After Sappho (2022) by Selby Wynn Schwartz

  Vignettes of beloved and forgotten historical lesbian artists, writers, activists.

• Wild Heart: A Life: Natalie Clifford Barney and the Decadence of Literary Paris (2002) by Suzanne Rodriguez

  Recounts the true story of Natalie Clifford Barney’s literary salon at the Left Bank in 1900s Paris.

• Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West: Love Letters (1984)

  Selected letters and diary entries from 1922 to 1941 paints the picture of the love between Woolf and Sackville-West.

• Violet to Vita: The Letters of Violet Trefusis to Vita Sackville-West, 1910–1921 (1910)

  A collection of Trefusis’ letters provides details and her point of view of the love affair between her and Sackville-West.

• The Penguin Book of Lesbian Short Stories (1994)

  An anthology that covers nearly a century of lesbian writing. Consists of 32 women, ranging from Sarah Orne Jewett (1897) to Jeanette Winterson (1993).

Still from Maja Ma (2022).

Self-discovery

• Fancy Dance (2024)

  Following her sister’s disappearance, a Native American kidnaps her niece from the child’s white grandparents and sets out for the state powwow in hopes of keeping what is left of their family intact.

• Chestnut (2024)

  As a recent graduate Annie becomes entangled in a relationship with a man and a woman, which leads her to spend a summer of self-discovery.

• Am I Ok? (2024)

  As Jane announces that she’s moving to London to her best friend Lucy, Lucy reveals a long held secret that she explores throughout the film.

• Maja Ma (2022)

  A rumour about a housewife threatens to disrupt her family’s life on the eve of her son’s engagement.

• Saving Face (2004)

  Chinese-America Wil and her traditional mother are reluctant to go public with secret loves that clash against cultural expectations.