Movies like Painting With Fire (2026)
The best movies like Painting With Fire (2026) are Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon (1998), A Brush with Love (2019) and The Woman on the Beach (1947). If Painting With Fire hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedMaurice (1987)7.6/10 from 642 votes
- NewestSorry, Baby (2025)Released 2025
Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon (1998)
In the 1960s, British painter Francis Bacon surprises a burglar and invites him to share his bed. The burglar, a working class man named George Dyer, accepts. After the unique beginning to their love affair, the well-connected and volatile artist assimilates Dyer into his circle of eccentric friends, as Dyer's struggle with addiction strains their bond.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Brush with Love (2019)
As she considers giving up on her artistic dreams, Jamie paints a vision board that brings her success and love—only to discover that the mystery man in her painting isn't who she thinks.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Woman on the Beach (1947)
A sailor suffering from post-traumatic stress becomes involved with a beautiful and enigmatic seductress married to a blind painter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMrs Lowry & Son (2019)
An intimate portrayal of the relationship between one of greatest artists of the 20th century, L.S. Lowry and his unhappy and controlling mother, Elizabeth, whom he lived with all his life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDaniel Isn't Real (2019)
A troubled college freshman resurrects his imaginary friend to help him cope with a violent trauma.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCandy (2006)
A poet falls in love with an art student, who gravitates to his bohemian lifestyle — and his love of heroin. Hooked as much on one another as they are on the drug, their relationship alternates between states of oblivion, self-destruction, and despair.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAt Eternity's Gate (2018)
Famed but tormented artist Vincent van Gogh spends his final years in Arles, France, painting masterworks of the natural world that surrounds him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCashback (2007)
After a painful breakup, Ben develops insomnia. To kill time, he starts working the late night shift at the local supermarket, where his artistic imagination runs wild.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Art of Getting By (2011)
George, a lonely and fatalistic teen who's made it all the way to his senior year without ever having done a real day of work, is befriended by Sally, a popular but complicated girl who recognizes in him a kindred spirit.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSorry, Baby (2025)
Agnes feels stuck. Unlike her best friend, Lydie, who’s moved to New York and is now expecting a baby, Agnes still lives in the New England house they once shared as graduate students, now working as a professor at her alma mater. A ‘bad thing’ happened to Agnes a few years ago and, since then, despite her best efforts, life hasn’t gotten back on track.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe English Patient (1996)
In the 1930s, Count Almásy is a Hungarian map maker employed by the Royal Geographical Society to chart the vast expanses of the Sahara Desert along with several other prominent explorers. As World War II unfolds, Almásy enters into a world of love, betrayal, and politics.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEnemy (2014)
A mild-mannered college professor discovers a look-alike actor and delves into the other man's private affairs.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMr. Jones (1993)
The story about the relationship between a manic depressive man, Mr. Jones, and the female doctor who takes more than a professional interest in his treatment.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisPollock (2000)
In August of 1949, Life Magazine ran a banner headline that begged the question: "Jackson Pollock: Is he the greatest living painter in the United States?" The film is a look back into the life of an extraordinary man, a man who has fittingly been called "an artist dedicated to concealment, a celebrity who nobody knew." As he struggled with self-doubt, engaging in a lonely tug-of-war between needing to express himself and wanting to shut the world out, Pollock began a downward spiral.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLittle Ashes (2008)
About the young life and loves of artist Salvador Dalí, filmmaker Luis Buñuel and writer Federico García Lorca.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Woman in the Window (1944)
A seductive woman gets an innocent professor mixed up in murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFinal Portrait (2017)
Paris, 1964. The Swiss sculptor and painter Alberto Giacometti, one of the most accomplished and respected artists of his generation, asks his friend, the American writer James Lord, to sit for a portrait, assuring him that it will take no longer than two or three hours, an afternoon at the most.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMaurice (1987)
After his lover rejects him, Maurice attempts to come to terms with his sexuality within the restrictiveness of Edwardian society.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Longest Ride (2015)
The lives of a young couple intertwine with a much older man as he reflects back on a lost love while he's trapped in an automobile crash.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThose People (2015)
On Manhattan's gilded Upper East Side, a young gay painter is torn between an obsession with his infamous best friend and a promising new romance with an older foreign pianist.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Painting With Fire?
The closest matches to Painting With Fire are Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon (1998), A Brush with Love (2019) and The Woman on the Beach (1947). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Painting With Fire?
Start with Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon (1998), the closest match to Painting With Fire.
What is the highest-rated movie like Painting With Fire?
Maurice (1987), rated 7.6/10 by 642 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Painting With Fire?
Sorry, Baby (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Painting With Fire?
Yes: Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon (1998), A Brush with Love (2019) and The Woman on the Beach (1947).
How are movies similar to Painting With Fire chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Painting With Fire, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.