Movies like Carla (1965)
The best movies like Carla (1965) are The Teachers' Lounge (2023), The Ron Clark Story (2006) and Cheaters (2000). If Carla hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedRadical (2023)8.3/10 from 523 votes
- NewestSteve (2025)Released 2025
- In GermanThe Teachers' Lounge (2023)Also in German
The Teachers' Lounge (2023)
When one of her students is suspected of theft, teacher Carla Nowak decides to get to the bottom of the matter. Caught between her ideals and the school system, the consequences of her actions threaten to break her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Ron Clark Story (2006)
Passionate and innovative teacher Ron Clark leaves his small hometown to teach in one of Harlem's toughest schools. But to break through to the students, he must use unconventional methods, including his ground-breaking classroom rules, to help them reach their potential. Based on a true story.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCheaters (2000)
In the fall of 1994, a teacher at Chicago's run-down Steinmetz High conspires with the school's academic decathlon team to cheat on an academic competition.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Dry White Season (1989)
During the 1976 Soweto uprising, a white school teacher's life and values are threatened when he asks questions about the death of a young black boy who died in police custody.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWon't Back Down (2012)
Jamie Fitzpatrick and Nona Alberts are two women from opposites sides of the social and economic track, but they have one thing in common: a mission to fix their community's broken school and ensure a bright future for their children. The two women refuse to let any obstacles stand in their way as they battle a bureaucracy that's hopelessly mired in traditional thinking, and they seek to re-energize a faculty that has lost its passion for teaching.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCall Me Crazy: A Five Film (2013)
A psychotherapist helps a law student cope with schizophrenia in one of five interconnected tales dealing with mental illness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHands of Stone (2016)
The legendary Roberto Duran and his equally legendary trainer Ray Arcel change each other's lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIron Jawed Angels (2004)
Defiant young activists take the women's suffrage movement by storm, putting their lives at risk to help American women win the right to vote.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Dinner with Hervé (2018)
An unlikely friendship evolves over one wild night in LA between a struggling journalist and actor Hervé Villechaize, the world's most famous gun-toting dwarf, resulting in life-changing consequences for both.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFast Girls (2012)
A street smart runner develops an intense rivalry with an equally ambitious wealthy young athlete.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSteve (2025)
Over one intense day, the devoted head teacher of a last-chance reform school strives to keep his students in line while facing pressures of his own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Safety of Objects (2002)
In a suburban landscape, the lives of several families interlace with loss, despair and personal crisis. Esther Gold has lost focus on all but caring for her comatose son, Paul, and neglects her daughter and husband. Lawyer Jim Train is devoted to his career, not his family. Helen Christianson wants to find a new spark in life, while Annette Jennings tries to rebuild hers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBastard Out of Carolina (1996)
A poor, struggling South Carolinian mother and daughter face painful choices with their resolve and pride. Bone, the eldest daughter, and Anney her tired mother, grow both closer and farther apart: Anney sees Glen as her last chance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTrue Colors (1991)
Two law school friends find themselves at odds when one becomes a Justice Department lawyer and the other goes into politics.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLate Shift (2025)
Dedicated nurse Floria navigates the relentless pace of her hospital’s understaffed surgical ward with humanity and warmth. As her overnight shift intensifies, she is pushed to the brink in a race against time.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies 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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisChild's Play (1972)
At an exclusive boys' school, a new gym teacher is drawn into a feud between two older instructors, and he discovers that everything at the school is not quite as staid, tranquil and harmless as it seems.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Most Hated Woman in America (2017)
The true story of Madalyn Murray O'Hair -- iconoclast, opportunist, and outspoken atheist -- from her controversial rise to her untimely demise.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHounddog (2008)
A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHungry Hearts (2015)
The relationship of a couple who meet by chance in New York City is put to the test when they encounter a life or death circumstance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Staffroom (2021)
Anamarija starts her job as a counsellor at a new school. Together with her, the viewers begin to appreciate what kind of people the staffroom teachers are, they witness the petty conflicts and also uncover the power games that go on behind the scenes. This self-assured debut from Sonja Tarokić about the individual's struggle within the system and the sheer effort required to preserve one’s integrity, also presents a complex study of an institution whose employees have taken on one of the most responsible roles an adult can have – to educate future generations.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Taste of Others (2000)
Unpolished and ultra-pragmatic industrialist Jean-Jacques Castella reluctantly attends Racine's tragedy "Berenice" in order to see his niece play a bit part. He is taken with the play's strangely familiar-looking leading lady Clara Devaux. During the course of the show, Castella soon remembers that he once hired and then promptly fired the actress as an English language tutor. He immediately goes out and signs up for language lessons. Thinking that he is nothing but an ill-tempered philistine with bad taste, Clara rejects him until Castella charms her off her feet.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRadical (2023)
In a Mexican border town plagued by neglect, corruption, and violence, a frustrated teacher tries an unorthodox new method to break through his students’ apathy and unlock their curiosity, their potential... and perhaps even their genius.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisMademoiselle (1966)
A sexually repressed school teacher releases her pent up passions in a series of shocking crimes.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSkirt Day (2008)
A teacher, driven to exasperation from insults and insubordination, takes her class hostage.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Lens Within Me (TBA)
A film student from Long Island, who cut his dying father’s cough out of the home movies at thirteen, spends four years filming everyone but himself — until one festival slot, a rival’s film, and the footage he’s been cutting force him to choose between the safe version and the true one.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The History Boys (2006)
The story of an unruly class of bright, funny history students at a Yorkshire grammar school in pursuit of an undergraduate place at Oxford or Cambridge. Bounced between their maverick English master, a young and shrewd teacher hired to up their test scores, a grossly out-numbered history teacher, and a headmaster obsessed with results, the boys attempt to pass.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Color of Rain (2014)
After cancer claims Matt Kell's life on Christmas Day 2005, his widow, Gina and two young boys are left to cope with the pain of his loss while their close church community gathers around them for support.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGlory Road (2006)
In 1966, Texas Western coach Don Haskins led the first all-black starting line-up for a college basketball team to the NCAA national championship.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFreche Mädchen (2008)
Teenage best friends Mila, Hanna and Kati play matchmaker to their teachers while helping each other through their own budding romances.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like Carla and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Carla?
The closest matches to Carla are The Teachers' Lounge (2023), The Ron Clark Story (2006) and Cheaters (2000). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Carla?
Start with The Teachers' Lounge (2023), the closest match to Carla.
What is the highest-rated movie like Carla?
Radical (2023), rated 8.3/10 by 523 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Carla?
Steve (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there German movies like Carla?
Yes: The Teachers' Lounge (2023), Late Shift (2025) and Freche Mädchen (2008).
How are movies similar to Carla chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Carla, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.