Top 10 Movies About Fatherhood to Watch This Father's Day

Liputan6.com, Jakarta - Father's Day is coming, and there is no better time to watch a movie that actually means something. The relationship between a father and a child is one of the most powerful stories you can put on screen, and cinema has explored it in so many ways over the decades. It can be funny, heartbreaking, complicated, or deeply moving, and the best movies about fatherhood manage to feel personal no matter who is watching.

If you are looking for the right movie to watch this Father's Day, you are in the right place. Here are ten movies about fatherhood that are well worth your time this weekend.

Where to Watch: Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Fandango At Home, Spectrum On Demand

First on our list is a film that won Anthony Hopkins the Academy Award for Best Actor, and once you watch it, you will understand why. He plays Anthony, an 80-year-old man who refuses help from his daughter as his memory slowly slips away. Director Florian Zeller tells the story entirely from Anthony's point of view, so you feel his confusion and fear right alongside him. Olivia Colman is quietly heartbreaking as his daughter, and the two together make this one of the most powerful movies about fatherhood and aging you will ever see.

Where to Watch: YouTube TV, Criterion Channel, HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video,  Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Fandango At Home, Kanopy

Directed by Vittorio De Sica, this Italian classic is widely considered one of the greatest films ever made. Antonio is a poor man in post-war Rome who finally gets a job, only to have his bicycle stolen on his very first day. He spends the rest of the film searching the city with his young son, Bruno, walking beside him. There are no action scenes or big dramatic speeches, yet the quiet desperation between this father and son feels completely real. If you have never seen a neorealist film before, this is the one to start with.

Where to Watch: Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Fandango At Home, FlixFling, Spectrum On Demand

Starring Will Smith and his real-life son Jaden Smith, this film follows Chris Gardner, a struggling salesman who becomes homeless while trying to care for his young son, Christopher. Chris refuses to give up. He chases an unpaid internship at a stockbroker firm during the day and finds somewhere safe for his son to sleep at night. The chemistry between Will and Jaden makes every scene feel real and personal. This is one of those movies about fatherhood that reminds you love is not always about money or comfort. Sometimes it is just about showing up every single day.

Where to Watch: Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Fandango At Home

Tim Burton directed this one, which already tells you the visuals are going to be something special. Will Bloom (Billy Crudup) has never fully believed the wild, larger-than-life stories his father Edward (Albert Finney) has told him his whole life. But when Edward becomes seriously ill, Will travels home and begins to piece together what is real and what is legend. Ewan McGregor plays the younger Edward in beautiful flashback sequences. This film asks a simple but moving question: does it matter if the stories are true, if they are told with love?

Where to Watch: Disney+, Hulu, Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Fandango At Home

Do not let the fact that this is an animated film fool you. Finding Nemo is one of the most emotionally powerful movies about fatherhood on this list. Marlin is a clownfish who loses his son Nemo to a diver and travels the entire ocean to get him back. He is afraid of almost everything, yet he keeps going because he loves his son more than he fears the world. Directed by Andrew Stanton, the film also stars the voice of Albert Brooks as Marlin and Ellen DeGeneres as Dory. It is funny, sweet, and by the end, genuinely moving for parents and children alike.

Where to Watch: Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Fandango At Home

In this film, a big-city lawyer named Hank Palmer returns to his small hometown when his mother dies, expecting to stay just a few days. Instead, he finds out that his estranged father, the town's beloved judge, is under investigation for murder. The film stars Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall, and the tension between them is the real heart of the story. Duvall earned an Oscar nomination for his role, and the scenes where these two proud men finally start to break down their walls are genuinely electric. It is a film about two people who love each other but have spent years not knowing how to show it.

Where to Watch: Amazon Prime Video

Based on the real memoirs written by both a father and his son, this film follows David Sheff, a journalist whose teenage son Nic becomes deeply addicted to methamphetamine. Directed by Felix van Groeningen, the story moves back and forth in time as David tries everything he can think of to save Nic, only to watch him relapse again and again. The performances from Steve Carell and Timothée Chalamet are outstanding, and that honesty between them makes every painful scene hard to look away from. This is one of the most raw and real movies about fatherhood on this list.

Where to Watch: Netflix, Disney Plus, Hulu, YouTube TV, tru TV, Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Fandango At Home

If you want something warm and funny for Father's Day, look no further. This classic comedy follows George Banks, a loving but slightly overdramatic father who finds out his daughter Annie is getting married and does not quite know how to handle it. Directed by Charles Shyer, the film stars Steve Martin in one of his most charming roles, with Diane Keaton as his wife and a brilliantly funny Martin Short as the wedding planner. It is a lighthearted look at the bittersweet moment when a father has to let his little girl grow up.

Where to Watch: fuboTV, Paramount+, YouTube TV, Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Fandango At Home

Directed by Pierre Morel and written by Luc Besson, this action thriller follows Bryan Mills, a retired CIA agent who has barely reconnected with his teenage daughter when she is kidnapped by traffickers during a trip to Paris. What follows is one of the most famous rescue missions in modern action cinema, driven almost entirely by a father's refusal to give up. Starring Liam Neeson in the role that completely changed how Hollywood saw him, Taken is not a quiet drama, but the love behind every scene is impossible to miss.

Where to Watch: Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Fandango At Home

This may not be what most people picture when they think of a Father's Day movie. Directed by Jim Sheridan, the story follows Gerry Conlon, a young man from Belfast wrongly convicted of an IRA bombing, with his innocent father Giuseppe imprisoned alongside him. At first, Gerry has little respect for his dad. But over years behind bars, their bond becomes everything. Daniel Day-Lewis is extraordinary in this role, and Pete Postlethwaite matches him every step of the way. If you prefer something lighter, skip this one. But if you want a story about a father and son finding each other in the worst possible place, this is one of the best ever made.