Movies Similar to 12 Years a Slave

Nickel Boys(2024)

Chronicles the powerful friendship between two young Black teenagers navigating the harrowing trials of reform school together in Florida.

6.6

The Heiress(1949)

In 1840s New York, the uneventful and boring days of the daughter of a wealthy doctor come to an end when she meets a dashing poorer man — who may or may not be after her inheritance.

7.8

The Lost Weekend(1945)

Don Birnam, a long-time alcoholic, has been sober for ten days and appears to be over the worst... but his craving has just become more insidious. Evading a country weekend planned by his brother and girlfriend, he begins a four-day bender that just might be his last - one way or another.

7.6

The Student of Prague(1913)

Prague, Bohemia, 1820. Balduin, a penniless student, falls in love with Countess Margit, a wealthy noblewoman whom he has saved from drowning.

6.0

Poor Cecily(1974)

Cecily is a lovely young woman, so lovely in fact people can't help but be drawn to her beauty. This becomes a problem for the naive girl once her Uncle passes away and she is sold off to pay for his debts. Once living simple life of pleasure, Cecily becomes the object of pleasure once the people she encounters decide to make her their sexual goal.

4.0

The Strauss Dynasty(1991)

A dramatisation of two generations of the Strauss family of Vienna, whose dance music and operettas dominated much of Europe and beyond for most of the 19th century.

8.2

Searching for Skylab, America's Forgotten Triumph(2019)

The first American space station Skylab is found in pieces scattered in Western Australia. Putting these pieces back together and re-tracing the Skylab program back to its very conception reveals the cornerstone of human space exploration.

7.0

Onegin(1999)

A virtuous and passionate girl falls in love with a cynical but a dashing aristocrat.

6.2

The Golden Wedding(1911)

A grandfather recalls how he and his wife met and fell in love during the Second Italian War of Independence.

5.5

The Truce(1997)

After the liberation of Auschwitz, an Italian prisoner of War begins a torturous voyage home to Turin, through a Europe caught between war and peace.

6.2

On the Waterfront(1954)

A prizefighter-turned-longshoreman with a conscience goes up against labor leaders to expose corruption, extortion, and murder among the union ranks.

7.9

Ben-Hur(1959)

In 25 AD, Judah Ben-Hur, a Jew in ancient Judea, opposes the occupying Roman empire. Falsely accused by a Roman childhood friend-turned-overlord of trying to kill the Roman governor, he is put into slavery and his mother and sister are taken away as prisoners.

7.9

Annie Hall(1977)

New York comedian Alvy Singer falls in love with the ditsy Annie Hall.

7.7

All About Eve(1950)

From the moment she glimpses her idol at the stage door, Eve Harrington is determined to take the reins of power away from the great actress Margo Channing. Eve maneuvers her way into Margo's Broadway role, becomes a sensation and even causes turmoil in the lives of Margo's director boyfriend, her playwright and his wife. Only the cynical drama critic sees through Eve, admiring her audacity and perfect pattern of deceit.

8.1

The Piano(1993)

When an arranged marriage brings Ada and her spirited daughter to the wilderness of nineteenth-century New Zealand, she finds herself locked in a battle of wills with both her controlling husband and a rugged frontiersman to whom she develops a forbidden attraction.

7.4

The Last Emperor(1987)

A dramatic history of Pu Yi, the last of the Emperors of China, from his lofty birth and brief reign in the Forbidden City, the object of worship by half a billion people; through his abdication, his decline and dissolute lifestyle; his exploitation by the invading Japanese, and finally to his obscure existence as just another peasant worker in the People's Republic.

7.6

Gone with the Wind(1939)

The spoiled daughter of a Georgia plantation owner conducts a tumultuous romance with a cynical profiteer during the American Civil War and Reconstruction Era.

7.9

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof(1958)

An alcoholic ex-football player drinks his days away, having failed to come to terms with his sexuality and his real feelings for his football buddy who died after an ambiguous accident. His wife is crucified by her desperation to make him desire her: but he resists the affections of his wife. His reunion with his father—who is dying of cancer—jogs a host of memories and revelations for both father and son.

7.7

The Silence of the Lambs(1991)

Clarice Starling is a top student at the FBI's training academy. Jack Crawford wants Clarice to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist who is also a violent psychopath, serving life behind bars for various acts of murder and cannibalism. Crawford believes that Lecter may have insight into a case and that Starling, as an attractive young woman, may be just the bait to draw him out.

8.3

Amadeus(1984)

Disciplined Italian composer Antonio Salieri becomes consumed by jealousy and resentment towards the hedonistic and remarkably talented young Viennese composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

8.0