Movies like The Art of Happiness (2013)
The best movies like The Art of Happiness (2013) are Alois Nebel (2011), I Lost My Body (2019) and Destino (2003). If The Art of Happiness hooked you with its animation and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedLoving Vincent (2017)8.0/10 from 2,677 votes
- NewestIn the Shadow of the Cypress (2023)Released 2023
Alois Nebel (2011)
A train dispatcher encounters a mute stranger who appears out of nowhere, and finds himself mysteriously involved with a murder in Poland. The end of the eighties in the twentieth century. Alois Nebel works as a dispatcher at the small railway station in Bílý Potok, a remote village on the Czech–Polish border. He's a loner, who prefers old timetables to people, and he finds the loneliness of the station tranquil – except when the fog rolls in. Then he hallucinates, sees trains from the last hundred years pass through the station. They bring ghosts and shadows from the dark past of Central Europe. Alois can’t get rid of these nightmares and eventually ends up in sanatorium. In the sanatorium, he gets to know The Mute, a man carrying an old photograph who was arrested by the police after crossing the border. No one knows why he came to Bílý Potok or who he’s looking for, but it is his past that propels Alois on his journey…
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisI Lost My Body (2019)
A story of Naoufel, a young man who is in love with Gabrielle. In another part of town, a severed hand escapes from a dissection lab, determined to find its body again.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDestino (2003)
Short film to a song of love lost and rediscovered, a woman sees and undergoes surreal transformations. Her lover's face melts off, she dons a dress from the shadow of a bell and becomes a dandelion, ants crawl out of a hand and become Frenchmen riding bicycles. Not to mention the turtles with faces on their backs that collide to form a ballerina, or the bizarre baseball game.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Illusionist (2010)
A French illusionist travels to Scotland to work. He meets a young woman in a small village. Their ensuing adventure in Edinburgh changes both their lives forever.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIt's Such a Beautiful Day (2012)
Bill struggles to put together his shattered psyche.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Dream of a Ridiculous Man (1992)
An animated short film based on the 1877 short story written by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It chronicles the experiences of a man who decides that there is nothing to live for in the world, and is therefore determined to commit suicide. A chance encounter with a young girl changes his mind.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Pied Piper (1986)
A darkly brilliant stop-motion adaptation of The Pied Piper of Hamelin about a plague of rats that punish townsfolk corrupt with greed. One of the most ambitious Czech animation projects of the 1980s, notable for its unusual dark art direction, innovative animation techniques and use of a fictitious language.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPersepolis (2007)
In 1970s Iran, Marjane 'Marji' Satrapi watches events through her young eyes and her idealistic family of a long dream being fulfilled of the hated Shah's defeat in the Iranian Revolution of 1979. However as Marji grows up, she witnesses first hand how the new Iran, now ruled by Islamic fundamentalists, has become a repressive tyranny on its own.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisOseam (2003)
After a fire claims the life of her mother and her eyesight, young Ga-mi and her brother, Gil-son — who is unaware of their mother's death — eventually find a home with Buddhist monks in their mountainside temple.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & animation
It's Such a Beautiful Day (2011)
Dark and troubling events force Bill to reckon with the meaning of his life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAnomalisa (2015)
An inspirational speaker becomes reinvigorated after meeting a lively woman who shakes up his mundane existence.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMy Life as a Zucchini (2016)
After his mother’s death, Zucchini is befriended by a kind police officer, Raymond, who accompanies him to his new foster home filled with other orphans his age. There, with the help of his newfound friends, Zucchini eventually learns to trust and love as he searches for a new family of his own.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMary and Max (2009)
A tale of friendship between two unlikely pen pals: Mary, a lonely, eight-year-old girl living in the suburbs of Melbourne, and Max, a forty-four-year old, severely obese man living in New York.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisWaking Life (2001)
Waking Life is about a young man in a persistent lucid dream-like state. The film follows its protagonist as he initially observes and later participates in philosophical discussions that weave together issues like reality, free will, our relationships with others, and the meaning of life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Swallows of Kabul (2019)
Summer 1998—Kabul under Taliban rule. Zunaira and Mohsen are young and in love. Despite the daily violence and misery, they hope for a better future. One day, a foolish gesture causes life to take an irrevocable turn.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Congress (2013)
An aging, out-of-work actress accepts one last job, though the consequences of her decision affect her in ways she didn't consider.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & animation
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLoving Vincent (2017)
A young man arrives at the last hometown of painter Vincent van Gogh to deliver the troubled artist's final letter and ends up investigating his final days there.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisFour Souls of Coyote (2023)
This film is a tribute to a humiliated and destroyed nation. "As Long as the Grass Grows" is an alternative, ancient and humble creation story, where man is not the crown of the creation, but the weakest of all creatures. The film takes us back to the beginning of time, where Old Man begins to create the world out of a handful of mud. Everything he creates is new and nameless, and affects the rest of the world. Even feelings and desires are unknown and when they emerge, the world becomes more and more complicated.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation & drama
No Dogs or Italians Allowed (2023)
Early 20th century, in the Ughetto family's home village, Ughettera, Northern Italy. Life in the region had become very difficult and the Ughettos dreamed of a better life abroad. Legend has it that Luigi Ughetto crossed the Alps and started a new life in France, thus changing his beloved family's destiny forever. His grandson retraces their story.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Triplets of Belleville (2003)
When her grandson is kidnapped during the Tour de France, Madame Souza and her beloved pooch Bruno team up with the Belleville Sisters—an aged song-and-dance team from the days of Fred Astaire—to rescue him.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWorld of Tomorrow (2015)
A little girl is taken on a mind-bending tour of her distant future.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGenius Loci (2020)
One night, Reine, a young loner, sees among the urban chaos a moving oneness that seems alive, like some sort of guide.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBubble Bath (1980)
Zsolt Mohai, an eccentric shop window decorator in his 40s, drops by Anna Parádi on his wedding day, asking her to phone his bride Klára Horváth and call off the event. Drama, discussions and musical numbers ensue over topics like romance, loyalty, ambition, and settling for a family life in a modern day city.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlind Willow, Sleeping Woman (2023)
A lost cat, a giant talkative frog and a tsunami help a bank employee without ambition, his frustrated wife and a schizophrenic accountant to save Tokyo from an earthquake and find a meaning to their lives.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation & drama
Sita Sings the Blues (2008)
Utilizing the 1920s jazz vocals of Annette Hanshaw, the epic Indian tale of exiled prince Ramayana and his bride Sita is mirrored by a spurned woman's contemporary personal life, and light-hearted but knowledgeable discussion of historical background by a trio of Indian shadow puppets.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMind Game (2004)
Nishi is a loser who has a crush on his childhood girlfriend. After an encounter with the Japanese mafia, he journeys to heaven and back, and ends up trapped in an even more unlikely place.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWindow Horses: The Poetic Persian Epiphany of Rosie Ming (2017)
A young Canadian poet with Chinese and Persian parents travels to Iran to perform at a poetry festival.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation & drama
Iblard Time (2007)
A quiet stroll through the imaginary world of Iblard, originally depicted in the paintings by Naohisa Inoue, influenced by Impressionism and Surrealism.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKahlil Gibran's The Prophet (2014)
Exiled artist and poet Mustafa embarks on a journey home with his housekeeper and her daughter; together the trio must evade the authorities who fear that the truth in Mustafa's words will incite rebellion.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIn the Shadow of the Cypress (2023)
Living in a house by the sea with his daughter, a former captain who has post-traumatic stress disorder leads a tough and secluded life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation & drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Art of Happiness?
The closest matches to The Art of Happiness are Alois Nebel (2011), I Lost My Body (2019) and Destino (2003). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Art of Happiness?
People who watched The Art of Happiness most often go on to Alois Nebel (2011), I Lost My Body (2019) and Destino (2003).
What is the highest-rated movie like The Art of Happiness?
Loving Vincent (2017), rated 8.0/10 by 2,677 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Art of Happiness?
In the Shadow of the Cypress (2023) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Italian movies like The Art of Happiness?
The closest matches are in other languages.
How are movies similar to The Art of Happiness chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Art of Happiness, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.