Discover the best of Italian cinema, film, and television
Discover the definitive list of popular and critically-acclaimed movies and TV shows from Italy. Find your next binge-watch, streaming on Netflix, HBO, Hulu, Prime Video, and other top services!
The cinema of Italy
Italian cinema is one of the grand pillars of the art form, a world of dazzling style, profound emotion, and pure cinematic passion. Its modern story exploded after the war with Neorealism, a movement that showed the world the raw poetry of real life in films like Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves. From this foundation, the great masters emerged. Federico Fellini captured the glamorous, chaotic soul of Rome in classics like La Dolce Vita, while other titans defined what it meant to be an art-house director. But Italy also had a brilliantly populist heart. It famously took the American western, flipped it on its head, and created the 'Spaghetti Western'. The stylish, mythic visions of director Sergio Leone and the iconic music of Ennio Morricone didn't just make movies; they created legends. That legacy of style and substance continues today. Paolo Sorrentino won an Oscar for the magnificent The Great Beauty and then conquered television with his audacious series The Young Pope. At the same time, gritty, realistic crime dramas like the global sensation Gomorrah have shown a tougher side to modern Italian storytelling, becoming unmissable viewing. What makes Italian cinema so beloved is this very range. It’s a place where profound humanism, high fashion, and epic gunslingers all share the same screen. It is, quite simply, cinema that feels intensely alive.
Best Italian series
The Young Pope 2016
Lenny Belardo, the youngest and first American Pope in the history of the Church, must establish his new papacy and navigate the power struggles of the closed, secretive Vatican.
79
Gomorra 2014
Based on Robert Saviano's bestselling book, this gritty Italian crime drama paints a portrait of the brutal Neapolitan crime organisation the Camorra, as seen through the eyes of Ciro Di Marzo, the obedient and self- confident right-hand man of the clan's godfather, Pietro Savastano.
84
Tear Along the Dotted Line 2021
A cartoonist in Rome with his armadillo-for-a-conscience reflects on his path in life and a would-be love as he and his friends travel outside the city.
84
ZeroZeroZero 2020
Based on the book of the same name by bestselling author Roberto Saviano, ZeroZeroZero is an unforgettable exploration of the inner workings of the global cocaine trade.
77
Baby 2018
Fed up with their families and classmates, two teen girls from a wealthy part of Rome are drawn to the city's underworld and start leading double lives.
68
Medici 2016
The story of the Medici family of Florence, their ascent from simple merchants to power brokers sparking an economic and cultural revolution. Along the way, they also accrue a long list of powerful enemies.
75
Best Italian movies
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly 1966
While the Civil War rages on between the Union and the Confederacy, three men – a quiet loner, a ruthless hitman, and a Mexican bandit – comb the American Southwest in search of a strongbox containing $200,000 in stolen gold.
85
Life Is Beautiful 1997
A touching story of an Italian book seller of Jewish ancestry who lives in his own little fairy tale. His creative and happy life would come to an abrupt halt when his entire family is deported to a concentration camp during World War II. While locked up he tries to convince his son that the whole thing is just a game.
86
Once Upon a Time in America 1984
A former Prohibition-era Jewish gangster returns to the Lower East Side of Manhattan over thirty years later, where he once again must confront the ghosts and regrets of his old life.
81
A Fistful of Dollars 1964
The Man With No Name enters the Mexican village of San Miguel in the midst of a power struggle among the three Rojo brothers and sheriff John Baxter. When a regiment of Mexican soldiers bearing gold intended to pay for new weapons is waylaid by the Rojo brothers, the stranger inserts himself into the middle of the long-simmering battle, selling false information to both sides for his own benefit.
78
Once Upon a Time in the West 1968
As the railroad builders advance unstoppably through the Arizona desert on their way to the sea, Jill arrives in the small town of Flagstone with the intention of starting a new life.
82
For a Few Dollars More 1965
Two bounty hunters both pursue the brutal and sadistic bandit, El Indio, who has a large bounty on his head.
80