Movies like Sunday in August (2004)
The best movies like Sunday in August (2004) are True Spirit (2023), The Road Dance (2022) and Abandoned (2016). If Sunday in August hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Sunday in August
Quick picks
- Highest ratedManchester by the Sea (2016)7.5/10 from 6,659 votes
- NewestThe Bluff (2026)Released 2026
- In GermanStyx (2018)Also in German
True Spirit (2023)
When the tenacious young sailor Jessica Watson sets out to be the youngest person to sail solo, nonstop and unassisted around the world, many expect her to fail. With the support of her sailing coach and mentor Ben Bryant and her parents, Jessica is determined to accomplish what was thought to be impossible, navigating some of the world’s most challenging stretches of ocean over the course of 210 days.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisAbandoned (2016)
In 1989 the trimaran Rose Noelle set sail from Picton, New Zealand, bound for Tonga with four crew. After a freak wave capsized the yacht, they drifted for 119 days before landing on Great Barrier Island.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Poseidon Adventure (1972)
When their ocean liner capsizes, a group of passengers struggle to survive and escape.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisNot Without Hope (2025)
A group of friends' fishing boat capsizes off the coast of Mexico and they're left alone stranded at sea and struggling for survival.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGirl in the Box (2016)
The true story of 20-year-old Colleen Stan, a hitchhiking woman abducted by a young couple and held captive for seven years, during which time she's tortured and forced to live as a slave to her captors.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStyx (2018)
Rike is forty, a successful doctor whose job demands everything of her. She intends to use her much-needed annual holiday to fulfill her long-cherished dream of sailing alone from Gibraltar to Ascension, a small tropical island in the middle of the Atlantic. Her desire for a carefree holiday seems to be coming to pass but then, after a storm, her beautiful adventure suddenly turns into an unprecedented challenge when she spots a badly damaged, hopelessly overloaded refugee boat nearby.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMindwalk (1991)
On the French island of Mont Saint-Michel, Jack, a failed presidential candidate, Tom, a poet and Sonia, a physicist, engage in an intellectual conversation about politics, philosophy and life over the course of a single day.
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 thisThe Christmas Shoes (2002)
Two separate stories mesh - in the first, a young music teacher, Maggie Andrews, begins dying of a heart condition and her son Nathan tries to get a pair of Christmas shoes for her before she dies. In the second, lawyer Robert Layton and his wife Kate are slowly drifting apart and the matter comes to a head during Christmas when Kate takes over for Maggie for the school choir.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Dry White Season (1989)
During the 1976 Soweto uprising, a white school teacher's life and values are threatened when he asks questions about the death of a young black boy who died in police custody.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisThe Bluff (2026)
When her tranquil life on a remote island is shattered by the return of her vengeful former captain, a skilled ex-pirate must confront her bloody past and unleash her deadly talents to save her family from a ruthless siege.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Am Elizabeth Smart (2017)
The story of Elizabeth Smart's kidnapping and captivity, as told from her perspective.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAll Day and a Night (2020)
While serving life in prison, a young man looks back at the people, the circumstances and the system that set him on the path toward his crime.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisManchester by the Sea (2016)
After his older brother passes away, Lee Chandler is forced to return home to care for his 16-year-old nephew. There he is compelled to deal with a tragic past that separated him from his family and the community where he was born and raised.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 Sea Wolf (1941)
Shipwrecked fugitives try to escape a brutal sea captain who's losing his mind.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTalhotBlond (2012)
Thomas Montgomery, a married father of two young daughters, gets seduced by the world of online gambling and chat rooms where a virtual romance and sexual obsession ultimately leads to the murder of an innocent man.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNo End (1985)
1982, Poland. A translator loses her husband and becomes a victim of her own sorrow. She looks to sex, to her son, to law, and to hypnotism when she has nothing else in this time of martial law when Solidarity was banned.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJourney of a Dying Wife (2011)
Why is it a crime for two people to be together? In the silence so profound that you could even hear the sound of falling snow, the man buried his wife alone. That was what his wife had wished for. When a loved one is dying, what can one do for them? 272 days, 6000 km—this is the true story of a couple's extraordinary love. December 2, 1999. A small article about the arrest of a man appeared on the social page of the newspaper. The charge was "abandonment resulting in death"—the crime of abandoning someone who needed assistance due to old age, childhood, physical disability, or illness, and causing their death. The man had been wandering around Japan for nine months with his wife, who had terminal cancer, in a van. In the fall of 2000, the monthly magazine "Shincho 45" published the memoir of the arrested man, Hisanori Shimizu, in two issues, which caused a great sensation.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Paper Geese (2021)
After an unsuccessful goose hunt, a young girl grapples with seeing her father in a new light.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Ailleurs (2023)
Isabelle is a young woman suffering from cystic fibrosis, a genetic and degenerative disease that drastically reduces her life expectancy. At the age of 19, she tries to leave her family environment, which she shares with her mother and sister, to become independent through a solitary trip to Asia. But her family is not ready to let Isabelle take such risks…
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Audrey Rose (1977)
A man is convinced that 11-year old girl, Ivy, is the reincarnation of his own daughter Audrey Rose, who died in a fiery car accident, along with his wife, two minutes before Ivy was born.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like this12 and Holding (2006)
Three close knit 12-year-olds - introverted Jacob, precocious Malee and vulnerable Leonard - start down the path of self-discovery and begin to distinguish their own voices from those of their parents.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHallam Foe (2007)
Hallam's talent for spying on people reveals his darkest fears-and his most peculiar desires. Driven to expose the true cause of his mother's death, he instead finds himself searching the rooftops of the city for love.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Emperor of Atlantis (1977)
Opera written by inmates of a Nazi concentration camp in 1943 before their murder in Auschwitz.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Old Gun (1975)
In Montauban in 1944, Julien Dandieu is a surgeon in the local hospital. Frightened by the German army entering Montauban, he asks his friend Francois to drive his wife and his daughter in the back country village where Julien has an old castle. One week later, Julien decides to meet them for the week end, but the Germans are already occupying the village.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGods and Monsters (1998)
It's 1957, and James Whale's heyday as the director of "Frankenstein," "Bride of Frankenstein" and "The Invisible Man" is long behind him. Retired and a semi-recluse, he lives his days accompanied only by images from his past. When his dour housekeeper, Hannah, hires a handsome young gardener, the flamboyant director and simple yard man develop an unlikely friendship, which will change them forever.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Sunday in August?
The closest matches to Sunday in August are True Spirit (2023), The Road Dance (2022) and Abandoned (2016). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Sunday in August?
Start with True Spirit (2023), the closest match to Sunday in August.
What is the highest-rated movie like Sunday in August?
Manchester by the Sea (2016), rated 7.5/10 by 6,659 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Sunday in August?
The Bluff (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there German movies like Sunday in August?
Yes: Styx (2018) and The Emperor of Atlantis (1977).
How are movies similar to Sunday in August chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Sunday in August, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.