Movies like Graduation (2016)
The best movies like Graduation (2016) are Light of My Life (2019), Boyhood (2014) and The Fabelmans (2022). If Graduation 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 World's Fastest Indian (2005)7.7/10 from 944 votes
- NewestOmdat ik je mis (2025)Released 2025
Light of My Life (2019)
Years after a pandemic wipes out most of the female population, a father struggles to shield his daughter from a dangerous and predatory world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBoyhood (2014)
The film tells a story of a divorced couple trying to raise their young son. The story follows the boy for twelve years, from first grade at age 6 through 12th grade at age 17-18, and examines his relationship with his parents as he grows.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Fabelmans (2022)
Growing up in post-World War II era Arizona, young Sammy Fabelman aspires to become a filmmaker as he reaches adolescence, but soon discovers a shattering family secret and explores how the power of films can help him see the truth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisI Never Sang for My Father (1970)
A man living in the towering shadow of his aging father finds it difficult to start a new chapter in his life by marrying his girlfriend and moving to California.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDouble Mommy (2016)
After taking a break for the summer before their senior year, Ryan and Jess rekindle their relationship, and find out that Jess is pregnant with twins. When Ryan's mother demands a paternity test, they find out that Ryan is only the father of one baby... The other father is Ryan's best friend Brent, who Ryan discovers date-raped Jess at a party over the summer. With college recruiters and an overbearing father looming over Brent's head, he will stop at nothing to make sure that he clears his name--even if it means getting rid of Jess and her babies!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Glass Castle (2017)
A young girl is raised in a dysfunctional family constantly on the run from the FBI. Living in poverty, she comes of age guided by her drunkard, ingenious father who distracts her with magical stories to keep her mind off the family's dire state, and her selfish, nonconformist mother who has no intention of raising a family, along with her younger brother and sister, and her other older sister. Together, they fend for each other as they mature in an unorthodox journey that is their family life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Girl in the Book (2015)
The story of a young writer's transformation when her past invades her present.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisTigertail (2020)
A man reflects on the lost love of his youth and his long-ago journey from Taiwan to America as he begins to reconnect with his estranged daughter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLast Ride (2009)
A young boy travels across Australia with his father, who's wanted by the law.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGood One (2024)
On a weekend backpacking trip in the Catskills, 17-year-old Sam contends with the competing egos of her father and his oldest friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWomen Talking (2022)
A group of women in an isolated religious colony struggle to reconcile their faith with a series of sexual assaults committed by the colony's men.
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 thisHamlet (1948)
Winner of four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor, Sir Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet continues to be the most compelling version of Shakespeare’s beloved tragedy. Olivier is at his most inspired—both as director and as the melancholy Dane himself—as he breathes new life into the words of one of the world’s greatest dramatists.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Taste of Honey (1961)
While out to avoid spending time with her narcissistic and promiscuous mother, sixteen-year-old Jo has a brief affair that leaves her pregnant and abandoned. When her mother remarries, Jo's only support becomes her friend Geoffrey, a homosexual.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHomeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story (2003)
Based on a true story. Liz Murray is a young girl who is taken care of by her loving, but drug-addicted parents. Liz becomes homeless at 15 and after a tragedy comes upon her, she begins her work to finish high school.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe True Adventures of Wolfboy (2019)
Follows a young boy who runs away from home in the search of his estranged mother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Words (2012)
The Words follows young writer Rory Jansen who finally achieves long sought after literary success after publishing the next great American novel. There's only one catch - he didn't write it. As the past comes back to haunt him and his literary star continues to rise, Jansen is forced to confront the steep price that must be paid for stealing another man's work, and for placing ambition and success above life's most fundamental three words.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUnbroken: Path to Redemption (2018)
Zamperini returns to California where he wound up marrying Cynthia Applewhite while wrestling with untreated PTSD, suffering constant nightmares, angry, bitter and deeply depressed, his wife convinces Zamperini to attend the 1949 Billy Graham Crusade.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTeen Spirit (2019)
A shy teenager living on the Isle of Wight dreams of pop stardom. With the help of an unlikely mentor, she enters a singing competition that will test her integrity, talent, and ambition.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Last Rodeo (2025)
A retired rodeo legend risks it all to save his grandson. Facing his own painful past and the fears of his family, he enters a high-stakes bullriding competition as the oldest contestant ever. Along the way, he reconciles old wounds with his estranged daughter and proves that true courage is found in the fight for family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAngel Sign (2019)
Manga creator Tsukasa Hojo's debut live-action film. 'Angel Sign' is Hojo's debut as a director, which is made by editing a number of short films into one movie. Hojo directs the "Prologue" and "Epilogue" stories, while a different director will handle each of the other stories, which were selected in Silent Manga Audition. All the stories will have no spoken lines, and will only have video and music.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & drama
Autumn Milk (1989)
With the death of her mother, eight-year-old Anna ends her childhood: From now on, she has to look after the nine-member family. Deprivation-rich years, which also find no end when Anna marries: Her husband Albert must be a soldier in the Second World War, and the pregnant Anna has to work hard in the farm and care sick relatives. Lonely and exposed to the harassment of the tyrannical mother-in-law, she waits for Albert, with no certainty that he will ever return.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Black Bud (2021)
Sanya, a rebellious contemporary girl but a poet at heart, escapes her strict orthodox father's house in search of a new life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Harvest for the Heart (1994)
Twenty years after walking out on his family and bride on his wedding day, Jacob Hansen returns to the family farm and must accept the changes that happened after his departure.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Efreet (2022)
Sophia, who recently turned 10, is haunted by mysterious nightmares. In her nightmares, a girl named Selinka keeps appearing, showing her things about her mother Tina's past that she shouldn't know anything about. Tina thinks that her ex-husband Markus is secretly seeing Sophia, although he is not allowed to have any contact with her. But when one evening Sophia mentions the name "Efreet", Dana (a close friend of the little family) knows that they are dealing with evil forces.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Where the Truth Lies (2005)
An ambitious reporter probes the reasons behind the sudden split of a 1950s comedy team.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Lion King II: Simba's Pride (1998)
The circle of life continues for Simba, now fully grown and in his rightful place as the king of Pride Rock. Simba and Nala have given birth to a daughter, Kiara who's as rebellious as her father was. But Kiara drives her parents to distraction when she catches the eye of Kovu, the son of the evil lioness, Zira. Will Kovu steal Kiara's heart?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe World's Fastest Indian (2005)
The life story of New Zealander Burt Munro, who spent years building a 1920 Indian motorcycle—a bike which helped him set the land-speed world record at Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats in 1967.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHe's Just Not That Into You (2009)
Remember that really cute girl/guy who said they'd call – and didn't? Maybe they lost your number. Maybe they're in the hospital. Maybe they're awed by your looks, brains or success. Or maybe... They're just not that into you.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Graduation?
The closest matches to Graduation are Light of My Life (2019), Boyhood (2014) and The Fabelmans (2022). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Graduation?
Start with Light of My Life (2019), the closest match to Graduation.
What is the highest-rated movie like Graduation?
The World's Fastest Indian (2005), rated 7.7/10 by 944 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Graduation?
Omdat ik je mis (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to Graduation chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Graduation, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.