Drama on Netflix: the best movies
24 drama films available on Netflix today, ranked by audience rating, most recommended first. Updated September 25, 2026
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge leads with 8,5 out of 10, ahead of Grave of the Fireflies (8,5). Ratings range from 8 to 8,5. The oldest, Scarface, goes back to 1983. The selection leans toward films from the 2010s, 10 of 24. 8 films came out since 2021.
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Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge
Raj is a rich, carefree, happy-go-lucky second generation NRI. Simran is the daughter of Chaudhary Baldev Singh, who in spite of being an NRI is very strict about adherence to Indian values. Simran has left for India to be married to her childhood fiancé. Raj leaves for India with a mission at his hands, to claim his lady love under the noses of her whole family. Thus begins a saga.
Grave of the Fireflies
In the final months of World War II, 14-year-old Seita and his sister Setsuko are orphaned when their mother is killed during an air raid in Kobe, Japan. After a falling out with their aunt, they move into an abandoned bomb shelter. With no surviving relatives and their emergency rations depleted, Seita and Setsuko struggle to survive.
David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet
The story of life on our planet by the man who has seen more of the natural world than any other. In more than 90 years, Attenborough has visited every continent on the globe, exploring the wild places of our planet and documenting the living world in all its variety and wonder. Addressing the biggest challenges facing life on our planet, the film offers a powerful message of hope for future generations.
Remarkably Bright Creatures
Through unlikely bonds formed during night shifts at a local aquarium, Tova, an elderly widow, learns of a life-changing discovery that may bring her joy and wonder once again.
Voicemails for Isabelle
A young woman's hilariously confessional voicemails to her late sister are unknowingly redirected to a stranger, who begins to fall in love from afar.
Violet Evergarden: The Movie
As the world moves on from the war and technological advances bring changes to her life, Violet still hopes to see her lost commanding officer again.
Out of the Clear Blue Sky
Returning to Earth as an imitator, the legendary Mexican artist Pedro Infante must prove that he is no longer a womanizer to enter paradise.
Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion
SEELE orders an all-out attack on NERV, aiming to destroy the Evas before Gendo can advance his own plans for the Human Instrumentality Project. Shinji is pushed to the limits of his sanity as he is forced to decide the fate of humanity.
I Swear
Diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome at 15, John Davidson navigates his way against the odds through troubled teenage years and into adulthood, finding inspiration in the kindness of others to discover his true purpose in life.
Green Book
Tony Lip, a bouncer in 1962, is hired to drive pianist Don Shirley on a tour through the Deep South in the days when African Americans, forced to find alternate accommodations and services due to segregation laws below the Mason-Dixon Line, relied on a guide called The Negro Motorist Green Book.
20th Century Girl
In 1999, a teen girl keeps close tabs on a boy in school on behalf of her deeply smitten best friend – then she gets swept up in a love story of her own.
Silenced
Based on actual events that took place at Gwangju Inhwa School for the hearing-impaired, where young deaf students were the victims of repeated sexual assaults by faculty members over a period of five years in the early 2000s.
Top Gun: Maverick
After more than thirty years of service as one of the Navy’s top aviators, and dodging the advancement in rank that would ground him, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell finds himself training a detachment of TOP GUN graduates for a specialized mission the likes of which no living pilot has ever seen.
Scarface
After getting a green card in exchange for assassinating a Cuban government official, Tony Montana stakes a claim on the drug trade in Miami. Viciously murdering anyone who stands in his way, Tony eventually becomes the biggest drug lord in the state, controlling nearly all the cocaine that comes through Miami. But increased pressure from the police, wars with Colombian drug cartels and his own drug-fueled paranoia serve to fuel the flames of his eventual downfall.
The Art of Racing in the Rain
A family dog – with a near-human soul and a philosopher's mind – evaluates his life through the lessons learned by his human owner, a race-car driver.
How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies
M, a university dropout low on money and luck, volunteers to take care of his terminally ill grandmother, in the hope of pocketing an inheritance.
Violet Evergarden: Eternity and the Auto Memory Doll
Violet Evergarden, a former soldier returned from war, comes to teach at a women's academy and changes a young girl's life.
A Dog's Journey
A dog finds the meaning of his own existence through the lives of the humans he meets.
Purple Hearts
An aspiring musician agrees to a marriage of convenience with a soon-to-deploy Marine, but a tragedy soon turns their fake relationship all too real.
Lion
A five-year-old Indian boy gets lost on the streets of Calcutta, thousands of kilometers from home. He survives many challenges before being adopted by a couple in Australia; 25 years later, he sets out to find his lost family.
On My Skin
The incredible true story behind the most controversial Italian court cases in recent years. Stefano Cucchi was arrested for a minor crime and mysteriously found dead during his detention. In one week's time, a family is changed forever.
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio
During the rise of fascism in Mussolini's Italy, a wooden boy brought magically to life struggles to live up to his father's expectations.
1917
At the height of the First World War, two young British soldiers must cross enemy territory and deliver a message that will stop a deadly attack on hundreds of soldiers.
Loving Vincent
A young man arrives at the last hometown of painter Vincent van Gogh to deliver the troubled artist's final letter and ends up investigating his final days there.
What to know before choosing
Drama is the genre where ratings genuinely mean something. It has no captive audience, no franchise effect, no expectation of spectacle: what rises, rises on the strength of the film alone. It is also the most demanding on the energy you have left — a good drama asks for an hour more than its running time, because you do not get up straight after. Keep it for evenings with nothing scheduled behind.
The Netflix catalog is the most restless of all: it changes most from month to month and most from country to country. A "best films on Netflix" list written six months ago is half wrong today, and one written for the United States is wrong here. This one is rebuilt every day from actual availability in the US, which is the only honest way to keep that promise.
Frequently asked questions
How were these 24 films chosen?
They come from the TMDB catalog, filtered on audience rating and on a minimum number of votes — without that second filter, a film rated 9 out of 10 by eleven people would outrank a classic. No place is for sale: no platform, distributor or studio can enter this list other than by being well rated.
Which film in this list is rated highest?
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), with 8,5 out of 10 from 4,624 audience votes.
Are these films really available on Netflix in the US?
Yes, as of the day the page was built. Availability comes from TMDB and JustWatch for the catalog in the US, and the list is rebuilt daily. Streaming catalogs move constantly: a title can leave between two passes, which is why the page carries its date.
Are there any recent releases in this selection?
8 of the 24 films came out since 2021. The rest are older, which is expected: a film needs a few years to gather enough votes to be judged at all.
Do I need an account?
No. Taro eira is free, asks for no account and no subscription, and the two-or-three-question flow works without installing anything.
See also
- Netflix
- Drama
- Drama on Prime Video
- Drama on Disney+
- Drama on Apple TV+
- Drama on HBO Max
- Drama on Hulu
- Drama on Paramount+
- Drama on Peacock
- Action
- Adventure
- Animation
- Comedy
- Crime
- Documentary
- Family
- Fantasy
- Biopic
- Horror
- Musical
- Romance
- Sci-fi
- Thriller
- War
- Western
How this list is built
Films come from the TMDB catalog, filtered on audience rating and vote count, then cross-checked against real availability in the country. No paid placement, no partnerships. How we choose the films.
Film data and posters: TMDB. This app uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.