# What is the best movie based on a true story?

> From courtroom dramas to wartime heroics, these films blur the line between Hollywood and reality. Some surprised even the people they depicted — cast your vote!

*By YPB Team · Published April 8, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/what-is-the-best-movie-based-on-a-true-story*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **The Social Network**
   David Fincher's razor-sharp dramatization of the founding of Facebook and the lawsuits that followed.
2. **Schindler's List**
   Steven Spielberg's harrowing account of industrialist Oskar Schindler who saved over a thousand Jewish lives during the Holocaust.
3. **Bohemian Rhapsody**
   The electrifying story of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, culminating in their legendary 1985 Live Aid performance.
4. **12 Years a Slave**
   Steve McQueen's devastating true story of Solomon Northup, a free Black man kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1841.
5. **Goodfellas**
   Martin Scorsese's mob epic follows Henry Hill's rise and fall in the New York underworld, based on a true story.
6. **The Imitation Game**
   Benedict Cumberbatch plays Alan Turing, the mathematical genius who cracked the Nazi Enigma code during World War II.
7. **Hacksaw Ridge**
   The true story of Desmond Doss, the first conscientious objector to receive the Medal of Honor for saving 75 men at Okinawa.
8. **Spotlight**
   The Boston Globe's investigative journalism team uncovers a decades-long cover-up of clergy abuse within the Catholic Church.
9. **Catch Me If You Can**
   Steven Spielberg's cat-and-mouse tale of Frank Abagnale Jr., one of the most successful con men in history, pursued by FBI agent Carl Hanratty.
10. **Moneyball**
   Brad Pitt stars as Oakland A's GM Billy Beane, who revolutionized baseball by building a winning team using statistical analysis.
11. **The Big Short**
   Adam McKay's frenetic retelling of the handful of outsiders who saw the 2008 financial crisis coming and bet against the big banks.
12. **Erin Brockovich**
   Julia Roberts won an Oscar playing Erin Brockovich, a legal clerk who single-handedly built a case against Pacific Gas and Electric.
13. **Dallas Buyers Club**
   Matthew McConaughey's Oscar-winning portrayal of Ron Woodroof, an AIDS patient who smuggled unapproved drugs into the US to help fellow sufferers.

Tags: movies, tv shows, historical, biography