Movies like Zeitnot (1985)
The best movies like Zeitnot (1985) are Blue Chips (1994), Christmas in July (1940) and The Battle of San Pietro (1945). If Zeitnot hooked you, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Great Dictator (1940)8.3/10 from 3,871 votes
- NewestCes mathématiciens qui firent plier le Kremlin (2025)Released 2025
Blue Chips (1994)
Pete Bell, a college basketball coach is under a lot of pressure. His team isn't winning and he cannot attract new players. The stars of the future are secretly being paid by boosters. This practice is forbidden in the college game, but Pete is desperate and has pressures from all around.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisChristmas in July (1940)
An office clerk loves entering contests in the hopes of someday winning a fortune and marrying the girl he loves. His latest attempt is the Maxford House Coffee Slogan Contest. As a joke, some of his co-workers put together a fake telegram which says that he won the $25,000 grand prize.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Battle of San Pietro (1945)
This documentary movie is about the battle of San Pietro, a small village in Italy. Over 1,100 US soldiers were killed while trying to take this location, that blocked the way for the Allied forces from the Germans. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2005.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOn the Buses (1971)
Stan gets a little annoyed when his Mum and Sister keep buying expensive items on hire purchase, but the money he earns for overtime working as a bus driver means that he can afford it... just! His job is secure, as bus drivers are hard to come by, and his overtime prospects are good, until the bus company decide to revoke a long standing rule and employ women bus drivers. Aghast at the thought of
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRenaissance Man (1994)
An advertising man is slowly sliding downhill. When he is fired from his job in Detroit, he signs up for unemployment. One day they find him a job: teaching thinking skills to Army recruits. He arrives on base to find that there is no structure set up for the class.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFlicka (2006)
Katy McLaughlin desires to work on her family's mountainside horse ranch, although her father insists she finish boarding school. Katy finds a mustang in the hills near her ranch. The headstrong 16 year old then sets her mind to tame a mustang and prove to her father she can run the ranch. But when tragedy happens, it will take all the love and strength the family can muster to restore hope.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHedgehog in the Fog (1975)
A little hedgehog, on the way to visit his friend the bear, gets lost in thick fog, where horses, dogs and even falling leaves take on a terrifying new aspect...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Barber of Siberia (1998)
Douglas is a foreign entrepreneur, who ventures to Russia in 1885 with dreams of selling a new, experimental steam-driven timber harvester in the wilds of Siberia. Jane is his assistant. On her travels, she meets two men who would change her life forever: a handsome young cadet Andrej Tolstoy with whom she shares a fondness for opera, and the powerful General Radlov who is entranced by her beauty and wants to marry her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSwitch (1991)
Steve Brooks, a sexist womanizer, is killed by a group of his angry former lovers. In heaven, he makes a bargain with God for redemption and agrees to return to Earth. Once there, he must have a sincere relationship with a female and make her fall in love with him. If not, Steve's soul will become the property of the devil. But the devil hedges his bet, and Steve is reincarnated as a woman named Amanda Brooks.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisOffice Romance (1977)
Anatoly Novoseltsev is a mousy single father and office stumblebum working at a statistics bureau in Moscow. In the hopes of being promoted, he is coaxed into charming his disagreeable and seemingly unfeeling boss, Ludmila Kalugina, or "Meany" as she's otherwise known by her subordinates. Helped by his colleagues Olya and Yura, Anatoly attempts to ease the yoke of Ms. Kalugina, and what follows in the wake of his graceless manoeuvres is completely unforeseen, as he awakens a side to her not yet known, even to herself..
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Great Dictator (1940)
Dictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel's regime.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThunderstruck (2012)
After NBA star Kevin Durant switches talent with 16 year old Brian, the teenager becomes the star of his high school team, but Durant starts struggling and eventually learns an important lesson.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTheir Finest (2017)
During the Blitz of World War II, a female screenwriter works on a film celebrating England's resilience as a way to buoy a weary populace's spirits. Her efforts to dramatise the true story of two sisters who undertook their own maritime mission to rescue wounded soldiers are met with mixed feelings by a dismissive all-male staff.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFirehouse Dog (2007)
Rexxx, Hollywood's top canine star, gets lost and is adopted into a shabby firehouse. He teams up with a young kid to get the station back on its feet.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRampage (2009)
The boredom of small town life is eating Bill Williamson alive. Feeling constrained and claustrophobic in the meaningless drudgery of everyday life and helpless against overwhelming global dissolution, Bill begins a descent into madness. His shockingly violent plan will shake the very foundations of society by painting the streets red with blood.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOur Brand Is Crisis (2015)
Based on the documentary "Our Brand Is Crisis", this feature focuses on the use of American political campaign strategies in South America.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisAfonya (1975)
Afonya Borshev is a plumber who drinks a lot, flirts a lot and doesn't care too much about tomorrow. His wife left him, his boss placed him on probation, his whole life is falling apart, but he doesn't realize it. When Afonya met Katya at a dance club he didn't pay her much attention, yet she may be the only one who can help him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Air Up There (1994)
Jimmy Dolan is a college basketball coach who wants a big promotion. To get it, he needs to make a dramatic find. He ends up deep in Africa, hoping to recruit Saleh, a huge basketball prodigy Jimmy glimpsed in a home movie. But Saleh is the chief's son and has responsibilities at home, since the tribe's land is threatened by a mining company with its own hotshot basketball team.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHope and Glory (1987)
A middle-aged man recalls his childhood growing up in and around London during World War II.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Boy with Green Hair (1948)
Peter, an orphaned boy, is adopted by Gramp Frye after his parents are killed in Europe while doing war relief work. The boy feels safe with his new caretaker, but when he is taunted for being an orphan, he gets demoralized. The next day Peter wakes up with green hair. Embarrassed and further ridiculed, Peter seeks solace in a nearby forest. To his surprise, he finds other orphans in the woods, who encourage him to spread news of the injustices of war.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCes mathématiciens qui firent plier le Kremlin (2025)
On January 15, 1972, Leonid Pliouchtch, a Ukrainian mathematician who was unknown at the time, was locked up in a Soviet psychiatric institution and accused of dissidence. His wife, Tatiana, fought for his defense and contacted a committee of French mathematicians to help him. Led by Laurent Schwartz, they launched a three-year campaign to secure his release and succeeded in getting the USSR to back down on the issue.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Pour bien filmer (1937)
Promotional short film to reveal the potential of the new Paillard-Bolex camera.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Little Red Monkey (1955)
Several murders of nuclear scientists, that baffles Scotland Yard, occur in London around the same time that Bill Locklin, a special officer from the United States State Department, arrives to oversee the transfer of Professor Leon Dushenko, a Russian scientist who has fled the USSR. An attempt on Dushenko's life is made with a monkey's paw-print found at the scene.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Long Days, Short Weeks.... (1980)
The telefilm tells about young people of the late 70s and their choice of their life path.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Logorama (2009)
Two cops portrayed by Michelin Men chase an armed Ronald McDonald through the streets of a fictionalized, stylized city.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHow to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989)
Pressure from his boss and a skin-cream client produces a talking boil on a British adman's neck.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Impossible Beskov (1988)
About the coach of the Moscow football team Spartak, Konstantin Ivanovich Beskov. The film shows the difficult path of the Spartak team to the title of the 1987 USSR Football Championship.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Berlin - Akkurgan (2018)
The plot of the film tells about the events of the war era, where the stories of ordinary people are intertwined. The characters were Stalin, Hitler, Churchill, Hess, Ribbentrop, Molotov and Uzbek heroes. The film shows the role of government leaders in the country's domestic and foreign policy, and how their decisions affected the fate of ordinary people.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Test of a clean hydrogen bomb with a yield of 50 megatons (1961)
Documentary movie about testing of the largest nuclear weapon in history, the Tsar Bomba. Declassified and made available to the public in 2020.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Zeitnot?
The closest matches to Zeitnot are Blue Chips (1994), Christmas in July (1940) and The Battle of San Pietro (1945). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Zeitnot?
Start with Blue Chips (1994), the closest match to Zeitnot.
What is the highest-rated movie like Zeitnot?
The Great Dictator (1940), rated 8.3/10 by 3,871 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Zeitnot?
Ces mathématiciens qui firent plier le Kremlin (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to Zeitnot chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Zeitnot, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.