Movies like Ana by Day (2018)
The best movies like Ana by Day (2018) are Bad Education (2004), The Barefoot Contessa (1954) and Chinas (2023). If Ana by Day hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedArgentina 1985 (2022)7.8/10 from 787 votes
- NewestUntil the End of the World (2026)Released 2026
- In SpanishBad Education (2004)Also in Spanish
Bad Education (2004)
When an old friend brings filmmaker Enrique Goded a semi-autobiographical script chronicling their adolescence, Enrique is forced to relive his youth spent at a Catholic boarding school. Weaving through past and present, the script follows a transvestite performer who reconnects with a grade school sweetheart. Spurred on by this chance encounter, the character reflects on her childhood sexual victimization and the trauma of closeting her sexual orientation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Barefoot Contessa (1954)
A washed-up filmmaker gets a second chance at stardom when he discovers stunning peasant Maria Vargas dancing in a Madrid nightclub. Goaded by his producer, the director convinces Maria to screen test for, and then star in, his next big picture. But as the producer's possessive nature and the realities of stardom weigh on Maria, she seeks a genuine lover with whom she can escape.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisChinas (2023)
In Madrid, Spain, Lucía and Xiang, two nine-year-old Chinese girls, meet at the beginning of the school year.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOpen Your Eyes (1997)
Handsome 25-year-old Cesar had it all -- a successful career, expensive cars, a swank bachelor's pad, and an endless string of beautiful and willing women -- until he is thrown into a strange psychological mystery after a car accident scars his face and lands him in prison.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCria! (1976)
Ana, an eight-year-old girl living in Madrid with her grandmother and two sisters, mourns the death of her mother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAdvantages of Travelling by Train (2019)
After interning her insane husband in a remote psychiatric hospital, book editor Helga Pato returns home by train, where she meets a mysterious man who identifies himself as a psychiatrist.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUntil the End of the World (2026)
Manuel's life is upended when Esmeralda, his lost love from 15 years ago, calls unexpectedly. Despite being set to marry another, he rediscovers Esmeralda, and they realize their love transcends time.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Heiresses (2018)
After her girlfriend is imprisoned on fraud charges, Chela is forced to face a new reality. Driving for the first time in years, she begins to provide a local taxi service to a group of elderly wealthy ladies. As Chela settles into her new life, she encounters the much younger Angy, forging a fresh and invigorating new connection.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEl Chicano (2019)
A pair of twin brothers from East L.A. choose to live their lives differently and end up on opposite sides of the law.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPain and Glory (2019)
Salvador Mallo, a filmmaker in the twilight of his career, remembers his life: his mother, his lovers, the actors he worked with. The sixties in a small village in Valencia, the eighties in Madrid, the present, when he feels an immeasurable emptiness, facing his mortality, the incapability of continuing filming, the impossibility of separating creation from his own life. The need of narrating his past can be his salvation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Ages of Lulu (1990)
Fifteen-year-old Lulu has never known any affection from her family. But when she goes to a rock concert with Pablo, a friend of the family, he introduces Lulu to her first sexual experience. Years later, Pablo and Lulu have married; Pablo has created a sheltered, private world for Lulu, into which nothing intrudes. However, Lulu tires of her cloistered existence, and begins hanging out in shady bars, looking for vicarious thrills and danger.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHot Milk (2025)
Rose and her daughter Sofia travel to the Spanish seaside town of Almería to consult with the shamanic Dr. Gomez, a physician who could possibly hold the cure to Rose’s mystery illness, which has left her bound to a wheelchair. But in the sultry atmosphere of this sun-bleached town Sofia, who has been trapped by her mother’s illness all her life, finally starts to shed her inhibitions, enticed by the persuasive charms of enigmatic traveller Ingrid.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisNavajeros (1980)
A chronicle of the life of Jaro, the leader of a juvenile delinquent gang, depicting his rise from street urchin to outlaw anti-hero on the way to his inevitable end.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRunning Out of Time (1994)
Days before committing an attack, Antonio, a gunman of the terrorist gang ETA who has dedicated his life to a cause he no longer believes in, meets Charo, a young drug addict who, despite the sordid environment in which she lives, still retains her innocence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThesis on a Homicide (2013)
Roberto is a Law professor whose life is thrown into chaos when he becomes convinced that one of his best students has committed a brutal murder. Determined to uncover the truth, he begins a personal investigation…
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisI Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977)
A disturbed and institutionalized 16-year-old girl struggles between fantasy and reality.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisma ma (2015)
After finding a lump in one of her breasts, Magda goes to visit her doctor who gives her bad news: she needs a mastectomy, preceded by severe chemo treatments. While she ponders this ill fortune at a soccer game where her son Dani participates, she attracts the attention of talent scout Arturo, who is looking for talented young players to enroll them in the junior leagues.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisArgentina 1985 (2022)
In the 1980s, a team of lawyers takes on the heads of Argentina's bloody military dictatorship in a battle against odds and a race against time.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNobody Will Speak of Us When We're Dead (1995)
Alcoholic prostitute Gloria is in the middle of a business deal with gangsters when a fatal confrontation occurs. She flees Mexico City, returning to her native Madrid, where she's reunited with her comatose husband and his mother, while hitman Eduardo is pursuing her to retrieve information.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFrankenstein: A Love Story (1974)
Fascinated by the idea of being able to create life through science, a count produces a monster from corpses. Does the creature have a soul?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Law of Desire (1987)
Pablo, a successful film director, disappointed in his relationship with his young lover, Juan, concentrates in a new project, a monologue starring his transgender sister, Tina. Antonio, an uptight young man, falls possessively in love with the director and in his passion would stop at nothing to obtain the object of his desire.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisChristmas Eve (1915)
This moral tale of temptation, desperation and childish devotion has echoes of Dickens' classic fable A Christmas Carol. A lowly office worker of slender means is unable to buy his invalid wife the "good food and good wine" she requires. Incensed by the Scrooge-like manner of his boss, Charles is at the brink of despair. The suitably soppy ending is sure to get you in the Christmas spirit. BFI
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Making of a Superhero Musical (2015)
A mockumentary following the troubled production of Clockmen: The Musical, focusing on a cosplayer-turned-actress who reacts to the stress of the production in a rather unusual way.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
In Your Wildest Dreams (1991)
High school senior Mark's wildest dreams come true when he makes a simulated stock purchase that accidentally turns him into a millionaire overnight. But when he discovers that the money belongs to his girlfriend's dad, who needs the funds to save his electronics company, will Mark admit to the snafu? Or will he keep the money and pursue his dreams of wealth, even if it destroys those he cares about?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Thule (2011)
In 1962, a group of young men, stationed at a remote Air Force base, band together to undergo a dangerous mission to retrieve mail lost in the frozen landscape of Greenland.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Lily + Mara (2017)
The beach is probably the worst place to take a wheelchair-bound patient with a compromised immune system, but Mara will do anything to make her little sister, Lily, happy. As they share their favorite memories, Mara realizes this beach outing will become a treasured memory as well.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Navigating the Heart (2000)
When sophisticated New York journalist Edith Iglauer is assigned to go to British Columbia to write a frivolous piece on the fishing industry, she butts heads with local fisherman and notorious loner, John Daly. While she thrives on the fast-paced life of Manhattan, he loathes pretension and could go days without speaking to anyone. But when the two are caught in a perilous situation, they are forced to put aside their pettiness and re-examine their lives. With external factors stripped away, they begin to fall in love. Ultimately, Edith must decide between staying in the glamorous world she has always cherished or leaving it all behind for a chance at love.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Verbena (1941)
In Madrid, during a popular festival, Don Paco, the owner of a freak show called The Palace of Wonders, has to deal with the demands of Levinsky, a sinister character who apparently has something to hide…
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Ana by Day?
The closest matches to Ana by Day are Bad Education (2004), The Barefoot Contessa (1954) and Chinas (2023). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Ana by Day?
Start with Bad Education (2004), the closest match to Ana by Day.
What is the highest-rated movie like Ana by Day?
Argentina 1985 (2022), rated 7.8/10 by 787 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Ana by Day?
Until the End of the World (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Spanish movies like Ana by Day?
Yes: Bad Education (2004), Chinas (2023) and Open Your Eyes (1997).
How are movies similar to Ana by Day chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Ana by Day, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.