Best Biographical Film

12 Years a Slave is a 2013 biographical drama film directed by Steve McQueen and based on the 1853 memoir of the same name by Solomon Northup. The plot centers on Northup, a free African-American man from New York who is kidnapped and sold into slavery, spending twelve years working on plantations i...

All the President's Men is a 1976 American political thriller directed by Alan J. Pakula, based on the 1974 non-fiction book by journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. The film chronicles the investigation by Washington Post reporters Woodward and Bernstein, played by Robert Redford and Dustin...

Dog Day Afternoon is a 1975 American biographical crime drama directed by Sidney Lumet, with a screenplay by Frank Pierson. Inspired by a Life magazine article, the film dramatizes a real 1972 bank robbery in Brooklyn. Al Pacino stars as Sonny Wortzik, a man who attempts to hold up a bank to fund hi...

Bonnie and Clyde is a 1967 American biographical crime film directed by Arthur Penn and starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. The plot chronicles the violent crime spree of real-life outlaws Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow during the Great Depression, alongside the Barrow Gang. The film also featu...

Malcolm X is a 1992 American biographical epic directed by Spike Lee, based on the 1965 autobiography co-written by Malcolm X and Alex Haley. Denzel Washington portrays the civil rights leader, tracing his journey from his youth as a criminal in Boston and Harlem to his conversion to Islam and event...

The Elephant Man is a 1980 British biographical drama film directed by David Lynch and shot in black and white. It chronicles the life of Joseph Merrick, a man with severe physical deformities who is discovered working in a Victorian freak show by Dr. Frederick Treves, played by Anthony Hopkins. Joh...

The film *Good Night, and Good Luck* chronicles the events surrounding broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow’s courageous television programing confronting Senator Joseph McCarthy during the height of the Red Scare. It examines a pivotal moment in American media history where journalistic integrity...

The Insider (1999), directed by Michael Mann, stars Russell Crowe as Jeffrey Wigand, a tobacco industry whistleblower whose 60 Minutes interview was suppressed by CBS due to corporate pressure from Brown & Williamson.

"Patton" is a 1970 American biographical war film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner and featuring a screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola and Edmund H. North. The picture stars George C. Scott in the title role as the controversial and flamboyant World War II General George S. Patton, alongside Karl Ma...

Touching the Void is a 2003 British docudrama directed by Kevin Macdonald, adapted from mountaineer Joe Simpson's 1988 memoir of the same name. The film reconstructs the harrowing 1985 expedition in which Simpson and Simon Yates successfully summited the 6,344-meter Siula Grande in the Peruvian Ande...

The Right Stuff (1983), directed by Philip Kaufman and based on Tom Wolfe's 1979 book, dramatizes the early US space program from Chuck Yeager's sound barrier break through the Mercury Seven astronauts.

A Man for All Seasons is a 1966 British biographical drama film directed by Fred Zinnemann, adapted from the stage play by Robert Bolt. The plot centers on the final years of Sir Thomas More, played by Paul Scofield, who served as Lord Chancellor under King Henry VIII. More is ultimately executed fo...

The Killing Fields (1984) is a British film directed by Roland Joffé depicting New York Times journalist Sydney Schanberg's coverage of the Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia and the survival of his colleague Dith Pran.

The Miracle Worker is a 1962 biographical drama directed by Arthur Penn, depicting the early relationship between Helen Keller, a deafblind girl in late-nineteenth-century Alabama, and her teacher Anne Sullivan. Anne Bancroft stars as Sullivan and Patty Duke as Keller, both reprising roles they orig...

Selma is a 2014 American historical drama directed by Ava DuVernay that depicts the three attempted marches from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in March 1965 to demand federal voting rights legislation. David Oyelowo portrays Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., with the film dramatizing his strategic negotia...

Lenny is a 1974 biographical drama portraying the life and career of comedian Lenny Bruce. Dustin Hoffman portrays Bruce in this film adapted from his stage work and directed by Bob Fosse. The movie examines Bruce’s struggles with censorship, societal norms, and his LGBTQ+ identity within the counte...

Serpico is a 1973 American biographical crime film directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Al Pacino. The narrative details the true story of Frank Serpico, a New York Police Department officer who attempted to expose systemic corruption within the department during the 1960s and early 1970s. The film...

Ed Wood (1994), directed by Tim Burton in black and white, stars Johnny Depp as Edward D. Wood Jr., widely regarded as one of the worst filmmakers in Hollywood history, with Martin Landau winning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor as Bela Lugosi.

Platoon (1986), written and directed by Oliver Stone, draws on Stone's own Vietnam War service and won the Academy Award for Best Picture, becoming the first major Hollywood film made from the perspective of an enlisted soldier.

"The Lion in Winter" is a 1968 historical drama directed by Anthony Harvey, adapted from the play by James Goldman. Set during Christmas of 1183, the film centers on King Henry II of England's political maneuvering to determine his successor among his three surviving sons. It stars Peter O'Toole as...

"Judas and the Black Messiah" is a 2021 biographical drama directed by Shaka King that details the events leading to the 1969 assassination of Fred Hampton, chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party. The narrative focuses on William O'Neal, a petty criminal coerced into acting as an FBI informant...

Catch Me If You Can (2002), directed by Steven Spielberg, stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Frank Abagnale Jr., a real-life con artist who successfully impersonated a pilot, doctor, and lawyer while defrauding banks of millions in the 1960s.

My Left Foot (1989) is an Irish biographical film in which Daniel Day-Lewis portrays Christy Brown, a Dublin-born artist and writer with cerebral palsy who painted with his only controllable limb; Day-Lewis won the Academy Award for Best Actor.

BlacKkKlansman (2018) is a U.S. biographical film directed by Spike Lee based on the true story of Ron Stallworth, the first Black detective in the Colorado Springs Police Department, who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s.

"Gandhi" is a 1982 epic biographical film directed by Richard Attenborough that chronicles the life of Mahatma Gandhi and his role in India's non-violent independence movement against the British Empire. Ben Kingsley stars as Gandhi, a performance spanning decades from his early experiences with rac...

Milk is a 2008 American biographical film directed by Gus Van Sant, based on the life of gay rights activist and politician Harvey Milk. The film follows Milk's political career in San Francisco, culminating in his election to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977, making him one of the fir...

Capote is a 2005 American biographical film directed by Bennett Miller, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman as author Truman Capote. The narrative centers on Capote's research for his true crime novel "In Cold Blood" and his complex relationship with convicted murderer Perry Smith during the late 1950s....

Rush is a 2013 biographical drama film directed by Ron Howard that depicts the intense rivalry between Formula One drivers James Hunt and Niki Lauda during the 1976 season. The film stars Chris Hemsworth as Hunt and Daniel Brühl as Lauda, exploring their contrasting personalities and the severe cras...

Moneyball (2011) is an American biographical sports drama directed by Bennett Miller, based on Michael Lewis's book about Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane's use of sabermetrics to build a competitive team on a limited budget in 2002.