Best movies like Billy Elliot

Similar in 78%

Billy Elliot: The Musical Live (2014)

Plot Summary:

A talented young dancer has to learn to fight for his dream despite social and parental disapproval.

Similar in 75%

Kolya (1996)

Plot Summary:

The Czech Republic Director Jan Sverák tells in this Oscar winning film the story of the disillusioned Prague man named Cellisten Louka, who after a fictitious marriage with a Russian emigrant must suddenly take responsibility for her son. However it’s not long before the communication barrier is broken between the two new family members.

Similar in 85%

One Chance (2013)

Plot Summary:

This film follows the remarkable and inspirational true story of Paul Potts, a shy, bullied shop assistant by day and an amateur opera singer by night.

Similar in 90%

High Strung (2016)

Plot Summary:

When a hip hop violinist busking in the New York subway encounters a classical dancer on scholarship at the Manhattan Conservatory of the Arts, sparks fly. With the help of a hip hop dance crew they must find a common ground while preparing for a competition that could change their lives forever.

Similar in 75%

Save the Last Dance (2001)

Plot Summary:

A white midwestern girl moves to Chicago, where her new boyfriend is a black teen from the South Side with a rough, semi-criminal past.

Similar in 81%

Madame Sousatzka (1988)

Plot Summary:

The relationship between a demanding piano teacher and her student, an Indian prodigy.

Similar in 86%

Beyond Silence (1996)

Plot Summary:

Beyond Silence is about a family and a young girl’s coming of age story. This German film looks into the lives of the deaf and at a story about the love for music. A girl who has always had to translate speech into sign language for her deaf parents yet when her love for playing music grows strong she must decide to continue doing something she cannot share with her parents.

Similar in 88%

Fame (1980)

Plot Summary:

A chronicle of the lives of several teenagers who attend a New York high school for students gifted in the performing arts.

Similar in 86%

Nowhere Boy (2009)

Plot Summary:

The drama tells the story of Lennon's teenage years and the start of his journey to becoming a successful musician. The story also examines the impact on his early life and personality of the two dominant females in his childhood.

Similar in 75%

My Life in Pink (1997)

Plot Summary:

Ludovic is a small boy who cross-dresses and generally acts like a girl, talks of marrying his neighbor's son and can not understand why everyone is so surprised about it. His actions lead to problems for him and his family.

Similar in 77%

CODA (2021)

Plot Summary:

As a CODA (Child of Deaf Adults), Ruby is the only hearing person in her deaf family. When the family's fishing business is threatened, Ruby finds herself torn between pursuing her love of music and her fear of abandoning her parents.

Similar in 86%

Sing Street (2016)

Plot Summary:

A boy growing up in Dublin during the 1980s escapes his strained family life by starting a band to impress the mysterious girl he likes.

Similar in 79%

Footloose (1984)

Plot Summary:

When teenager Ren and his family move from big-city Chicago to a small town in the West, he's in for a real case of culture shock.

Similar in 78%

Kinky Boots (2005)

Plot Summary:

Charles Price may have grown up with his father in the family shoe business in Northampton, in central England, but he never thought that he would take his father's place. Yet, the untimely death of his father places him in that position, only to learn that Price & Sons Shoes is failing. While in despair at his failed attempts to save the business, Charles has a chance encounter with the flamboyant drag queen cabaret singer, Lola. Her complaints about the inadequate footwear for her work combined with one of Charles' ex-employees, Lauren, leads to a suggestion to change the product to create a desperate chance to save the business: make men's fetish footwear. Lola is convinced to be their footwear designer and the transition begins. Now this disparate lot must struggle at this unorthodox idea while dealing both the prejudice of the staff, Lola's discomfort in the small town and the selfish manipulation of Charles' greedy fiancée who cannot see the greater good in Charles' dream.

Similar in 87%

Once (2007)

Plot Summary:

A vacuum repairman moonlights as a street musician and hopes for his big break. One day a Czech immigrant, who earns a living selling flowers, approaches him with the news that she is also an aspiring singer-songwriter. The pair decide to collaborate, and the songs that they compose reflect the story of their blossoming love.

Similar in 88%

August Rush (2007)

Plot Summary:

A drama with fairy tale elements, where an orphaned musical prodigy uses his gift as a clue to finding his birth parents.

Similar in 87%

Together (2002)

Plot Summary:

When a violin prodigy Xiaochun and his father head to Beijing seeking fame and fortune, they soon discover a fierce world of cutthroat ambition. But when Xiaochun is "adopted" by a famous music tutor, success finally seems within reach - until a shocking discovery begins to unravel his entire world, and the boy must make the most difficult choice of his life. Can he achieve the fame his father had always hoped for without losing the extraordinary passion that sets him apart?.

Similar in 81%

Vitus (2006)

Plot Summary:

Vitus tells the story of a highly-gifted boy (played by real-life piano prodigy Teo Gheorghiu) whose parents have demanding and ambitious plans for him.

Similar in 86%

Liam (2000)

Plot Summary:

A morality tale of xenophobia, religious prejudice, mob violence, poverty, and their effect on two children in Liverpool during the Depression. When a shipyard closes, Liam and Teresa's dad loses his job. Liam, who's about 8, making his first Holy Communion, gets a regular dose of fire and brimstone at church. Teresa, about 13, has a job as a maid to the Jewish family that owns the closed shipyard. The lady of that house is having an affair, and Teresa becomes an accomplice. Liam stutters terribly, especially when troubled. Dad comes under the sway of the Fascists, who blame cheap Irish labor and Jewish owners. A Molotov cocktail brings things to a head.

Similar in 77%

Music of the Heart (1999)

Plot Summary:

Story of a schoolteacher's struggle to teach violin to inner-city Harlem kids.

Similar in 90%

Mr. Holland's Opus (1995)

Plot Summary:

In 1965, passionate musician Glenn Holland takes a day job as a high school music teacher, convinced it's just a small obstacle on the road to his true calling: writing a historic opus. As the decades roll by with the composition unwritten but generations of students inspired through his teaching, Holland must redefine his life's purpose.

Similar in 76%

Tomboy (2011)

Plot Summary:

A French family with two daughters, 10-year-old Laure and 6-year-old Jeanne, moves to a new neighborhood during the summer holidays. With her tomboy ways, Laure is immediately mistaken for a boy by the local kids and passes herself off as Mickaël.

Similar in 81%

Boyhood (2014)

Plot Summary:

The film tells a story of a divorced couple trying to raise their young son. The story follows the boy for twelve years, from first grade at age 6 through 12th grade at age 17-18, and examines his relationship with his parents as he grows.

Similar in 80%

Center Stage (2000)

Plot Summary:

A group of 12 teenagers from various backgrounds enroll at the American Ballet Academy in New York to make it as ballet dancers and each one deals with the problems and stress of training and getting ahead in the world of dance.

Similar in 89%

StreetDance 3D (2010)

Plot Summary:

In order to win the Street Dance Championships, a dance crew is forced to work with ballet dancers from the Royal Dance School in exchange for rehearsal space.

Similar in 84%

8 Mile (2002)

Plot Summary:

The setting is Detroit in 1995. The city is divided by 8 Mile, a road that splits the town in half along racial lines. A young white rapper, Jimmy "B-Rabbit" Smith Jr. summons strength within himself to cross over these arbitrary boundaries to fulfill his dream of success in hip hop. With his pal Future and the three one third in place, all he has to do is not choke.

Similar in 90%

The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)

Plot Summary:

A coming-of-age story based on the best-selling novel by Stephen Chbosky, which follows 15-year-old freshman Charlie, an endearing and naive outsider who is taken under the wings of two seniors. A moving tale of love, loss, fear and hope - and the unforgettable friends that help us through life.

Similar in 81%

October Sky (1999)

Plot Summary:

Based on the true story of Homer Hickam, a coal miner's son who was inspired by the first Sputnik launch to take up rocketry against his father's wishes, and eventually became a NASA scientist.

Similar in 84%

Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

Plot Summary:

Jamal Malik is an impoverished Indian teen who becomes a contestant on the Hindi version of ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?’ but, after he wins, he is suspected of cheating.

Similar in 89%

The Chorus (2004)

Plot Summary:

Set in 1940's France, a new teacher at a school for disruptive boys gives hope and inspiration.