Movies Like When The Birds Return

If you liked When The Birds Return (2026), a drama and mystery movie directed by Cecili Matureli, here are 20 movies with a similar feel, based on TMDB's recommendations. Each one links to its cast, trailer and where it's streaming.

1
Petite Maman (2021)
★ 7.1/10Also drama and fantasy
After the death of her beloved grandmother, eight-year-old Nelly meets a strangely familiar girl her own age in the woods. Instantly forming a connection with this mysterious new friend, Nelly embarks on a fantastical…
2
Northfork (2003)
★ 6/10Also fantasy and drama
The year is 1955, and a great flood is coming to Northfork, Montana. A new hydroelectric dam is about to be installed in the mountains above the town, ready to submerge the valley in the name of progress. It is the…
3
Site Unseen: An Emma Fielding Mystery (2017)
★ 6.8/10Also mystery and drama
Brilliant, dedicated, and driven, archaeologist Emma Fielding is trying to unearth evidence of a 17th century coastal Maine settlement that predates Jamestown, one of the most significant archaeological finds in years…
4
Maigret and the Dead Lover (2026)
★ 6.1/10Also mystery and drama
Commissioner Maigret rushes to the Quai d’Orsay with Lieutenant Janvier. There, they find Mademoiselle Larrieu in a state of shock. That very morning, she discovered the bullet-riddled body of Mr. Berthier-Lagès, a…
5
A Bundle of Trouble: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery (2017)
★ 6.9/10Also mystery and drama
Aurora Teagarden and her boyfriend Martin are thrilled when they get an unexpected visit from his niece and her new baby. Their excitement is short lived when his niece disappears and the baby is left behind. Once…
6
The Julius House: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery (2016)
★ 6.9/10Also mystery and drama
Aurora Teagarden is a beautiful young librarian with a passion for solving murders. After an exhaustive search for the perfect home, Aurora finally purchases her dream house, unaware of its murky history. As she…
7
The Deep End of the Ocean (1999)
★ 6.6/10Also drama and mystery
A three-year-old boy disappears during his mother's high school reunion. Nine years later, by chance, he turns up in the town in which the family has just relocated.
8
Nancy (2018)
★ 5.8/10Also mystery and drama
Nancy becomes increasingly convinced she was kidnapped as a child. When she meets a couple whose daughter went missing thirty years ago, reasonable doubts give way to willful belief.
9
Maigret Sets a Trap (1958)
★ 7/10Also drama and mystery
Four women are murdered, each knifed and, despite torn garments, remain virtuous. As famed police inspector Jules Maigret pieces the clues together, he comes to realise that for the elusive man that he suspects to be…
10
How Sarah Got Her Wings (2015)
★ 5.9/10Also drama and fantasy
Good Samaritan Sarah Fitzpatrick has a fatal accident just before Christmas, and finds herself in the lobby before the gates of Heaven. Certain that she will be let in, she is shocked to find that her name is not on…
11
Garage Sale Mystery: A Case Of Murder (2017)
★ 6.9/10Also mystery and drama
Jenn buys an old reel-to-reel recorder at a garage sale only to find that it includes the sound of a man pleading for his life. When the former owner of the recorder, a retired therapist, is found murdered in a…
12
Brand Upon the Brain! (2007)
★ 6.6/10Also drama and mystery
After returning home to his long-estranged mother upon a request from her deathbed, a man raised by his parents in an orphanage has to confront the childhood memories that have long haunted him.
13
Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears (2020)
★ 6.1/10Also drama and mystery
After freeing a young Bedouin girl from her unjust imprisonment in Jerusalem, an Australian adventuress, together with her devoted police detective friend, begins to unravel a decade-old mystery concerning priceless…
14
Reap What You Sew: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery (2018)
★ 6.9/10Also mystery and drama
Internet sensation and old family friend of Aurora Teagarden, Poppy Wilson, has returned to Lawrenceton to start her new embroidery business. But not everyone is happy with Poppy's success when she turns up dead. To…
15
A Beautiful Place to Die: A Martha's Vineyard Mystery (2020)
★ 7.7/10Also mystery and drama
After being forced into early retirement, former detective Jeff Jackson returns to a quiet life on Martha's Vineyard. Quiet, at least, until a body washes up and he's drawn back into crime solving.
16
Dead Over Heels: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery (2017)
★ 7/10Also mystery and drama
Librarian and real crime buff Aurora “Roe” Teagarden never liked Detective Sergeant Jack Burns, but she also never wanted to see him dead. When his body is found outside of Aurora’s home, she then becomes the main…
17
The Red House (1947)
★ 6.3/10Also mystery and drama
An old man and his sister are concealing a terrible secret from their adopted teen daughter, concerning a hidden abandoned farmhouse, located deep in the woods.
18
Last Scene Alive: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery (2018)
★ 7.2/10Also mystery and drama
There is excitement in the air when a Hollywood crew comes to Lawrenceton to film a movie about the town’s sleuthy librarian, Aurora Teagarden. However, when the film’s leading lady is found murdered in her dressing…
19
Boys' School (1938)
★ 7.4/10Also drama and mystery
In a college, three friends form a secret society. Their objective - going to America. One night, after one of their secret meetings, one of them sees a man coming out from a wall. The next day, after he talks about…
20
Aurora Teagarden Mysteries: Haunted By Murder (2022)
★ 7/10Also mystery and drama
A murder investigation is reignited in a house that is considered haunted by the Lawrenceton locals and where years ago Aurora and Sally, as teenagers, discovered a body.