Artist films
Movies inspired by and based on true stories.
View trailers, reviews, and films about art and artists. Discover the facts behind the films, facts vs. fiction, and history vs. Hollywood.
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Most films included are highly rated on Rotten Tomatoes and the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). They have at least a 70% rating from critics and audiences alike, many with 80% or above. Enjoy the best true story films about art and artists!
Scene from Loving Vincent (2017)
"Someone has a great fire in his soul and nobody ever comes to warm themselves at it, and passers-by see nothing but a little smoke at the top of the chimney and then go on their way," wrote Vincent van Gogh in a letter dated June 1880. Let's contemplate the souls of artists in films based on true stories about artists of all kinds. Art encompasses visual arts, literary arts, and performing arts. Explore the best biopics and docudramas about artists, including films inspired by and based on true stories about painters, writers, filmmakers, actors, dancers, and more.
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Visual Arts
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​​​​Performing Arts: Film, Theater & Dance
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​​​​Performing Arts: Music
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For movies based on and inspired by true stories about musicians, check out the separate genre page dedicated to music movies.
True story films about artists and the facts behind them appear here in alphabetical order.
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PG-13 | Biography, Drama, History | The film portrays the life of the tormented painter Vincent van Gogh while he lived in Arles and Auvers-sur-Oise, France, spending his last years painting the natural world around him.
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Trailers and Reviews:
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PG | Biography, Drama, Romance | In 1795, twenty-year-old Jane Austen is an aspiring writer with financially disadvantaged parents who expect her to marry into a wealthy family, but she instead becomes emotionally involved with Tom Lefroy, a charming but penniless law student.
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Trailers and Reviews:
Facts:
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See Jane Elope by Deidre Lynch on Slate
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Becoming Jane: Sorting Fact from Fiction by Marsha Huff on the Jane Austen Society of North America website
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The One-Sided Romance of Jane Austen and Tom Lefroy by Joan Klingel Ray on the Jane Austen Society of North America website
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Jane Austen and Tom Lefroy: Stories Linda Robinson Walker on the Jane Austen Society of North America website
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Becoming Jane on Based on a True Story Podcast
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This Day In History: December 16 - Jane Austen is born - biography on history.com
PG-13 | Biography, Crime, Drama | In the 1950s to 1960s, Walter Keane achieves wild success and fame as an artist of portraits featuring big-eyed children, despite his wife, Margaret, being the real painter who receives no recognition while living with her controlling husband.
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Trailers and Reviews:
Facts:
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Margaret Keane biography on Biography.com and Wikipedia
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Keane Eyes Gallery - Margaret Keane McGuire's art gallery
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Video interview with Walter Keane circa 1964 - interview in which he describes the motivation behind painting the big eyes in "his" paintings
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Margaret Keane quotes with sources on Wikiquote
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"I'd have to lock the door of the paint room. He wouldn't allow anyone in. I was like a prisoner." - Margaret Keane
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"Gradually it dawned on me that I was painting my own inner emotions. Those children were asking: 'Why are we here? What is life all about? Why is there sadness and injustice?' All those deep questions. Those children were sad because they didn't have the answers. They were searching." - Margaret Keane
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Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018)
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R | Biography, Comedy, Crime, Drama | In 1990s New York, author Lee Israel is desperate for money and devises a scheme to profit from bookstores and collectors by forging letters from famous writers.
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PG-13 | Biography, Comedy, Drama | The film dramatizes the life of comic genius Charlie Chaplin, from humble beginnings in England to silent movie fame, his later masterpieces, personal struggles with marriage, and exile from the United States.
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9 Things You May Not Know About Charlie Chaplin by Jesse Greenspan on history.com
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This Day In History: April 16 - Hollywood legend Charlie Chaplin born - biography by history.com editors​
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Based on a True Story Podcast video on YouTube
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PG | Biography, Drama, Kids & Family | Author J.M. Barrie develops a friendship with the widowed Sylvia and her four sons, who inspire him to write Peter Pan, his most famous play.
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J.M. Barrie & Peter Pan Origins: Finding Neverland vs. Reality by Andre Soares on altfg.com
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5 things they changed from history in the movie Finding Neverland by Based on a True Story Podcast on YouTube
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PG | Drama, Family, Romance | This adaptation of the Louisa May Alcott classic book portrays the March sisters in growing pains, financial hardships, family tragedies, and romantic rivalries in mid-19th-century Massachusetts.
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The Real-Life Inspirations of Little Women on the PBS website, featuring side-by-side comparisons between the characters and real individuals. Excerpt: "Although the March family is fictional, the characters—including the four sisters whose stories have captivated generations of girls—are heavily based on Louisa May Alcott’s real-life family. Get acquainted (or re-acquainted) with the Marches and the Alcotts, two families with big hearts and incredible stories."​
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PG | Drama, Family, Romance | Like the 1994 adaptation of the Louisa May Alcott classic book, this film portrays the March sisters in growing pains, financial hardships, family tragedies, and romantic rivalries in mid-19th-century Massachusetts.
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The Real-Life Inspirations of Little Women on the PBS website, featuring side-by-side comparisons between the characters and real individuals. Excerpt: "Although the March family is fictional, the characters—including the four sisters whose stories have captivated generations of girls—are heavily based on Louisa May Alcott’s real-life family. Get acquainted (or re-acquainted) with the Marches and the Alcotts, two families with big hearts and incredible stories."​
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PG-13 | Animation, Biography, Drama, History, Mystery | In a story depicted in oil painted animation, a young man comes to the last hometown of painter Vincent van Gogh to deliver the troubled artist's final letter and ends up investigating his final days there. / Mystery surrounds the death of famed painter Vincent van Gogh in 1890 France.
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Trailers and Reviews:
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'Loving Vincent': The story behind the world's first fully painted film from screendaily.com
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PG | Biography, Drama, Music, Romance | In Maoist China, a boy is taken from his family and trained to become a dancer, but everything he knows is challenged when he is chosen to attend a ballet summer school in Houston, Texas.
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Trailers and Reviews:
Facts:
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A Chinese Dancer's Odyssey Into the Movies by Pia Catton on The Wall Street Journal
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Mao's Last Dancer book by Li Cunxin on Amazon
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Mao's Last Dancer, Young Readers' Edition book by Li Cunxin on Amazon
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Dancing to Freedom: The True Story of Mao's Last Dancer children's picture book (grade levels K-2) on Amazon
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Li Cunxin: Mao's Last Dancer - Li Cunxin's website
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PG | Biography, Drama, Romance | The story of Beatrix Potter, the author of the beloved and best-selling children's book, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, and her struggle for love, happiness, and success in Victorian England.
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Miss Potter fact and fiction by Lolly Robinson on The Horn Book Inc. website
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R | Biography, Drama, History, War | The film tells story of Marcel Marceau, a Jewish aspiring actor before he becomes the world-famous mime, who joins the French Resistance to save the lives of ten thousand orphans during World War II. The film takes place from 1939-1945.
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Trailers and Reviews:
Facts: ​
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Marcel Marceau biography on Biography.com and Wikipedia​
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9 People You May Not Know Were WWII Veterans (Marcel Marceau is # 6) on history.com ​
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The French Resistance's Secret Weapon? The Mime Marcel Marceau on history.com
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Marcel Marceau quotes with sources on Wikiquote
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PG-13 | Drama | Inspired by director Steven Spielberg's childhood and adolescence, this drama depicts Sammy Fabelman falling in love with movies as a boy and learning to make his own, along with coping with the drama of family life and peers.
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The Fabelmans True Story: How Accurate It Is To Spielberg's Childhood article by Taylor Diamond on Screen Rant
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Steven Spielberg: National Humanities Medal 1999 article on National Endowment for the Humanities
PG | Biography, Drama, Romance | In 1930s Texas, young schoolteacher and aspiring author Novalyne Price meets the eccentric Robert E. Howard, author of the pulp stories Conan the Barbarian. They develop a unique friendship with the possibility for romance, but Howard is also obsessed with his work and dedicated to his sick mother.
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One Who Walked Alone: Robert E. Howard: The Final Years by Novalyne Price Ellis - memoir that inspired the film
PG-13 | Biography, Drama | The story of Vincent van Gogh, the painter who struggled in obscurity with mental illness, and his devoted brother Theodore, an art gallery owner who supported Vincent and who struggled with financial challenges.
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Trailers and Reviews:
Facts:
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Vincent van Gogh biography on Biography.com
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How Vincent van Gogh’s Tumultuous Friendship with Paul Gauguin Drove Him to Cut Off His Ear by Dave Roos on Biography.com
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The Final Years of Vincent van Gogh by Barbara Maranzani on Biography.com
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Vincent van Gogh quotes with sources on Wikiquote
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"Find things beautiful as much as you can, most people find too little beautiful." - Vincent van Gogh in a letter to his brother Theo van Gogh, January 1874
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"I've got nature and art and poetry, and if that isn't enough, what is?" - Vincent van Gogh in a letter to his brother, January 1874
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"Someone has a great fire in his soul and nobody ever comes to warm themselves at it, and passers-by see nothing but a little smoke at the top of the chimney and then go on their way." - Vincent van Gogh in his Letter no. 155, June 1880
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"I must continue to follow the path I take now. If I do nothing, if I study nothing, if I cease searching, then, woe is me, I am lost. That is how I look at it — keep going, keep going come what may." - Vincent van Gogh in a letter to his brother from Cuesmes, Belgium, July 1880
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PG-13 | Biography, Drama, History | Maria Altmann, an elderly Jewish refugee, takes on the Austrian government with the aid of her attorney to recover a Klimt painting of her aunt stolen from her home by the Nazis during World War II.
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Art of the Heist: The Lady In Gold documentary free to view in full on attorney Randol Schoenberg's YouTube channel
More to Come!
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Other films about real-life visual artists:
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Maudie (2016)
Modigliani (2004)
Pollock (2000)
Are there any more films about artists based on true stories to include here? Any more facts vs. fiction? Reach out and contact me. I am open to respectful questions, comments, positive feedback, and constructive feedback about this website. Thank you, and enjoy the movies!