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Apple TV+’s film catalogue is smaller than its television library, but it has developed a clear identity: prestige dramas, filmmaker-led documentaries, music films, ambitious historical stories and a growing selection of broad commercial releases. This ranking covers 39 Apple TV+ feature films and documentaries available through July 2025, with extra weight given to factual depth, filmmaking craft and lasting interest for documentary viewers.
The order is editorial rather than an official Apple or Rotten Tomatoes table. Scores and streaming availability can change, and Apple’s “original” label sometimes covers films made with outside studios or acquired for distribution. Some titles may also be unavailable in particular countries.
The 39 best Apple TV+ original movies, ranked
| Rank | Film | Year | Why it ranks here |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Killers of the Flower Moon | 2023 | Martin Scorsese’s devastating historical crime epic about the murders of Osage people after oil wealth transformed Oklahoma. It is both a major drama and an indictment of the systems that enabled the crimes. |
| 2 | The Velvet Underground | 2021 | Todd Haynes’ stylish, formally inventive portrait of the New York band and the downtown culture around it. Archival footage, split screens and period atmosphere make this one of Apple’s essential music documentaries. |
| 3 | Tetris | 2023 | A remarkably entertaining Cold War business thriller built around the fight to control the Soviet-born video game. It takes liberties with history, but its pace, performances and geopolitical setting work extremely well. |
| 4 | Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie | 2023 | Director Davis Guggenheim combines interviews, film clips and dramatized passages to tell Fox’s story with unusual warmth. The film is candid about Parkinson’s disease without reducing its subject to a diagnosis. |
| 5 | Cha Cha Real Smooth | 2022 | Cooper Raiff’s generous coming-of-age film finds emotional complexity in a relationship that does not fit a conventional romantic template. Dakota Johnson and Raiff give it an easy, lived-in charm. |
| 6 | Greyhound | 2020 | Tom Hanks plays a naval commander leading a convoy across the Atlantic while German U-boats circle beyond visual range. Its tight running time and focused battle scenes make it one of the service’s most efficient thrillers. |
| 7 | The Pigeon Tunnel | 2023 | Errol Morris interviews former intelligence officer and novelist David Cornwell, better known as John le Carré. The conversation moves between espionage, memory, family and the boundary between lived experience and fiction. |
| 8 | Girls State | 2024 | A sharp observational documentary follows teenage girls building a mock government in Missouri. It is a revealing study of ambition, political language, gender and the pressure to perform leadership. |
| 9 | Fancy Dance | 2024 | Lily Gladstone stars in Erica Tremblay’s intimate drama about a Seneca-Cayuga woman searching for her missing sister while caring for her niece. The film’s quiet anger gives its family story wider political force. |
| 10 | Causeway | 2022 | Jennifer Lawrence gives a restrained performance as a soldier returning home after a traumatic brain injury. Her friendship with a troubled New Orleans mechanic becomes the film’s understated emotional centre. |
| 11 | F1 | 2025 | Brad Pitt leads a high-speed racing drama made with extensive track footage and Formula 1 participation. Its strongest appeal is physical: the cars, circuits and cockpit perspective provide genuine spectacle. |
| 12 | Stephen Curry: Underrated | 2023 | This sports documentary follows Curry from an overlooked college recruit to one of basketball’s defining players. It is familiar in structure but effective when it connects sporting success with his family and work ethic. |
| 13 | Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry | 2021 | R. J. Cutler observes Eilish and her family during the making of her debut album. The film’s value comes from its access to the creative process, sibling collaboration and the strange pressure of sudden fame. |
| 14 | Sidney | 2022 | Reginald Hudlin’s documentary celebrates Sidney Poitier’s career while addressing racism in Hollywood and the civil rights era. Interviews with colleagues and family give the tribute historical context. |
| 15 | Beastie Boys Story | 2020 | Spike Jonze films Mike Diamond and Adam Horovitz telling the group’s history onstage. The format is part concert, part memoir and part apology, producing an unusually personal account of a complicated career. |
| 16 | The Tragedy of Macbeth | 2021 | Joel Coen’s severe black-and-white Shakespeare adaptation turns the play into a stark chamber piece. Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand anchor a production designed around shadow, geometry and theatrical space. |
| 17 | Napoleon | 2023 | Ridley Scott delivers an expansive, often deliberately irreverent account of Napoleon Bonaparte, with Joaquin Phoenix and Vanessa Kirby at its centre. The theatrical cut is visually impressive even when its historical compression is conspicuous. |
| 18 | The Banker | 2020 | Based on the true story of Black entrepreneurs Bernard Garrett and Joe Morris, the film examines racial barriers to property and banking in mid-century America. Its conventional structure is offset by a worthwhile subject. |
| 19 | Palmer | 2021 | Justin Timberlake plays an ex-convict who forms a protective bond with a gender-nonconforming child. The film leans into familiar redemption-drama beats, but its central relationship is handled with sincerity. |
| 20 | On the Rocks | 2020 | Sofia Coppola’s Manhattan comedy pairs Rashida Jones with Bill Murray as a daughter and father investigating a possible marital betrayal. Its loose structure is less important than the chemistry and observations about family. |
| 21 | The Last of the Sea Women | 2024 | Directed by Sue Kim, this documentary follows the haenyeo of South Korea’s Jeju Island, many of them elderly women who free-dive for seafood. It links an extraordinary tradition to environmental threat and generational change. |
| 22 | The Year Earth Changed | 2021 | David Attenborough narrates this nature documentary about how wildlife responded when human activity temporarily fell during the COVID-19 lockdowns. It offers striking observations, while keeping its claims relatively accessible. |
| 23 | Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds | 2020 | Werner Herzog and volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer travel through cultures shaped by meteorites, volcanoes and cosmic impact. It is as much a philosophical travel film as a science documentary. |
| 24 | Fathom | 2021 | Two scientists investigate humpback-whale communication in different parts of the world. The documentary is strongest when it shows the patience, uncertainty and collaboration behind field research. |
| 25 | The Elephant Queen | 2018 | This beautifully photographed wildlife film follows a matriarch elephant and her herd through drought in Kenya. Its familiar narration gives the story a fable-like quality, but the animal footage is exceptional. |
| 26 | 9/11: Inside the President’s War Room | 2021 | Using interviews with George W. Bush and members of his administration, the film reconstructs the decisions made during the September 11 attacks. It is a useful first-person record, though viewers should pair it with broader historical accounts. |
| 27 | Who Are You, Charlie Brown? | 2021 | This affectionate documentary explores Charles M. Schulz, the Peanuts characters and the cultural life of the comic strip. It is brief, approachable and particularly good at explaining why the characters endure. |
| 28 | Luck | 2022 | Apple’s animated fantasy imagines a hidden organisation controlling good and bad fortune. It is aimed primarily at children, but its imaginative world-building and polished design make it a pleasant family watch. |
| 29 | Wolfwalkers | 2020 | Cartoon Saloon’s hand-drawn fantasy about two girls, a forest and a colonial hunting regime is among Apple’s most visually distinctive films. Its environmental and anti-authoritarian themes are woven naturally into the adventure. |
| 30 | Swan Song | 2021 | Mahershala Ali plays a husband and father offered a secret technological solution to his terminal illness. The film’s speculative premise supports a thoughtful, if sometimes overly polished, meditation on grief and identity. |
| 31 | Flora and Son | 2023 | John Carney returns to music as a route to connection, following a Dublin mother and her son as songwriting changes their relationship. It is less surprising than his best work, but the songs and performances are appealing. |
| 32 | Spirited | 2022 | Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds headline a modern musical variation on A Christmas Carol. Its scale, choreography and comic energy make it a reliable seasonal choice, even if its sentiment is heavily signposted. |
| 33 | Sharper | 2023 | This Manhattan con thriller uses shifting perspectives to reveal how one group of grifters manipulates the wealthy. Julianne Moore and Sebastian Stan help sell its glossy, twist-driven construction. |
| 34 | Raymond & Ray | 2022 | Ethan Hawke and Ewan McGregor play estranged half-brothers reunited at their difficult father’s funeral. The film mixes grief with dark humour and benefits from the contrast between its two leads. |
| 35 | The Greatest Beer Run Ever | 2022 | Peter Farrelly turns the story of a civilian travelling into Vietnam to deliver beer to American soldiers into a broad dramedy. Its odd central incident is compelling, although the treatment is more sentimental than probing. |
| 36 | The Instigators | 2024 | Matt Damon and Casey Affleck play reluctant partners in a Boston robbery that goes badly. The film has a likeable cast and bursts of energy, but its crime-comedy mechanics are familiar. |
| 37 | Wolfs | 2024 | George Clooney and Brad Pitt play professional fixers forced to work together after a suspicious incident. Their chemistry carries a deliberately old-fashioned thriller whose character banter is stronger than its plot. |
| 38 | Argylle | 2024 | Matthew Vaughn’s spy adventure begins with a novelist whose fiction starts resembling reality. It is colourful, noisy and knowingly absurd, but its piled-up twists make it one of the less disciplined entries here. |
| 39 | The Gorge | 2025 | Two operatives stationed on opposite sides of a mysterious chasm develop a relationship while guarding an unknown threat below. Its genre mixture is ambitious, though the film is more successful as a high-concept action romance than as a fully developed mystery. |
How to choose what to watch
- For serious history: start with Killers of the Flower Moon, The Banker or Sidney. They use drama or biography to examine institutions rather than treating history as simple background.
- For documentaries: choose The Velvet Underground, Still, The Pigeon Tunnel, Girls State or The Last of the Sea Women. These offer distinct documentary methods, from archival collage to observational access and extended interview.
- For science and nature: Fireball, Fathom, The Year Earth Changed and The Elephant Queen make a good group, with different balances of research, travel and spectacle.
- For a relaxed evening: try Greyhound, Tetris, Flora and Son, Spirited or Wolfs.
What “Apple TV+ original” means here
The label is best understood as a distribution and branding category, not a claim that Apple financed every production from start to finish. Apple has released films made with independent producers, established studios and international partners. A title can therefore be an Apple TV+ film while having a production history that reaches well beyond Apple.
Availability also varies by country. Apple sometimes gives major films a cinema release before putting them on the service, while documentaries and smaller features may move between festivals, theatres and streaming. Check the Apple TV app or the film’s official page before treating this list as a current availability guide.
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#1 Best Overall
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Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
- Named a best book of the year by Amazon, Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, GQ, Time, Newsday, Entertainment Weekly, Time Magazine, NPR, Vogue, Smithsonian, Cosmopolitan, Seattle Times, Bloomberg, Lit Hub, and Slate
- From the #1 New York Times best-selling author of The Lost City of Z, a twisting, haunting true-life murder mystery about one of the most monstrous crimes in American history
- In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, the Osage rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe.
FAQ
What is the best Apple TV+ original movie?
Killers of the Flower Moon is the strongest overall choice on this list because it combines major filmmaking with a difficult, important historical subject. Documentary viewers may prefer The Velvet Underground or Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie.
Which Apple TV+ movies are documentaries?
Notable documentaries include The Velvet Underground, Still, The Pigeon Tunnel, Girls State, Sidney, Beastie Boys Story, Fireball, Fathom, The Last of the Sea Women and Stephen Curry: Underrated.
Rank #2
Are all Apple TV+ original films produced entirely by Apple?
No. Apple TV+ releases include films made with outside production companies, filmmakers and international partners. “Apple Original” generally identifies Apple’s commissioning, acquisition or distribution relationship rather than sole production ownership.
Can the ranking change?
Yes. New releases, re-evaluation over time and changing availability can alter any editorial ranking. This list is a July 2025 snapshot and should not be read as an official Apple ranking or a permanent critical scorecard.
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Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.The Bottom Line
For documentary viewers, Apple TV+ is at its best with The Velvet Underground, Still, The Pigeon Tunnel, Girls State and The Last of the Sea Women. For scripted films, begin with Killers of the Flower Moon, Tetris, Greyhound or Cha Cha Real Smooth. The catalogue is uneven, but its strongest films show that Apple’s movie strategy extends well beyond celebrity-led prestige branding.
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