Movies like Lion (2014)
The best movies like Lion (2014) are Jungleland (2020), Fast Girls (2012) and The River (1984). If Lion hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedLove Story (1970)6.8/10 from 767 votes
- NewestGoodbye June (2025)Released 2025
Jungleland (2020)
Stanley manages his boxer brother Lion but when a devastating loss in the ring leaves the pair in debt, an opportunity to recoup the cash leads to a series of misadventures that threaten to break the bond between them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFast Girls (2012)
A street smart runner develops an intense rivalry with an equally ambitious wealthy young athlete.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe River (1984)
Tom and Mae Garvey are a Tennessee farming couple battling violent floods to save their land. In addition to natural disasters, the Garveys fight to stop a selfish land developer and a local corporation from foreclosing on their farm. While Mae stays at home to care for their children and tend to the crops, Tom finds work as a scab at a steel mill to preserve his family's property.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBastard Out of Carolina (1996)
A poor, struggling South Carolinian mother and daughter face painful choices with their resolve and pride. Bone, the eldest daughter, and Anney her tired mother, grow both closer and farther apart: Anney sees Glen as her last chance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisO.G. (2018)
Louis Menkins is five weeks away from being released after 26 years in prison. He is faced with the decision to put his own release at risk in order to protect a young man named Beecher from growing gang controversies.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisHands of Stone (2016)
The legendary Roberto Duran and his equally legendary trainer Ray Arcel change each other's lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHome Run (2013)
A pro ball player with a substance abuse problem is forced into rehab in his hometown, finding new hope when he gets honest about his checkered past, and takes on coaching duties for a misfit Little League team
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Young One (1960)
A jazz musician seeks refuge from a lynch mob on a remote island, where he meets a hostile game warden and the young object of his attentions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHounddog (2008)
A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHardball (2001)
An aimless young man who is scalping tickets, gambling and drinking, agrees to coach a Little League team from the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago as a condition of getting a loan from a friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGoal II: Living the Dream (2007)
Tempted away from Newcastle United to join Real Madrid, rising star Santiago Munez finds this latest change of fortune the greatest challenge yet - personally as well as professionally. He is reunited with Gavin Harris, though they must compete to be on the team, and estranged from fiancee Roz, whose nursing career keeps her back home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisGigi & Nate (2022)
A young man with a bright future suffers a near-fatal accident and recreates his new life with the help of an unlikely animal friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAdopt a Highway (2019)
Russ Millings has just been released from prison after serving 21 years for a 3rd strike conviction for possessing an ounce of marijuana. As he tries to adapt to a world he doesn’t recognize – including trying to learn how to use the internet – he finds an abandoned baby in a dumpster behind the fast food restaurant where he works as a dishwasher. Unsure of what to do, and caught between impulses of kindness and panic, Russ soon realizes this could be his chance at redemption.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Safety of Objects (2002)
In a suburban landscape, the lives of several families interlace with loss, despair and personal crisis. Esther Gold has lost focus on all but caring for her comatose son, Paul, and neglects her daughter and husband. Lawyer Jim Train is devoted to his career, not his family. Helen Christianson wants to find a new spark in life, while Annette Jennings tries to rebuild hers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLorelei (2020)
A man is released from prison after 15 years. He reunites with his high school girlfriend, now a single mother of three. What follows is a lyrical take on love, regret and second chances.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBobby Jones: Stroke of Genius (2004)
The story of golf icon and legend, Bobby Jones, who retired from competition at the tender age of 28.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisEleanor the Great (2025)
94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Nest (2020)
Rory is an ambitious entrepreneur who brings his American wife and kids to his native country, England, to explore new business opportunities. After abandoning the sanctuary of their safe American suburban surroundings, the family is plunged into the despair of an archaic '80s Britain and their unaffordable new life in an English manor house threatens to destroy the family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Road Dance (2022)
A young girl lives in the Outer Hebrides in a small village in the years just before WWI. Isolated and hard by the shore, her life takes a dramatic change when a terrible tragedy befalls her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGoodbye June (2025)
Four siblings' lives change drastically when their ailing mother takes a turn for the worse over the holiday season.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLove Story (1970)
Harvard Law student Oliver Barrett IV and music student Jennifer Cavilleri share a chemistry they cannot deny - and a love they cannot ignore. Despite their opposite backgrounds, the young couple put their hearts on the line for each other. When they marry, Oliver's wealthy father threatens to disown him. Jenny tries to reconcile the Barrett men, but to no avail.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHasan Everywhere (2010)
Hasan Everywhere is an animation which broaches the subtlety of a relationship between a man and a woman who bear the passports of enemies, to sympathetically deal with the subjects of death, grief, lost opportunity; but mostly it seeks to demonstrate the possibility of friendship triumphing over the deepest of rifts between two people. In that regard it is most unusual among the standard fare of animated shorts.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Irma la mala (1936)
On an island populated by a race of women who want to be left alone - No Men, which does not bode well for re-population - a man shows up and is soon romancing one of the fair ladies. To get the girl, the boy enlists the aid of a friend but another group of men show up, one of which also wants the girl.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Steel Chariots (1997)
Set in the world of NASCAR racing, a family racing team is in danger of being ripped apart by the rivalry between two brothers tempted by fame, money, and beautiful women.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The African Tale (1963)
A USSR animated short adapted from one of Jomo Kenyatta's fables.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Um Mundo Catita (2007)
The burlesque and nonsensical biography of a singer, bohemian and broke, who falls in love with his sexy dentist who is already the fiancée of a well-off executive. The adventures and misadventures of the singer in this wonderful new world are told with tongue-in-cheek and several adult situations.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Lord Jim (1965)
After being discredited as a coward, a 19th century seaman lives for only one purpose: to redeem himself. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with Sony Pictures Entertainment in 2000.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEl televisor (1974)
Enrique buys a color television set just to satisfy a personal pleasure long time deferred but, from that moment on, he becomes obsessed with it in such way that eventually he is incapable to differ reality from fiction.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Jarabo (1985)
July 21, 1958. Madrid wakes up to the news that a pawnbroker has been murdered in his shop. Soon, police finds that the victim's associate, his pregnant wife and their maid have been murdered as well in their own home across the street.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Michigan Kid (1928)
The Michigan Kid is a gambler in the backwoods of Alaska trying to make enough money to go back to his hometown and impress the girl he loves. His childhood rival for the girl happens to turn up at his casino, in trouble and doesn't want his girl to find about it.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like Lion and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Lion?
The closest matches to Lion are Jungleland (2020), Fast Girls (2012) and The River (1984). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Lion?
Start with Jungleland (2020), the closest match to Lion.
What is the highest-rated movie like Lion?
Love Story (1970), rated 6.8/10 by 767 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Lion?
Goodbye June (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Lion?
Yes: Jungleland (2020), Fast Girls (2012) and The River (1984).
How are movies similar to Lion chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Lion, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.