Movies like Ave Maria (2021)
The best movies like Ave Maria (2021) are Cardboard Boxer (2016), A Question of Faith (2017) and Conversations with God (2006). If Ave Maria hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.

Quick picks
- Highest ratedLetters from Iwo Jima (2006)7.5/10 from 2,438 votes
- NewestCelebration (2024)Released 2024
Cardboard Boxer (2016)
Gentle and broken, a homeless man fights others on video for money but soon finds comfort in an unlikely friend and the lost diary of a young girl.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Question of Faith (2017)
When Tragedy Strikes three Families, their Destiny forces them on a coverging path and mercy as the challenges of their fate could also resurrect their beliefs
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisConversations with God (2006)
"Conversations with God" is the true story of Neale Donald Walsch that inspired and changed the lives of millions. The journey begins after he unexpectedly breaks his neck in a car accident and loses his job.
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 thisCome Sunday (2018)
Evangelist Carlton Pearson is ostracized by his church for preaching that there is no Hell.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies 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 thisPoor Cow (1967)
Joy lives a life filled with bad choices. At a young age, she marries and has a child–with an abusive thief who quickly ends up incarcerated. Left alone, she takes up with the guy's mate, another thief, who seems to give her some happiness but who also ends up locked up. She then takes up with a series of seedy types who offer nothing but momentary pleasure–if that.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhat Maisie Knew (2013)
In New York City, six-year-old Maisie is caught in the middle of a bitter custody battle between her self-absorbed parents—an aging rock singer mother and a distracted art dealer father. As both quickly marry new partners to strengthen their legal standing, Maisie is shuttled back and forth in an endless game of emotional point-scoring. Yet amid the chaos and upheaval, Maisie begins to find true comfort and affection in her new step-parents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Girl in the Book (2015)
The story of a young writer's transformation when her past invades her present.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies 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 thisThree Christs (2017)
Dr. Alan Stone breaks new ground for treatment of the mentally ill through an experiment on three paranoid schizophrenic patients who believe they are Jesus Christ.
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 thisHungry Hearts (2015)
The relationship of a couple who meet by chance in New York City is put to the test when they encounter a life or death circumstance.
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 thisHerself (2020)
Struggling to provide her daughters with a safe, happy home, Sandra decides to build one - from scratch. Using all her ingenuity to make her ambitious dream a reality, Sandra draws together a community to lend a helping hand to build her house and ultimately recover her own sense of self.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Padre (2018)
American retired Judge Randall Nemes and his hired gun, Gaspar, track down a con man posing as a priest in a small Colombian town only to be thrown off-course by a scrappy 16-year-old girl intent on reuniting with her sister in the United States.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisKisses (2008)
Two kids, Dylan and Kylie, run away from home on Christmas Day and spend a night of magic and terror on the streets of inner-city Dublin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHeaven Is for Real (2014)
After their young son, Colton, undergoes emergency surgery, small-town parents Todd and Sonja Burpo are overjoyed at the child's miraculous recovery. However, the Burpos are unprepared for what happens next... Colton says that during his surgery he went to heaven and back, and tells his parents things that he couldn't possibly know. Can Todd find the courage and conviction to share his son's extraordinary, life-changing experience with the world?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAll Together Now (2020)
An optimistic, talented teen clings to a huge secret: she's homeless and living on a school bus. When tragedy strikes, can she learn to accept a helping hand?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Kindness of Strangers (2019)
Clara and her two sons escape from her abusive husband with little more than their car and plan to start over in New York. After the car towed away, the family meets Alice, who gets them into an emergency shelter. While stealing food at a Russian restaurant called ‘Winter Palace’, Clara meets Marc, who has been given the chance to help the old eatery regain its former glory. The ‘Winter Palace’ soon becomes a place of unexpected encounters between people who are all undergoing some sort of crisis and whom fate has now brought together.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBabel (2006)
Tragedy strikes a married couple vacationing in the Moroccan desert, which jumpstarts an interlocking story involving four different families.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCulpable (1960)
A criminal confronts the police by firing at them with a machine gun from the first floor of a villa on the outskirts of Buenos Aires and occasionally shooting down a policeman. The gunman has time to reflect, to load his gun, to run from one window to the other. Whoever leads the police notices the futility of his efforts and suspends the fire.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Secrets of a Soul (2012)
Secrets of a Soul: Margarethe, Creator of bizarre sculptures! Night club dancer? Mad woman? Victim of an occult conspiracy?! Dark menaces steal her soul and organs. Though dead they keep her alive...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Serenity (1987)
Luís Medeiros, Azorean painter, meets two odd characters in an exhibit in Lisbon: Inês, a charming woman, and Ed, a sneaky man. The two reveal to have with them a precious document that might be threatening to Luís. He brings them back home but his serenity is over due to an unexpected chain of events.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Rocky Balboa (2006)
When he loses a highly publicized virtual boxing match to ex-champ Rocky Balboa, reigning heavyweight titleholder Mason Dixon retaliates by challenging the Italian Stallion to a 10-round exhibition bout. To the surprise of his son and friends, Rocky agrees to come out of retirement and face an opponent who's faster, stronger and thirty years his junior. Rocky takes on Dixon in what will become the greatest fight in boxing history!
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHollywoodland (2006)
When Hollywood superstar George Reeves dies in his home, private detective Louis Simo is hired to investigate his death and gets caught in a web of lies involving a big studio executive's wife. Based on a true story.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLetters from Iwo Jima (2006)
The story of the battle of Iwo Jima between the United States and Imperial Japan during World War II, as told from the perspective of the Japanese who fought it.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLonely Hearts (2006)
In the late 1940s, a murderous couple known as the 'The Lonely Hearts Killers' kills close to a dozen people. Two detectives try to nab the duo who find their targets via the personals in the paper.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCelebration (2024)
Ten-year-old Danya lives in the Russian hinterland with his alcoholic father, Vadim, and teenage sister, Nadya. His mother is in prison. The father is occasionally visited by Larisa, a coworker and lover. One day, a phone call reveals that Danya's mother is being released early on parole. Danya is the only one happy about the news; his father is lost in an alcoholic haze with Larisa, and his sister holds a grudge against their mother. Danya tries to arrange a celebration for her return, but soon realizes he is the only one waiting for her, turning the holiday into a tragedy.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Doberdob - A Novel by a Rebel (2015)
Prežihov Voranc (Lovro Kuhar) was one of the first communists in Slovenia, a Comintern agent, a traveler who was in contact with some of the most prominent politicians of the time. At the same time, he always maintained personal modesty and faith in the common man.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like Ave Maria and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Ave Maria?
The closest matches to Ave Maria are Cardboard Boxer (2016), A Question of Faith (2017) and Conversations with God (2006). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Ave Maria?
Start with Cardboard Boxer (2016), the closest match to Ave Maria.
What is the highest-rated movie like Ave Maria?
Letters from Iwo Jima (2006), rated 7.5/10 by 2,438 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Ave Maria?
Celebration (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Ave Maria?
Yes: Cardboard Boxer (2016), A Question of Faith (2017) and Conversations with God (2006).
How are movies similar to Ave Maria chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Ave Maria, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.





























