Best movies like Lily in Winter
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Lily Covington, a Manhattan housekeeper, embarks on a trip to the rural Alabama town of her youth. To Lily's surprise, her employer's nine-year-old son Michael stows away for the ride. Together, Lily and Michael realize just how alike and how different their worlds really are. Michael explores a way of life he never knew existed, while Lily discovers some tender truths about the family she left behind.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 151
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: sentimental, uplifting, touching, feel good, emotional, realistic
Best tv shows and movies like Lily in Winter (1994):
Similar in 79%
Homecoming (1996)
Plot Summary:
When their mother disappears, a group of siblings are forced to fend for themselves, and make their way on their own. They eventually meet their grandmother, a loner who is reluctant to take them in. Based on the novel by Cynthia Voigt.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: sentimental, uplifting, touching, feel good, serious, realistic, crying
Similar in 88%
The Heart of Christmas (2011)
Plot Summary:
Dax Ryan Locke, born to Julie and Austin Locke on June 26, 2007, was diagnosed with AML M7, a rare form of leukemia, when he was 13 months old. The Heart of Christmas is set in Washington, Illinois and at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, one of the world's premier centers for the research and treatment of pediatric cancer and other deadly diseases in children. Told in flashback from the perspective of Megan (Candace Cameron Bure), a successful businesswoman, wife and mother of two, the storyline unfolds when her commitment to faith and family is renewed after reading the blog of Julie Locke, (http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/daxlocke), the online journal that Julie kept after Dax was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) (http://theheartofchristmasmovie.com/story.php).
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: touching, uplifting, emotional, sad, serious, realistic
Similar in 84%
Saint Maybe (1998)
Plot Summary:
A lonely teen troubled by a past family tragedy is suspicious of his sister-in-law, believing she is being unfaithful. His confrontation with his brother sets off a series of tragic events.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 483
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, feel good, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 89%
Manito (2002)
Plot Summary:
Fifteen years ago, their Washington Heights neighborhood was dubbed the crack-cocaine capital of the world, but today it is transforming into one of the most vibrant, Spanish-speaking communities in the United States. While the drug dealers continue to disappear, their violent legacy still casts a shadow over the neighborhood and its residents. Junior, an ex-convict struggling to get his life back on track, is a product of this legacy. His younger brother Manny, the salutatorian of his high school class, embodies the hope of the future. On the night of his graduation party, Manny finds himself faced with an ill-fated decision that could change his life forever.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 594
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 78 min
Plot tags: bleak, emotional, tense, rough, touching, serious, realistic, bilingual
Similar in 87%
The Sweetest Gift (1998)
Plot Summary:
Two neighboring families in Florida, one black and one white, struggle with the problems of race, poverty, prejudice, and absent fathers, as their children become friends over the course of one summer and fall.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 181
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: uplifting, touching, feel good, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 80%
One Christmas (1994)
Plot Summary:
TV film that was to be Katherine Hepburn's last performance. Based on Truman Capote's bittersweet tale of a young boy's adventures with the father he's never known in New Orleans in the 1930s.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 751
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, uplifting, touching, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 90%
Christmas in Canaan (2009)
Plot Summary:
Set in the 1960s, Christmas in Canaan is a drama about a black family and a white family that learn to love each other out of their Christian beliefs.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 629
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: light, atmospheric, sentimental, captivating
Similar in 86%
Perfect Harmony (1991)
Plot Summary:
During the 1950s, a private school in the south undergoes racial tension as it experiences desegregation. Can a love of music help ease the pain?.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 507
Genere: Drama, Family, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: sincere, uplifting, touching, feel good, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 82%
Summer's End (1999)
Plot Summary:
12-year-old boy and his older brother have just lost their dad. At their summer cottage, the younger boy befriends a black doctor who has to deal with local prejudice and racism.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 466
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: independent film, sincere, atmospheric, touching, serious, realistic
Similar in 82%
The Sky Is Gray (1980)
Plot Summary:
Drama - From Ernest J. Gaines, author of "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman," comes a deceptively simple, yet emotionally complex tale of a young boy's discovery of what it's like to be black in Louisiana during the 1940's. James, the boy in question, has a raging toothache that necessitates a trip to the dentist. His mother (played by Emmy-winner Olivia Cole), accompanies James to town on an eye-opening odyssey where the boy gains valuable insights into poverty, racism - and his own sense of pride. With an exciting musical score by Webster Lewis, this multi-award winning film explores a child's discovery that the world is a complicated place... where things are never truly black or white... only shades of gray. - Olivia Cole, James Bond III, Margaret Avery.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 81
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 46 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, uplifting, thought provoking, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 83%
Spencer's Mountain (1963)
Plot Summary:
Clay Spencer is a hard-working man who loves his wife and large family. He is respected by his neighbors and always ready to give them a helping hand. Although not a churchgoer, he even helps a newly arrived local minister regain his flock after he and Clay get into a bit of trouble. If he has one dream in life it's to build his wife Olivia a beautiful house on a piece of land he inherited on Spender's mountain. When his eldest son, Clayboy, graduates at the top of his high school class and has the opportunity to go to college, Clay has only one option left to him.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: emotional, talky, intense, touching, humorous, sentimental, feel good, retro, heartfelt, realistic
Similar in 76%
A Raisin in the Sun (2008)
Plot Summary:
Dreams can make a life worth living, but they can also be dashed by bad decisions. This is the crossroads whare the Younger family find themselves when their father passes away and leaves them with $10,000 in life insurance money. Should they buy a new home for the family? Perhaps a liquor store? While no choice is easy, life on the South Side of Chicago in the 1950s is even harder.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 131 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, emotional, uplifting, touching, serious, family saga, captivating, realistic
Similar in 75%
A Storm in Summer (2000)
Plot Summary:
Set in 1969, Abel Shaddick, a crotchety deli owner, has a grudge against virtually everyone in his upstate New York town of Fairview, particularly against his slacker nephew Stanley who lives behind the shop. Without telling his uncle, Stanley agrees to put up a needy city kid for the summer as part of a charity program run by rich debutante Gloria. Abel immediately vetoes the plan, but it is too late. The kid, young Herman Washington, is already on his way.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 507
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, uplifting, feel good, emotional, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 84%
White Water (2015)
Plot Summary:
White Water is the story of a 7 year-old black kid in segregated 1963 Opelika, Alabama who becomes obsessed with the desire to taste the water from the "white's only" drinking fountain and sets out on a quest to do the unthinkable: drink from it.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 209
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: touching, sentimental, serious, suspenseful, realistic
Similar in 84%
A Painted House (2003)
Plot Summary:
A young boy, his family, and the migrant workers they hire to work their cotton farm struggle against difficult odds to raise and sell the crop. Meanwhile, the boy dreams of living in better conditions. However, with this particularly tough farming season, the boy learns that his challenges guide him in discovering who he really is.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: uplifting, sentimental, touching, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 83%
The Way Home (2010)
Plot Summary:
An inspirational true story about how a rural community rallied around a distraught family to search for their missing two year-old boy and through doing so changed the lives of many of those involved.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 816
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, christian film, uplifting, emotional, serious, realistic
Similar in 82%
Mooz-lum (2010)
Plot Summary:
Thanks to a strict Muslim upbringing that largely shielded him from the outside world, Tariq's first year of college proves transformative. That is, until the 9/11 terrorist attacks invite growing suspicion and distrust from his angry classmates.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: uplifting, sincere, thought provoking, emotional, powerful, serious, captivating, realistic, independent film
Similar in 87%
The Sound of the Spirit (2012)
Plot Summary:
Beautiful and precocious Rivka is a twelve-year-old Jewish girl who believes in Jesus. She and her father attend a Messianic Jewish congregation in their community. But when her father suddenly dies, Rivka's life changes forever. She ends up moving in with her traditional Jewish relatives and attending their synagogue. From her stormy relationship with her uncle, to a meeting with the synagogue’s senior rabbi, to the attention of the cutest boy in the synagogue, Rivka learns life lessons that stir her faith to new levels, touching the hearts of those whose lives she has reluctantly impacted. "The Sound of the Spirit" is the never-before-told story of a young girl caught in the crossfire of strong feelings between two faith communities. It’s told with humor, compassion, and grace.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 158
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 129 min
Plot tags: serious, touching, realistic, emotional, christian film, independent film
Similar in 75%
Mermaid (2000)
Plot Summary:
Four year old Desi learns to accept the death of her father by sending him a letter on a balloon to which she receives a reply. Based on a true story.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 651
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 86%
Charlie & Me (2008)
Plot Summary:
When her beloved grandfather Charlie suddenly falls ill, twelve year-old Casey finds herself making some life or death decisions - and learning to live with the consequences.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 248
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: uplifting, feel good, sentimental, touching, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 86%
When I Find the Ocean (2006)
Plot Summary:
A little girl leaves home with her pet dog and rabbit to escape abuse and find the ocean in the hopes of feeling closer to her father who has passed away.
IMDB Rating: 4.3
IMDB Votes: 259
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, sincere, captivating
Similar in 75%
A Christmas Memory (1997)
Plot Summary:
A boy, Buddy, whose parents have split and whose mother is an actress in New York, has been dumped in the south at the small-town home of some older cousins, all of whom are unmarried.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 796
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: sentimental, atmospheric, uplifting, touching, feel good, realistic, semi serious, southern gothic
Similar in 85%
Booky & the Secret Santa (2007)
Plot Summary:
Booky does everything she can to make an enjoyable Christmas, for her family, during the depression as her father is out of work.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 311
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Canada
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, realistic, sincere, captivating, feel good, serious
Similar in 84%
An American Girl: Chrissa Stands Strong (2009)
Plot Summary:
A fourth grader and her friends deal with bullying from a more popular girl in their class.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: touching, feel good, semi serious, realistic
Similar in 83%
The Christmas Bunny (2010)
Plot Summary:
The Christmas Bunny tells the story of a lonely foster child (Sophie Bolen) who finds a lost, injured rabbit in the woods on Christmas Eve. The rabbit is nursed back to health by The Bunny Lady (Florence Henderson), who runs a rabbit rescue in an old barn behind her Michigan farmhouse.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 854
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: sentimental, uplifting, touching, sincere, captivating, light, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 81%
Mary Christmas (2002)
Plot Summary:
Californian widower Joel Wallace, a successful businessman, is a great catch in a grand mansion, but absorbed by his work. His daughter Felice writes to a TV Christmas special, hoping for a 'new mammy'.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 545
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: touching, feel good, captivating, light, uplifting, humorous, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 75%
Shadrach (1998)
Plot Summary:
In 1935, 99-year-old former slave Shadrach asks to be buried on the soil where he was born to slavery, and that land is owned by the large Dabney family, consisting of Vernon, Trixie and their seven children, and to bury a black man on that land is a violation of strict Virginia law.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, emotional, independent film, sincere, serious, realistic, light, road movie, sexy
Similar in 86%
Sounder (1972)
Plot Summary:
The Morgans, a loving and strong family of Black sharecroppers in Louisiana in 1933, face a serious family crisis when the husband and father, Nathan Lee Morgan, is convicted of a petty crime and sent to a prison camp. After some weeks or months, the wife and mother, Rebecca Morgan, sends the oldest son, who is about 11 years old, to visit his father at the camp. The trip becomes something of an odyssey for the boy. During the journey he stays a little while with a dedicated Black schoolteacher.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: emotional, sentimental, touching, realistic, thought provoking, gothic, social, southern gothic, sincere, uplifting
Similar in 82%
Heart of Dixie (1989)
Plot Summary:
Set at a Southern college during the 1950s, three co-eds (Ally Sheedy, Virginia Madsen and Phoebe Cates) re-assess their values in light of the burgeoning civil rights movement.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 826
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: independent film, sincere, thought provoking, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative, nostalgic
Similar in 76%
Akeelah and the Bee (2006)
Plot Summary:
Eleven year-old Akeelah Anderson's life is not easy: her father is dead, her mom ignores her, her brother runs with the local gangbangers. She's smart, but her environment threatens to strangle her aspirations. Responding to a threat by her school's principal, Akeelah participates in a spelling bee to avoid detention for her many absences. Much to her surprise and embarrassment, she wins. Her principal asks her to seek coaching from an English professor named Dr. Larabee for the more prestigious regional bee. As the possibility of making it all the way to the Scripps National Spelling Bee looms, Akeelah could provide her community with someone to rally around and be proud of -- but only if she can overcome her insecurities and her distracting home life. She also must get past Dr. Larabee's demons, and a field of more experienced and privileged fellow spellers.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 21000
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: touching, uplifting, emotional, sentimental, realistic, sweet, serious, inspirational, feel good, sincere