74 articles
Philomena (film)
Philomena (2013) is a British drama directed by Stephen Frears, starring Judi Dench and Steve Coogan, adapted from Martin Sixsmith's book The Lost Child of Philomena Lee; it earned four Oscar nominations and won the BAFTA for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Quiz Show (film)
Quiz Show is Robert Redford's 1994 drama about the rigged NBC quiz show Twenty One, starring John Turturro, Ralph Fiennes, and Rob Morrow; it earned four Oscar nominations and the 1994 New York Film Critics Circle Best Picture award.
Reality (2023 film)
Reality (2023) is Tina Satter's HBO drama, also called a film adaptation of her play Is This a Room, starring Sydney Sweeney as whistleblower Reality Winner; its dialogue is verbatim from the FBI's June 3, 2017 interrogation transcript.
Reds (film)
Reds is a 1981 American historical drama directed, written by, and starring Warren Beatty, telling of journalist John Reed's love affair with Louise Bryant during the Russian Revolution.
Riding in Cars with Boys
Riding in Cars with Boys is a 2001 Penny Marshall comedy-drama starring Drew Barrymore as writer Beverly Donofrio, adapted from Donofrio's 1990 memoir about teenage pregnancy, single motherhood, and a writing career; released by Columbia Pictures.
Rosewater (film)
Rosewater (2014) is Jon Stewart's directorial debut, a drama adapted from Maziar Bahari's memoir Then They Came for Me about Bahari's 118-day imprisonment and torture in Iran after a Daily Show interview; starring Gael García Bernal and Kim Bodnia.
Scoop (2024 film)
Scoop (2024) is a Netflix biographical drama directed by Philip Martin about the BBC Newsnight team securing Prince Andrew's 2019 Epstein interview, starring Gillian Anderson, Billie Piper, and Rufus Sewell, based on Sam McAlister's book Scoops.
Shahid (film)
Shahid (शाहिद) is Hansal Mehta's 2013 Hindi biographical courtroom drama starring Rajkummar Rao as lawyer Shahid Azmi, assassinated in 2010; it won National Film Awards for Best Direction and Best Actor and reached Prime Video India 13 years after release.
Shattered Glass (film)
Shattered Glass, 2003 drama directed by Billy Ray, dramatizes journalist Stephen Glass's fabrication scandal at The New Republic, starring Hayden Christensen and Peter Sarsgaard, based on Bissinger's 1998 Vanity Fair article.
She Said (film)
She Said (2022) is a drama directed by Maria Schrader, written by Rebecca Lenkiewicz from Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey's book, starring Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan as the New York Times reporters who exposed Harvey Weinstein.
Shock and Awe (film)
Shock and Awe is Rob Reiner's 2017 drama about Knight Ridder journalists Jonathan Landay and Warren Strobel, who questioned the Bush administration's Iraq WMD claims before the 2003 invasion.
Silkwood
Silkwood (1983) is Mike Nichols's biographical drama starring Meryl Streep as Karen Silkwood, the Kerr-McGee plutonium plant whistleblower who died in a mysterious 1974 car crash; with Kurt Russell and Cher, five Oscar nominations.
Snowden (film)
Snowden is a 2016 biographical thriller directed by Oliver Stone, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Edward Snowden, the former CIA and NSA contractor who leaked documents exposing the agency's global mass-surveillance programs.
Srikanth (film)
Srikanth (श्रीकांत) is a 2024 Hindi biographical drama directed by Tushar Hiranandani, starring Rajkummar Rao as visually impaired industrialist Srikanth Bolla of Bollant Industries; released 10 May 2024, streamed on Netflix, earned ₹50.05 crore in India.
Steve Jobs (film)
Steve Jobs (2015) is a Danny Boyle-directed, Aaron Sorkin-written biographical drama starring Michael Fassbender, adapted from Walter Isaacson's authorized biography and structured as three backstage acts at the 1984 Macintosh, 1988 NeXT, and 1998 iMac launches.
The Big Short (film)
The Big Short (2015) is Adam McKay's Paramount comedy-drama adapted from Michael Lewis's book, starring Bale, Carell, Gosling, and Pitt as investors who shorted the housing market before the 2008 crisis; it won the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar.
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: 2019 British drama, Chiwetel Ejiofor's directorial debut, adapting William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer's memoir of a Malawian teen who built a windmill during the 2001–2002 famine; Netflix release, Sundance Sloan Prize winner.
The Case for Christ
The Case for Christ is a 2017 American biographical drama film directed by Jon Gunn, based on Lee Strobel's 1998 book about his investigation of Christianity.
The Conspirator
The Conspirator is Robert Redford's 2010 courtroom drama about Mary Surratt's 1865 military-commission trial for conspiring in Lincoln's assassination, the first film of Joe Ricketts' American Film Company, starring Robin Wright and James McAvoy.
The Courier (2020 film)
The Courier (2020 film), Dominic Cooke's Cold War spy drama starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Greville Wynne and Merab Ninidze as Oleg Penkovsky; premiered at Sundance 2020, released 2021, distinct from the 2019 Zackery Adler action film of the same name.
The Current War
The Current War is a 2017/2019 historical drama film by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, written by Michael Mitnick, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Edison, Michael Shannon as Westinghouse, and Nicholas Hoult as Tesla, dramatizing the war of the currents; shelved after the Weinstein scandal and released in 2019 as the Director's Cut.
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (film)
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Le scaphandre et le papillon), Julian Schnabel's 2007 film starring Mathieu Amalric, adapts Jean-Dominique Bauby's memoir of locked-in syndrome; it won Golden Globes for Best Director and Best Foreign Language Film.
The Glass Castle (2017 film)
The Glass Castle (2017 film), directed by Destin Daniel Cretton from Jeannette Walls's 2005 memoir, stars Brie Larson, Woody Harrelson, and Naomi Watts; Lionsgate released it August 11, 2017, grossing $17.2M with mixed reviews (RT 53%, Metacritic 56).
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (film)
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a 2017 HBO television film directed by George C. Wolfe, adapted from Rebecca Skloot's 2010 book, starring Oprah Winfrey as Deborah Lacks, Rose Byrne as Skloot, and Renée Elise Goldsberry as Henrietta Lacks.
The Informant!
The Informant! (2009) is Steven Soderbergh's black comedy starring Matt Damon as ADM whistleblower Mark Whitacre, adapted from Kurt Eichenwald's book, released September 18, 2009, grossing $41.8 million.
The Insider (film)
The Insider is a 1999 Michael Mann biographical drama, written with Eric Roth from Marie Brenner's Vanity Fair article, starring Al Pacino and Russell Crowe as Lowell Bergman and tobacco whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand in the suppressed 60 Minutes story; it earned seven Oscar nominations.
The Killing Fields (film)
The Killing Fields (1984) is Roland Joffé's British drama, based on Sydney Schanberg's article "The Death and Life of Dith Pran," about journalists during Cambodia's Khmer Rouge takeover; it won three Oscars, including Haing S. Ngor as Best Supporting Actor.
The Mauritanian
The Mauritanian (2021) is Kevin Macdonald's legal drama based on Mohamedou Ould Slahi's memoir Guantánamo Diary, starring Tahar Rahim, Jodie Foster, Shailene Woodley, and Benedict Cumberbatch, about 14 years of detention without charge.
The Most Hated Woman in America
The Most Hated Woman in America is a 2017 Netflix biographical drama directed by Tommy O'Haver, starring Melissa Leo as atheist activist Madalyn Murray O'Hair; it premiered at SXSW and received mixed reviews (RT 40%, Metacritic 41).
The People vs. Larry Flynt
The People vs. Larry Flynt is Miloš Forman's 1996 Columbia Pictures biographical comedy-drama starring Woody Harrelson as Hustler publisher Larry Flynt, with Courtney Love and Edward Norton, culminating in the 1988 Supreme Court case Hustler v. Falwell.