List of films about philosophers

Biographical films based on real-life philosophers:

• Adi Shankaracharya (1983) – The life of Adi Shankaracharya, played by Sarvadaman D. Banerjee.
• Agora (2009) – The life of Hypatia, played by Rachel Weisz.
• Confucius (2010) – The life of Confucius, played by Chow Yun-fat.
• Destiny (1997) – The life of Averroes, played by Nour El-Sherif.
• Giordano Bruno (1973) – The life of Giordano Bruno, played by Gian Maria Volonté.
• Hannah Arendt (2012) – The life of Hannah Arendt, played by Barbara Sukowa.
• Cartesius (1974) – René Descartes portrayed by Ugo Cardea, a Roberto Rossellini film.
• Blaise Pascal (1972) – Blaise Pascal portrayed by Pierre Arditi, a Roberto Rossellini film.
• Socrates (1971) – The life of Socrates, played by Jean Sylvere, a Roberto Rossellini film.
• The Young Karl Marx (2017) – Karl Marx played by August Diehl.
• Wittgenstein (1993) – The life of Ludwig Wittgenstein, directed by Derek Jarman.

Films where one or more philosopher play the main role, but that are not otherwise about philosophy:

• Irrational Man (2015) – A philosophy professor (Joaquin Phoenix) finds himself in an existential crisis, but eventually discovers a new purpose in life.
• The Life of David Gale (2003) – A philosophy professor (Kevin Spacey) and longtime activist against capital punishment who is sentenced to death for killing a fellow capital punishment opponent.
• L'Avenir (2016) – Middle-aged philosophy professor Nathalie Chazeaux's (Isabelle Huppert) life is going through a series of separations.
• Late Marriage (2001) - Zaza (Lior Ashkenazi) is a 31-year-old Georgian-Israeli PhD student in Philosophy of religion at Tel Aviv University whose family is trying to arrange a marriage for him within the Georgian community against his will.

Films where one or more of the members of the main cast are philosophers:

• Alexander (2004) – Based on the life of Alexander the Great, who is mentored by Aristotle (Christopher Plummer).
• Gladiator (2000) – The Roman general Maximus is betrayed when Commodus, the ambitious son of Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris), murders his father and seizes the throne.
• The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) Features Roman emperor and stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius (Alec Guinness)) during the first segment of the film.
• The Oxford Murders (2008) – A Student (Elijah Wood) finds out about mysterious killings in Oxford and helped by a professor (John Hurt) who works on Philosophy of mathematics, they reveal the patterns used by the killer.
• When Nietzsche Wept (2007) – A Viennese doctor named Josef Breuer (Ben Cross) meets with Friedrich Nietzsche (Armand Assante) to help him deal with his despair

Films where philosophy is central to the plot:

• Sophie's World (1999) – The story of a teenage girl (Silje Storstein) living in Norway, and a middle-aged philosopher (Tomas von Brömssen), who introduces her to philosophical thinking and the history of philosophy.
• Waking Life (2001) – The film explores the nature of reality, dreams, consciousness, the meaning of life, free will, and existentialism.

• Philosophical Films, a non-profit resource for philosophy teachers who want to incorporate films into their classes
• "I watch therefore I am: seven movies that teach us key philosophy lessons" by Julian Baggini, Christine Korsgaard, Ursula Coope, Peter Singer, Susan Haack, Kenneth Taylor and Slavoj Žižek.