Movies Like 12 Years a Slave

If you liked 12 Years a Slave (2013), a drama and history movie directed by Steve McQueen, 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
The Birth of a Nation (2016)
★ 6.6/10Also drama
Nat Turner, a former slave in America, leads a liberation movement in 1831 to free African-Americans in Virginia that results in a violent retaliation from whites.
2
Emancipation (2022)
★ 7.7/10Also drama and history
Inspired by the gripping true story of a man who would do anything for his family—and for freedom. When Peter, an enslaved man, risks his life to escape and return to his family, he embarks on a perilous journey of…
3
Free State of Jones (2016)
★ 6.8/10Also drama and history
In 1863, Mississippi farmer Newt Knight serves as a medic for the Confederate Army. Opposed to slavery, Knight would rather help the wounded than fight the Union. After his nephew dies in battle, Newt returns home to…
4
Glory (1989)
★ 7.5/10Also drama and history
Robert Gould Shaw leads the US Civil War's first all-black volunteer company, fighting prejudices of both his own Union army and the Confederates.
5
The Beguiled (1971)
★ 7/10Also history and drama
Offbeat Civil War drama in which a wounded Yankee soldier, after finding refuge in an isolated girls' school in the South towards the end of the war, becomes the object of the young women's sexual fantasies. The…
6
The Great Debaters (2007)
★ 7.3/10Also drama
The true story of a brilliant but politically radical debate team coach who uses the power of words to transform a group of underdog African-American college students into a historical powerhouse that took on the…
7
The Last of the Mohicans (1992)
★ 7.4/10Also history and drama
In war-torn colonial America, in the midst of a bloody battle between British, the French and Native American allies, the aristocratic daughter of a British Colonel and her party are captured by a group of Huron…
8
Nickel Boys (2024)
★ 6.6/10Also drama and history
Chronicles the powerful friendship between two young Black teenagers navigating the harrowing trials of reform school together in Florida.
9
Pretty Baby (1978)
★ 7/10Also drama
In 1917 New Orleans, a 12-year-old girl is raised in a brothel by her prostitute mother.
10
Django Unchained (2012)
★ 8.2/10Also drama
With the help of a German bounty hunter, a freed slave sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner.
11
Son of the South (2021)
★ 6.5/10Also history and drama
In civil rights era Montgomery, Alabama, Klansman's grandson Bob Zellner must choose which side of history to be on during the Movement. Defying his family and white Southern norms, he fought against social injustice…
12
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)
★ 7.7/10Also drama and history
What was supposed to be a peaceful protest turned into a violent clash with the police. What followed was one of the most notorious trials in history.
13
Waiting for the Barbarians (2020)
★ 5.9/10Also drama and history
At an isolated frontier outpost, a colonial magistrate suffers a crisis of conscience when an army colonel arrives looking to interrogate the locals about an impending uprising, using cruel tactics that horrify the…
14
Walk on the Wild Side (1962)
★ 6.6/10Also drama
At a 1930s New Orleans bordello, Hallie is the main attraction for both clients and the shrewd madam. The arrival of Dove Linkhorn, her lovesick sweetheart from three years ago, disrupts the normal and triggers a chain…
15
Truth & Treason (2025)
★ 8.1/10Also history and drama
In 1941 Nazi Germany, 16-year-old Helmuth Hübener begins questioning the regime after learning the truth about the war and seeing his Jewish friend persecuted. With two friends, he secretly listens to banned foreign…
16
By Any Means (2026)
★ 6.6/10Also history and drama
In 1960s Mississippi, a young Black FBI agent is forced to partner with a notorious mafia hitman to investigate a wave of brutal civil rights murders.
17
A Time to Kill (1996)
★ 7.4/10Also drama
A young lawyer defends a black man accused of murdering two white men who raped his 10-year-old daughter, sparking a rebirth of the KKK.
18
The Stanford Prison Experiment (2015)
★ 6.8/10Also drama and history
In 1971, Stanford's Professor Philip Zimbardo conducts a controversial psychology experiment in which college students pretend to be either prisoners or guards, but the proceedings soon get out of hand. Based on a true…
19
Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
★ 7.4/10Also history and drama
When oil is discovered in 1920s Oklahoma under Osage Nation land, the Osage people are murdered one by one—until the FBI steps in to unravel the mystery.
20
Lawless (2012)
★ 7.1/10Also drama
In 1931, the Bondurant brothers of Franklin County, Virginia, run a multipurpose backwoods establishment that hides their true business — bootlegging. Middle brother Forrest is the brain of the operation; older Howard…