Movies like On the Basis of Sex (2018)
The best movies like On the Basis of Sex (2018) are Shirley (2024), Selma (2014) and Call Jane (2022). If On the Basis of Sex hooked you with its drama and history, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedHidden Figures (2016)8.1/10 from 10,818 votes
- NewestBeing Heumann (2026)Released 2026
Shirley (2024)
Shirley Chisholm makes a trailblazing run for the 1972 Democratic presidential nomination after becoming the first Black woman elected to Congress.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both history & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSelma (2014)
"Selma," as in Alabama, the place where segregation in the South was at its worst, leading to a march that ended in violence, forcing a famous statement by President Lyndon B. Johnson that ultimately led to the signing of the Voting Rights Act.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both history & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCall Jane (2022)
A married woman with an unwanted pregnancy lives in a time in America where she can't get a legal abortion and works with a group of suburban women to find help.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHidden Figures (2016)
The untold story of Katherine G. Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson – brilliant African-American women working at NASA and serving as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in history – the launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit. The visionary trio crossed all gender and race lines to inspire generations to dream big.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & history
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisRustin (2023)
Activist Bayard Rustin faces racism and homophobia as he helps change the course of Civil Rights history by orchestrating the 1963 March on Washington.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSaint Judy (2018)
The true story of immigration attorney Judy Wood and how she singlehandedly changed the U.S. law of asylum to save women's lives.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Post (2017)
A cover-up that spanned four U.S. Presidents pushed the country's first female newspaper publisher and a hard-driving editor to join an unprecedented battle between journalist and government. Inspired by true events.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLilly (2025)
Based on the inspiring true story of Lilly Ledbetter, an ordinary Alabama tire factory supervisor who discovers she's being paid less than her male peers. Her fight for fair pay takes her to the Supreme Court and Congress, while powerful forces try to shut her down. Lilly refuses to accept the status quo and has the courage to fight for what is right.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & history
The 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 thisMiranda's Victim (2023)
The true story of Trish Weir who in 1963 was kidnapped and brutally raped by Ernesto Miranda. Committed to putting her assailant in prison, Trish’s life is destroyed by America’s legal system as she triggers a law that transforms the nation.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Best of Enemies (2019)
Centers on the unlikely relationship between Ann Atwater, an outspoken civil rights activist, and C.P. Ellis, a local Ku Klux Klan leader who reluctantly co-chaired a community summit, battling over the desegregation of schools in Durham, North Carolina during the racially-charged summer of 1971. The incredible events that unfolded would change Durham and the lives of Atwater and Ellis forever.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSuffragette (2015)
Based on true events about the foot soldiers of the early feminist movement, women who were forced underground to pursue a dangerous game of cat and mouse with an increasingly brutal State.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBeing Heumann (2026)
Scrappy, defiant, and done being treated like a burden, Judy Heumann turns her outrage into a revolution. In 1977, she and more than 100 disability rights protestors send a very loud message: The system is broken—not us.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & history
JOY (2024)
A young nurse, a visionary scientist and an innovative surgeon face opposition from the church, state, media and medical establishment, in their pursuit of the world’s first ‘test tube baby’, Louise Joy Brown.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisConfirmation (2016)
Judge Clarence Thomas' nomination to the United States' Supreme Court is called into question when former colleague, Anita Hill, testifies that he had sexually harassed her.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMarshall (2017)
Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American Supreme Court Justice, battles through one of his career-defining cases.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMilk (2008)
The true story of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man ever elected to public office. In San Francisco in the late 1970s, Harvey Milk becomes an activist for gay rights and inspires others to join him in his fight for equal rights that should be available to all Americans.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both history & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLongford (2006)
A portrait of Lord Longford, a tireless British campaigner whose controversial beliefs often resulted in furious political debate and personal conflict.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLoving (2016)
In 1958, in the state of Virginia, the idea of interracial marriage was not only considered to be immoral to many, it was also illegal. When Richard and Mildred fall in love, they are aware of the eyes staring at them and the words said behind their backs. It's when they get married, however, that words and looks become actions, and the two are arrested. The couple decide to take their case all of the way to the Supreme Court in order to fight for their love. Based on a true story.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · 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: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDallas Buyers Club (2013)
Loosely based on the true-life tale of Ron Woodroof, a drug-taking, women-loving, homophobic man who in 1986 was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS and given thirty days to live.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & history
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Butler (2013)
Cecil Gaines was a sharecropper's son who grew up in the 1920s as a domestic servant for the white family who casually destroyed his. Eventually striking out on his own, Cecil becomes a hotel valet of such efficiency and discreteness in the 1950s that he becomes a butler in the White House itself. There, Cecil would serve numerous US Presidents over the decades as a passive witness of history with the American Civil Rights Movement gaining momentum even as his family has troubles of its own. As his wife, Gloria, struggles with alcoholism and his defiant eldest son, Louis, strives for a just world, Cecil must decide whether he should take action in his own way.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBattle of the Sexes (2017)
The true story of the 1973 tennis match between world number one Billie Jean King and ex-champ and serial hustler Bobby Riggs.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJust Mercy (2019)
The powerful true story of Harvard-educated lawyer Bryan Stevenson, who goes to Alabama to defend the disenfranchised and wrongly condemned — including Walter McMillian, a man sentenced to death despite evidence proving his innocence. Bryan fights tirelessly for Walter with the system stacked against them.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)
What was supposed to be a peaceful protest turned into a violent clash with the police. What followed was one of the most notorious trials in history.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSpotlight (2015)
The true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese, shaking the entire Catholic Church to its core.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Divine Order (2017)
Nora is a young housewife and mother, living in a quaint little village with her husband and their two sons. The Swiss countryside is untouched by the major social upheavals the movement of 1968 has brought about. Nora’s life is not affected either; she is a quiet person who is liked by everybody – until she starts to publicly fight for women’s suffrage, which the men are due to vote on in a ballot on February 7, 1971.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2017)
An African-American woman becomes an unwitting pioneer for medical breakthroughs when her cells are used to create the first immortal human cell line in the early 1950s.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTill (2022)
The true story of Mamie Till Mobley's relentless pursuit of justice for her 14-year-old son, Emmett Till, who, in 1955, was lynched while visiting his cousins in Mississippi.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSimone: Woman of the Century (2022)
Simone Veil's life story through the pivotal events of Twentieth Century. Her childhood, her political battles, her tragedies. An intimate and epic portrait of an extraordinary woman who eminently challenged and transformed her era defending a humanist message still keenly relevant today.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & history
Absolute CinemaMovies like this
Like On the Basis of Sex and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like On the Basis of Sex?
The closest matches to On the Basis of Sex are Shirley (2024), Selma (2014) and Call Jane (2022). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after On the Basis of Sex?
People who watched On the Basis of Sex most often go on to Shirley (2024), Selma (2014) and Call Jane (2022).
What is the highest-rated movie like On the Basis of Sex?
Hidden Figures (2016), rated 8.1/10 by 10,818 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like On the Basis of Sex?
Being Heumann (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like On the Basis of Sex?
Yes: Shirley (2024), Selma (2014) and Call Jane (2022).
How are movies similar to On the Basis of Sex chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside On the Basis of Sex, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.