Movies about academia
These are movies that have an element connected to professional academic life, that is, teaching and research in higher education (colleges, universities) or private research institution. The structure, purpose, and dynamics of academia as a professional field is often extremely poorly understand even by the people working in it, let alone by the general public. Most movies focus exclusively on the teaching mission of academia, very few actually deal with the conflicting pressures of teaching, research and service. Many also tend to portray pot-smoking, womanizing, english literature professors in huge wood-paneled offices, as opposed to STEM researchers working in labs, probably reflecting the training of Hollywood screenwriters.
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- DirectorSpike LeeStarsLaurence FishburneGiancarlo EspositoTisha CampbellA not so popular young man wants to pledge to a popular fraternity at his historically black college.
- DirectorJohn SingletonStarsOmar EppsKristy SwansonMichael RapaportPeople from all different walks of life, encounter racial tension, rape, responsibility, and the meaning of an education on a university campus.
- DirectorHal HartleyStarsMartin DonovanMatt MalloyRebecca NelsonJude, a college literature professor, falls for one of his students. She is more interested in the empirical experience of a relationship with a man whose life is ruled by the themes of the Russian literature he extols in class. Jude shows an interesting side of the stigmas associated with transgenerational relationships and how to deal with the inevitable pain of a love doomed to failure.
- DirectorJosef von SternbergStarsEmil JanningsMarlene DietrichKurt GerronAn elderly professor's ordered life spins dangerously out of control when he falls for a nightclub singer.
- DirectorNorman Z. McLeodStarsGroucho MarxChico MarxHarpo MarxQuincy Adams Wagstaff, Huxley University's new president, accidentally hires bumblers Baravelli and Pinky to help his school win the big football game against their rival, Darwin University.
- DirectorMike NicholsStarsEmma ThompsonChristopher LloydEileen AtkinsA renowned professor is forced to reassess her life when she is diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer.
- DirectorCarole RifkindRichard RifkindStarsSharon BillingtonKil CarrollLawrence ShapiroThree irrepressible graduate students are in a race to beat the competition to discover the switch that controls appetite in the human body. The pressure is on, as they each have to deal with their own personal challenges. Rob, a perennial dropout, dares himself to stay the course. Kilpatrick has to choose between the easy life and academic success. Gabriele hovers between high aspirations and self-doubt. Their guide and mentor, Larry, is a young professor deeply committed to passing on the baton of science. He urges his students to apply their creativity to solve problems, while encouraging them to embrace the emotional roller coaster of doing science. Over three years of filming, scenes of intense hands-on research reveal the ups and downs of the mentor-student relationship, the collaboration that science depends on, and the self-knowledge that success requires. Gabriele finally admits that she prefers to work in a team rather than put herself on the line and quits the PhD program. Kilpatrick, having battled Larry to get him through the PhD quickly, takes a job in business. Rob comes close to dropping out, but driven by his passion to make an impact and sustained by Larry's unreserved confidence in him, scores a breakthrough success and discovers himself as a scientist.
- DirectorRobert ZemeckisStarsJodie FosterMatthew McConaugheyTom SkerrittDr. Ellie Arroway, after years of searching, finds conclusive radio proof of extraterrestrial intelligence, sending plans for a mysterious machine.
- CreatorAmanda PeetAnnie Julia WymanStarsSandra OhJay DuplassBob BalabanAt a major university, the first woman of color to become chair tries to meet the dizzying demands and high expectations of a failing English department.This is widely considered to be one of the best portrayal of academia in television. While it does feature the clichés of an English department, in a liberal arts college with lots of wood paneling, the personal and institutional dynamics are spot-on...
- DirectorEthan CoenJoel CoenStarsMichael StuhlbargRichard KindSari LennickLarry Gopnik, a Midwestern physics teacher, watches his life unravel over multiple sudden incidents. Though seeking meaning and answers amidst his turmoils, he seems to keep sinking.
- DirectorRajkumar HiraniStarsAamir KhanMadhavanMona SinghTwo friends are searching for their long lost companion. They revisit their college days and recall the memories of their friend who inspired them to think differently, even as the rest of the world called them "idiots".
- DirectorRajkumar HiraniSham KaushalShantanu MoitraStarsMartha HigaredaAlfonso DosalChristian VazquezA group of friends embark on a fun adventure determined to find a college roommate who disappeared without a trace on graduation day.
- DirectorWhit StillmanStarsCarolyn FarinaEdward ClementsChris EigemanA group of young upper-class Manhattanites are blithely passing through the gala debutante season, when an unusual outsider joins them and stirs them up.
- DirectorAlek KeshishianStarsJoe PesciBrendan FraserMoira KellyConvinced his thesis will have him graduate with honors from Harvard University, a stuffy student finds himself at the mercy of a homeless man's demands when he holds the papers hostage.
- DirectorAndrew DavisStarsKeanu ReevesMorgan FreemanRachel WeiszTwo researchers in a green alternative energy project are put on the run when they are framed for murder and treason.
- DirectorHart BochnerStarsJeremy PivenChris YoungMegan WardA high school senior visits college for the weekend, and stays at the wildest house on campus.Not necessarily inaccurate in its portrayal of fraternity life and a certain approach to college in the US.
- DirectorNicholas StollerStarsJason SegelEmily BluntChris PrattOne year after meeting, Tom proposes to his girlfriend, Violet, but unexpected events keep tripping them up as they look to walk down the aisle together.
- DirectorJemaine ClementTaika WaititiStarsJonny BrughTaika WaititiJemaine ClementThree male vampires who share an apartment are interviewed by a TV crew.
- DirectorAngela RobinsonStarsLuke EvansRebecca HallBella HeathcoteThe story of psychologist William Moulton Marston, and his polyamorous relationship with his wife and their mistress who would inspire his creation of the superheroine, Wonder Woman.
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsHarrison FordKaren AllenPaul FreemanIn 1936, archaeologist and adventurer Indiana Jones is hired by the U.S. government to find the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis can obtain its awesome powers.It's easy to forget that Indiana is also a professor at a posh college ... He does seem to balance teaching, service, and fieldwork very elegantly :)
- DirectorMorten TyldumStarsBenedict CumberbatchKeira KnightleyMatthew GoodeDuring World War II, the English mathematical genius Alan Turing tries to crack the German Enigma code with help from fellow mathematicians while attempting to come to terms with his troubled private life.
- DirectorJoseph SargentStarsCliff McMullenYasiin BeyLuray CooperA dramatization of the relationship between heart surgery pioneers Alfred Blalock and Vivien Thomas.The movie is primarily focused on the personal, cultural, and institutional racism that held back Vivien Thomas every step of his career. It does feature other interesting aspects of academic life: the tinkering and creativity that research entails; the brutal competition and jealousy of peers; and the primacy of apprenticeship over theoretical learning in fields such as medicine.
- DirectorMike NewellStarsJulia RobertsKirsten DunstJulia StilesA free-thinking art professor teaches conservative 1950s Wellesley girls to question their traditional social roles.
- DirectorAlexander PayneStarsPaul GiamattiDa'Vine Joy RandolphDominic SessaA cranky history teacher at a prep school is forced to remain on campus over the holidays with a grieving cook and a troubled student who has no place to go.Anyone who has worked in academia has met someone like the main character --- a brilliant but bitter professor, whose career has not risen to the level of his/her talent and/or effort.
- DirectorDavis GuggenheimStarsCharles AdamsJonathan AlterRobert BalfanzAn examination of the current state of education in America today.
- DirectorNoah BaumbachStarsJosh HamiltonEric StoltzSamuel GouldA bunch of guys hang around their college for months after graduation, continuing a life much like the one before graduation.
- DirectorTodd HollandStarsRichard DreyfussJenna ElfmanNatasha LyonneAn anthropologist creates a fictitious lost New Guinea tribe using his family members to cover-up for his misuse of grant monies.This is of course quite silly as a far as representing academia, but one accurate element was Krippendorf's messy and dreary office --- as opposed to the wood-paneled ones found in some many other academic movies.
- DirectorBarbet SchroederStarsJeremy IronsGlenn CloseRon SilverWealthy Sunny von Bülow lies brain-dead, husband Claus guilty of attempted murder; but he says he's innocent and hires Alan Dershowitz for his appeal.Alan Dershowitz, who represents Klaus von Bulow, is more or less constantly living with his students, who work at his house, eat together, etc.
- DirectorNoam MurroStarsDennis QuaidThomas Haden ChurchSarah Jessica ParkerInto the life of a widowed professor comes a new love and an unexpected visit from his adopted brother.
- DirectorTom HanksStarsTom HanksJulia RobertsSarah MahoneyAfter losing his job, a middle-aged man reinvents himself by going back to college.
- DirectorMartin BrestStarsAl PacinoChris O'DonnellJames RebhornA prep school student needing money agrees to "babysit" a blind man, but the job is not at all what he anticipated.
- StarsDaiki YamashitaJustin BrinerNobuhiko OkamotoA superhero-admiring boy enrolls in a prestigious hero academy and learns what it really means to be a hero, after the strongest superhero grants him his own powers.
- DirectorKathleen CollinsStarsSeret ScottBill GunnDuane JonesSara, a cold college professor, and her husband, an ecstatic painter, spend a summer away from the city, straining their rocky relationship.
- DirectorRobert LuketicStarsJim SturgessKate BosworthKevin SpaceyInspired by real events and people, 21 is about six MIT students who become trained to be experts in card counting in Black Jack and subsequently took Vegas casinos for millions in winnings.
- DirectorJoseph LoseyStarsDirk BogardeStanley BakerJacqueline SassardAt Oxford, Austrian student Anna von Graz (Jacqueline Sassard) is dating fellow student William (Michael York), whom she plans to marry, but she ends up involved with two unhappily married Oxford professors instead.
- DirectorSidney HayersStarsPeter WyngardeJanet BlairMargaret JohnstonA woman who may be a witch defends her husband from forces attempting to harm him.
- DirectorAnnie J. HowellLisa RobinsonStarsBetsy BrandtChris BeetemZev HaworthClaire is sure of herself, her work and family, until - like a bad dream - her husband disappears, leaving a trail of puzzling secrets that shatter her certainty.
- DirectorAnnabel JankelRocky MortonStarsDennis QuaidMeg RyanCharlotte RamplingA college professor's day: his top student allegedly commits suicide, his wife presents him with divorce papers and he overnights in a freshman girl's dorm. The next day: more murders around him. Will he find the killer in time?This is much better than its IMDB rating suggests and it offers the nice and unusual twist of a murder story set in the competitive world of academia. Once again, the main character is an english professor, once again, his assistant professor office is the size of my Dean's, but nevertheless, it is certainly enjoyable to experience academia as actually about murder ...
- DirectorShi-Zheng ChenStarsYe LiuAidan QuinnMeryl StreepBased on actual events, a Chinese university student responds violently when his chances for a Nobel Prize are dashed by school politics.This is one of the most realistic movies about STEM research in academia, the pressures, resentment, and mental health struggles that can result. Based on a true story and there are many others academics on academics shootings that have occurred --- Concordia 1992, Alabama 2010, UCLA 2016, etc.
- DirectorJoseph CedarStarsShlomo Bar-AbaLior AshkenaziAliza RosenEliezer and Uriel Shkolnik are father and son as well as rival professors in Talmudic Studies. When both men learn that Eliezer will be lauded for his work, their complicated relationship reaches a new peak.
- DirectorGus Van SantStarsRobin WilliamsMatt DamonBen AffleckWill Hunting, a janitor at M.I.T., has a gift for mathematics, but needs help from a psychologist to find direction in his life.This is by far the most famous of all movies on this list and unfortunately, it perpetuates some of the worst clichés about academia to be found, about genius and mathematics among other things.
- DirectorGeorge MillerStarsNaomi WattsJimmy SmitsSarah ChadwickA female student falsely accuses a male professor of rape.
- DirectorMargarethe von TrottaStarsBarbara SukowaAxel MilbergJanet McTeerA look at the life of philosopher and political theorist Hannah Arendt, who reported for 'The New Yorker' on the trial of the Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem.
- DirectorSydney SibiliaStarsEdoardo LeoValeria SolarinoValerio ApreaA university researcher is fired because of budget cuts. To earn a living, he decides to produce drugs and recruits his former colleagues, who are living at the margins of society despite their skills.
- DirectorTim Blake NelsonStarsEdward NortonKeri RussellHenry Max NelsonAn Ivy League professor is lured back to his Oklahoma hometown, where his twin brother, a small-time pot grower, has concocted a scheme to take down a local drug lord.
- DirectorJosh RadnorStarsJosh RadnorElizabeth OlsenZac EfronWhen 30-something Jesse returns to his alma mater for a professor's retirement party, he falls for Zibby, a college student, and is faced with a powerful attraction that springs up between them.
- DirectorJohn BoultingStarsJohn WelshRonald CardewHugh GriffithJim Dixon feels anything but lucky. At the university he has to do the bidding of absent-minded and boring Professor Welch to have any hope of keeping his job. Worse, he has managed to get entangled with unexciting but neurotic Margaret Peel, a friend of the Professor's. All in all, the pub is the only friendly place to be. His misery is completed at a dreadful weekend gathering of the Welch clan by the arrival of son Bertrand. Not so much that Betrand is loud-mouthed and boorish - which he is - but that he has as companion Christine Callaghan, the sort of marvellous and unattainable woman Jim can only dream about.
- DirectorRebecca MillerStarsGreta GerwigEthan HawkeJulianne MooreMaggie wants to have a baby, raising him on her own, but when she gets romantically involved with John, a married man, things get complicated and all the balance of Maggie's plans may collapse.
- DirectorHarold BeckerStarsAlec BaldwinNicole KidmanBill PullmanA tale about a happily married couple who would like to have children. Tracy teaches art, Andy's a college dean. Things are never the same after she is taken to hospital and operated upon by Jed, a "know all" doctor.
- DirectorStephen BelberStarsPatrick StewartCarla GuginoMatthew LillardAs a Juilliard professor is interviewed by a woman and her husband for her dissertation on the history of dance in 1960s New York City, it becomes increasingly clear that there are ulterior motives to the couple's visit.
- DirectorLloyd BaconStarsLoretta YoungVan JohnsonRudy ValleeIn order to afford her daughter's college tuition, a woman enrolls herself at the same school aided by a rare large bursary but they both fall in love with the same cute English professor.
- DirectorAndrew SemansStarsWill RogersEleonore HendricksRebecca Lawrence LevyA twisted, diabolical, comedic tale of revenge that will make you think twice about who you choose as your next roommate.
- DirectorRandall MillerStarsAlan RickmanBryan GreenbergShawn HatosyA professor of chemistry wins the Nobel Prize. His wife joins him to Stockholm but his PhD. working son gets kidnapped. The kidnapper demands $2,000,000 = prize sum.
- DirectorChris SmithStarsMatthew ModineRoger RignackJillian PetersonReenactments drive this documentary investigating the mastermind behind a scam to sneak the kids of rich and famous families into top US universities.
- DirectorNeil LaButeStarsGwyneth PaltrowAaron EckhartJeremy NorthamA pair of literary sleuths unearth the amorous secret of two Victorian poets only to find themselves falling under a passionate spell.
- DirectorJohn MaddenStarsGwyneth PaltrowAnthony HopkinsHope DavisThe daughter of a brilliant but mentally disturbed mathematician, recently deceased, tries to come to grips with her possible inheritance: his insanity. Complicating matters are one of her father's ex-students, who wants to search through his papers, and her estranged sister, who shows up to help settle his affairs.
- DirectorStanley KramerStarsAnthony QuinnAnn-MargretGary LockwoodR.P.M. stands for (political) revolutions per minute. Anthony Quinn plays a liberal college professor at a west coast college during the heady days of campus activism in the late 1960's. Radical students take over the college, the president resigns, and Quinn's character, who has always been a champion of student activism, is appointed president.
- DirectorJeff KanewStarsRobert CarradineAnthony EdwardsTimothy BusfieldAt Adams College, a group of bullied outcasts and misfits resolve to fight back for their peace and self-respect.
- DirectorBrandon ColvinStarsRobert LongstreetRhoda GriffisKentucker AudleyWhile on sabbatical, Ben Hardin returns home to care for his ailing mother.
- DirectorNoam MurroStarsDennis QuaidThomas Haden ChurchSarah Jessica ParkerInto the life of a widowed professor comes a new love and an unexpected visit from his adopted brother.
- DirectorAndrew WagnerStarsFrank LangellaLauren AmbrosePatti PerkinsAn ambitious graduate student convinces a writer that her thesis can resurrect his career.
- DirectorChris ModoonoStarsGil ZabarskyKate FlanneryKathleen LittlefieldIt's dark times for Ethan Collins, a severely depressed, foul-mouthed elementary school teacher whose wife's recent infidelity and departure have left him questioning everything in his life.
- DirectorMiles DoleacStarsWilliam SadlerJohn CullumGlynnis O'ConnorA history professor flees a painful personal tragedy, taking a job at a new university, where he struggles with a contentious department chair, student apathy, and new relationships that challenge his worldview.
- DirectorRobert BentonStarsAnthony HopkinsNicole KidmanEd HarrisWhen a disgraced former college dean has a romance with a mysterious younger woman haunted by her dark, twisted past, he is forced to confront a shocking fact about his own life that he has kept secret for fifty years.
- DirectorJames BridgesStarsTimothy BottomsLindsay WagnerJohn HousemanA first-year law student at Harvard Law School struggles with balancing his coursework and a woman, unaware that she has a connection that affects their relationship.Takes place in law school. Many memorable scenes. Amusing to contrast with the current academic culture ...
- CreatorJames BridgesStarsJohn HousemanJames StephensTom FitzsimmonsThe trials of a group of law students under the tutelage of a strict professor.The TV series that followed the movie.
- DirectorRoger AvaryStarsJames Van Der BeekIan SomerhalderShannyn SossamonThe incredibly spoiled and overprivileged students of Camden College are a backdrop for an unusual love triangle between a drug dealer, a virgin and a bisexual classmate.
- DirectorNoah BaumbachStarsOwen KlineJeff DanielsLaura LinneyFollows two young boys dealing with their parents' divorce in Brooklyn in the 1980s.A little gem from Noah Baumbach, captures the universe of this segment of academia where artistic credentials are more important than research (think creative writing programs and art schools). As usual, English professor, but the tryst with the student is wonderfully awkward.
- DirectorJohn CurranStarsMark RuffaloLaura DernPeter KrauseAn indiscretion between two close friends tears down their respective marriages.
- DirectorCurtis HansonStarsMichael DouglasTobey MaguireFrances McDormandAn English Professor tries to deal with his wife leaving him, the arrival of his editor who has been waiting for his book for seven years, and the various problems that his friends and associates involve him in.