Movies like Philomena (2013)
The best movies like Philomena (2013) are Angela's Ashes (1999), Doubt (2008) and Away from Her (2007). If Philomena hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Father (2020)8.1/10 from 3,843 votes
- NewestSmall Things Like These (2024)Released 2024
Angela's Ashes (1999)
An Irish Catholic family returns to 1930s Limerick after a child's death in America. The unemployed I.R.A. veteran father struggles with poverty, prejudice, and alcoholism as the family endures harsh slum conditions.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDoubt (2008)
In 1964 Bronx, two Catholic school nuns question the new priest's ambiguous relationship with a troubled African-American student.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAway from Her (2007)
Fiona and Grant have been married for nearly 50 years. They have to face the fact that Fiona’s absent-mindedness is a symptom of Alzheimer’s disease. She must go to a specialized nursing home, where she slowly forgets Grant and turns her affection to Aubrey, another patient in the home.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWit (2001)
A renowned professor is forced to reassess her life when she is diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Field (1990)
"Bull" McCabe's family has farmed a field for generations, sacrificing much in the name of the land. When the widow who owns the field decides to sell it in a public auction, McCabe knows that he must own it. While no local dare bid against him, a wealthy American decides he requires the field to build a highway. "Bull" and his son decide they must try to convince the American to let go of his ambition and return home, but the consequences of their plot prove sinister.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Etruscan Smile (2018)
Rory MacNeil, a rugged old Scotsman, reluctantly leaves his beloved isolated Hebridean island and travels to San Francisco to seek medical treatment. Moving in with his estranged son, Rory sees his life transformed through a newly found bond with his baby grandson.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCalvary (2014)
After being threatened during a confession, a good-natured priest must battle the dark forces closing in around him.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisVera Drake (2004)
Abortionist Vera Drake finds her beliefs and practices clash with the mores of 1950s Britain – a conflict that leads to tragedy for her family.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Cider House Rules (1999)
Homer is an orphan who was never adopted, becoming the favorite of orphanage director Dr. Larch. Dr. Larch imparts his full medical knowledge on Homer, who becomes a skilled, albeit unlicensed, physician. But Homer yearns for a self-chosen life outside the orphanage. What will Homer learn about life and love in the cider house? What of the destiny that Dr. Larch has planned for him?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBy the Grace of God (2019)
Alexandre, a man in his 40s living in Lyon with his wife and children, discovers that the priest who abused him decades ago continues to work with children. He joins forces with others victims of the priest, to bring justice and “lift the burden of silence” about what they endured.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Magdalene Sisters (2002)
Three young Irish women struggle to maintain their spirits while they endure dehumanizing abuse as inmates of a Magdalene Sisters Asylum.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLion (2016)
A five-year-old Indian boy gets lost on the streets of Calcutta, thousands of kilometers from home. He survives many challenges before being adopted by a couple in Australia; 25 years later, he sets out to find his lost family.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisSmall Things Like These (2024)
In 1985, while working as a coal merchant to support his family, Bill Furlong discovers disturbing secrets kept by the local convent and uncovers truths of his own; forcing him to confront his past and the complicit silence of a small Irish town controlled by the Catholic Church.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Lost Daughter (2021)
A woman's seaside vacation takes a dark turn when her obsession with a young mother forces her to confront secrets from her past.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Children Act (2018)
In the midst of a marital crisis, a High Court judge must decide if she should order a life-saving blood transfusion for a teen with cancer despite his family's refusal to accept medical treatment for religious reasons.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSecrets & Lies (1996)
After her adoptive mother dies, Hortense, a successful black optometrist, seeks out her birth mother. She's shocked when her research leads her to Cynthia, a working class white woman.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMy Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown (1989)
No one expects much from Christy Brown, a boy with cerebral palsy born into a working-class Irish family. Though Christy is a spastic quadriplegic and essentially paralyzed, a miraculous event occurs when, at the age of 5, he demonstrates control of his left foot by using chalk to scrawl a word on the floor. With the help of his steely mother — and no shortage of grit and determination — Christy overcomes his infirmity to become a painter, poet and author.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Miracle Club (2023)
Three close friends who have never left the outskirts of Dublin (much less Ireland) get the journey of a lifetime — a visit to Lourdes, the picturesque French town and place of miracles.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Father (2020)
A man refuses all assistance from his daughter as he ages and, as he tries to make sense of his changing circumstances, he begins to doubt his loved ones, his own mind and even the fabric of his reality.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Winter Guest (1997)
It's winter in a small Scottish village near the sea, and multiple lives intersect in a day. Frances has just lost her husband to an early death, so her mother, Elspeth, travels to Frances' house to reconnect with her daughter and grandson, Alex. Meanwhile, old women Chloe and Lily go to a funeral, youngsters Sam and Tom cut class, and Alex gets a crush on tomboy Nita.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAmour (2012)
Georges and Anne are in their eighties. They are cultivated, retired music teachers. Their daughter, who is also a musician, lives abroad with her family. One day, Anne has a stroke, and the couple's bond of love is severely tested.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHousehold Saints (1993)
A chronicle of three generations of Italian-American women struggling to get by in post-World War II New York’s Little Italy.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Out Stealing Horses (2019)
November 1999. 67-year-old Trond lives in new-found solitude and looks forward to spending New Year's Eve 2000 alone. As winter arrives he discovers he has a neighbor, a man Trond knew back in 1948, the summer he turned 15 and the summer Trond's father prepared him to carry the burden of his forthcoming betrayal and disappearance.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Hunt (2012)
A teacher lives a lonely life, all the while struggling over his son’s custody. His life slowly gets better as he finds love and receives good news from his son, but his new luck is about to be brutally shattered by an innocent little lie.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisWhat Maisie Knew (2013)
In New York City, six-year-old Maisie is caught in the middle of a bitter custody battle between her self-absorbed parents—an aging rock singer mother and a distracted art dealer father. As both quickly marry new partners to strengthen their legal standing, Maisie is shuttled back and forth in an endless game of emotional point-scoring. Yet amid the chaos and upheaval, Maisie begins to find true comfort and affection in her new step-parents.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFatima (2020)
In 1917, outside the parish of Fátima, Portugal, a 10-year-old girl and her two younger cousins witness multiple visitations of the Virgin Mary, who tells them that only prayer and suffering will bring an end to World War I. As secularist government officials and Church leaders try to force the children to recant their story, word of the sighting spreads across the country, inspiring religious pilgrims to flock to the site in hopes of witnessing a miracle..
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAfter the Wedding (2006)
A manager of an orphanage in India is sent to Copenhagen, Denmark, where he discovers a life-altering family secret.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMary and Martha (2013)
Wealthy American housewife Mary Morgan takes her bullied son George out of school for home education,including a trip to Southern Africa. Whilst in Mozambique George is bitten by a mosquito which crawls through a hole in his net and dies of malaria. After his funeral at home Mary feels a compulsion to return to Africa where she meets English woman Martha O'Connell,whose 24 year old son Ben, a teacher with voluntary service overseas,has also died of malaria. Ben gave his net to one of his pupils,believing adults cannot catch malaria. The two women are shocked to see the high death rate caused by the disease and,whilst Martha stays in Africa as a voluntary helper,Mary petitions the American government to change things. Martha turns up at Mary's house unannounced and,helped by Mary's ex-diplomat father,they address a senate committee on health spending,persuading them to do more to combat malaria. They meet with some success though a coda states that much more can be done.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Adopted (2011)
Lisa and Marine live a life of relative companionship together, where the only man permitted into the equation is Lisa’s young son, Leo. However, their simple existence is thrown into disarray when Marie meets and falls in love with Alex, a customer at her bookshop. Lisa is left feeling excluded, and tension develop. But soon an unexpected accident forces all of those involved to reassess the situation and adopt a different position in each other’s lives.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Bookshop (2017)
Set in a small English town in 1959, a woman decides, against polite but ruthless local opposition, to open a bookshop, a decision which becomes a political minefield.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
Like Philomena and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Philomena?
The closest matches to Philomena are Angela's Ashes (1999), Doubt (2008) and Away from Her (2007). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Philomena?
People who watched Philomena most often go on to Angela's Ashes (1999), Doubt (2008) and Away from Her (2007).
What is the highest-rated movie like Philomena?
The Father (2020), rated 8.1/10 by 3,843 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Philomena?
Small Things Like These (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Philomena?
Yes: Angela's Ashes (1999), Doubt (2008) and Away from Her (2007).
How are movies similar to Philomena chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Philomena, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.