Movies About the Film Industry
by pedjalj | created - 10 Jan 2015 | updated - 17 Feb 2023 | PublicList of fictional moves that portrait film industry or reflect the creative process of movie making.
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1. 8½ (1963)
Not Rated | 138 min | Drama
A harried movie director retreats into his memories and fantasies.
Director: Federico Fellini | Stars: Marcello Mastroianni, Anouk Aimée, Claudia Cardinale, Sandra Milo
Votes: 125,143 | Gross: $0.05M
2. Sunset Blvd. (1950)
Passed | 110 min | Drama, Film-Noir
A screenwriter develops a dangerous relationship with a faded film star determined to make a triumphant return.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson
Votes: 236,301
3. Adaptation. (2002)
R | 115 min | Comedy, Drama
A lovelorn screenwriter becomes desperate as he tries and fails to adapt 'The Orchid Thief' by Susan Orlean for the screen.
Director: Spike Jonze | Stars: Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper, Tilda Swinton
Votes: 202,961 | Gross: $22.25M
4. The Player (1992)
R | 124 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A Hollywood studio executive is being sent death threats by a writer whose script he rejected, but which one?
Director: Robert Altman | Stars: Tim Robbins, Greta Scacchi, Fred Ward, Whoopi Goldberg
Votes: 65,737 | Gross: $21.71M
5. Living in Oblivion (1995)
R | 90 min | Comedy, Drama
This ultimate tribute to all independent filmmakers takes place during one day on the set of a non-budget movie.
Director: Tom DiCillo | Stars: Steve Buscemi, Catherine Keener, Dermot Mulroney, Danielle von Zerneck
Votes: 20,142 | Gross: $1.15M
6. Nickelodeon (1976)
PG | 121 min | Comedy
Buck and lawyer Leo accidentally get into movie production in the early days (1910).
Director: Peter Bogdanovich | Stars: Ryan O'Neal, Burt Reynolds, Tatum O'Neal, Brian Keith
Votes: 2,794
7. Hollywood Ending (2002)
PG-13 | 112 min | Comedy, Romance
A director is forced to work with his ex-wife, who left him for the boss of the studio bankrolling his new film. But the night before the first day of shooting, he develops a case of psychosomatic blindness.
Director: Woody Allen | Stars: Woody Allen, Téa Leoni, Bob Dorian, Ivan Martin
Votes: 28,134 | Gross: $4.84M
8. Celebrity (1998)
R | 113 min | Comedy, Drama
The fortunes of a husband and wife differ drastically after they divorce.
Director: Woody Allen | Stars: Kenneth Branagh, Judy Davis, Leonardo DiCaprio, Greg Mottola
Votes: 28,410 | Gross: $5.03M
9. Full Frontal (2002)
R | 101 min | Comedy, Romance
A day in the life of a group of men and women in Hollywood, in the hours leading up to a friend's birthday party.
Director: Steven Soderbergh | Stars: Julia Roberts, David Hyde Pierce, David Duchovny, Nicky Katt
Votes: 11,306 | Gross: $2.51M
10. The End of Violence (1997)
R | 122 min | Drama, Thriller
Mike is a successful Hollywood producer of violent movies. Then he himself experiences extreme violence, goes missing, joins some Latino gardeners and reviews his life.
Director: Wim Wenders | Stars: Traci Lind, Rosalind Chao, Bill Pullman, Andie MacDowell
Votes: 5,177 | Gross: $0.28M
11. The State of Things (1982)
121 min | Drama
The crew is running out of money to finish their film.
Director: Wim Wenders | Stars: Allen Garfield, Samuel Fuller, Isabelle Weingarten, Rebecca Pauly
Votes: 3,603 | Gross: $6.00M
12. Day for Night (1973)
PG | 116 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A committed film director struggles to complete his movie while coping with a myriad of crises, personal and professional, among the cast and crew.
Director: François Truffaut | Stars: Jacqueline Bisset, Jean-Pierre Léaud, François Truffaut, Valentina Cortese
Votes: 24,770 | Gross: $0.02M
13. Swimming with Sharks (1994)
R | 93 min | Comedy, Crime
A young, naive Hollywood studio assistant finally turns the tables on his incredibly abusive producer boss.
Director: George Huang | Stars: Kevin Spacey, Frank Whaley, Michelle Forbes, Benicio Del Toro
Votes: 25,012 | Gross: $0.38M
14. Tristram Shandy (2005)
R | 94 min | Comedy
Director Michael Winterbottom (Northam) attempts to shoot the adaptation of Laurence Sterne's essentially unfilmable novel, "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman."
Director: Michael Winterbottom | Stars: Steve Coogan, Jeremy Northam, Rob Brydon, Keeley Hawes
Votes: 13,176 | Gross: $1.25M
15. Tropic Thunder (2008)
R | 107 min | Action, Comedy, War
Through a series of freak occurrences, a group of actors shooting a big-budget war movie are forced to become the soldiers they are portraying.
Director: Ben Stiller | Stars: Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr., Jeff Kahn
Votes: 447,763 | Gross: $110.52M
16. The Aviator (2004)
PG-13 | 170 min | Biography, Drama
A biopic depicting the early years of legendary director and aviator Howard Hughes' career from the late 1920s to the mid 1940s.
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, Kate Beckinsale, John C. Reilly
Votes: 383,915 | Gross: $102.61M
17. What Just Happened (2008)
R | 104 min | Comedy, Drama
Two weeks in the life of a fading Hollywood producer who's having a rough time trying to get his new picture made.
Director: Barry Levinson | Stars: Robert De Niro, John Turturro, Stanley Tucci, Sean Penn
Votes: 28,514 | Gross: $1.09M
18. Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001)
R | 104 min | Comedy
The comic "Bluntman and Chronic" is based on real-life stoners Jay and Silent Bob, so when they get no profit from a big-screen adaptation, they set out to wreck the movie.
Director: Kevin Smith | Stars: Jason Mewes, Kevin Smith, Amy Noble, Harley Quinn Smith
Votes: 161,012 | Gross: $30.09M
19. The Big Picture (1989)
PG-13 | 100 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Film school grad Nick Chapman thought his career was made after his award winning short film, but discovered Hollywood wasn't as easy as it seems.
Director: Christopher Guest | Stars: Kevin Bacon, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Emily Longstreth, J.T. Walsh
Votes: 6,184 | Gross: $0.12M
20. Hollywood Shuffle (1987)
R | 81 min | Comedy
An actor limited to stereotypical roles because of his ethnicity, dreams of making it big as a highly respected performer. As he makes his rounds, the film takes a satiric look at African American actors in Hollywood.
Director: Robert Townsend | Stars: Robert Townsend, Craigus R. Johnson, Helen Martin, Starletta DuPois
Votes: 6,370 | Gross: $5.23M
21. The Disaster Artist (2017)
R | 104 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama
When aspiring actor Greg Sestero meets the weird and mysterious Tommy Wiseau in an acting class, they form a unique friendship and travel to Hollywood to make their dreams come true.
Director: James Franco | Stars: James Franco, Dave Franco, Ari Graynor, Seth Rogen
Votes: 164,179 | Gross: $21.12M
22. Cecil B. Demented (2000)
R | 87 min | Comedy, Crime, Thriller
An insane independent film director and his renegade group of teenage filmmakers kidnap an A-list Hollywood actress and force her to star in their underground film.
Director: John Waters | Stars: Melanie Griffith, Stephen Dorff, Alicia Witt, Adrian Grenier
Votes: 16,639 | Gross: $1.28M
23. Cinema Paradiso (1988)
R | 174 min | Drama, Romance
A filmmaker recalls his childhood when falling in love with the pictures at the cinema of his home village and forms a deep friendship with the cinema's projectionist.
Director: Giuseppe Tornatore | Stars: Philippe Noiret, Enzo Cannavale, Antonella Attili, Isa Danieli
Votes: 282,704 | Gross: $11.99M
24. Jay and Silent Bob Reboot (2019)
R | 105 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
Jay and Silent Bob inadvertently sign away their names and rights to the new Bluntman and Chronic movie. Now they head to Hollywood to stop the film from being made. Along the way Jay discovers that he is a father.
Director: Kevin Smith | Stars: Joey Lauren Adams, Ben Affleck, Fred Armisen, Diedrich Bader
Votes: 28,241 | Gross: $4.59M
25. Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019)
R | 161 min | Comedy, Drama
A faded television actor and his stunt double strive to achieve fame and success in the final years of Hollywood's Golden Age in 1969 Los Angeles.
Director: Quentin Tarantino | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Emile Hirsch
Votes: 846,817 | Gross: $142.50M
26. Zeroville (2019)
R | 96 min | Comedy, Drama, Mystery
A young ex-communicated seminarian, Ike "Vikar" Jerome, arrives in Los Angeles on the same August day in 1969 that a crazed hippie ''family'' led by Charles Manson commits five savage murders.
Director: James Franco | Stars: James Franco, Megan Fox, Seth Rogen, Joey King
Votes: 3,556
27. The Comeback Trail (2020)
R | 104 min | Comedy, Crime
A film producer who owes money to a mobster tries to "accidentally" kill his aging movie star for an insurance scam so he can payoff his debt, but he begins to realize that the movie they're shooting is a masterpiece in the making.
Director: George Gallo | Stars: Robert De Niro, Tommy Lee Jones, Morgan Freeman, Zach Braff
Votes: 11,166
28. Mank (2020)
R | 131 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama
1930s Hollywood is re-evaluated through the eyes of scathing social critic and alcoholic screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz as he races to finish the screenplay of Citizen Kane (1941).
Director: David Fincher | Stars: Gary Oldman, Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, Tom Pelphrey
Votes: 82,686
29. Day for Night (1973)
PG | 116 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A committed film director struggles to complete his movie while coping with a myriad of crises, personal and professional, among the cast and crew.
Director: François Truffaut | Stars: Jacqueline Bisset, Jean-Pierre Léaud, François Truffaut, Valentina Cortese
Votes: 24,770 | Gross: $0.02M
30. Babylon (I) (2022)
R | 189 min | Comedy, Drama, History
A tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess, it traces the rise and fall of multiple characters during an era of unbridled decadence and depravity in early Hollywood.
Director: Damien Chazelle | Stars: Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Jean Smart, Olivia Wilde
Votes: 167,194
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