Movies like I Gave Everything to the Sun Except My Shadow (2016)
The best movies like I Gave Everything to the Sun Except My Shadow (2016) are Life in a Year (2020), White Wedding (1989) and Cesar and Rosalie (1972). If I Gave Everything to the Sun Except My Shadow 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 ratedLife in a Year (2020)8.2/10 from 2,027 votes
- NewestThe Little Sister (2025)Released 2025
- In FrenchWhite Wedding (1989)Also in French
Life in a Year (2020)
A 17 year old finds out that his girlfriend is dying, so he sets out to give her an entire life, in the last year she has left.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisWhite Wedding (1989)
A philosophy professor has an illicit affair with one of his students, a bright yet troubled girl who lives alone.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCesar and Rosalie (1972)
A young woman becomes entangled with a successful businessman, but her ex tries to win her back, provoking intense jealousy that leads her to reconsider her choice. Ultimately, one man's actions force a resolution to her dilemma.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Nos Amours (1983)
Fifteen-year-old Suzanne seeks refuge from a disintegrating family in a series of impulsive, promiscuous affairs. Her fulsome sexuality further ratchets up the suppressed passions of her narcissistic brother, insecure mother and brooding, authoritarian father.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Little Sister (2025)
When Fatima leaves her close-knit suburban family to study philosophy in Paris, she finds herself caught between her religious upbringing and the freedom of student life in the city.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLuna (2018)
A film in which the director captures the beautiful and accurate qualities of reality when building the energetic portrait of a 16-year-old girl immersed in the macho culture of urban suburban south-west France, just a stone’s throw away from the nearby countryside.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAshes in the Snow (2018)
The coming-of-age tale of 16-year-old Lina Vilkas who is deported to Siberia amid Stalin's reign of terror in the Baltic region during WWII. An aspiring artist, she secretly documents her harrowing journey with her drawings.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Girl on the Train (2009)
Jeanne is a young woman, striking but otherwise without qualities. Her mother tries to get her a job in the office of a lawyer, Bleistein, her lover years ago. Jeanne fails the interview but falls into a relationship with Franck, a wrestler whose dreams and claims of being in a legitimate business partnership Jeanne is only too happy to believe. When Franck is arrested, he turns on Jeanne for her naivety; she's stung and seeks attention by making up a story of an attack on a train. Is there any way out for her?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Strawberry Statement (1970)
A college student joins a group of revolutionaries to meet girls but ends up committed to their goals.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisMy Nights Are More Beautiful Than Your Days (1989)
Lucas has invented a new computer language but at the same time he has been informed about his strange terminal illness during which he has been gradually losing his memory. Shortly after that he meets Blanche who acts as a medium in a bizarre traveling show. Dying Lucas follows her to the sea resort where they spend together several days and nights.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTwo for the Seesaw (1962)
After leaving his wife, lawyer Jerry Ryan moves from Omaha, Nebraska to New York City to start a new life. While studying for the New York Bar Examination and working to finalize his divorce, Ryan meets dancer Gittel Mosca, and the two begin a cautious courtship. However, Ryan feels that he must come to terms with his failed marriage and overcome his lingering attachment to his ex-wife before he can redefine himself and embrace his budding romance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy First Time (2012)
Zachary is 20 years old. Dark and independent, he collects amorous conquests and school failure. Sarah is 18 years old. First class, fragile, she fills her emotional gaps with perfect control of his life. Nothing should close and yet, the year of the tank, for six months, they will live a love against which nothing can be, the true, the big one that marks a life forever.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJohn and Mary (1969)
John and Mary meet in a singles bar, sleep together, and spend the next day getting to know each other.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisTime Is Up (2021)
Vivien, an accomplished student with a passion for physics, and Roy, a troubled young man, are involved in an accident that forces them to reclaim their lives one minute at the time.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBoy Meets Girl (1984)
In Paris at night, a young aspiring filmmaker grapples with heartbreak after his girlfriend leaves him for his best friend. After a failed attempt to confront his friend, he wanders the streets and encounters a girl who has just been abandoned. Their paths cross at a party, bringing together two tormented souls.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFire with Fire (1986)
A tough, street-smart kid serving a sentence in a state youth reformatory meets a beautiful, innocent girl studying at a nearby convent. When forbidden love blossoms between them, they must fight the prison authorities, their parents and the law.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWinter Spring Summer or Fall (2024)
Remi and Barnes, two very different teenagers, meet by chance in the winter of their senior year, then spend four days together over the course of a year that will change their lives forever.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Art of Getting By (2011)
George, a lonely and fatalistic teen who's made it all the way to his senior year without ever having done a real day of work, is befriended by Sally, a popular but complicated girl who recognizes in him a kindred spirit.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNo Limit (2022)
Roxana Aubrey decides to drop her studies and escape her life in Paris for a free diving course in the south of France. She is quickly pulled into a life that reaches new depths brought by the weight of an ocean's descent.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisShelter (2007)
Forced to give up his dreams of art school, Zach works dead-end jobs to support his sister and her son. Questioning his life, he paints, surfs and hangs out with his best friend, Gabe. When Gabe's older brother returns home for the summer, Zach suddenly finds himself drawn into a relationship he didn't expect.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
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 & romance
Atonement (2007)
A young girl irrevocably changes the course of several lives when she accuses her older sister's lover of a crime he did not commit.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEdge of Seventeen (1999)
1984, Sandusky, Ohio. A naive 17-year-old navigates heartbreak and self-expression as he explores his sexuality.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisVicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)
Two girlfriends on a summer holiday in Spain become enamored with the same painter, unaware that his ex-wife, with whom he has a tempestuous relationship, is about to re-enter the picture.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPorcupine Lake (2017)
During a hot and hazy summertime in northern Ontario, 13-year-old Bea wants a best friend more than anything else, but when she meets boisterous Kate, she gets more than she imagined. A story of bravery, small-town summer love, and the secret world of girls.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Buttwhistle (2014)
Ogden Confer is a community college student living with his parents and dealing with the recent loss of his best pal, Rose, when he foils the suicide effort of a mysterious young lady, Beth, who proceeds to make him pay for not minding his own business.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & drama
Berlin am Meer (2007)
Tom and Malte are best friends; they make music together, DJ in Berlin clubs, dream of a career together, party until they drop, wait tables at a casting service and yet they are very different: Tom struggles with himself, his life and the future. When one day Mavie, Mitsch's "little" sister from Munich, moves into the Berlin flat share, Tom's emotional rollercoaster begins. Daredevil Malte, on the other hand, seems to have his luck in his pocket: Everything he touches succeeds. Tom sees no other way out than to escape: out of the city and into another life. His friends try to stop him, but even they know: Tom has to make this decision himself if he doesn't want to stand in the way of his happiness forever.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & drama
And the Pain Remains (2016)
100 years since the beginning of First World War. Locality - French cemetery in Bitola. State protocol. There are deputies, ministers, ambassadors, military attaches, consuls, honorary consuls, media present - Priests - Orthodox, Catholic, Muslim. - Military band. Jean Batiste Valerie, an old man of about 77 years of age, arrives in Bitola for the first time. Tiny, petite, with thin and gray hair, arrives late at the sad ceremony held in honor of the fallen French soldiers in the First World War. According to correspondence and information from the French army, his predecessor with the same name and surname must be located somewhere nearby. The ceremony had already begun.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Charade (1963)
After Regina Lampert falls for the dashing Peter Joshua on a skiing holiday in the French Alps, she discovers upon her return to Paris that her husband has been murdered. Soon, she and Peter are giving chase to three of her late husband's World War II cronies, Tex, Scobie and Gideon, who are after a quarter of a million dollars the quartet stole while behind enemy lines.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPiece of Paradise (2022)
Alex returns to a lifeless home that she ran away from at a young age. Once home, she begins filming a video about her past life but begins to question why she is putting her misery on display instead of doing what makes her happy.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like I Gave Everything to the Sun Except My Shadow?
The closest matches to I Gave Everything to the Sun Except My Shadow are Life in a Year (2020), White Wedding (1989) and Cesar and Rosalie (1972). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after I Gave Everything to the Sun Except My Shadow?
Start with Life in a Year (2020), the closest match to I Gave Everything to the Sun Except My Shadow.
What is the highest-rated movie like I Gave Everything to the Sun Except My Shadow?
Life in a Year (2020), rated 8.2/10 by 2,027 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like I Gave Everything to the Sun Except My Shadow?
The Little Sister (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like I Gave Everything to the Sun Except My Shadow?
Yes: White Wedding (1989), Cesar and Rosalie (1972) and A Nos Amours (1983).
How are movies similar to I Gave Everything to the Sun Except My Shadow chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside I Gave Everything to the Sun Except My Shadow, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.