Movies like A Day in the Sun (2025)
The best movies like A Day in the Sun (2025) are I'll Be Home for Christmas (2016), Light of My Life (2019) and Bastard Out of Carolina (1996). If A Day in the Sun hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedWe Live in Time (2024)7.2/10 from 1,457 votes
- NewestShe Rides Shotgun (2025)Released 2025
I'll Be Home for Christmas (2016)
Jackie Foster, a dynamic Assistant District Attorney and single mom, is looking forward to wrapping up her latest case and spending Christmas with Gracie, her adorable and precocious, eight-year old daughter. But when Jackie’s estranged dad, Jack , a gruff retired police officer, unexpectedly shows up at her door, they will be forced to confront old wounds.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLight of My Life (2019)
Years after a pandemic wipes out most of the female population, a father struggles to shield his daughter from a dangerous and predatory world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBastard Out of Carolina (1996)
A poor, struggling South Carolinian mother and daughter face painful choices with their resolve and pride. Bone, the eldest daughter, and Anney her tired mother, grow both closer and farther apart: Anney sees Glen as her last chance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLEGO Marvel Avengers: Code Red (2023)
The Avengers gather to celebrate their latest victory, but their celebration is quickly interrupted by the mysterious disappearance of Black Widow's father, Red Guardian. As the Avengers investigate, they discover that Red Guardian isn't the only one missing when they meet a dangerous new foe quite unlike anything they've ever encountered before.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMost (2003)
A poetic and powerful story of a father forced to choose between love and duty.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Reckless Moment (1949)
After discovering the dead body of her teenage daughter's lover, a housewife takes desperate measures to protect her family from scandal.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTigertail (2020)
A man reflects on the lost love of his youth and his long-ago journey from Taiwan to America as he begins to reconnect with his estranged daughter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGrudge Match (2013)
A pair of aging boxing rivals are coaxed out of retirement to fight one final bout -- 30 years after their last match.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisShe Rides Shotgun (2025)
Newly released from prison and marked for death by unrelenting enemies, Nate must now protect his estranged 11-year-old daughter, Polly, at all costs. With scant resources and no one to trust, Nate and Polly forge a bond under fire as he shows her how to fight and survive—and she teaches him the true meaning of unconditional love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMy Life Without Me (2003)
A fatally ill mother with only two months to live creates a list of things she wants to do before she dies without telling her family of her illness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStillwater (2021)
Bill Baker, an American oil-rig roughneck from Oklahoma, travels to Marseille to visit his estranged daughter, Allison, who is in prison for a murder she claims she did not commit. Confronted with language barriers, cultural differences, and a complicated legal system, Bill builds a new life for himself in France as he makes it his personal mission to exonerate his daughter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPAW Patrol: Jet to the Rescue (2020)
A royal relative steals a gem with the power to make things fly, the Paw Patrol takes to the skies to stop him and save Barkingburg.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDon't Make Me Go (2022)
A terminally ill man and his teenage daughter embark on a road trip from California to New Orleans for his 20th college reunion. While there, he secretly hopes she can reunite with the mother who left them long ago.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAmerican Pastoral (2016)
Set in postwar America, a man watches his seemingly perfect life fall apart as his daughter's new political affiliation threatens to destroy their family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIn Good Company (2004)
Dan Foreman is a seasoned advertisement sales executive at a high-ranking publication when a corporate takeover results in him being placed under naive supervisor Carter Duryea, who is half his age. Matters are made worse when Dan's new supervisor becomes romantically involved with his daughter an 18 year-old college student Alex.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Boxtrolls (2014)
An orphaned boy raised by underground creatures called Boxtrolls comes up from the sewers and out of his box to save his family and the town from the evil exterminator, Archibald Snatcher.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisImagine That (2009)
A financial executive who can't stop his career downspiral is invited into his daughter's imaginary world, where solutions to his problems await.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWe Live in Time (2024)
An up-and-coming chef and a recent divorcée find their lives forever changed when a chance encounter brings them together, in a decade-spanning, deeply moving romance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDick Johnson Is Dead (2020)
With this inventive portrait, director Kirsten Johnson seeks a way to keep her 86-year-old father alive forever. Utilizing moviemaking magic and her family’s dark humor, she celebrates Dr. Dick Johnson’s last years by staging fantasies of death and beyond. Together, dad and daughter confront the great inevitability awaiting us all.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThunder Road (2018)
A police officer faces a personal meltdown following a divorce and the death of his mother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like A Day in the Sun?
The closest matches to A Day in the Sun are I'll Be Home for Christmas (2016), Light of My Life (2019) and Bastard Out of Carolina (1996). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after A Day in the Sun?
Start with I'll Be Home for Christmas (2016), the closest match to A Day in the Sun.
What is the highest-rated movie like A Day in the Sun?
We Live in Time (2024), rated 7.2/10 by 1,457 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like A Day in the Sun?
She Rides Shotgun (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there German movies like A Day in the Sun?
The closest matches are in other languages.
How are movies similar to A Day in the Sun chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside A Day in the Sun, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.