Movies like Choose Life: Edinburgh's Battle Against AIDS (2019)
The best movies like Choose Life: Edinburgh's Battle Against AIDS (2019) are And the Band Played On (1993), Dallas Buyers Club (2013) and The Normal Heart (2014). If Choose Life: Edinburgh's Battle Against AIDS hooked you, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedI Swear (2025)8.3/10 from 679 votes
- NewestPositive Gymnastik (2025)Released 2025
And the Band Played On (1993)
The story of the discovery of the AIDS epidemic and the political infighting of the scientific community hampering the early fight with it.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDallas Buyers Club (2013)
Loosely based on the true-life tale of Ron Woodroof, a drug-taking, women-loving, homophobic man who in 1986 was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS and given thirty days to live.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Normal Heart (2014)
The story of the onset of the HIV-AIDS crisis in New York City in the early 1980s, taking an unflinching look at the nation's sexual politics as gay activists and their allies in the medical community fight to expose the truth about the burgeoning epidemic to a city and nation in denial.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisI Swear (2025)
Diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome at 15, John Davidson navigates his way against the odds through troubled teenage years and into adulthood, finding inspiration in the kindness of others to discover his true purpose in life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisPerfect Sense (2011)
In Glasgow, Scotland, while a mysterious pandemic begins to spread around the world, Susan, a brilliant epidemiologist, falls in love with Michael, a skillful cook.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLongtime Companion (1989)
During the summer of 1981, a group of friends in New York are completely unprepared for the onslaught of AIDS. What starts as a rumor about a mysterious "gay cancer" soon turns into a major crisis as, one by one, some of the friends begin to fall ill, leaving the others to panic about who will be next. As death takes its toll, the lives of these friends are forever redefined by an unconditional display of love, hope and courage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOnly You (2019)
A madly-in-love young couple's relationship begins to suffer when they struggle to conceive a child.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Outrun (2024)
Fresh out of rehab, Rona returns to the Orkney Islands—a place both wild and beautiful, right off the Scottish coast. Now 29 and after more than a decade of living life on the edge in London, where she both found and lost love, Rona attempts to come to terms with her troubled past. As she reconnects with the dramatic landscape where she grew up, memories of her traumatic childhood merge with more recent challenging events that have set her on the path to recovery.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Cure (1995)
Erik, a loner, finds a friend in Dexter, an eleven-year-old boy with AIDS. They vow to find a cure for AIDS together and save Dexter's life in an eventful summer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisPhiladelphia (1993)
Two lawyers join forces to sue a prestigious law firm for AIDS discrimination. As their unlikely friendship develops, their courage overcomes the prejudice and corruption of their powerful adversaries.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTrainspotting (1996)
Heroin addict Mark Renton stumbles through bad ideas and sobriety attempts with his unreliable friends --Sick Boy, Begbie, Spud and Tommy. He also has an underage girlfriend, Diane, along for the ride. After cleaning up and moving from Edinburgh to London, Mark finds he can't escape the life he left behind as Begbie and Sick Boy come knocking.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe House That Dripped Blood (1971)
A Scotland Yard investigator looks into four mysterious cases involving an unoccupied house.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHow to Survive a Plague (2012)
A story of two coalitions – ACT UP and TAG (Treatment Action Group) – whose activism and innovation turned AIDS from a death sentence into a manageable condition. Despite having no scientific training, these self-made activists infiltrated the pharmaceutical industry and helped identify promising new drugs, moving them from experimental trials to patients in record time.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSweet Sixteen (2002)
Determined to have a normal family life once his mother gets out of prison, a Scottish teenager from a tough background sets out to raise the money for a home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIt's My Party (1996)
Nick, a gay, HIV-positive architect, begins to display severe symptoms of AIDS and makes preparations to kill himself before he is unable to function normally. He arranges a party to reconnect and say goodbye to his closest friends and his confused parents. But when his ex-partner, Brandon, a television director who left Nick when he was diagnosed with HIV, shows up, what was supposed to be a celebratory event becomes much more difficult for everyone.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRed Road (2006)
Jackie is a CCTV operator. One day, a man shows his face on her monitor, a man she hoped never to see again. Now she has no choice and is compelled to confront him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisParis Is Burning (1991)
Where does voguing come from, and what, exactly, is throwing shade? This landmark documentary provides a vibrant snapshot of the 1980s through the eyes of New York City's African American and Latinx Harlem drag-ball scene. Made over seven years, PARIS IS BURNING offers an intimate portrait of rival fashion "houses," from fierce contests for trophies to house mothers offering sustenance in a world rampant with homophobia, transphobia, racism, AIDS, and poverty. Featuring legendary voguers, drag queens, and trans women — including Willi Ninja, Pepper LaBeija, Dorian Corey, and Venus Xtravaganza.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisHolding the Man (2015)
Tim and John fell in love while teenagers at their all-boys high school. John was captain of the football team, Tim an aspiring actor playing a minor part in Romeo and Juliet. Their romance endured for 15 years in the face of everything life threw at it – the separations, the discrimination, the temptations, the jealousies and the losses – until the only problem that love can't solve tried to destroy them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Trip (2002)
When 19-year-old gay-rights activist Tommy and 24-year-old Alan first meet in 1973, they find themselves on the opposite sides of the political coin...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBuddies (1985)
David, a naive graduate student, has volunteered to work as a 'buddy' for people dying of AIDS. Assigned to the intensely political Robert, a lifelong activist whose friends and family have abandoned him following his diagnosis, the two men, each with notably different world views, soon discover common bonds, as David's inner activist awakens and Robert's need for emotional release is fulfilled.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisCharlie & Louise - Das doppelte Lottchen (1994)
The two twelve-year-old girls Charlotte Palfy and Louise Kröger meet on a language trip to Scotland and discover that they are twins who were separated shortly after birth. Charlotte, the daughter of a music hall composer, is cool, self-confident and cheeky, dresses accordingly and listens to techno music. Louise, who grew up with her mother, an advertising executive, wears more "old-fashioned" clothes, is shy and reserved, but conscientious and orderly. Determined to play fate, the two swap roles - at the end of the journey, Louise travels as Charlie to her father, who works as a composer in Berlin-Kreuzberg, while Charlie travels as Louise to her mother in Hamburg, where she works in an advertising agency. The girls realize that getting their parents back together is not as easy as they thought.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Mysterious Skin (2005)
A teenage hustler and a young man obsessed with alien abductions cross paths, together discovering a horrible, liberating truth.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKevin's Room (2002)
Kevin, a black social worker starts a gay mens support group. As a group they discuss such issues as HIV testing, relationships, AIDS, and sexual risk taking among black gay men.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Deconstructing the Myth of Aids (2003)
This informative and shocking two-hour documentary reveals over fifteen years of research from the world's leading AIDS scientists and researchers who unveil the truth behind the controversy surrounding HIV. Through this discovery process information is uncovered about the lack of "real" science behind what is accepted as official science. We are given the opportunity to witness and view respected authorities who come forward to challenge many of the uncertainties and "truths" about AIDS. This documentary will challenge those who claim to have discovered the cause of AIDS and who then sold to the world a highly inconsistent test as the absolute indicator of a fatal disease. A timeline through AIDS history presents inaccurate statements, questionable scientific evidence, and no real answers from the billions of global dollars spent on research.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
HIV=AIDS: Fact or Fraud? (1996)
One of the most powerful video documentaries of our time boldly reveals the modern medical-industrial complex’s dire descent into utter corruption. HIV/AID$ - A deadly and dangerous DECEPTION! This feature-length expose explains exactly how the 300-Billion-dollar AID$ fraud began, why HIV can NOT be the cause of AIDS, what the real causes could be, and who manipulates the public’s good intentions while poisoning hundreds of thousands with toxic drugs that cause the very disease they are supposed to prevent.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Close to Leo (2002)
When 21 year-old Leo, the oldest of four brothers, announces to his rural French family that he's HIV positive, his family quickly rallies around him. Leo travels to Paris with his youngst brother Marcel for treatment. When Leo tries to push his brother away to protect him, the love and loyalty of the two brothers is tested.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStand By (1991)
A painter gets infected by AIDS, and finds himself at disease clinic in Belgrade. He shared the hospital room with an ex-musician, junkie who tries to discontinue treatment and returns home to his wife. The painter believes in recovery through his paintings, believing that they have supernatural powers. In their room, the medics bring a boy suspected to be infected with the AIDS virus. Meanwhile, the musician's wife leaves him. Having desire for revenge, high on drugs and labile, he rapes nurse. The painter's health deteriorates and he dies. Shortly afterwards, the musician commits suicide. Only the boy remains in the room - a child of uncertain fate and in possession of dozens of "totemic paintings".
Why it matches: Similar story and style
The Life of Jesus (1997)
Twenty-something Freddy is becalmed in a podunk French village where the only sign of life is the local amateur brass band and youth aimlessly roaming around the countryside on scooters. He has an intense sexual connection with his girlfriend but has no joy or passion to give her. When she falls for a handsome Arab youth a tragedy unfolds.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Choose Life: Edinburgh's Battle Against AIDS?
The closest matches to Choose Life: Edinburgh's Battle Against AIDS are And the Band Played On (1993), Dallas Buyers Club (2013) and The Normal Heart (2014). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Choose Life: Edinburgh's Battle Against AIDS?
Start with And the Band Played On (1993), the closest match to Choose Life: Edinburgh's Battle Against AIDS.
What is the highest-rated movie like Choose Life: Edinburgh's Battle Against AIDS?
I Swear (2025), rated 8.3/10 by 679 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Choose Life: Edinburgh's Battle Against AIDS?
Positive Gymnastik (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Choose Life: Edinburgh's Battle Against AIDS?
Yes: And the Band Played On (1993), Dallas Buyers Club (2013) and The Normal Heart (2014).
How are movies similar to Choose Life: Edinburgh's Battle Against AIDS chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Choose Life: Edinburgh's Battle Against AIDS, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.