Movies like Festival Express (2003)
The best movies like Festival Express (2003) are Dig! (2004), Milli Vanilli (2023) and Matangi / Maya / M.I.A. (2018). If Festival Express hooked you with its documentary and history, these 28 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- NewestOn Queer Aging and Endings (2026)Released 2026
Dig! (2004)
A documentary on the once promising American rock bands The Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols. The friendship between respective founders, Anton Newcombe and Courtney Taylor, escalated into bitter rivalry as the Dandy Warhols garnered major international success while the Brian Jonestown Massacre imploded in a haze of drugs.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMilli Vanilli (2023)
The story of Robert Pilatus and Fabrice Morvan, who became fast friends during their youth in Germany. With Rob coming from a broken home and Fabrice having left an abusive household, they shared a similar upbringing, as well as a future goal: to become famous superstars. In a few short years, their dreams came true. Rob and Fab, better known as Milli Vanilli, became the world's most popular pop duo in 1990 and won the GRAMMY for Best New Artist. However, their ascension to success came with a devastating price that ultimately led to their infamous undoing.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMatangi / Maya / M.I.A. (2018)
Drawn from a never before seen cache of personal footage spanning decades, this is an intimate portrait of the Sri Lankan artist and musician who continues to shatter conventions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWoodstock: Three Days That Defined a Generation (2019)
50 years after the legendary fest, Barak Goodman’s electric retelling of Woodstock, from the point of view of those who were on the ground, evokes the freedom, passion, community, and joy the three-day music festival created.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStyle Wars (1984)
Tony Silver and Henry Chalfant's PBS documentary tracks the rise and fall of subway graffiti in New York in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOne More Time with Feeling (2016)
Andrew Dominik's One More Time With Feeling is a remarkable black and white documentary which chronicles the creation of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds' album Skeleton Tree. Originally a performance based concept, the film evolved into something much more significant as Dominik delved into the tragic backdrop of the writing and recording of the album. The result is stark, fragile and raw, and a true testament to an artist trying to find his way through the darkness. It documents the writing, recording and performing of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds’ sixteenth studio album, Skeleton Tree.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary & music
Worth the HypeMovies like thisZ Channel: A Magnificent Obsession (2004)
A documentary on the Z Channel, one of the first pay cable stations in the US, and its programming chief, Jerry Harvey. Debuting in 1974, the LA-based channel's eclectic slate of movies became a prime example of the untapped power of cable television.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisH.H. Holmes: America's First Serial Killer (2004)
Torture chambers, acid vats, greased chutes and gassing rooms were just some of the devices of death designed by the Torture Doctor, H.H. Holmes in his castle of horrors. Follows Holmes' entire life as a criminal mastermind.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLed Zeppelin: The Untold Story (2011)
Led Zeppelin: The Untold Story reveals an often overlooked side of the saga. Using early performance footage, seldom seen interviews and previously unpublished photographs, as well as contributions from colleagues, friends, and associates who worked alongside the future members of Led Zeppelin, The Untold Story is finally made public.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary & music
Free Tibet (1998)
A film about the Tibetan Freedom Concert in San Francisco in 1996.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary & music
Midsummer Rock: The Cincinnati Pop Festival 1970 (1970)
Midsummer Rock is a television program based on the Cincinnati Pop Festival. The 90-minute TV version featured Alice Cooper, Mountain, Grand Funk Railroad, The Stooges, and Traffic.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both music & documentary
BETWEEN (TBA)
Initially embarking on an unplanned personal filmmaking project, Ilias Boukhemoucha finds himself drawn to the overlooked corners and marginalized communities within Canadian cities.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Cheap Trick Live at Red Rocks (2016)
Since the early ’70s, Cheap Trick has been blending elements of pop, punk, and even metal in a way that is instantly catchy and recognizable. Now well into their fourth decade, the band is among the most active and successful in music history with featured appearances on over 20 movie soundtracks, more than 40 international gold and platinum certifications, a myriad of awards and industry honors, and total record sales in excess of 20 million. Join this historic band with a legendary performance from Red Rocks Amphitheatre.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both music
Hard Core Logo (1996)
Bruce Macdonald follows punk bank Hard Core Logo on a harrowing last-gasp reunion tour throughout Western Canada. As magnetic lead-singer Joe Dick holds the whole magilla together through sheer force of will, all the tensions and pitfalls of life on the road come bubbling to the surface.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both music
Foo Fighters: Live At Wembley Stadium (2008)
Foo Fighters captured over their two sold-out nights at Wembley on 6th and 7th June, 2008.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both music
Just Watch Me: Trudeau and the 70's Generation (1999)
Canadian director Catherine Annau's debut work is a documentary about the legacy of Pierre Trudeau, the long-running Prime Minister of Canada, who governed during the 1970s. The film focuses particularly on Trudeau's goal of creating a thoroughly bilingual nation. Annau interviews eight people in their mid-30s on both sides of the linguistic divide. One tells of her life growing up in a community of hard-core Quebec separatists, while another, a yuppie from Toronto, recalls believing as a child that people in Montreal got drunk and had sex all day long. Annau has all of the interviewees discuss how Trudeau's policies affected their lives and their perceptions of the other side, in this issue that strikes to the heart of Canada's national identity.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Operation Gamescan 76 (1977)
This short documentary profiles the Canadian military’s organization, logistical, and security operations at the XXI Olympiad held in 1976 in Montréal. The scale of the operation was large: 16,000 troops were mobilized to provide protection for 7,500 athletes, countless VIPs, and the general public on 138 sites located in Montreal, Bromont, and Kingston. This film offers a behind-the-scenes look at the planning and synchronization necessary to mount a successful international event of massive proportions.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Nowhere Land (2015)
Documentary about filmmaker Bonnie Ammaaq's memories of life on Baffin Island, where her family moved for eleven years during her childhood from the hamlet of Igloolik to return to the traditional Inuit way of life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Highway to the Arctic (2017)
Every winter for decades, the Northwest Territories, in the Canadian Far North, changes its face. While the landscape is covered with snow and lakes of a thick layer of ice, blocking land transport, ice roads are converted to frozen expanses as far as the eye can see.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
The B-52's: Party at The Capitol Theatre (1980)
By November of 1980, the B-52’s had two albums under their belt and were two months away from their debut Saturday Night Live performance. The New Wave band were quickly rising to national fame, and they were still touring with the original lineup which consisted of frontman Fred Schneider (who in this set’s liner notes is credited as playing both the glockenspiel and “various toys”), Cindy Wilson, Ricky Wilson, Kate Pierson and Keith Strickland.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both music
The Rolling Stones: Grrr Live! (2012)
Grrr Live! is a live album and concert film by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, released on 10 February 2023. It was recorded on 15 December 2012 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey as part of the band's 50 & Counting tour, in support of the GRRR! compilation released that year. It was originally broadcast as the pay-per-view 2012 concert film One More Shot: The Rolling Stones Live before being remixed and re-edited. The concert features guest appearances from Lady Gaga, John Mayer, Gary Clark Jr. The Black Keys, Bruce Springsteen and former Stones guitarist Mick Taylor.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both music
On Queer Aging and Endings (2026)
Filmed in their home in Norway, this intimate documentary follows conversations between trans physician and queer-rights advocate Esben Esther Pirelli Benestad and their partner Elsa Almås. As Esben Esther lives with cancer, they reflect on queer aging, love and mortality, and what it means to face an uncertain future together.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Gary Moore: Emerald Aisles (1985)
Taken from shows in Belfast and Dublin during the December '84 Irish Tour, filmed and produced by NFL Film's Phil Tuckett, Emerald Aisles captures Gary Moore and his band at their 1980s very best. Also features the 'Out In The Fields' promo video.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both music
Propaganda Message (1974)
A cartoon film about the whole heterogeneous mixture of Canada and Canadians, and the way the invisible adhesive called federalism makes it all cling together. That the dissenting voices are many is made amply evident, in English and French. But this animated message also shows that Canadians can laugh at themselves and work out their problems objectively.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
We Will Rock You (1982)
In November 1981, and with “Under Pressure” topping the charts in the UK, Queen performed a blistering set of hits – including "We Will Rock You" and "Bohemian Rhapsody" – in front of an 18,000-strong crowd at Montreal's Forum, in this stunning concert film.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both music
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisBad River (2024)
Wisconsin's tribe's ongoing fight to protect Lake Superior for future generations. "Bad River" shows the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa's long history of activism and resistance in the context of continuing legal battles with Enbridge Energy over its Line 5 oil pipeline. The Line 5 pipeline has been operating on 12 miles of the Bad River Band's land with expired easements for more than a decade. The Band and the Canadian company have been locked in a legal battle over the pipeline since 2019.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
The Road to Patriation (1982)
This feature documentary retraces the century of haggling by successive federal and provincial governments to agree on a formula to bring home the Canadian Constitution from England. This film concentrates on the politicking and lobbying that finally led to its patriation in 1982. Five prime ministers had failed before Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau took up the challenge in the early 1970s. Principal players in this documentary are federal Minister of Justice Jean Chrétien, Prime Minister Trudeau, 10 provincial premiers and a host of journalists, politicians, lawyers, and diplomats on both sides of the Atlantic.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Kabát: Night in Eden (2019)
In 2019, the rock band Kabát celebrated an impressive 30 years on the music scene. With its original lineup intact, the band treated itself to only five concerts for its anniversary, but they were "damn big" ones. The performance at Prague's Eden Arena on June 22, 2019, offered a cross-section of hits from the successful career of the five musicians from Teplice, who once again confirmed that their spontaneous energy can create a thrilling live show.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both music
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Festival Express?
The closest matches to Festival Express are Dig! (2004), Milli Vanilli (2023) and Matangi / Maya / M.I.A. (2018). Below are 25 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Festival Express?
Start with Dig! (2004), the closest match to Festival Express.
What is the newest movie like Festival Express?
On Queer Aging and Endings (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Festival Express?
Yes: Dig! (2004), Milli Vanilli (2023) and Matangi / Maya / M.I.A. (2018).
How are movies similar to Festival Express chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Festival Express, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.