Movies like Ayah (2023)
The best movies like Ayah (2023) are Paperman (2012), The Beautician and the Beast (1997) and Goodrich (2024). If Ayah hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedPaperman (2012)8.0/10 from 1,852 votes
- NewestBring Them Down (2025)Released 2025
Paperman (2012)
An urban office worker finds that paper airplanes are instrumental in meeting a girl in ways he never expected.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Beautician and the Beast (1997)
A New York City beautician is mistakenly hired as the school teacher for the children of the president of a small Eastern European country.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGoodrich (2024)
Andy Goodrich's life is upended when his wife enters a rehab program, leaving him on his own with their young kids. Goodrich leans on his daughter from his first marriage, Grace, as he ultimately evolves into the father Grace never had.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRacing Stripes (2005)
Shattered illusions are hard to repair -- especially for a good-hearted zebra named Stripes who's spent his life on a Kentucky farm amidst the sorely mistaken notion that he's a debonair thoroughbred. Once he faces the fact that his stark stripes mark him as different, he decides he'll race anyway. And with help from the young girl who raised him, he just might end up in the winner's circle.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhat's Love Got to Do with It? (2023)
Two childhood friends now in their thirties must decide whether to follow their heads or their hearts once the man decides to follow his parents' advice and enter into an arranged marriage in Pakistan.
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 thisSouthpaw (2015)
Billy "The Great" Hope, the reigning junior middleweight boxing champion, has an impressive career, a loving wife and daughter, and a lavish lifestyle. However, when tragedy strikes, Billy hits rock bottom, losing his family, his house and his manager. He soon finds an unlikely savior in Tick Willis, a former fighter who trains the city's toughest amateur boxers. With his future on the line, Hope fights to reclaim the trust of those he loves the most.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Stoning of Soraya M. (2009)
In 1986 Iran, Sahebjam, whose car breaks down in a remote village, enters into a conversation with Zahra, who relays to him the story about her niece, Soraya, whose arranged marriage to an abusive tyrant ended in tragedy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisYours, Mine & Ours (2005)
Admiral Frank Beardsley returns to New London to run the Coast Guard Academy, his last stop before a probable promotion to head the Guard. A widower with eight children, he runs a loving but tight ship, with charts and salutes. The kids long for a permanent home. Helen North is a free spirit, a designer whose ten children live in loving chaos, with occasional group hugs. Helen and Frank, high school sweethearts, reconnect at a reunion, and it's love at first re-sighting. They marry on the spot. Then the problems start as two sets of kids, the free spirits and the disciplined preppies, must live together. The warring factions agree to work together to end the marriage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBring Them Down (2025)
When the ongoing rivalry between farmers Michael and Jack suddenly escalates, it triggers a chain of events that take increasingly violent and devastating turns, leaving both families permanently altered.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNot Without My Daughter (1991)
An American woman, trapped in Islamic Iran by her brutish husband, must find a way to escape with her daughter as well.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFoster (2011)
Looking to adopt a child and unable to conceive a child of their own, the Morrisons' lives are turned upside down when a seven-year-old boy unexpectedly shows up on their doorstep.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGifted (2017)
Frank, a single man raising his child prodigy niece Mary, is drawn into a custody battle with his mother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisLinoleum (2023)
When the host of a failing children’s science show tries to fulfill his childhood dream of becoming an astronaut by building a rocket ship in his garage, a series of bizarre events occur that cause him to question his own reality.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhere the Red Fern Grows (2003)
Set in the Ozark Mountains during the Great Depression, Billy Coleman works hard and saves his earnings for 2 years to achieve his dream of buying two coonhound pups. He develops a new trust in God as he faces overwhelming challenges in adventure and tragedy roaming the river bottoms of Cherokee country with "Old Dan" and "Little Ann."
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPaper Planes (2014)
Dylan discovers he has a talent for making paper planes. He has a chance to compete in a world championship, but he'll have to face bullies and self-doubt to do so.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Chipmunk Adventure (1987)
The Chipmunks and the Chipettes go head to head in a hot air balloon race, and the winner gets $100,000. Unbeknownst to the participants, the "race" is actually a diamond smuggling ring!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBird (2024)
12-year-old Bailey lives with her single dad Bug and brother Hunter in a squat in North Kent. Bug doesn’t have much time for his kids, and Bailey, who is approaching puberty, seeks attention and adventure elsewhere.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies 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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
The spoiled young heir to the decaying Amberson fortune comes between his widowed mother and the man she has always loved.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Ayah?
The closest matches to Ayah are Paperman (2012), The Beautician and the Beast (1997) and Goodrich (2024). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Ayah?
Start with Paperman (2012), the closest match to Ayah.
What is the highest-rated movie like Ayah?
Paperman (2012), rated 8.0/10 by 1,852 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Ayah?
Bring Them Down (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Ayah?
Yes: Paperman (2012), The Beautician and the Beast (1997) and Goodrich (2024).
How are movies similar to Ayah chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Ayah, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.