Movies like The Tears of AIDS (1996)
The best movies like The Tears of AIDS (1996) are An Englishman in New York (2009), Love! Valour! Compassion! (1997) and The Cure (1995). If The Tears of AIDS 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 Cure (1995)7.9/10 from 378 votes
- NewestFirefly (2025)Released 2025
- In FrenchSavage Nights (1992)Also in French
An Englishman in New York (2009)
Biographical drama based on the last 20 years of Crisp's life. The literary figure and gay iconoclast emigrated to New York in 1981 and lived there until his death. The film observes Crisp in both his public and private lives, from his seemingly cavalier response to the outbreak of AIDS to his tender relationship with his friend Patrick Angus and his own response to growing old.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLove! Valour! Compassion! (1997)
A group of gay friends spend summer weekends together at a lakeside house in upstate New York. As the season progresses and secrets begin to surface, the complex relationships within the group are sometimes strained and sometimes strengthened.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Cure (1995)
Erik, a loner, finds a friend in Dexter, an eleven-year-old boy with AIDS. They vow to find a cure for AIDS together and save Dexter's life in an eventful summer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisBuddies (1985)
David, a naive graduate student, has volunteered to work as a 'buddy' for people dying of AIDS. Assigned to the intensely political Robert, a lifelong activist whose friends and family have abandoned him following his diagnosis, the two men, each with notably different world views, soon discover common bonds, as David's inner activist awakens and Robert's need for emotional release is fulfilled.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisHolding the Man (2015)
Tim and John fell in love while teenagers at their all-boys high school. John was captain of the football team, Tim an aspiring actor playing a minor part in Romeo and Juliet. Their romance endured for 15 years in the face of everything life threw at it – the separations, the discrimination, the temptations, the jealousies and the losses – until the only problem that love can't solve tried to destroy them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRent (2019)
The story of several friends in New York City facing financial poverty, homophobia, AIDS, and, of course, rent.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnd the Band Played On (1993)
The story of the discovery of the AIDS epidemic and the political infighting of the scientific community hampering the early fight with it.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNaked as We Came (2013)
After an unexpected phone call, Laura and her brother Elliot rush to their family’s country estate to find their mother, Lilly, gravely ill and living with a handsome young stranger named Ted. Estranged for some time, their mother’s condition sets Laura and Elliot on a path to realizing where their own lives have gone wrong.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Normal Heart (2014)
The story of the onset of the HIV-AIDS crisis in New York City in the early 1980s, taking an unflinching look at the nation's sexual politics as gay activists and their allies in the medical community fight to expose the truth about the burgeoning epidemic to a city and nation in denial.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSavage Nights (1992)
Jean is young, gay, and promiscuous. Only after he meets one or two women, including Laura, does he come to realize his bisexuality. Jean has to overcome a personal crisis and a tough choice between Laura and his male lover Samy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Love You, I Don't (1976)
The petite waitress Johnny works and lives in a truck-stop, where she's lonely and longs for love. She develops a crush on the garbage truck driver Krassky, although her sleazy boss Boris warns her that he's gay.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like this1985 (2018)
Having been gone for three years, closeted advertising executive Adrian returns to his Texas hometown and struggles to reveal his dire circumstances to his conservative family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Life of Jesus (1997)
Twenty-something Freddy is becalmed in a podunk French village where the only sign of life is the local amateur brass band and youth aimlessly roaming around the countryside on scooters. He has an intense sexual connection with his girlfriend but has no joy or passion to give her. When she falls for a handsome Arab youth a tragedy unfolds.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBohemian Rhapsody (2018)
Singer Freddie Mercury, guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor and bass guitarist John Deacon take the music world by storm when they form the rock 'n' roll band Queen in 1970. Hit songs become instant classics. When Mercury's increasingly wild lifestyle starts to spiral out of control, Queen soon faces its greatest challenge yet – finding a way to keep the band together amid the success and excess.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisMy Brother the Devil (2012)
Fourteen-year-old Mo is a lonely, sensitive boy whose hunger for the rant and banter of buddies makes him prone to tread dangerous territories. He idolizes his handsome older brother, Rashid, a charismatic, well-respected member of a local gang, whose drug dealing enables “Rash” to provide for his family. Aching to be seen as a tough guy himself, Mo takes a job that unlocks a fateful turn of events and forces the brothers to confront their inner demons. It turns out that hate is easy. It is love and understanding that take real courage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIt's My Party (1996)
Nick, a gay, HIV-positive architect, begins to display severe symptoms of AIDS and makes preparations to kill himself before he is unable to function normally. He arranges a party to reconnect and say goodbye to his closest friends and his confused parents. But when his ex-partner, Brandon, a television director who left Nick when he was diagnosed with HIV, shows up, what was supposed to be a celebratory event becomes much more difficult for everyone.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIt's Only the End of the World (2016)
Louis, a terminally ill writer, returns home after a long absence to tell his family that he is dying.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Boys in the Band (2020)
At a birthday party in 1968 New York, a surprise guest and a drunken game leave seven gay friends reckoning with unspoken feelings and buried truths.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Marine Story (2010)
Marine officer Alexandra is tough enough to kick any guy's ass in a bar fight, but there's one opponent she can't beat: military policy. When she returns to her conservative hometown from Iraq with a mysterious personal life, she finds herself charged with preparing a tempestuous teenage girl to boot camp.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPhiladelphia (1993)
Two lawyers join forces to sue a prestigious law firm for AIDS discrimination. As their unlikely friendship develops, their courage overcomes the prejudice and corruption of their powerful adversaries.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSouth of Heaven (2019)
When his boyfriend shows up unannounced, Elias' religious family learns their son's darkest secret.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Longing (2014)
When Michal finds out her husband Meir is having an affair with a man, her world collapses. Not only is she is forced to deal with sexual rejection from Meir, she also has to endure social rejection.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Lucky Fares (2014)
One of the Three Kings and Santa Claus spend Christmas in jail, talking about what their future will be like in a world like this.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Barbershop (2002)
A day in the life of a barbershop on the south side of Chicago. Calvin, who inherited the struggling business from his deceased father, views the shop as nothing but a burden and waste of his time. After selling the shop to a local loan shark, Calvin slowly begins to see his father's vision and legacy and struggles with the notion that he just sold it out.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHair (1979)
Upon receiving his draft notice and leaving his family ranch in Oklahoma, Claude heads to New York and befriends a tribe of long-haired hippies on his way to boot camp.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTakumi-kun Series: And the Spring Breeze Whispers (2007)
A 2nd year student is assigned a handsome new roommate at the start of the school year.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Fairyocious (2019)
Alma, petrified, does not know how to react when her son, age 8, wants to dress as a fairy and go to school. She asks advice from her neighbor, and eventually the entire building debates his right to behave cross-gender.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Firefly (2025)
The film follows an old man who looks back on a fleeting love that illuminated his life, only for it to vanish without a trace.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Cakemaker (2017)
Thomas, a young German baker, is having an affair with Oren, an Israeli married man who has frequent business visits in Berlin. When Oren dies in a car crash in Israel, Thomas travels to Jerusalem seeking for answers regarding his death. Under a fabricated identity, Thomas infiltrates the life of Anat, his lover’s newly widowed wife, who owns a small Café in downtown Jerusalem. Thomas starts to work for her, creating German cakes and cookies that bring her Café to life. Thomas finds himself involved in Anat’s life in a way far beyond his anticipation. To protect the truth he will stretch his lie to a point of no return.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMysterious Skin (2005)
A teenage hustler and a young man obsessed with alien abductions cross paths, together discovering a horrible, liberating truth.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Tears of AIDS?
The closest matches to The Tears of AIDS are An Englishman in New York (2009), Love! Valour! Compassion! (1997) and The Cure (1995). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Tears of AIDS?
Start with An Englishman in New York (2009), the closest match to The Tears of AIDS.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Tears of AIDS?
The Cure (1995), rated 7.9/10 by 378 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Tears of AIDS?
Firefly (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like The Tears of AIDS?
Yes: Savage Nights (1992), I Love You, I Don't (1976) and The Life of Jesus (1997).
How are movies similar to The Tears of AIDS chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Tears of AIDS, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.