The 64 Best Documentaries of All Time
These essential films document crime, celebrity, the justice system, and more.
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As the saying goes, truth is stranger than fiction. If you disagree, well, let us direct you to the modern documentary. (Tiger King, anyone?!?) The best of the genre will teach you something new. For example: If you think you understand how the American justice system works, check out Ava Duvernay’s award-winning documentary 13.
Want to see for yourself? Below, we named—in no particular order—the best documentaries of all time. You’ll find music biopics featuring Amy Winehouse and Kurt Cobain along with deep dives into New York’s ballroom scene. Eager for more of an adventure? Try Paris Is Burning and Free Solo. If you’re simply looking for a true-crime story, you’ll find plenty of options here (though we highly recommend O.J: Made in America—it’s worth a watch).
Without further ado, here are the sixty-four best documentaries of all time.
Grizzly Man
Grizzly Man is a beautiful, harrowing film by director Werner Herzog about the life and death of Timothy Treadwell. He was killed—along with his girlfriend, Amie Huguenard—while camping in Alaskan brown-bear territory. Herzog intercuts interviews with Treadwell’s surviving friends and other locals from the area with footage shot by the survivalist himself. Treadwell had extensive video captured from his years of camping among the bears. It’s a must-watch.
Gates of Heaven
Errol Morris’s first-ever feature film explores the pet cemetery business, including a peculiar family who operates one cemetery. He also interviews several grieving pet-owners about their recent losses. It’s a strange, but beautiful movie, which uses this odd subject matter to have some fascinating conversations about mortality.
Encounters at the End of the World
In Encounters at the End of the World, Werner Herzog explores several research stations in Antarctica, interviewing the people who work there. Since most of us will never get to see our southernmost continent, the area Herzog navigates truly feels like an alien world. Along with Herzog’s signature narration, this really is one of the great documentaries about a fascinating environment.
14 Peaks: Nothing is Impossible
This epic mountaineering doc stars the Nepali climber Nirmal Purja —and the team around him—as he attempts to climb all 8,000-meter peaks in the world. It’s a gripping story, sure, but the filmmaking makes you feel like you’re with Purja every step of the way. Hell, Purja and the team even rescue a stranded climber.
Holy Hell
Holy Hell is a chilling documentary about the filmmaker Will Allen, who embedded in the United States cult Buddhafield. The film explores the cult's members with a uniquely personal and empathetic perspective, which we haven’t seen in many other documentaries exploring cults.
Shirkers
Shirkers is an investigative documentary that tracks something totally unexpected. It's a road movie that the director and her friends shot in Singapore—before her American filmmaking mentor left the country with all of the 16mm film. Director Sandi Tan takes us on a sad, but beautiful journey, and it’s one of the best documentaries about young creativity ever made.
Jodorowsky’s Dune
We’ve seen documentaries about challenging film production experiences, but what about a pre-production doc for a film that never saw the light of day? Jodorowsky’s Dune is an endlessly fascinating look at the development process through the eyes of the incredible cult filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky. The director takes us through his conception of a massively ambitious Dune adaptation that involved music from Pink Floyd, art from H.R. Giger, and what-if cast members, including Salvador Dali, Mick Jagger, and Orson Welles.
The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years
Eight Days a Week takes you back to the height of bowl-cut Beatlemania, with beautifully-restored archival footage of the band’s touring years—from the crew hitting the road in 1962, to their final concert in San Francisco in 1966.
Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond
Even if you haven’t seen Jim Carrey’s performance as Andy Kaufman in Man on the Moon, this is an excellent behind-the-scenes film about Carrey’s process. He developed a deep relationship with the character and had trouble separating himself from it. Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond's combination of modern interviews, footage from the Man on the Moon set, and great moments from Kaufman’s career are perfectly balanced.
The Inventor: Out For Blood in Silicon Valley
Alex Gibney’s documentary chronicles the rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes’s former blood-testing company Theranos, which resulted in fraud charges for the young founder. The film is a great examination not just of the ambitious entrepreneur behind Theranos, but the employees, investors, whistleblowers and journalists involved.
Fire of Love
Fire of Love boasts some of the most epic archival footage of any documentary out there, recounting the love story of the volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft—who were pioneers of studying lava flows up close.
Stories We Tell
Director Sarah Polley, who just won a screenwriting Oscar for Women Talking, turns the camera on herself and her family history in this 2012 documentary. The result is more profound and mind-blowing than you may expect. This is an absolute must-watch—and it’s available for anyone to watch for free on YouTube Movies.
MLK/FBI
This explosive 2020 documentary provides an account of the FBI’s investigation and harassment of Martin Luther King Jr. in an attempt to lessen his influence in the civil rights movement. These investigations were exposed in newly-declassified documents—and MLK/FBI interviews with historians and figures involved in the situation.
Particle Fever
Particle Fever is an incredible science documentary that follows the experiments at Switzerland’s Large Hadron Collider—where theoretical physicists attempt to get the collider’s ambitious physics experiments up and running. The film is an incredible achievement in communicating scientific theories, somehow making the process of following the experiments extremely thrilling and watchable.
March of the Penguins
Not only was March of the Penguins a legitimate cultural phenomenon when it debuted in 2005, it's one of the greatest nature documentaries the world has ever seen. Seriously: Who thought the waddling, weird mating season of the penguin could make us tear up? Oh, and before we forget—March of the Penguins features the holy grail of a 21st-century documentary film. Narration done by none other than Morgan Freeman.
When We Were Kings
Some sports buffs might argue this, but When We Were Kings is to Muhammad Ali as The Last Dance is to Michael Jordan. That is: If you need a reminder of the boxing legend's greatness (both as an activist and an athlete), look no further than the day-by-day account of his trip to Kinshasa, Zaire for the "Rumble in the Jungle" with George Foreman.
Minding the Gap
Thankfully, history will remember the Academy well for giving Minding the Gap an Oscar nomination back in 2018. In filming his best friends over a period of 12 years, Bing Liu comprised a heartbreaking coming-of-age story that punches hard—and will stick with you for years after you've seen the film. (Even if you remember it only for its stellar skateboarding photography.) Or, at least until Liu, who is primed to become a legitimate filmmaking star, premieres his next effort.
Won't You Be My Neighbor?
If there's one documentary on this list that will have you involuntarily bawling your eyes out, it's Won't You Be My Neighbor? The documentary profiles late children's television star Fred Rogers, whose show, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood impacted millions of young (and old!) lives.
Free Solo
If you like when your documentaries make you sweat, then hey, Free Solo will have you heading for the shower afterward. The film documents rock climber Alex Honnold's ascent to the top of the treacherous El Capitan in Yosemite National Park... without ropes, harnesses, any of that pesky protective stuff. So yeah! Watching Free Solo equates to about an hour in a sauna.
The Last Waltz
Back in the '70s, Martin Scorsese captured Canadian rock group The Band's final show. The performance included appearances from Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, and Joni Mitchell, making for an all-timer of a concert film.
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