Movies like The Ornithologist (2016)
The best movies like The Ornithologist (2016) are To Die Like a Man (2009), Catarina and the others (2011) and The Maias: Story of a Portuguese Family (2014). If The Ornithologist hooked you with its adventure and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedGod's Own Country (2017)7.7/10 from 1,025 votes
- NewestI Only Rest in the Storm (2025)Released 2025
To Die Like a Man (2009)
A transgender woman attempts to rehabilitate her younger, drug-addicted boyfriend while also dealing with her ne’er-do-well son, a soldier who’s gone AWOL.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Catarina and the others (2011)
Outside, the first sun rays break the dawn. Sixteen years old Catarina can't fall asleep. Inconsequently, in the big city adults are moved by desire... Catarina found she is HIV positive. She wants to drag everyone else along.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Maias: Story of a Portuguese Family (2014)
The tragedy and comedy in Carlos' life begins, grows and ends like the tragedy and comedy of Portugal. In the company of his close friend, João da Ega, allegedly a brilliant writer, Carlos, with his idle existence as an aristocratic doctor, spends his time to enjoying friends and lovers. Until he falls in love. She is a new character in this revolutionary novel. It's a vertiginous passion that goes beyond that past gloominess to reach a new and darker abyss, incest.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Blood of My Blood (2011)
A regular family living in the outskirts of Lisbon sees the serenity of their lives shaken beyond any remedy within a week.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
The Domain (2019)
The chronicle of a Portuguese family that owns one of the largest estates in Europe, on the south bank of the River Tagus. The Domain delves deeply into the secrets of their homestead, portraying the historical, political, economic and social life of Portugal, since the 1940's to these days.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Two Drifters (2005)
After breaking up with her boyfriend, a woman named Odete descends into madness and claims to be pregnant with the child of her neighbour Pedro, who died in a car crash and is mourned by his boyfriend Rui.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Acrobat (2020)
In an ever-expanding but nondescript North American city, Christophe, a middle-aged businessman, unexpectedly encounters Micha, a Russian acrobat recovering from an injury, while house-hunting. An instant attraction is quickly consummated and they embark on a torrid affair that helps each of them cope with their respective trials. A provocative, poignant drama about intimacy in an age of anonymity.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Grand Tour (2024)
Burma, 1917. Edward, a civil servant for the British Empire, jilts his lovestruck fiancée Molly the day she arrives to be married. As he flees into an unexpected odyssey across Asia, the free-spirited Molly-amused by his moves-follows in pursuit, embarking on a globe-trotting cat-and-mouse chase.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHow to Draw a Perfect Circle (2009)
Guilherme and Sofia, brother and sister, grow up sharing experiences and slowly discovering their sexuality. The thing that Sofia doesn't know is how far Guilherme will go to keep her inside his own perverse, dark and perfect circle.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Adrift (2017)
When a group of friends fail to lower the ladder of their boat, they find themselves stranded in the surrounding waters and struggle to survive.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both adventure & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisTropical Malady (2004)
A romance between a soldier and country boy is ruptured by the boy’s sudden disappearance. Their story turns into a mythical venture based on Thai folklore.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCasa de Lava (1995)
The film tells a story of Mariana, a nurse who leaves Lisbon to accompany an immigrant worker in a comatose sleep on his trip home to Cape Verde. The devoted Portuguese nurse took a journey only to find herself lost in abstract drama.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Horse Money (2014)
While the young captains lead the revolution in the streets, the people of Fontainhas search for Ventura, lost in the woods.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRecollections of the Yellow House (1989)
Lisbon, 1989. A middle-aged poor man, tormented by an illness, lives in a cheap room in a family boarding house, in the old section of the city's waterfront.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Sorry Angel (2018)
At once an intimate chronicle of a romance and a sprawling portrait of life in early 1990s France following the intertwining journeys of Jacques, a worldly Parisian writer, and Arthur, a curious, carefree and much-younger university student who is just beginning to live. Brought together by chance, the two men find themselves navigating a casual fling that gradually deepens into a tender, transformative bond.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWeekend (2011)
After a drunken house party with his straight mates, Russell heads out to a gay club. Just before closing time he picks up Glen but what's expected to be just a one-night stand becomes something else, something special.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisI Only Rest in the Storm (2025)
Sergio travels to Guinea-Bissau to work for an NGO as an environmental engineer on a road project between the desert and the forest. There, he becomes entangled in an intimate yet unbalanced relationship with two inhabitants of the city, Diara and Gui. As neo-colonial dynamics among the expatriate community unravel, this fragile bond becomes his only refuge from an impending collapse into solitude or barbarism.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Happy Together (1997)
A couple travels from Hong Kong to Argentina to revive their relationship but experience turbulence when both men's lives drift in separate directions.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEccentricities of a Blonde-Haired Girl (2009)
On a train to Algarve, a young man recounts to a fellow passenger his past relationship with an eccentric young woman.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKaili Blues (2016)
Chen Sheng goes off in search of his nephew who has been abandoned by his father. Along the way, he encounters numerous people from his past and also those from his future.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Tsugua Diaries (2021)
Crista, Carloto and João are building an airy greenhouse for butterflies in the garden. The three of them share household routines, day after day… And they are not the only ones.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
God's Own Country (2017)
A young farmer in rural Yorkshire numbs his daily frustrations with binge drinking and casual sex, until the arrival of a Romanian migrant worker.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStranger by the Lake (2013)
Franck spends his summer days hopelessly searching for companionship at a popular cruising spot on the shores of a lake in rural France. One day, he meets Michel, an attractive yet darkly mysterious man and falls blindly in love.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHovering Over the Water (1986)
Laura Rossellini, a widow from Rome, vacations on the Algarve coast one hot summer. One day while sunbathing, she finds a wounded man named Robert drifting in the surf on a rubber raft. She takes him home, and, after he is revived, learns his story. As they talk, their mutual attraction grows, until a group of armed men suddenly arrive looking for Robert.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Sauvage (2018)
Léo, a 22-year-old homeless sex worker searches for genuine love on the streets of Strasbourg.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIrati (2023)
Western Pyrenees, year 778. When his land is threatened by the ruthless armies of the Frankish emperor, a Basque warlord asks for help from his ancestral gods.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlack Gold (2011)
On the Arabian Peninsula in the 1930s, two warring leaders come face to face. The victorious Nesib, Emir of Hobeika, lays down his peace terms to rival Amar, Sultan of Salmaah. The two men agree that neither can lay claim to the area of no man’s land between them called The Yellow Belt. In return, Nesib adopts Amar’s two boys Saleeh and Auda as a guarantee against invasion. Twelve years later, Saleeh and Auda have grown into young men. Saleeh, the warrior, itches to escape his gilded cage and return to his father’s land. Auda cares only for books and the pursuit of knowledge. One day, their adopted father Nesib is visited by an American from Texas. He tells the Emir that his land is blessed with oil and promises him riches beyond his wildest imagination. Nesib imagines a realm of infinite possibility, a kingdom with roads, schools and hospitals all paid for by the black gold beneath the barren sand. There is only one problem. The precious oil is located in the Yellow Belt.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Village (2004)
When a willful young man tries to venture beyond his sequestered Pennsylvania hamlet, his actions set off a chain of chilling incidents that will alter the community forever.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisShirley (2020)
A famous horror writer finds inspiration for her next book after she and her husband take in a young couple.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCloset Monster (2016)
A creative and driven teenager is desperate to escape his hometown and the haunting memories of his turbulent childhood.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Ornithologist?
The closest matches to The Ornithologist are To Die Like a Man (2009), Catarina and the others (2011) and The Maias: Story of a Portuguese Family (2014). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Ornithologist?
People who watched The Ornithologist most often go on to To Die Like a Man (2009), Catarina and the others (2011) and The Maias: Story of a Portuguese Family (2014).
What is the highest-rated movie like The Ornithologist?
God's Own Country (2017), rated 7.7/10 by 1,025 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Ornithologist?
I Only Rest in the Storm (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to The Ornithologist chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Ornithologist, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.