Movies like Shorebirds
The best movies like Shorebirds are A Ring of Endless Light (2002), The Secret: Dare to Dream (2020) and Nobody Has to Know (2022). If Shorebirds hooked you with its romance and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedI Can't Think Straight (2008)7.5/10 from 341 votes
- NewestPurebred (2026)Released 2026
- In FrenchLate August, Early September (1999)Also in French
A Ring of Endless Light (2002)
When 15-year-old Vicky Austin, her sister Suzy and little brother Rob visit their grandfather on Seven Bay Island, Vicky faces several unexpected challenges. Her beloved grandfather, retired Reverend Eaton, seems to be seriously ill, but tries to pretend that nothing is wrong. Vicky met the rich but emotionally troubled Zachary Gray the previous summer, and he reappears to renew the acquaintance. Another boy, 17-year-old Adam Eddington, recruits Vicky to help him with a research project, working with a dolphin called Basil. Vicky discovers she can communicate telepathically with the dolphin and his mate - and possibly with Adam as well
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Secret: Dare to Dream (2020)
A widow with three children hires a handyman to fix her house during a major storm. When not doing home repairs, he shares his philosophy of believing in the power of the universe to deliver what we want.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNobody Has to Know (2022)
After a stroke and no memories from his past, Phil encounters Millie who inhabits a desert part of Isle of Lewis. She will shortly entrust him with his deepest secret : they were in love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDeparture (2016)
An English mother and her teenage son spend a week preparing the sale of their remote holiday house in the South of France. Fifteen-year-old Elliot struggles with his dawning sexuality and an increasing alienation from his mother, Beatrice. She in turn is confronted by the realisation that her marriage to his father, Philip, has grown loveless and the life she knows is coming to an end. When an enigmatic local teenager, Clément, quietly enters their lives, both mother and son are compelled to confront their desires and, finally, each other.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Brilliant Career (1979)
A young woman who is determined to maintain her independence finds herself at odds with her family who wants her to tame her wild side and get married.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Perfect Ending (2012)
This intimate drama follows Rebecca, a woman who has kept her sexuality a secret from her friends but chooses to reveal it to a stranger. While Rebecca's revelations may not yield the results she expects, a perfect ending is still in reach.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Can't Think Straight (2008)
Tala, a London-based Palestinian, is preparing for her elaborate Middle Eastern wedding when she meets Leyla, a young British Indian woman who is dating her best friend. Spirited Christian Tala and shy Muslim Leyla could not be more different from each other, but the attraction is immediate and goes deeper than friendship. But Tala is not ready to accept the implications of the choice her heart has made for her and escapes back to Jordan, while Leyla tries to move on with her new-found life, to the shock of her tradition-loving parents. As Tala's wedding day approaches, simmering tensions come to boiling point and the pressure mounts for Tala to be true to herself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLate August, Early September (1999)
A book editor juggles relationships with two women while coping with his best friend's terminal illness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Lost Husband (2020)
Trying to put her life back together after the death of her husband, Libby and her children move to her estranged Aunt's goat farm in central Texas.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSalome (1953)
In the reign of emperor Tiberius, Gallilean prophet John the Baptist preaches against King Herod and Queen Herodias. The latter wants John dead, but Herod fears to harm him due to a prophecy. Enter beautiful Princess Salome, Herod's long-absent stepdaughter. Herodias sees the king's dawning lust for Salome as her means of bending him to her will. But Salome and her lover Claudius are–contrary to Scripture–nearing conversion to the new religion.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisLie with Me (2023)
An author returns to his hometown of Cognac for the first time in 35 years to help promote a distillery. Once there, he meets his first love’s son, Lucas. Memories come rushing back to him: irrepressible attraction, bodies becoming one in the heat of desire, a passion that can never be revealed… His first love’s name was Thomas. They were 17.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Whole Wide World (1996)
In 1930s Texas, pulp fiction master Robert E. Howard is introduced to Novalyne Price, a teacher with aspirations of becoming an author herself, and they begin a unique relationship filled with conversation and imagination. Although the possibility exists for romance, Howard's obsession with his work and dedication to his sick mother leads Price to look elsewhere for love, leaving Howard feeling betrayed and alone.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBad Girl (1931)
A man and woman, skeptical about romance, nonetheless fall in love and are wed, but their lack of confidence in the opposite sex haunts their marriage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBecoming Jane (2007)
Though young Jane Austen's financially strapped parents expect her to marry the nephew of wealthy Lady Gresham, Jane herself knows that such a union will destroy her creativity and sense of self-worth. Instead, she becomes involved with Tom Lefroy, a charming but penniless apprentice lawyer who gives her the knowledge of the heart she needs for her future career as a novelist.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTwo English Girls (1971)
In the early 20th-century, Frenchman Claude meets Englishwoman Ann in Paris. Ann invites him to her family home, intending him for her sister Muriel. Claude falls for Muriel, but families demand year-long separation before approving marriage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLucky Star (1929)
Mary, a poor farm girl, meets Tim just as word comes that war has been declared. Tim enlists in the army and goes to the battlefields of Europe, where he is wounded and loses the use of his legs. Home again, Tim is visited by Mary, and they are powerfully attracted to each other; but his physical handicap prevents him from declaring his love for her. Deeper complications set in when Martin, Tim's former sergeant and a bully, takes a shine to Mary.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEverything, Everything (2017)
A teenager who's lived a sheltered life because she's allergic to everything, falls for the boy who moves in next door.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJust Charlie (2017)
Football star Charlie has the world at her feet. With a top club desperate to sign her, her future is seemingly mapped out. But the teenager sees only a nightmare. Raised as a boy, Charlie is torn between wanting to live up to her father's expectations and shedding this ill fitting skin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEvery Day (2018)
16-year old Rhiannon falls in love with a mysterious spirit named “A” that inhabits a different body every day. Feeling an unmatched connection, Rhiannon and “A” work each day to find each other, not knowing what the next day will bring.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Truth About Emanuel (2013)
A troubled young woman becomes obsessed with her mysterious new neighbor, who bears a striking resemblance to the girl's dead mother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisProm Party Massacre (2025)
A gay high school student throws a swinging prom party in the hopes of finally wooing the football captain - but when popular kids start turning up dead, the partygoers discover a slasher killer amongst the student body!
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
In Between Heartbeats (TBA)
Guided by a queer deity, a closeted man is forced to confront his parents as he tries to regain his lost sense of identity.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Thanatos (2023)
Simone develops an unhealthy obsession with the extreme sexual practice of bloodplay.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Show Me Love (1998)
Two teenage girls in small-town Sweden. Elin is beautiful, popular, and bored with life. Agnes is friendless, sad, and secretly in love with Elin.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNeon Boys (2018)
Unable to find a job after spending time in prison, Shawn takes work as an erotic dancer to support his daughter and falls in love with a man for the first time.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Philia (2026)
Miguel arrived at his home after being beaten up. His boyfriend, Jorge, attends to his wounds. However, the process of recovery is staled due to Miguel’s ex-wife, Sara, showing up, claiming that she is pregnant, forcing Miguel to make a decision between the past and the future.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Vámonos (2015)
When Mac, a young butch Latina, dies, her girlfriend, Hope, must overcome both personal grief and homophobic hostilities from Mac’s family in order to respectfully send Mac off into the afterlife as she would’ve wanted.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Purebred (2026)
During a heatwave in Belfast, transgender man Owen returns to the flat of his on-off-again lover Seán after taking a pregnancy test.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Liebesgruß an einen Engel (2008)
When a love letter falls into Sara's hands that is not meant for her, but whose addressee remains unclear, her curiosity is aroused. The words on the paper have caused something in her to resound, which she wants to trace. The surprising path of feelings makes its way through the jungle of life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance
Ghosts: Long Way Home (2019)
After a spell cast by Grandma Faraway, the oldest son of a small family encounters the ghost of his late Grandma Maria still living in her old house, and they chat as they used to.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like Shorebirds and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Shorebirds?
The closest matches to Shorebirds are A Ring of Endless Light (2002), The Secret: Dare to Dream (2020) and Nobody Has to Know (2022). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Shorebirds?
Start with A Ring of Endless Light (2002), the closest match to Shorebirds.
What is the highest-rated movie like Shorebirds?
I Can't Think Straight (2008), rated 7.5/10 by 341 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Shorebirds?
Purebred (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like Shorebirds?
Yes: Late August, Early September (1999), Lie with Me (2023) and Two English Girls (1971).
How are movies similar to Shorebirds chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Shorebirds, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.