Movies like Canary Season (1993)
The best movies like Canary Season (1993) are Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (1998), The Goat Horn (1972) and The Handmaid's Tale (1990). If Canary Season hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedForrest Gump (1994)8.5/10 from 30,874 votes
- NewestAnniversary (2025)Released 2025
Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (1998)
Young teen girl Xiu Xiu is sent away to a remote corner of the Sichuan steppes for manual labor in 1975 (sending young people to there was a part of Cultural Revolution in China). A year later, she agrees to go to even more remote spot with a Tibetan saddle tramp Lao Jin to learn horse herding.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Goat Horn (1972)
XVII century, Bulgaria is under Ottoman rule. Four men break into the house of the shepherd Karaivan, raping and killing his wife in full view of their child, Maria. To protect his daughter and to enact revenge, he raises Maria as a son, teaching her to fight and kill. But as Maria grows up, she longs for a different life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Handmaid's Tale (1990)
In a dystopian, polluted right-wing religious tyranny, a young woman is put in sexual slavery on account of her now rare fertility.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFor Colored Girls (2010)
A film about existence from the perspective of 20 nameless black females. Each of the women portray one of the characters represented in the collection of twenty poems, revealing different issues that impact women in general and women of color in particular.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Shot Andy Warhol (1996)
The story of Valerie Solanas, a '60s radical who preached misandry in her "SCUM" manifesto. She wrote a screenplay for a film that she wanted Andy Warhol to produce, but he repeatedly ignored her. So she shot him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDeath and the Maiden (1994)
A political activist is convinced that her guest is a man who once tortured her for the government.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWhat's Love Got to Do with It (1993)
Singer Tina Turner rises to stardom while mustering the courage to break free from her abusive husband Ike.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJoe the King (1999)
A destitute 14-year-old struggles to keep his life together despite harsh abuse at his mother's hands, harsher abuse at his father's, and a growing separation from his slightly older brother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisCape Fear (1991)
Sam Bowden is a small-town corporate attorney. Max Cady is a tattooed, cigar-smoking, Bible-quoting, psychotic rapist. What do they have in common? 14 years ago, Sam was a public defender assigned to Max Cady's rape trial, and he made a serious error: he hid a document from his illiterate client that could have gotten him acquitted. Now, the cagey Cady has been released, and he intends to teach Sam Bowden and his family a thing or two about loss.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHard Candy (2006)
Hayley’s a smart, charming teenage girl. Jeff’s a handsome, smooth fashion photographer. An Internet chat, a coffee shop meet-up, an impromptu fashion shoot back at Jeff’s place. Jeff thinks it’s his lucky night. He’s in for a surprise.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this20th Century Women (2016)
In 1979 Santa Barbara, California, Dorothea Fields is a determined single mother in her mid-50s who is raising her adolescent son, Jamie, at a moment brimming with cultural change and rebellion. Dorothea enlists the help of two younger women – Abbie, a free-spirited punk artist living as a boarder in the Fields' home and Julie, a savvy and provocative teenage neighbour – to help with Jamie's upbringing.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNatural Born Killers (1994)
Two victims of traumatized childhoods become lovers and serial murderers irresponsibly glorified by the mass media.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAnniversary (2025)
A close-knit family is caught in the turmoil of a controversial rising movement known as "The Change.” Ellen and Paul witness their lives fall apart when Ellen's former student Liz reappears and starts dating their son. As Liz becomes a part of the Taylor family, tensions rise and loyalties are tested.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAmerican Pastoral (2016)
Set in postwar America, a man watches his seemingly perfect life fall apart as his daughter's new political affiliation threatens to destroy their family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEscape from Pretoria (2020)
South Africa, 1978. Tim Jenkin and Stephen Lee, two white political activists from the African National Congress imprisoned by the apartheid regime, put a plan in motion to escape from the infamous Pretoria Prison.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989)
When churlish mobster Albert Spica acquires an upscale French restaurant in London, he dines there nightly, effectively scaring off the clientele with his bad manners. His wife, Georgina, is especially disgusted by him, and soon begins an affair with regular guest Michael. Despite their best efforts to keep it secret, Spica learns about their trysts, and he plots a terrible revenge.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAll Day and a Night (2020)
While serving life in prison, a young man looks back at the people, the circumstances and the system that set him on the path toward his crime.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThis Is England (2007)
A story about a troubled boy growing up in England, set in 1983. He comes across a few skinheads on his way home from school, after a fight. They become his new best friends, even like family. Based on experiences of director Shane Meadows.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLand of the Blind (2006)
A soldier recounts his relationship with a famous political prisoner attempting to overthrow their country's authoritarian government.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisCloset Land (1991)
A young writer is interrogated by a sadistic secret policeman. She is accused of embedding political messages in her children's stories. The entire movie takes place in one room, with only the two actors. The movie is set in an unidentified, modern police state.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTail Gunner Joe (1977)
Senator Joseph McCarthy from Wisconsin accuses prominent people of Communist sympathies in order to give him a national power base when he later planned to run for President.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Forrest Gump (1994)
A man with a low IQ has accomplished great things in his life and been present during significant historic events—in each case, far exceeding what anyone imagined he could do. But despite all he has achieved, his one true love eludes him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like this¡Tango! (1933)
¡Tango! follows a formula established by Carlos Gardel with films such as Luces de Buenos Aires (The Lights of Buenos Aires, 1931) in which a melodramatic story is interspersed with tango songs. However, the film had less dialog and more music, making it more like a musical revue. This format would be copied by many subsequent films. The plot is derived from tango songs. Many of these songs tell of the seduction of an innocent slum girl by a rich man who promises her a glamorous life, but who abandons her when her looks fade. The stylized and sentimental plot of ¡Tango! revolves around a young man who is abandoned by his girlfriend for an older rich man and is heartbroken. The film follows his misfortunes.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Red Horse (1981)
A joint fight of Macedonian and Greek people against the fascist monarchical government of Greece ended with their defeat in 1949, after many years of bloodshed. Many members of the democratic party DAG, as well as the innocent inhabitants experienced the destiny of political exile.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Amour Fou (2014)
Heinrich wishes to conquer death through love, and when he meets Henriette, the wife of a business acquaintance, she expresses interest in a suicide pact when she learns she has a terminal illness.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMen in Her Life (1931)
A wealthy ex-bootlegger comes to the rescue of a formerly rich society girl after her gold-digging fiancé leaves her stranded when he finds out she's broke. The bootlegger proposes a deal: he will settle her debts if she teaches him how to be "a gentleman".
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Over the Hill (1931)
In their farm house in a New York village, Ma Shelby prepares breakfast for her four children, Isaac, Tommy, Johnny and Susan, and then awakens them. The racket the boys make as they play and fight awakens their father, who spanks the eldest, Isaac. When a visitor chides Pa for not working, Ma sticks up for her husband, saying that he has a weak back and that he is waiting for a promised government job.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Blow (2001)
The story of how George Jung, together with the Medellín Cartel led by Pablo Escobar, established the billion-dollar cocaine empire in the United States in the 1970s.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFriends (1971)
Paul, a rich English boy, and Michelle, an orphaned French girl, run away from home to a remote beach. Living on their own, their friendship grows into love.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (1978)
Solange is seriously depressed, and her kindhearted husband, Raoul, makes it his mission to cure her doldrums. After many failed attempts to cheer her up, Raoul hits upon a possible solution: find his wife a lover. Unfortunately, his choice, Stéphane, proves to be just as ineffectual in restoring her flagging spirits. In the end, the gorgeous Solange finds her own, highly problematic tonic to her troubles in the form of a 13-year-old boy.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Canary Season?
The closest matches to Canary Season are Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (1998), The Goat Horn (1972) and The Handmaid's Tale (1990). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Canary Season?
Start with Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (1998), the closest match to Canary Season.
What is the highest-rated movie like Canary Season?
Forrest Gump (1994), rated 8.5/10 by 30,874 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Canary Season?
Anniversary (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to Canary Season chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Canary Season, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.