Movies like Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)
The best movies like Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) are The Fall (2008), Where the Wild Things Are (2009) and Life of Pi (2012). If Beasts of the Southern Wild hooked you with its drama and fantasy, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedPan's Labyrinth (2006)7.8/10 from 11,918 votes
- NewestThe Blue Trail (2025)Released 2025
The Fall (2008)
In a hospital on the outskirts of 1920s Los Angeles, an injured stuntman begins to tell a fellow patient, a little girl with a broken arm, a fantastic story about 5 mythical heroes. Thanks to his fractured state of mind and her vivid imagination, the line between fiction and reality starts to blur as the tale advances.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both adventure & fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWhere the Wild Things Are (2009)
Max imagines running away from his mom and sailing to a far-off land where large talking beasts—Ira, Carol, Douglas, the Bull, Judith and Alexander—crown him as their king, play rumpus, build forts and discover secret hideaways.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both adventure & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLife of Pi (2012)
The story of an Indian boy named Pi, a zookeeper's son who finds himself in the company of a hyena, zebra, orangutan, and a Bengal tiger after a shipwreck sets them adrift in the Pacific Ocean.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both adventure & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Monster Calls (2016)
12-year-old Conor encounters an ancient tree monster who proceeds to help him cope with his mother's terminal illness and being bullied in school.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both fantasy & adventure
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBig Fish (2003)
Throughout his life Edward Bloom has always been a man of big appetites, enormous passions and tall tales. In his later years, he remains a huge mystery to his son, William. Now, to get to know the real man, Will begins piecing together a true picture of his father from flashbacks of his amazing adventures.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both adventure & fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTuesday (2024)
A mother and her teenage daughter must confront Death when it arrives in the form of an astonishing talking bird.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both fantasy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Kill Giants (2017)
Sophia, a new high school student, tries to make friends with Barbara, who tells her that “she kills giants,” protecting this way her hometown and its inhabitants, who do not understand her strange behavior.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both fantasy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Blue Trail (2025)
To maximize economic productivity, the Brazilian government orders elderly people to move to remote housing colonies. A 77-year-old woman refuses and embarks on a journey through the Amazon that will change her destiny forever.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Florida Project (2017)
The story of a precocious six year-old and her ragtag group of friends whose summer break is filled with childhood wonder, possibility and a sense of adventure while the adults around them struggle with hard times.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLeave No Trace (2018)
A father and daughter live a perfect but mysterious existence in Forest Park, a beautiful nature reserve near Portland, Oregon, rarely making contact with the world. But when a small mistake tips them off to authorities, they are sent on an increasingly erratic journey in search of a place to call their own.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAbandoned Man (2025)
After serving time in prison for his brother's crime, a man warily reunites with family, finding hope and healing in a life-changing bond with his niece.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPan's Labyrinth (2006)
In post–civil war Spain, 10-year-old Ofelia moves with her pregnant mother to live under the control of her cruel stepfather. Drawn into a mysterious labyrinth, she meets a faun who reveals that she may be a lost princess from an underground kingdom. To return to her true father, she must complete a series of surreal and perilous tasks that blur the line between reality and fantasy.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both fantasy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWinter's Bone (2010)
After discovering her father put their house up for his bail bond and then disappeared, 17-year-old Ree Dolly must confront the local criminal underworld and the harsh Ozark wilderness in order to to track down her father and save her family.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRiddle of Fire (2024)
Three mischievous children embark on a woodland odyssey when their mother sends them on an errand.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both fantasy & adventure
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWendy (2020)
A re-imagining of "Peter Pan" from the point of view of Wendy Darling, who finds herself lost on a mysterious island where aging and time have come unglued. She must fight to save her family, her freedom and the joyous spirit of youth.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both fantasy & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisEden (2025)
A group of disillusioned outsiders abandon modern society in search of a new beginning. Settling on a remote, uninhabited island, their utopian dream quickly unravels as they discover that the greatest threat isn’t the brutal climate or deadly wildlife, but each other.
Why it matches: Fans watch both
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisScales (2020)
Hayat, a 12-year-old strong-willed girl, lives in a poor fishing village governed by dark tradition, in which every family must give away a daughter to the sea creatures who inhabit the waters near by. In turn, the sea creatures are hunted by the men of the village. Saved from this ordeal by her father, Hayat is outcasted by her village and considered a curse. But Hayat never surrenders. When Hayat’s mother gives birth to her new-born brother, Hayat must accept the brutal custom by sacrificing herself to these creatures or find a way to escape.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both fantasy & drama
Magic in the Water (1995)
Radio psychologist Jack Black takes his children Joshua and Ashley on a 'vacation' to a lake in British Columbia. While he grinds away at work the children discover that the famous local lake monster "Orky" may not be just a gimmick to attract tourists after all. In fact, Orky may enable them to get closer to their workaholic dad, and help stop local polluters who are dumping toxic waste.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both adventure & fantasy
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Tree of Life (2011)
The impressionistic story of a Texas family in the 1950s. The film follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship with his father. Jack finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Shape of Water (2017)
An other-worldly story, set against the backdrop of Cold War era America circa 1962, where a mute janitor working at a lab falls in love with an amphibious man being held captive there and devises a plan to help him escape.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Glass Castle (2017)
A young girl is raised in a dysfunctional family constantly on the run from the FBI. Living in poverty, she comes of age guided by her drunkard, ingenious father who distracts her with magical stories to keep her mind off the family's dire state, and her selfish, nonconformist mother who has no intention of raising a family, along with her younger brother and sister, and her other older sister. Together, they fend for each other as they mature in an unorthodox journey that is their family life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLean on Pete (2018)
Charley Thompson, a teenager living with his single father, gets a summer job working for horse trainer Del Montgomery. Bonding with an aging racehorse named Lean on Pete, Charley is horrified to learn he is bound for slaughter, and so he steals the horse, and the duo embark on an odyssey across the new American frontier.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNight of the Kings (2021)
A young man is sent to "La Maca," a prison in the middle of the Ivorian forest ruled by its inmates. As tradition goes with the rising of the red moon, he is designated by the Boss to be the new "Roman" and must tell a story to the other prisoners. Learning what fate awaits him, he begins to narrate the mystical life of the legendary outlaw named "Zama King" and has no choice but to make his story last until dawn.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPetite Maman (2021)
After the death of her beloved grandmother, eight-year-old Nelly meets a strangely familiar girl her own age in the woods. Instantly forming a connection with this mysterious new friend, Nelly embarks on a fantastical journey of discovery which helps her come to terms with this newfound loss.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBird (2024)
12-year-old Bailey lives with her single dad Bug and brother Hunter in a squat in North Kent. Bug doesn’t have much time for his kids, and Bailey, who is approaching puberty, seeks attention and adventure elsewhere.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOkja (2017)
A young girl named Mija risks everything to prevent a powerful, multi-national company from kidnapping her best friend - a massive animal named Okja.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both adventure & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Quiet Girl (2022)
A quiet, neglected girl is sent away from her dysfunctional family to live with relatives for the summer. She blossoms in their care, but in this house where there are meant to be no secrets, she discovers one.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWhale Rider (2003)
A contemporary story of love, rejection, and triumph as a young Māori girl fights to fulfill a destiny her grandfather refuses to recognize.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMinari (2020)
A Korean American family moves to an Arkansas farm in search of its own American dream. Amidst the challenges of this new life in the strange and rugged Ozarks, they discover the undeniable resilience of family and what really makes a home.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEO (2022)
The world is a mysterious place when seen through the eyes of an animal. EO, a grey donkey with melancholic eyes, meets good and bad people on his life’s path, experiences joy and pain, endures the wheel of fortune randomly turn his luck into disaster and his despair into unexpected bliss. But not even for a moment does he lose his innocence.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Beasts of the Southern Wild?
The closest matches to Beasts of the Southern Wild are The Fall (2008), Where the Wild Things Are (2009) and Life of Pi (2012). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Beasts of the Southern Wild?
People who watched Beasts of the Southern Wild most often go on to The Fall (2008), Where the Wild Things Are (2009) and Life of Pi (2012).
What is the highest-rated movie like Beasts of the Southern Wild?
Pan's Labyrinth (2006), rated 7.8/10 by 11,918 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Beasts of the Southern Wild?
The Blue Trail (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Beasts of the Southern Wild?
Yes: The Fall (2008), Where the Wild Things Are (2009) and Life of Pi (2012).
How are movies similar to Beasts of the Southern Wild chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Beasts of the Southern Wild, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.