The 45 Saddest Movies of All Time
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Sometimes, when you’re feeling low, the only way to cheer yourself up is to sulk. Yes, sulk. Rot. Brood. Whatever you want to call it. I’m not here to tell you to lift your chin up and persevere. All that does is delay the inevitable—and we know you don’t have time to waste. Just feel your feelings!
What better way to get your sad juices flowing than by curling up on the couch and pressing play on a truly devastating film? Watching sad movies has a uniquely cathartic effect. If you can relate to a character's issues, you’ll find that there’s always light at the end of the tunnel. (That’s the power of a three-act structure, people!) And if you can’t? Well, hey! At least your problems aren’t that bad.
In all seriousness, we’re here to help you get through whatever has you down. Below, we’ve rounded up the saddest movies of all time. Whether you’re in the mood for a sad history lesson, romance, or tale of redemption—we have you covered. From Still Alice to The Pursuit of Happyness, these 45 films are guaranteed tear-jerkers.
Still Alice
Still Alice stars Julianne Moore as Dr. Alice Howland, a linguistics professor who’s diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s. When her memory begins to fade, Alice struggles to hold on to her identity and connect with her family, who are forced to watch her suffer. With its devestating plot and star-studded performances, Still Alice is a tear-jerker that will make you appreciate just how precious life is.
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May December
You may consider May December a drama (or even a thriller, depending on who you ask), but the plot is downright heartbreaking. May December, which is inspired by a true story, follows a couple with a troubling age gap. Gracie (Julianne Moore) and Joe (Charles Melton) have been together for years, but that’s only possible because Joe was groomed into the relationship as a child. When an actress asks to study them for an upcoming film, Joe realizes Gracie may not be as innocent as she seems.
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The Pursuit of Happyness
Will and Jaden Smith star as a father-son duo in The Pursuit of Happyness. The film is based on a true story and follows Christopher Gardner, a single father who’s just been evicted from his apartment. While battling homelessness, Christopher lands an internship at a brokerage firm, which, of course, pays nothing. Throughout the film, Christopher relies on transparent faith and perseverance to create a better life for his son. The film is equal parts inspiring and tragic—don’t even try to watch this without a box of tissues on hand.
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Past Lives
What’s more devastating than a lost love? In Past Lives, Greta Lee stars as Nora, a woman who reconnects with her childhood friend, Hae Sung (Teo Yoo). They lost touch when Nora left South Korea with her family, but when they reconnect, it’s as if no time has passed... but it has. Now, Nora is marrie—and she has a new life in New York City. When she meets up with Hae Sung, she’s forced to confront the cruel banality of timing and destiny.
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Dallas Buyers Club
Mathew McConaughey stars as Ron Woodroof in Dallas Buyers Club. Ron’s life is forever changed when he’s diagnosed with AIDS and learns he has a month left to live. Despite the grim circumstances, Ron won’t go down without a fight. Instead of relying on the medical system, he finds and smuggles unapproved drugs into America. Along the way, he meets Rayon (Jared Leto), another AIDS patient, and they work together to distribute drug treatments to anyone in need. Dallas Buyers Club is a film that will break your heart and then patch it back up again.
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Cinema Paradiso
Cinema Paradiso is a beautifully nostalgic picture not just about the beauty and community of movies, but about the people in our lives that make us who we are. The movie is told as a flashback through the life of a film director who remembers his friendship with a projectionist, Alfredo, in his younger years—who helped him nurture his creativity and love of cinema.
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50/50
It’s tough to make a dramedy about something as difficult as a cancer diagnosis, but screenwriter Will Reiser based this script on his personal experiences struggling with the disease. Joseph Gordon-Levitt brilliantly plays Adam Lerner, a young journalist who is diagnosed with spinal cancer and given a 50/50 chance to live.
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Lost in Translation
Sofia Coppola has made a name for herself as an incredible director. Her 2003 romantic comedy-drama features a great depiction of a midlife crisis, told through Bill Murray’s aging movie star, Bob Harris. The film has an incredibly melancholy feel throughout while still mining moments of levity and humor.
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Steel Magnolias
Steel Magnolias is another tearjerker that balances its tone with plenty of warmth and humor between moments of tragedy. The film follows a tight-knit group of Southern women who band together to help their friend, who starts suffering with advanced complications from Type 1 diabetes. It features a stacked main cast, with stars Sally Field, Julia Roberts, Dolly Parton, Daryl Hanna, Olympia Dukakis, and Shirley MacLaine playing members of the friend group.
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Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Far and away the best Melissa McCarthy performance in years, this biographical drama is based on the life of Lee Israel, who became infamous in the literary world when she confessed to writing and selling fake letters by famous authors to make ends meet. The film helps you empathize with Israel's motivation behind the crimes, but it's still unflinching in showing the harm of her actions to those she conned. Her dynamic with friend and forgery conspirator Jack—played brilliantly by Richard E. Grant—is the beating heart of the film.
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Into the Wild
Into the Wild is based on the John Krakauer book about the true story of Christopher McCandless. He was an adventurer who died after hitchhiking to Alaska, where he attempted to live off the land in an abandoned bus near Denali National Park. The film is one of Sean Penn's best directing accomplishments. He found great images in the wilderness and from McCandless’ early life, in addition to guiding the performances by the cast—especially a young Emile Hirsch as the lead—very well.
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Manchester by the Sea
It’s difficult to show depression in an authentic and humanizing way on-screen, but Manchester by the Sea deftly tells the story of a grieving man who suddenly has to care for his teenage nephew after his brother’s passing. Every character is achingly well-written and brought to life by their respective actors.
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Remember the Titans
Thanks to Remember the Titans, you'll never hear "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" the same way again.
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The Banshees of Inisherin
The Banshees of Inisherin shows one of the most extreme friend breakups ever put on film. Plus, it serves as a reunion of Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson with director Martin McDonagh, following their brilliant lead roles in 2008’s In Bruges. On a remote Irish island in the 1920s, Farrell’s sweet, but dull Pádraic is devastated when his longtime drinking buddy Colm (Gleeson), suddenly refuses to talk to him. Throughout it all, McDonagh expertly balances moments of emotional rawness and pure laughs.
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Midsommar
While you may think that Midsommar is just a straightforward horror film, Ari Aster blends terrifying images, moments of dark humor, and gutting tragedy into a wholly unnerving film. The movie sees Florence Pugh’s character, Dani, travel to a remote Swedish commune—and antics ensue. There’s a feeling of tragic inevitability in the film’s events as Dani, her friends, and her distant boyfriend, Christian, seem powerless to escape from the increasingly disturbing cult.
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Moonlight
Simply one of the best coming-of-age stories in recent years, Barry Jenkins’ breakout film takes us through three different periods in the life of a gay Black man coming to terms with his identity. Moonlight managed to simultaneously feel deeply intimate and also profoundly resonant to many viewers. If you haven’t seen the film since it won three Oscars, it’s absolutely worth the rewatch.
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Son of Saul
This war drama, which is set in Auschwitz, is unflinching and profound without reducing the real events it depicts to melodrama. The stars Géza Röhrig as Saul Ausländer, a member of the Sonderkommandos—which were work units made of death camp prisoners who had to clean gas chambers and retrieve valuables from corpses of those killed in them. Most of the film stays in a close shot on Saul as he seeks to give a young gas chamber victim a proper Jewish burial, which is a haunting cinematic depiction of his growing numbness to the horrors around him.
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Dead Poets Society
Oh captain... [Sniffles.] my captain. [Sobs.]
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In The Mood For Love
Wong Kar-wai’s moving and tragic romance follows two neighbors who eventually learn their spouses are having an affair with each other—so they try to begin a relationship of their own. The film is both sweeping and intimate, with beautiful musings on isolation, longing, and missed chances that still resonate today.
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The Florida Project
This indie drama, which is set in a budget motel near Disney World, is expertly crafted to hit you with a huge range of emotions. Brooklyn Prince’s amazing performance as six-year-old Moonnee gives us an innocent point-of-view of her character's young single mother, who is struggling to make ends meet and stave off homelessness. Still, Moonnee finds tons of fun during aimless summer days at the Magic Castle motel.
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Love Story
Love Story is a foundational romantic melodrama, adapted from the Erich Segal novel of the same name. Ali McGraw and Ryan O’Neal play college students from differing backgrounds who fall in love—and soon face tragedy just as their marriage is beginning. This film probably inspired some of your favorite romantic comedies and dramas. Adjusted for inflation it’s one of the highest-grossing romantic movies of all time.
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Schindler's List
Based on a true story, Schindler’s List follows the life of Oskar Schindler, a German businessman and member of the Nazi party, who utilized his factory in Poland as a means of rescuing over one thousand Jewish refugees from the Holocaust. Directed by Steven Spielberg and featuring performances from Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Caroline Goodall, and Ben Kingsley, the film is a remarkable testament to how humans to commit both utter atrocities and remarkable sacrifices.
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Requiem for a Dream
Often ranked as one of the most disturbing movies of all time, Darren Antonofsky’s portrait of four people struggling with drug addiction in Coney Island is certainly not for everyone. However, the film’s cinematic and narrative merit in illustrating the distorted borders of one’s addiction and reality becomes increasingly poignant as their struggles advance.
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Brokeback Mountain
Ang Lee's gorgeous romantic western about two cowboys in love on Brokeback Mountain was a prime candidate for Best Picture in 2006 (it lost to Crash, which we won't talk about). The poignant story stars Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal as closeted men in a decades-long relationship. Their passion for each another grates against the unforgiving era in which their love was founded, and ultimately, it's that passion that tears the two apart, resulting in a tragic end for nearly all involved.
My Girl
A childhood classic for many, My Girl features Anna Chlumsky as Vada, a young tomboy with a deceased mother, as she navigates her life as an 11-year-old alongside her best friend, played by Macaulay Culkin. The film is both heartwarming and morbid, displaying Vada’s innocently obsessive relationship with death through her father’s home practice as a mortician.
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Sophie's Choice
Featuring one of Meryl Streep’s most iconic performances, Sophie’s Choice follows the cohabitation of Sophie, a Polish immigrant, Nathan, her lover, and Stingo, a young writer, in Brooklyn. As their living situation brings them closer, Sophie’s deeply tragic backstory as a Holocaust survivor is revealed.
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Precious
Based on the novel Push by Sapphire and produced by Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry, Precious is the story of Claireece “Precious” Jones, a teenager living in poverty in Harlem. Coming from an abusive home and limited by her inability to read or write, Precious is faced with a simultaneous challenge and opportunity when she is offered to transfer schools. With its intense journey of suffering and triumph, lead actress Gabourey Sidibe’s performance is an unforgettable one. (The film also landed her an Oscar nomination and a win for her co-star, Monique.)
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The Green Mile
Set in a correctional facility’s death row, coined “The Green Mile” for its floor tiling, this Stephen King adaptation begins with the arrival of a new inmate John Coffey, played by Michael Clarke Duncan. As head guard Paul Edgecomb (Tom Hanks) grows curious of how such a peaceful man could be guilty of such a crime, Edgecomb identifies a link between Coffey’s arrival and a series of supernatural events in the facility.
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Life is Beautiful
From the acclaimed Roberto Benigni, Life Is Beautiful follows a Jewish-Italian father’s quest to protect his son from the cold truths of their cruel world when they become imprisoned in a concentration camp. Despite its tragic setting, the narrative is filled with sentiments of imagination, sacrifice, and beauty.
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Roma
From award-winning director Alfonso Cuarón, Roma tells the story of Cleo, an indigenous woman and domestic worker who lives with an affluent family in Mexico City. Cleo’s relationship with the family becomes more complicated when the father leaves the family for an affair, and Cleo discovers she is pregnant.
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Fruitvale Station
Based on a true story, Michael B. Jordan stars as Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old man living in the Bay Area of California, on the last day of his life on December 31, 2008. Despite Grant’s earnest desire to approach the coming new year as a fresh start on his young life, his dreams are recklessly cut short when BART officers apprehend and murder Grant in cold-blood at Fruitvale Station.
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Loving Vincent
The tortured artist, the misunderstood genius—Vincent Van Gogh’s descent into madness is portrayed beautifully in Loving Vincent, an animated biographical drama that emulates the style of his most famous works of art in every frame. Many have retroactively diagnosed the legendary painter with bipolar disorder, depression, and epilepsy, but Loving Vincent seeks to discover the truth about Van Gogh’s untimely suicide at the age of 37. According to his younger brother Theo, his last words were “The sadness will last forever."
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The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
The Algerian War tears apart a young couple in this '60s French musical by Jacques Demy that is even more gut-wrenching because every single word of the film is sung. Beautifully written and orchestrated by composer Michel Legrand, if the grand finale “I Will Wait for You” reprise doesn’t illicit tears, I don’t know what will.
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Lenny Cooke
In the 2002 NBA Draft, one of the top undrafted prospects was high schooler Lenny Cooke. At a basketball scouting camp, a then “unheard of” LeBron James remarked that Cooke was one of the best players in the country. ESPN even ranked him as the No. 2 prospect. After shockingly going undrafted, however, he had officially turned “pro” and was unable to receive a college education playing basketball. Moved by Cooke’s tragic story, the NBA added a new rule in 2005 that prevented players from being drafted until they had at least completed their first year of college.
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Umberto D.
Umberto is an elderly pensioner living in 1950’s Italy who can no longer afford rent. When the landlady threatens to evict him and his dog, he contemplates faking illness just to spend the night in a hospital bed. As everyone he meets is mean to him and equally downtrodden, he even thinks about giving up his dog—his only friend in the world.
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The Farewell
A Chinese American family decides not to tell their elderly grandmother that she only has a little while left to live, and instead plans a trip to have everyone secretly say their goodbyes. Billi (Awkwafina) is taken aback by the family’s decision but plays along to spend her grandmother’s final days in bliss. As the Lulu Wang-directed film went on, it felt as if I had even more trouble saying goodbye to Grandma Nai Nai than the movie’s family.
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Grave of the Fireflies
After a mother dies during the World War II-era firebombing of Japan, her two young children struggle to survive on their own in an abandoned bomb shelter. An achievement of animation in 1980’s Japan, Grave of the Fireflies was one of the first films produced by the legendary Studio Ghibli, who would go on to create more upbeat and kid-friendly films such as Spirited Away and Kiki's Delivery Service.
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Call Me By Your Name
If a Sufjan Stevens album alone can make you cry, wait until he writes two original songs for Call Me By Your Name, a 2017 film starring Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer as lovers changed by an experience that cannot last. They also spend time in a gorgeous Italian villa discussing classical music, literature, and archaeology.
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Twenty Four Eyes
Hisako Oishi, the new first-grade teacher on the island of Shodoshima grows to care for all her students before World War II grips Japan. Oishi tries to preach pacifism to save the students and even pushes her female students to pursue careers outside of the home. Hardships, poverty, and illness also affect the lives of her twelve young pupils as they age into young adults yearning for simpler times.
Watch on The Criterion Channel
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Titanic
Over 1,500 people perishing after the largest ship to date collided with an iceberg in 1912 wasn’t sad enough for director James Cameron. He just had to add class struggle, a string octet that plays as the ship sinks, and a tragic romance that any modern critic will tell you could have been saved if Rose didn’t hog that wooden plank for herself.
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Up
Disney has been tinkering with ways to make us weep as soon as the movie begins, and they succeeded in 2009 with just the first ten minutes of Pixar’s Up. There’s an entire Wikipedia page solely dedicated to how much we were all deeply affected by the film’s opening montage, featuring two aspiring explorers who grow up together, fall in love, get married, and never get to accomplish their childhood dream.
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Marley & Me
Marley & Me is almost impossible to get through without at least choking up one little tear—especially if you’re clutching your own little furry guy close—but if you wanted something happier from this list, you’re better off with Air Bud or Beethoven. Like any classic doggie flick, however, Marley & Me still has its fair share of rambunctious antics, but the story is faithful in sharing the full life of a dog.
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P.S. I Love You
When Gerry (Gerard Butler) dies of a brain tumor, his widow Holly (Hilary Swank) starts receiving letters he arranged before his death that send her messages of love and encouragement to find the strength to move on with her life. Signing off “P.S. I Love You,” each new letter aids her on her emotional journey, wherever (or with whoever) that may lead.
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The Pianist
The Pianist, a three-hour tour de force of emotions about a Jewish piano player (Adrien Brody) who struggles during the Nazi's invasion of Poland in 1939, does not let up throughout its entire runtime. Based of a memoir written by an actual Holocaust survivor, The Pianist may even be the saddest movie of all time.
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After Yang
In the future, an A.I. robot purchased to help an adopted child learn more about her Chinese heritage suddenly shuts off for good after a malfunction to his operating system becomes unrepairable. As the family of three grieves and processes his absence through technology that allows them to view his memories, they each grow to appreciate the robot as an older brother and son.
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