Movies like The First Night (2003)
The best movies like The First Night (2003) are Fast Girls (2012), The Young One (1960) and Hands of Stone (2016). If The First Night hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedSound of Freedom (2023)7.9/10 from 2,897 votes
- NewestNot Without Hope (2025)Released 2025
- In SpanishCarne (1968)Also in Spanish
Fast Girls (2012)
A street smart runner develops an intense rivalry with an equally ambitious wealthy young athlete.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Young One (1960)
A jazz musician seeks refuge from a lynch mob on a remote island, where he meets a hostile game warden and the young object of his attentions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHands of Stone (2016)
The legendary Roberto Duran and his equally legendary trainer Ray Arcel change each other's lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHungry Hearts (2015)
The relationship of a couple who meet by chance in New York City is put to the test when they encounter a life or death circumstance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Good Neighbor (2022)
A nightmarish evening unfolds for neighbors David and Robert when they accidentally hit a woman on her bike and flee the scene. While David is increasingly plagued by feelings of guilt, Robert shows no remorse and becomes overbearing and possessive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCarne (1968)
A woman who works in a meat packing plant is continuously preyed upon by lecherous men.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUtama (2022)
In the Bolivian altiplano, Virginio and Sisa, an elderly Quechua couple who have lived a quiet life for years, face an impossible dilemma during an unusually long drought: resist or be defeated by the hostile environment and the relentless passage of time.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOut in the Open (2019)
A boy escaped from home, listening, crouched in the depths of his hiding place, the cries of the men who seek him. When the game passes, what remains before him is an infinite and arid plain that he must cross if he wants to get away definitively from what has made him flee. His steps will intersect with those of a pastor and, from that moment, nothing will be the same for either of them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPrayers for the Stolen (2021)
Ana and her two best friends, Maria and Paula, navigate life in their oppressive countryside village. Whilst their families struggle in the poppy fields harvesting opium, the girls try to grow alongside the creeping terror of their cartel oppressors.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe River (1984)
Tom and Mae Garvey are a Tennessee farming couple battling violent floods to save their land. In addition to natural disasters, the Garveys fight to stop a selfish land developer and a local corporation from foreclosing on their farm. While Mae stays at home to care for their children and tend to the crops, Tom finds work as a scab at a steel mill to preserve his family's property.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNot Without Hope (2025)
A group of friends' fishing boat capsizes off the coast of Mexico and they're left alone stranded at sea and struggling for survival.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOne Year, One Night (2022)
Ramón and Céline are a young couple that attended a concert at the Bataclan theatre in Paris on the fateful night of November 13, 2015. They survive the attack, but when they leave the theatre, they are no longer the same. That night leaves a deep scar on both their lives and each tries to cope.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAdú (2020)
In a desperate attempt to reach Europe and crouched before an airstrip in Cameroon, a six-year-old boy and his older sister wait to sneak into the holds of an airplane. Not too far away, an environmental activist contemplates the terrible image of an elephant, dead and fangless. Not only do you have to fight against poaching, but you will also have to meet the problems of your newly arrived daughter from Spain. Thousands of kilometers to the north, in Melilla, a group of civil guards prepare to face the furious crowd of sub-Saharan people who have begun the assault on the fence. Three stories linked by a central theme, in which none of its protagonists know that their destinies are doomed to cross and that their lives will no longer be the same.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhat Maisie Knew (2013)
In New York City, six-year-old Maisie is caught in the middle of a bitter custody battle between her self-absorbed parents—an aging rock singer mother and a distracted art dealer father. As both quickly marry new partners to strengthen their legal standing, Maisie is shuttled back and forth in an endless game of emotional point-scoring. Yet amid the chaos and upheaval, Maisie begins to find true comfort and affection in her new step-parents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHoly Lands (2019)
When lapsed Jew and former cardiologist Harry suddenly decides to spend his retirement as a pig farmer in Nazareth, Israel, the move deeply shocks his family and his new neighbours. Back in New York, Harry’s ex-wife Monica is trying to manage the lives of their adult children, Annabelle and David, as well as her own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGigi & Nate (2022)
A young man with a bright future suffers a near-fatal accident and recreates his new life with the help of an unlikely animal friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisChinas (2023)
In Madrid, Spain, Lucía and Xiang, two nine-year-old Chinese girls, meet at the beginning of the school year.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe House on Carroll Street (1988)
A reporter, fired after refusing to give names to a 1951 House Un-American Activities Committee, takes a part-time job as companion to an old lady. While working she overhears a noisy argument in the neighboring house, being conducted largely in German and involving her HUAC prosecutor. She begins to investigate, enlisting the help of the FBI Agent initially detailed to surveil her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Truth About Emanuel (2013)
A troubled young woman becomes obsessed with her mysterious new neighbor, who bears a striking resemblance to the girl's dead mother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSkin (2009)
Based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPistoleros de la muerte (1975)
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Colibrí (2024)
When a young Colombian couple is faced with a major change in their lives, each one will go on a personal journey to right the wrongs of the past in order to build a stronger future.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Sound of Freedom (2023)
The story of Tim Ballard, a former US government agent, who quits his job in order to devote his life to rescuing children from global sex traffickers.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisOscar (2021)
At 78 years old, Oscar continues to be passionate about technology, during his long life he has shared his knowledge on television, radio and press, following every step of the technological world, but a skin cancer stopped all his journalistic projects, making him experience firsthand the poor state of the health system in Colombia.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Santi (2021)
A young Colombian man receives a voice message from home while grappling with cultural differences at a London dinner party with his new English girlfriend.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
¡Que Colombianada! (2024)
A Colombian family is forced to celebrate Thanksgiving, for the first time, after finding out that their eldest son has invited the man he likes to a holiday celebration at their house, creating tension among the family members.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Amor (2023)
Based on the story "The monster in my room" by Miguel Angel López, a girl recounts living with her mother and a monster that stalks her at night.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Cartagena (2009)
Muriel is beautiful, free-spirited and bed-ridden since a horrific accident. Leo is a drunk middle-aged ex-boxer. Desperate for work and unqualified, he interviews for Muriel, who hires him to cook and care for her against her better judgment. Initially out of his depth, Leo slowly wins Muriel's trust. As Muriel teaches him to read, he forces her to confront the joys beyond her window.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisCon su Música a otra parte (1984)
A young balladeer raised in the United States returns to Colombia to continue her career. Her plans do not align with her mother's, a famous singer of tropical music, and their clash is inevitable. The girl flees her home and frequents the spaces of musicians and artists with revolutionary tendencies.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The First Night?
The closest matches to The First Night are Fast Girls (2012), The Young One (1960) and Hands of Stone (2016). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The First Night?
Start with Fast Girls (2012), the closest match to The First Night.
What is the highest-rated movie like The First Night?
Sound of Freedom (2023), rated 7.9/10 by 2,897 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The First Night?
Not Without Hope (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Spanish movies like The First Night?
Yes: Carne (1968), Utama (2022) and Out in the Open (2019).
How are movies similar to The First Night chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The First Night, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.