Movies like Northern Lights (2016)
The best movies like Northern Lights (2016) are After Everything (2023), All of Us Strangers (2023) and Lonely Planet (2024). If Northern Lights hooked you with its drama and romance, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedFlipped (2010)8.0/10 from 3,473 votes
- NewestYou, Fireworks, and Our Promise (2026)Released 2026
After Everything (2023)
Besieged by writer’s block and the crushing breakup with Tessa, Hardin travels to Portugal in search of a woman he wronged in the past – and to find himself. Hoping to win back Tessa, he realizes he needs to change his ways before he can make the ultimate commitment.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAll of Us Strangers (2023)
One night in his near-empty tower block in contemporary London, Adam has a chance encounter with a mysterious neighbor, which punctures the rhythm of his everyday life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLonely Planet (2024)
At an idyllic writers retreat in Morocco, a newly single novelist finds an unexpected connection with a younger man who's reevaluating his life choices.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEverything, Everything (2017)
A teenager who's lived a sheltered life because she's allergic to everything, falls for the boy who moves in next door.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWhere the Crawdads Sing (2022)
Abandoned by her family, Kya raises herself all alone in the marshes outside of her small town. When her former boyfriend is found dead, Kya is instantly branded by the local townspeople and law enforcement as the prime suspect for his murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisProzac Nation (2003)
When talented young writer Elizabeth Wurtzel earns a scholarship to Harvard, she sees it as her chance to escape the pressures of her working-class background and concentrate on her true talent. But what starts out so promising leads to self-destructive behavior and paralyzing depression that reflects an entire generation's struggle to navigate the effects of divorce, drugs, sex, and high expectations.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMe Before You (2016)
Lou Clark, a directionless 26-year-old from the English countryside, takes a job at the local castle as a caregiver and companion to a wealthy young banker, Will Traynor. Wheelchair-bound from an accident two years prior, the once adventurous Will has all but given up — that is until Lou determines to show him that life is worth living.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisAll of You (2025)
Laura and Simon have been best friends since college. Over the years, they've realized their bond is more than platonic. Can they—and should they—risk everything to explore a love that has existed all along?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCandy (2006)
A poet falls in love with an art student, who gravitates to his bohemian lifestyle — and his love of heroin. Hooked as much on one another as they are on the drug, their relationship alternates between states of oblivion, self-destruction, and despair.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisShadowlands (1993)
C.S. Lewis, a world-renowned writer and professor, leads a passionless life until he meets spirited poet Joy Gresham.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAll the Bright Places (2020)
Two teens facing personal struggles form a powerful bond as they embark on a cathartic journey chronicling the wonders of Indiana.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTurtles All the Way Down (2024)
17-year-old Aza Holmes tries be a good daughter, a good friend, and a good student, all while navigating an endless barrage of invasive, obsessive thoughts that she cannot control. When she reconnects with Davis, her childhood crush, Aza is confronted with fundamental questions about her potential for love, happiness, friendship, and hope.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFlipped (2010)
When Juli meets Bryce in the second grade, she knows it's true love. After spending six years trying to convince Bryce the same, she's ready to give up - until he starts to reconsider.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisCircle of Friends (1995)
Three girlhood friends now at college share first loves, first kisses and first betrayals. At the center of it all is the best-looking boy on campus. Can a self-conscious dreamer hook the biggest fish in the pond?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStealing Home (1988)
Billy Wyatt, a former high school and minor-league baseball player, receives a telephone call from his mother revealing that his former child-sitter, and later in his teens, his first love, Katie Chandler, has died. Wyatt returns home to deal with this tragedy, reminiscing over his childhood growing up with his father, Katie, and best friend Alan Appleby.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy First Summer (2020)
Isolated on a remote property, 16-year-old Claudia finds her world transformed when a spirited girl named Grace wanders into her garden.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisEndings, Beginnings (2020)
An artist dumps her longtime boyfriend, but her attempt to take a break from dating ends when she quickly finds herself in two passionate romances.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Long Day Closes (1992)
Bud is a lonely and quiet boy whose moments of solace occur when he sits in rapture at the local cinema, watching towering and iconic figures on the movie screen. The movies give Bud the strength to get through another day as he deals with his oppressive school environment and his burgeoning homosexuality.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBeautiful Boy (2018)
After he and his first wife separate, journalist David Sheff struggles to help their teenage son, who goes from experimenting with drugs to becoming devastatingly addicted to methamphetamine.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCracks (2009)
Jealousy flares after the headmistress of an elite boarding school for girls becomes obsessed with a new student.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisYou, Fireworks, and Our Promise (2026)
The coming-of-age romance is set during the Nagaoka Festival Grand Fireworks Show, one of Japan's three major fireworks shows that draws several hundred thousand visitors to Niigata Prefecture every year. What connects Makoto (a Tokyo high school boy without social skills or self-confidence) and Aki (a popular high school girl and class president with beauty and talent) is a drawing of a fireworks display. At the mercy of the drawing's mystery and fate itself, the two have to make a choice in a limited amount of time.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Lady Chatterley (2006)
After a crippling injury leaves her husband impotent, Lady Chatterly is torn between her love for her husband and her physical desires. With her husband's consent, she seeks out other means of fulfilling her needs.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like this24 Hour Party People (2002)
Manchester, 1976. Tony Wilson is an ambitious but frustrated local TV news reporter looking for a way to make his mark. After witnessing a life-changing concert by a band known as the Sex Pistols, he persuades his station to televise one of their performances, and soon Manchester's punk groups are clamoring for him to manage them. Riding the wave of a musical revolution, Wilson and his friends create the legendary Factory Records label and The Hacienda club.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAdaptation. (2002)
Charlie Kaufman is a confused L.A. screenwriter overwhelmed by feelings of inadequacy, sexual frustration, self-loathing, and by the screenwriting ambitions of his freeloading twin brother Donald. While struggling to adapt "The Orchid Thief," by Susan Orlean, Kaufman's life spins from pathetic to bizarre. The lives of Kaufman and Orlean's book become strangely intertwined as each one's search for passion collides with the other's.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLady Caliph (1970)
La Califfa's husband was killed during the strikes so she takes the side of the strikers. Her conflict with the plant owner Doverdo gradually turns into a love relationship.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Bambi (1942)
Bambi's tale unfolds from season to season as the young prince of the forest learns about life, love, and friends.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBattle Royale (2000)
In the future, the Japanese government captures a class of ninth-grade students and forces them to kill each other under the revolutionary "Battle Royale" act.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOff the Road (2013)
Paul, fourteen, neglects his studies to spend all his time on his moped, to the consternation of his parents.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Eine Zeit zum Töten (2013)
A divorced father takes matters into his own hands when his daughter is brutally raped and murdered.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
what disappeared (2019)
A man has his routine reduced to his monotonous work and the suspicious relationship with his wife, until objects, places and people mysteriously disappear, making his life more interesting and, at the same time, dangerous.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like Northern Lights and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Northern Lights?
The closest matches to Northern Lights are After Everything (2023), All of Us Strangers (2023) and Lonely Planet (2024). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Northern Lights?
Start with After Everything (2023), the closest match to Northern Lights.
What is the highest-rated movie like Northern Lights?
Flipped (2010), rated 8.0/10 by 3,473 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Northern Lights?
You, Fireworks, and Our Promise (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Northern Lights?
Yes: After Everything (2023), All of Us Strangers (2023) and Lonely Planet (2024).
How are movies similar to Northern Lights chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Northern Lights, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.