I love journalism movies. In 2009 I watched State of Play, a movie about a grumpy old reporter who investigates a billion dollar scandal. He gets some help from a newspaper blogger. The funny situations – ‘I don’t have an opinion, maybe I should read some blogs’ – and the ‘damn fine reporting’ inspired me. They made me realize why I’ve chosen to become a journalist and gave me more energy.

That’s why I asked on Twitter which journalism movies my Twitter contacts liked. They came up with a great list of journalism movies, which I happily share here. In random order, descriptions by IMDB, links to Amazon Prime Movies & trailers from YouTube. So next time you’re wondering which movie to see, get inspired by these great journalism movies.

This journalism movies list has been around for twelve years now. I originally posted this article in 2009 and last updated the journalism movies recommendations in January 2023. Do you miss a movie? Let me know through email (ernst@pfauth.com) or Twitter (I’m @ejpfauth).

Here are the journalism movies, in random order!

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‘Don’t write. Instead, go do something that will make you happy.’

‘You’re still here? Congratulations, you’re a writer. You’d crawl through the desert to tell a story’.

Beau Willimon wrote for theatre for twenty years. Four years ago he had his big break when Netflix purchased two seasons of House of Cards. At SxSW 2015, he gave us some insight on how he writes the episodes. Moreover, he encouraged everyone to keep writing, even though your work isn’t recognized yet. “The important dramatists from a hundred years ago are forgotten. So will you, hundred years from now. But remember, we’re standing on their shoulders. Future writers will be standing on yours.”

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On this blog, I’ve been collecting movies about journalism (part 1, part 2). Those lists consist of powerful and beautiful films, yet none of them show the importance of journalism as the documentary I heard about this week, called Nero’s Guests (2009).

It depicts the quest of Indian journalist Palagummi Sainath, who writes about the staggering amount of suicides amongst cotton farmers. In a country where most media just report on celebrities, he fights for getting poverty on the agenda. Not just by writing, but also by giving speeches.

During the documentary, he gives an impressive speech on inequality and it’s this talk that the film owes its title to.

Please, find an hour to watch this film. Not just for the sake of journalism, but also for the suffering of Indian farmers.

Choire Sicha (40) shows the opening line of The Journalist and the Murderer (1990) on his iPhone:

„Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible.”

The co-founder of The Awl and former editor of Gawker warns the non-fiction work by Janet Malcolm ‘gets darker from there.’

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