Best movies like The Mighty Pawns
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Inner city kids are given new direction when they are convinced to join the school chess team.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 53
Genere: Drama, Family, Sport
Country: USA
Duration: 57 min
Plot tags: learning
Best tv shows and movies like The Mighty Pawns (1987):
Similar in 84%
Long Live the Queen (1995)
Plot Summary:
A fairytale about a young girl who learns to play chess and at the same time finds her father.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Family, Fantasy
Country: Netherlands
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
Small Voices (2002)
Plot Summary:
Melinda is a new substitute teacher at the Malawig Elementary School, located in a poor remote barrio. A young university graduate, her family expects her to look for work abroad, but in her idealism she takes on a challenging job in the provincial public school, which lacks resources and has corrupt personnel. The heavy monsoon rains and the nearby NPAs also add to her difficulties. The children are indifferent to their studies, having been affected by the hopelessness around them. Melinda tries to motivate them by capitalizing on their interest and talent in singing. She takes advantage of a funding opportunity to enter them in a choral contest. She encounters some resistance, however, from the school administration and from the parents of her students. Furthermore, the death of one of the choral group’s members at the hands of the Armed Forces of the Philippines casts a pall on their once joyful preparations. Melinda, however, constantly tries to rise above these challenges.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 132
Genere: Drama
Country: Philippines
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 84%
The New Classmate (2015)
Plot Summary:
Behind the magnificent Taj Mahal lies a cluster of dingy homes where Chanda (35), a domestic help, lives with her 14-year-old daughter Appu. Chanda aspires and dreams that her daughter will study and embrace a better fate. When Appu tells her she wants to quit school and become a maid like her, Chanda takes a strong decision: she will herself go back to school, and even join the class of her daughter.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: India
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: feel good, avant garde
Similar in 89%
Catching Faith (2015)
Plot Summary:
From the outside, Alexa has the perfect life. Her son is the high school football star, daughter a straight A student and her husband is CFO of a booming start-up company. The sudden death.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 518
Genere: Drama, Family, Sport
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: christian film, light, uplifting, feel good, captivating, entertaining, contemplative, disgusting, crying, independent film
Similar in 75%
Chang Can Dunk (2023)
Plot Summary:
Chang, a 16-year-old, Asian American, bets the high school basketball star that he can dunk by Homecoming. The bet leads 5' 8" Chang on a quest to learn to dunk—not only to impress his crush, Kristy, but to gain the respect of his high school peers too. But before he can rise up and truly throw one down, he'll have to reexamine everything he knows about himself, his friendships and his family.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Family, Sport
Country: USA
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 90%
The Dark Horse (2014)
Plot Summary:
One-time Maori speed-chess champ, Genesis Potini, lives with a bi-polar disorder and must overcome prejudice and violence in the battle to save his struggling chess club, his family and ultimately, himself.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: New Zealand
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, captivating, emotional, motivational, depressing, cult classic, crying, independent film, weird
Similar in 87%
Critical Thinking (2020)
Plot Summary:
Based on a true story from 1998, five Latino and Black teenagers from the toughest underserved ghetto in Miami fight their way into the National Chess Championship under the guidance of their unconventional but inspirational teacher.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: motivational, psychological, thought provoking, captivating, contemplative, independent film
Similar in 83%
Alex & Me (2018)
Plot Summary:
An uplifting story of the passion and drive it takes to succeed and the power of family to help realize your dreams.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 627
Genere: Family, Sport
Country: USA
Duration: 76 min
Plot tags: inspirational, light, sincere, captivating
Similar in 79%
Run the Race (2018)
Plot Summary:
Reeling from his mother’s death and his father’s abandonment, Zach, an All-State athlete, finds glory on the football field, working to earn a college scholarship and the brothers’ ticket out of town. When a devastating injury puts Zach—and his dreams—on the sidelines, David laces up his track cleats to salvage their future and point Zach toward hope.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Family, Sport
Country: USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: psychological, christian film, sentimental, captivating, realistic, inspirational, touching, sad
Similar in 87%
The Violation of Sarah McDavid (1981)
Plot Summary:
Sarah McDavid, an idealistic young teacher, takes a job in a rough high school where she is eventually attacked and raped in her classroom after school hours and decides to buck the school system in an attempt to make schools safer for students and teachers alike, against the advice of the school's principal, Dr. Keys, who tries to gloss over the hazardous conditions and the incident itself to avoid bad publicity and decreased enrollment.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 134
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 90%
Underdogs (2013)
Plot Summary:
Set in rural Ohio, the birthplace of football, UNDERDOGS is the story of a small-town high school football team destined to play their cross-town rival, a perennial powerhouse, while standing up for an entire community.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Family, Sport
Country: USA
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: feel good, touching, realistic, captivating, light, serious
Similar in 85%
Hometown Legend (2002)
Plot Summary:
A teenage drifter finds an opportunity to turn his life around when he joins a high-school football program with a hard-nosed coach.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 797
Genere: Drama, Family, Sport
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: touching, feel good, serious, realistic, independent film, sincere
Similar in 76%
The Karate Kid (1984)
Plot Summary:
Hassled by the school bullies, Daniel LaRusso has his share of adolescent woes. Luckily, his apartment building houses a resident martial arts master: Kesuke Miyagi, who agrees to train Daniel ... and ends up teaching him much more than self-defense. Armed with newfound confidence, skill and wisdom, Daniel ultimately faces off against his tormentors in this hugely popular classic underdog tale.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 240000
Genere: Action, Drama, Family, Sport
Country: USA
Duration: 126 min
Plot tags: feel good, inspirational, sentimental, uplifting, touching, captivating, teen, epic, entertaining, saga
Similar in 76%
School of Life (2005)
Plot Summary:
At Fallbrook Middle School, the annual student-elected Teacher of the Year award is held. And every year for the last 43 years Norman Warner or most fondly called Stormin' Norman Warner has won the award. Now that he has died, the burden of carrying the legacy falls into the hands of Matt Warner, the son of the late Norman Warner who has always lived in the shadow of his father.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Family, Sport
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: touching, feel good, humorous, semi serious, sincere, captivating, entertaining, funny, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 76%
The Miracle Season (2018)
Plot Summary:
After the tragic death of star volleyball player Caroline "Line" Found, a team of dispirited high school girls must band together under the guidance of their tough-love coach in hopes of winning the state championship.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, Sport
Country: USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: touching, rough, serious, teen, thought provoking, captivating, sad, crying
Similar in 87%
Pride (2007)
Plot Summary:
In this uplifting film based on a true story, coach Jim Ellis (Terrence Howard) shocks the community and changes lives when, aided by a local janitor (Bernie Mac), he sets out to form Philadelphia's first black swim team. But the odds are against them as they battle rigid rules, racism and more.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama, Sport
Country: Germany, USA
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: inspirational, uplifting, serious, emotional, realistic, sincere, touching, crying, exciting, road movie
Similar in 82%
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 90%
Halls of Anger (1970)
Plot Summary:
An all-black inner city school has to become an integrated school. Few dozen white kids are transfered there, but the black students are aggressively opposed to this. The school then approaches a tough black teacher for help.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 425
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: black and white, independent film, sincere, thought provoking, bleak, serious, realistic, black cinema
Similar in 83%
Life of a King (2013)
Plot Summary:
Life of a King is the true story of one man's mission to give inner city kids of Washington DC something he never had - a future. After being incarcerated for eighteen years, Eugene Brown established the Big Chair Chess Club to get kids off the streets and working towards lives they never believed they were capable of. This is his inspirational story.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: sincere, uplifting, rough, touching, psychological, thought provoking, captivating, spiritual, serious, realistic
Similar in 88%
Up the Down Staircase (1967)
Plot Summary:
Sylvia Barrett is a rookie teacher at New York's inner-city Calvin Coolidge High: her lit classes are overcrowded, a window is broken, there's no chalk, books arrive late. The administration is concerned mainly with forms and rules (there's an up and and a down staircase); bells ring at the wrong time. Nevertheless, she tries. How she handles the chaos and her despair in her first semester makes up the film: a promising student drops out, another sleeps through class, a girl with a crush on a male teacher gets suicidal, and a bright but troublesome student misunderstands Sylvia's reaching out. A discussion of Dickens, parents' night, and a mock trial highlight the term. Can she make it?.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: esoteric, independent film, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, disturbing, gloomy
Similar in 86%
Knights of the South Bronx (2005)
Plot Summary:
A business man decides that he wants to teach school in the inner city and chooses a tough school in the South Bronx. He teaches the children how to play the game of chess, and along the way they learn a lot about life.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: uplifting, touching, serious, realistic, spiritual
Similar in 78%
Lean on Me (1989)
Plot Summary:
When principal Joe Clark takes over decaying Eastside High School, he's faced with students wearing gang colors and graffiti-covered walls. Determined to do anything he must to turn the school around, he expels suspected drug dealers, padlocks doors and demands effort and results from students, staff and parents. Autocratic to a fault, this real-life educator put it all on the lin.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 23000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: inspirational, feel good, hood, realistic, motivational, political, non fiction, sincere, atmospheric, rough
Similar in 81%
Hoosiers (1986)
Plot Summary:
High school basketball is king in small-town Indiana, and the 1954 Hickory Huskers are all hope and no talent. But their new coach -- abrasive, unlikable Norman Dale -- whips the team into shape ... while also inciting controversy.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 50000
Genere: Drama, Sport
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: inspirational, emotional, realistic, exciting, sincere, captivating, entertaining, independent film, scary, motivational
Similar in 87%
The Rookie (2002)
Plot Summary:
Jim Morris never made it out of the minor leagues before a shoulder injury ended his pitching career twelve years ago. Now a married-with-children high-school chemistry teacher and baseball coach in Texas, Jim's team makes a deal with him: if they win the district championship, Jim will try out with a major-league organization. The bet proves incentive enough for the team, and they go from worst to first, making it to state for the first time in the history of the school. Jim, forced to live up to his end of the deal, is nearly laughed off the try-out field--until he gets onto the mound, where he confounds the scouts (and himself) by clocking successive 98 mph fastballs, good enough for a minor-league contract with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Jim's still got a lot of pitches to throw before he makes it to The Show, but with his big-league dreams revived, there's no telling where he could go.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 37000
Genere: Drama, Family, Sport
Country: USA
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: feel good, inspirational, sentimental, touching, uplifting, entertaining, light, sweet, realistic, sincere
Similar in 88%
McFarland, USA (2015)
Plot Summary:
A track coach in a small California town transforms a team of athletes into championship contenders.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 41000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Sport
Country: USA
Duration: 129 min
Plot tags: inspirational, touching, uplifting, feel good, exciting, sentimental, serious, light, emotional, sweet
Similar in 75%
Chak De! India (2007)
Plot Summary:
A team of rag-tag girls with their own agenda form Team India competing for international fame in field hockey. Their coach, the ex-men's Indian National team captain, returns from a life of shame after being unjustly accused of match fixing in his last match. Can he give the girls the motivation required to win, while dealing with the shadows of his own past?.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 84000
Genere: Drama, Family, Sport
Country: India, USA, UK, Australia
Duration: 153 min
Plot tags: feel good, realistic, inspirational, patriotic, exciting, sentimental, touching, uplifting, entertaining, motivational
Similar in 77%
Children of Heaven (1997)
Plot Summary:
Zohre's shoes are gone; her older brother Ali lost them. They are poor, there are no shoes for Zohre until they come up with an idea: they will share one pair of shoes, Ali's. School awaits.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 79000
Genere: Drama, Family, Sport
Country: Iran
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, emotional, sincere, sentimental, compassionate, sad, inspirational, feel good, dramatic
Similar in 75%
Wonder (2017)
Plot Summary:
The story of August Pullman – a boy with facial differences – who enters fifth grade, attending a mainstream elementary school for the first time.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 175000
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA, Hong Kong, Canada
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: inspirational, uplifting, touching, sincere, thought provoking, motivational, sad, feel good, tear jerker, cute
Similar in 89%
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
Similar in 89%
Conrack (1974)
Plot Summary:
A young, white teacher is assigned to an isolated island off the coast of South Carolina populated mostly by poor black families. He finds that the basically illiterate, neglected children there know so little of the world outside their island.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: deep, sincere, uplifting, thought provoking, touching, feel good, serious, realistic