Movies like Mao’s Last Dancer: 20 to watch next
If you loved Mao’s Last Dancer (2009) — a drama and romance film directed by Bruce Beresford — these 20 movies are the closest matches.
The first picks are what fans of Mao’s Last Dancer most often go on to watch; the rest share its genres and themes like dance, dancer and village. 3 of them are streaming in India right now — each entry shows where.
Where to watch Mao’s Last Dancer →·Get picks for your whole taste →
- 1
Coco Chanel 2008★ 6.6
Shares: Drama, Romance
Fashion icon Coco Chanel, steeped in wealth and fame, still issues game-changing designs and collections. The audience is taken backwards in time to the woman's upbringing in an orphanage, and traces her path to ubiquity as it winds through poverty, wars, doomed romances, and rather glamorous betrayals.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 2
Footloose 1984★ 6.7
Shares: Drama, Romance
When teenager Ren and his family move from big-city Chicago to a small town in the West, he's in for a real case of culture shock after discovering he's living in a place where music and dancing are illegal.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 3
Take the Lead 2006★ 6.9
Shares: Drama
A former professional dancer volunteers to teach dance in the New York public school system and, while his background first clashes with his students' tastes, together they create a completely new style of dance. Based on the story of ballroom dancer, Pierre Dulane.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 4
The Greatest Showman 2017★ 7.8
Shares: Drama
The story of American showman P.T. Barnum, founder of the circus that became the famous traveling Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.
Stream in India on VI movies and tv
- 5
Save the Last Dance 2001★ 6.6
Shares: Drama, Romance
After the death of her mother, Sara moves to the South Side of Chicago to live with her father and gets transferred to a majority-black school. Her life takes a turn for the better when befriends Chenille and her brother Derek, who helps her with her dancing skills.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 6
The American 2023★ 6.8
Shares: Drama
American ballet dancer Joy Womack is accepted into Moscow's infamously tough Bolshoi Ballet Academy, with the dream of becoming a great ballerina.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 7
The Turning Point 1977★ 6.6
Shares: Drama, Romance
As young dancers, they were best friends and fierce rivals. Deedee left the stage for marriage and motherhood, while Emma would become an international ballet icon. But when Deedee's teenage daughter is invited to join Emma's dance company and begins an affair with a young Russian star, the two women are forced to confront the choices they've made, the resentments they've hidden and the emotional truths they must face at the turning point.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 8
StreetDance 3D 2010★ 6.5
Shares: Romance, Drama
In order to win the Street Dance Championships, a dance crew is forced to work with ballet dancers from the Royal Dance School in exchange for rehearsal space.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 9
Nobody Has to Know 2022★ 6.7
Shares: Drama, Romance
After a stroke and no memories from his past, Phil encounters Millie who inhabits a desert part of Isle of Lewis. She will shortly entrust him with his deepest secret : they were in love.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 10
Mansfield Park 1999★ 6.7
Shares: Romance, Drama
Fanny Price is sent to live with her wealthy relatives, the Bertrams, where she is treated poorly by most except her cousin Edmund. Her life is complicated by the arrival of the worldly Mary and Henry Crawford.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 11
Skin 2009★ 6.4
Shares: Drama
Based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 12
The Red Shoes 1948★ 8.0
Shares: Drama, Romance
A fledgling ballerina falls in love with a brilliant composer, but the jealous head of the ballet company plots to drive them apart.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 13
Ali and Nino 2016★ 6.5
Shares: Drama, Romance
Muslim prince Ali and Georgian aristocrat Nino have grown up in the Russian province of Azerbaijan. Their tragic love story sees the outbreak of the First World War and the world’s struggle for Baku’s oil. Ultimately they must choose to fight for their country’s independence or for each other.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 14
Ballet Shoes 2008★ 6.3
Shares: Drama
An unusual explorer named Gum and his kindly niece adopt three orphans -- Pauline, Petrova and Posy -- and raise them as sisters in 1930s London. But the girls must fend for themselves when Gum doesn't return from one of his adventures. Together, they nurture their passions for acting, aviation and ballet in this charming TV adaptation of Noel Streatfield's novel.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 15
Dance with Me 1998★ 6.9
Shares: Drama, Romance
Young Cuban Rafael just buried his mother, and comes to Houston to meet his father John for the first time. The difficult part is that John doesn't know he is Rafael's father. John runs a dance studio, and everyone prepares for the World Open Dance championship in Las Vegas. It soon becomes clear Rafael is a very good dancer, and Ruby is the biggest hope for the studio at the championship.
Stream in India on Sony Pictures Amazon Channel
- 16
Where the Red Fern Grows 2003★ 6.6
Shares: Drama
Set in the Ozark Mountains during the Great Depression, Billy Coleman works hard and saves his earnings for 2 years to achieve his dream of buying two coonhound pups. He develops a new trust in God as he faces overwhelming challenges in adventure and tragedy roaming the river bottoms of Cherokee country with "Old Dan" and "Little Ann."
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 17
High Strung Free Dance 2018★ 7.3
Shares: Romance, Drama
Zander Raines, a dazzling and tempestuous young choreographer, gives the break of a lifetime to two hopeful artists when he casts a stunning contemporary dancer, Barlow, and innovative pianist, Charlie, in New York’s most-anticipated new Broadway show: Free Dance. But the move throws off the show’s delicate creative balance when Charlie falls hard for Barlow, while Zander embraces her as his muse.
Stream in India on Brew, Plex
- 18
The Secret: Dare to Dream 2020★ 7.4
Shares: Drama, Romance
A widow with three children hires a handyman to fix her house during a major storm. When not doing home repairs, he shares his philosophy of believing in the power of the universe to deliver what we want.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 19
Great Expectations 2012★ 6.4
Shares: Drama, Romance
Orphan Pip discovers through lawyer Mr. Jaggers that a mysterious benefactor wishes to ensure that he becomes a gentleman. Reunited with his childhood patron, Miss Havisham, and his first love, the beautiful but emotionally cold Estella, he discovers that the elderly spinster has gone mad from having been left at the altar as a young woman, and has made her charge into a warped, unfeeling heartbreaker.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 20
Lovely, Still 2009★ 6.6
Shares: Drama, Romance
A holiday fable that tells the story of an elderly man discovering love for the first time.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now