Movies like Sunshine (1999)
The best movies like Sunshine (1999) are The Zone of Interest (2023), The Boy in the Woods (2023) and The Zookeeper's Wife (2017). If Sunshine hooked you with its drama and history, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedWhite Bird (2023)7.8/10 from 255 votes
- NewestOne Life (2023)Released 2023
The Zone of Interest (2023)
The commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, and his wife Hedwig, strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden next to the camp.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Boy in the Woods (2023)
The remarkable true-life survival story of a Jewish boy hiding and being hunted in the forests of Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe, based on Maxwell Smart's memoir.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Zookeeper's Wife (2017)
The account of keepers of the Warsaw Zoo, Jan and Antonina Zabinski, who helped save hundreds of people and animals during the Nazi invasion.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLegends of the Fall (1994)
In early 20th-century Montana, Col. William Ludlow lives on a ranch in the wilderness with his sons, Alfred, Tristan, and Samuel. Eventually, the unconventional but close-knit family are bound by loyalty, tested by war, and torn apart by love, as told over the course of several decades in this epic saga.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHead in the Clouds (2004)
Gilda Bessé shares her Paris apartment with an Irish schoolteacher, Guy Malyon, and Mia, a refugee from Spain. As the world drifts toward war, Gilda defiantly pursues her hedonistic lifestyle and her burgeoning career as a photographer. But Guy and Mia feel impelled to join the fight against fascism, and the three friends are separated.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisReds (1981)
An account of the revolutionary years of the legendary American journalist John Reed, who shared his adventurous professional life with his radical commitment to the socialist revolution in Russia, his dream of spreading its principles among the members of the American working class, and his troubled romantic relationship with the writer Louise Bryant.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnna Karenina (2012)
In Imperial Russia, Anna, wife of the officer Karenin, goes to Moscow to visit her brother. On the way, she meets charming cavalry officer Vronsky, to whom she's immediately attracted. But in St. Petersburg’s high society, a relationship like this could destroy a woman’s reputation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGod on Trial (2008)
In the Jewish tradition of arguing with God, Jewish prisoners in Auschwitz decide to put God on Trial.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMayerling (1968)
Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria clashes with his father, Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria, over implementing progressive policies for their country. Rudolf soon feels he is a man born at the wrong time in a country that doesn't realize the need for social reform. The Prince of Wales, later to become Britain's King Edward VII, provides comic relief. Rudolf finds refuge from a loveless marriage with Princess Stéphanie by taking a mistress, Baroness Maria Vetsera. Their untimely demise at Mayerling, the imperial family's hunting lodge, is cloaked in mystery.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBrooklyn (2015)
In 1950s Ireland and New York, young Eilis Lacey has to choose between two men and two countries.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSuite Française (2015)
France, 1940. In the first days of occupation, beautiful Lucile Angellier is trapped in a stifled existence with her controlling mother-in-law as they both await news of her husband: a prisoner of war. Parisian refugees start to pour into their small town, soon followed by a regiment of German soldiers who take up residence in the villagers' own homes. Lucile initially tries to ignore Bruno von Falk, the handsome and refined German officer staying with them. But soon, a powerful love draws them together and leads them into the tragedy of war.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFlyboys (2006)
The adventures of the Lafayette Escadrille, young Americans who volunteered for the French military before the U.S. entered World War I, and became the country's first fighter pilots.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPrivate Peaceful (2012)
Set in the fields of Devon and the WW1 battlefields of Flanders, two brothers fall for the same girl while contending with the pressures of their feudal family life, the war, and the price of courage and cowardice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMemoirs of a Geisha (2005)
In the years before World War II, a penniless Japanese child is torn from her family to work as a maid in a geisha house.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921)
Set in the years before and during World War I, this epic tale tells the story of a rich Argentine family, one of its two descending branches being half of French heritage, the other being half German. Following the death of the family patriarch, the man's two daughters and their families resettle to France and Germany, respectively. In time the Great War breaks out, putting members of the family on opposing sides.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhite Bird (2023)
After being expelled from Beecher Prep for his treatment of a classmate with a facial deformity, Julian has struggled to fit in at his new school. To transform his life, Julian's grandmother finally reveals her own story of courage of her youth in Nazi-occupied France, where a classmate shelters her from mortal danger.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOne Life (2023)
British stockbroker Nicholas Winton visits Czechoslovakia in the 1930s and forms plans to assist in the rescue of Jewish children before the onset of World War II, in an operation that came to be known as the Kindertransport.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Patch of Blue (1965)
A blind, uneducated white girl is befriended by a black man, who becomes determined to help her escape her impoverished and abusive home life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Duellists (1977)
In 1800, as Napoleon Bonaparte rises to power in France, a rivalry erupts between Armand and Gabriel, two lieutenants in the French Army, over a perceived insult. For over a decade, they engage in a series of duels amidst larger conflicts, including the failed French invasion of Russia in 1812, and shifts in the political and social systems of Europe.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFiddler on the Roof (1971)
In a pre-revolutionary Russia, a poor Jewish milkman struggles with the challenges of a changing world as his daughters fall in love and antisemitism grows.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBelizaire the Cajun (1986)
In 19th-century Louisiana's Cajun country, Belizaire is the informal spokesman for his citizens, who don't see eye to eye with local racists who wish to eradicate all Cajuns. Complicating matters is that Belizaire's former flame is now married to his biggest rival, an affluent landowner's son. Before he knows it, Belizaire is caught up in a web of murder, lies, and prejudice.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Saints and Soldiers (2003)
Five American soldiers fighting in Europe during World War II struggle to return to Allied territory after being separated from U.S. forces during the historic Malmedy Massacre.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEmpire of the Sun (1987)
Jamie Graham, a privileged English boy, is living in Shanghai when the Japanese invade and force all foreigners into prison camps. Jamie is captured with an American sailor, who looks out for him while they are in the camp together. Even though he is separated from his parents and in a hostile environment, Jamie maintains his dignity and youthful spirit, providing a beacon of hope for the others held captive with him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCharlotte (2022)
The true story of Charlotte Salomon, a young German-Jewish painter who comes of age in Berlin on the eve of the Second World War. Fiercely imaginative and deeply gifted, she dreams of becoming an artist. Her first love applauds her talent, which emboldens her resolve. When anti-Semitic policies inspire violent mobs, she escapes to the safety of the South of France. There she begins to paint again, and finds new love. But her work is interrupted, this time by a family tragedy that reveals an even darker secret. Believing that only an extraordinary act will save her, she embarks on the monumental adventure of painting her life story.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & war
Glory (1989)
Robert Gould Shaw leads the US Civil War's first all-black volunteer company, fighting prejudices of both his own Union army and the Confederates.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNewsies (2017)
A week in the life of the exploited, child newspaper sellers in turn-of-the-century New York. When their publisher, Joseph Pulitzer, tries to squeeze a little more profit out of their labours, they organize a strike, only to be confronted with the Pulitzer's hard-ball tactics.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisGuerrilla Girl (1953)
During World War II, Helmut Dantine specialized in playing villainous Nazis in Hollywood melodramas. He offers a compelling performance in a variation of these earlier roles in this suspense filled and politically loaded tale of intrigue. The story opens in German-occupied Athens during the darkest hours of the war. Civilians are not allowed on the streets after dark.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & war
A Foreign Field (1993)
Nostalgic comic drama in which Cyril and Amos, two veterans of the Normandy landings, return to France to visit the grave of their wartime buddy. They encounter Waldo, an American on a similar mission, and the meeting sparks memories of an old girlfriend from the past. With the mysterious American lady Lisa in their wake, Cyril and Waldo decide to try and track her down.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & war
Bloody Land (1976)
Film set in three different times. In the beginning, Miti is killed while defending his land. Then, the film focuses on his son Gjergji who fights against the Italian forces. In the end, the land is redistributed by the agrarian reform.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war & drama
They Were Four (1977)
Four partisans are tasked with delivering a song to the Congress of Përmet.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & war
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Sunshine?
The closest matches to Sunshine are The Zone of Interest (2023), The Boy in the Woods (2023) and The Zookeeper's Wife (2017). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Sunshine?
Start with The Zone of Interest (2023), the closest match to Sunshine.
What is the highest-rated movie like Sunshine?
White Bird (2023), rated 7.8/10 by 255 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Sunshine?
One Life (2023) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Sunshine?
Yes: The Zone of Interest (2023), The Boy in the Woods (2023) and The Zookeeper's Wife (2017).
How are movies similar to Sunshine chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Sunshine, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.