List of drama movies, sorted by date - oldest first (all time)

Border Incident is a 1949 film noir directed by Anthony Mann. The MGM film was written by John C. Higgins and George Zuckerman. The film was shot by cinematographer John Alton who used shadows and lighting effects to involve an au...

Fear and Desire is a 1953 American film against war and military directed, produced, shot, and edited by Stanley Kubrick. It is Kubrick’s first feature film and is, perhaps, also one of his least-seen productions...

Killer's Kiss is a 1955 American film noir directed by Stanley Kubrick and written by Kubrick and Howard Sackler. It is the second feature film directed by Kubrick. The film stars Jamie Smith, Irene Kane and Frank Silvera...

Paths of Glory is a 1957 American anti-war film by Stanley Kubrick based on the novel of the same name by Humphrey Cobb. Set during World War I, the film stars Kirk Douglas as Colonel Dax, the commanding officer of French soldiers...

12 Angry Men is a 1957 American drama film with elements of film noir, adapted from a teleplay of the same name by Reginald Rose. Written and co-produced by Rose himself and directed by Sidney Lumet, this trial film tells the stor...

Spartacus is a 1960 American epic historical drama film directed by Stanley Kubrick. The screenplay by Dalton Trumbo was based on the novel Spartacus by Howard Fast. It was inspired by the life story of the leader of a slave revol...

Lolita is a 1962 black comedy-drama film directed by Stanley Kubrick based on the novel of the same title by Vladimir Nabokov, about a middle-aged man who becomes obsessed with a teenage girl. The film stars James Mason as Humbert...

The Godfather is a 1972 American crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola and produced by Albert S. Ruddy from a screenplay by Mario Puzo and Coppola. Starring Marlon Brando and Al Pacino as the leaders of a fictional New York...

The Godfather: Part II is a 1974 American crime film produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola from a screenplay co-written with Mario Puzo, starring Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. Partially based on Puzo's 1969 novel The Godfa...

Barry Lyndon is a 1975 British-American period drama film written, produced, and directed by Stanley Kubrick, based on the 1844 novel The Luck of Barry Lyndon by William Makepeace Thackeray. It stars Ryan O'Neal, Marisa Berenson,...

Full Metal Jacket is a 1987 British-American war film directed and produced by Stanley Kubrick. The screenplay by Kubrick, Michael Herr, and Gustav Hasford was based on Hasford's novel The Short-Timers (1979). The film stars Matth...

Scent of a Woman is a 1992 American drama directed and produced by Martin Brest that tells the story of a preparatory school student who takes a job as an assistant to an irascible, blind, medically retired Army officer. The film...

Schindler's List is a 1993 American epic historical period drama film, directed and co-produced by Steven Spielberg and scripted by Steven Zaillian. It is based on the novel Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally, an Australian noveli...

The Lion King is a 1994 American animated musical film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the 32nd animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. The Lion King was...

Forrest Gump is a 1994 American epic romantic-comedy-drama film based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Winston Groom. The film was directed by Robert Zemeckis and stars Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Mykelti Williamson...

The Shawshank Redemption is a 1994 American drama film written and directed by Frank Darabont, and starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman. Adapted from the Stephen King novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, the film tel...

Titanic is a 1997 American epic romantic disaster film directed, written, co-produced, and co-edited by James Cameron. A fictionalized account of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, it stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet as membe...

The Truman Show is a 1998 American science fiction comedy-drama film directed by Peter Weir and written by Andrew Niccol. The film stars Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank, Laura Linney, Noah Emmerich, Ed Harris and Natascha McElhone...

Fight Club is a 1999 American film based on the 1996 novel of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk. The film was directed by David Fincher, and stars Brad Pitt, Edward Norton and Helena Bonham Carter. Norton plays the unnamed protagon...

The Green Mile is a 1999 American fantasy crime drama film directed by Frank Darabont and adapted from the 1996 Stephen King novel of the same name. The film is told in a flashback format and stars Tom Hanks as Paul Edgecomb and M...

Thirteen Days is a 2000 American historical drama-thriller film directed by Roger Donaldson dramatizing the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, seen from the perspective of the US political leadership. Kevin Costner stars, with Bruce Gr...

Metropolis (メトロポリス Metoroporisu) is a 2001 anime film loosely based on the 1949 Metropolis manga created by Osamu Tezuka, itself inspired by the 1927 German silent film of the same name, though the two do not share plot elements...

A.I. Artificial Intelligence, also known as A.I., is a 2001 American science fiction film directed by Steven Spielberg. The screenplay by Spielberg and screen story by Ian Watson was based on the 1969 short story "Super-Toys Last...

Moon is a 2009 British science fiction drama film co-written and directed by Duncan Jones. The film follows Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell), a man who experiences a personal crisis as he nears the end of a three-year solitary stint mining...

Mr. Nobody is a 2009 science fiction drama film. It was written and directed by Jaco Van Dormael, produced by Philippe Godeau, and starred Jared Leto, Sarah Polley, Diane Kruger, Linh Dan Pham, Rhys Ifans, Natasha Little, Toby Reg...

War Horse is a 2011 Indian-American war drama film directed by Steven Spielberg from a screenplay written by Lee Hall and Richard Curtis, adapted from Michael Morpurgo's 1982 children's novel of the same name set before and during...

Lincoln is a 2012 American epic historical drama film directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Daniel Day-Lewis as United States President Abraham Lincoln and Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln. The screenplay by Tony Kushner was loos...

Black Nativity is a 2013 American musical drama film directed by Kasi Lemmons. The script, written by Lemmons, is based on Langston Hughes' play of the same name and released on November 27, 2013. The film stars an African America...

Nymphomaniac (stylized onscreen and in advertising as NYMPH()MANIAC) is a 2013 two-part drama art film written and directed by Lars von Trier. The film stars Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgård, Stacy Martin, Shia LaBeouf, Chr...

Bogowie ("Gods") is a Polish feature film from 2014, directed by Łukasz Palkowski. The film is a fact-based drama about Polish cardiac surgeon Zbigniew Religa, who performed the first successful heart transplant in Poland in 1985...

Whiplash is a 2014 American drama film written and directed by Damien Chazelle based on his experiences in the Princeton High School Studio Band. Starring Miles Teller and J. K. Simmons, the film depicts the relationship between a...

Foxcatcher is a 2014 American biographical sports film produced and directed by Bennett Miller. Written by E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman, the film stars Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, and Mark Ruffalo. The film's plot is loosely ba...

Selma is a 2014 American historical drama film directed by Ava DuVernay and written by Paul Webb. It is based on the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches led by James Bevel, Hosea Williams, Martin Luther King, Jr., and J...

American Sniper is a 2014 American biographical war drama film directed by Clint Eastwood and written by Jason Hall. It is based on the memoir American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History (...

Boyhood is a 2014 American independent coming-of-age drama film, written and directed by Richard Linklater, and starring Patricia Arquette, Ellar Coltrane, Lorelei Linklater, and Ethan Hawke. Shot intermittently from 2002 to 2013,...

When Marnie Was There (Japanese: 思い出のマーニー Omoide no Mānī, lit. Marnie of [my] Memories) is a 2014 Japanese anime film written and directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, produced by Studio Ghibli and based on Joan G. Robinson's novel of...

Theeb (Arabic: ذيب‎) is a 2014 Jordanian Arabic-language film written and directed by Naji Abu Nowar. It focuses on a young Bedouin boy, Theeb, who must survive in the wide-open Wadi Rum desert. The film takes place during the Mid...

The Theory of Everything is a 2015 British biographical coming of age romantic drama film directed by James Marsh and adapted by Anthony McCarten from the memoir Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen by Jane Wilde Hawking,...

Bridge of Spies is a 2015 American historical drama-thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg from a screenplay written by Matt Charman and Ethan Coen and Joel Coen. The film stars Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance, Amy Ryan, and Alan Alda...

By the Sea is a drama film directed and written by Angelina Jolie. The film stars Jolie and Brad Pitt. It was released on November 13, 2015 by Universal Pictures...

Creed is a 2015 American sports drama film written and directed by Ryan Coogler, co-written by Aaron Covington and produced by Robert Chartoff, Irwin Winkler and Sylvester Stallone. The film stars Michael B. Jordan as Adonis Johns...

The Revenant is a 2015 American epic western film directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu set in 1823 Montana and South Dakota, which was inspired by the experiences of frontiersman and fur trapper Hugh Glass. The screenplay was w...

45 Years is a 2015 British drama film directed and written by Andrew Haigh. The film is based on the short story In Another Country by David Constantine. The film was screened in the main competition section of the 65th Berlin Int...

Embrace of the Serpent (El abrazo de la serpiente) is a 2015 Colombian adventure drama film directed by Ciro Guerra. The film won the Art Cinema Award in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival and it was...

Son of Saul (Hungarian: Saul fia) is a 2015 Hungarian drama film directed by László Nemes and co-written by Nemes and Clara Royer. The film premiered at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Grand Prix. It was also shown...

Carol is a 2015 British-American romantic drama film directed by Todd Haynes, from a screenplay by Phyllis Nagy based on the novel The Price of Salt (also known as Carol) by Patricia Highsmith. The film stars Cate Blanchett, Roone...

Mustang is a 2015 internationally co-produced drama film directed by Turkish-born and French-raised film director Deniz Gamze Ergüven. The film is set in a remote Turkish village (Inebolu, Kastamonu) and depicts life of five young...

Mr Holmes is a 2015 British crime drama mystery film directed by Bill Condon, based on the 2005 novel A Slight Trick of the Mind written by Mitch Cullin. The film stars Ian McKellen as Sherlock Holmes and Laura Linney as housekeep...

A War (Danish: Krigen) is a 2015 Danish film directed by Tobias Lindholm, starring Pilou Asbæk and Søren Malling. It tells the story of a Danish military company in Afghanistan that is captured by the Taliban, and how the commande...

Trumbo is a 2015 American biographical drama film directed by Jay Roach and written by John McNamara. The film stars Bryan Cranston, Diane Lane, Helen Mirren, Louis C.K., Elle Fanning, John Goodman and Michael Stuhlbarg. The film...