This is a list of nonfiction works that have been made into feature films. The title of the work is followed by the work's author, the title of the film, and the year of the film. If a film has an alternate title based on geographical distribution, the title listed will be that of the widest distribution area.
The list does not include documentary films that are based on real events and people which are not based chiefly on a written work. For other documentary film categories, see documentaries.
Book | Film adaptation(s) |
---|---|
Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man (2009), Steve Harvey | Think Like a Man (2012) |
Think Like a Man Too (2014) | |
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) (1969), David Reuben | Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) (1972) |
He's Just Not That Into You (2004), Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo | He's Just Not That Into You (2009) |
The Joy of Sex (1972), Alex Comfort | Joy of Sex (1984) |
Life Begins at Forty (1932), Walter B. Pitkin | Life Begins at 40 (1935) |
Queen Bees and Wannabes (2002), Rosalind Wiseman | Mean Girls (2004) |
Mean Girls 2 (2011) (TV) | |
Mean Girls (2024) | |
The Secret (2006), Rhonda Byrne | The Secret: Dare to Dream (2020) |
Sex and the Single Girl (1962), Helen Gurley Brown | Sex and the Single Girl (1964) |
What to Expect When You're Expecting (1984), Heidi Murkoff and Sharon Mazel | What to Expect When You're Expecting (2012) |
Essay/article | Film adaptation(s) |
---|---|
"Adventures in the Ransom Trade", William Prochnau, Vanity Fair | Proof of Life (2000) |
"The Allman Brothers Story", [1] Cameron Crowe and Faybeth Diamond, Rolling Stone , December 6, 1973 | Almost Famous (2000) |
"The Ballad of the Urban Cowboy: America's Search for True Grit", Aaron Latham, Esquire, 1978 | Urban Cowboy (1980) |
"Biker Boyz", Michael Gougis, New Times LA , April 2000 | Biker Boyz (2003) |
"The boys in the bank: A fouled-up holdup moves step by step from threats to farce to violence", P. F. Kluge and Thomas Moore, Life , September 22, 1972 [2] | Dog Day Afternoon (1975) |
"A Butler Well Served by This Election", Wil Haygood, The Washington Post , 2008 | The Butler (2013) |
"The Death and Life of Dith Pran", Sydney Schanberg, The New York Times Magazine , January 20, 1980 | The Killing Fields (1984) |
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas , Hunter S. Thompson, based on two-part series in Rolling Stone, 1971 | Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1997) |
"The Flash of Genius", John Seabrook, The New Yorker , 1993 | Flash of Genius (2008) |
"The Great Escape: How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans from Tehran", Joshuah Bearman, Wired , 2007 | Argo (2012) |
"Jerry and Marge Go Large", Jason Fagone, The Huffington Post , 2018 | Jerry & Marge Go Large (2022) |
"Life's Swell", Susan Orlean, Outside , 1998 | Blue Crush (2002) |
"The Man Who Knew Too Much", Marie Brenner, Vanity Fair , 1996 | The Insider (1999) |
"Mark of a Murderer", Mike McAlary, Esquire , 1997 | City by the Sea (2002) |
"The Muse of the Coyote Ugly", Elizabeth Gilbert, GQ , March 1997 | Coyote Ugly (2000) |
"Nazi Spies in America", Leon G. Turrou, New York Post , December 5, 1938 – January 4, 1939 [3] | Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939) |
"Racer X", Ken Li, Vibe , 1998 | The Fast and the Furious (2001) |
"Shattered Glass", Buzz Bissinger, Vanity Fair, 1998 | Shattered Glass (2003) |
"Someone to Lean On", Gary Smith, Sports Illustrated , December 16, 1996 | Radio (2003) |
"Something's Got To Give", Darcy Frey, The New York Times Magazine | Pushing Tin (1999) |
"To See and Not See", [4] Oliver Sacks | At First Sight (1999) |
Tora! Tora! Tora!, Gordon W. Prange, Reader's Digest, October–November 1963 | Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) |
"Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night", Nik Cohn, New York , 1976 | Saturday Night Fever (1977) |
"The Worst Marriage in Georgetown", Franklin Foer, The New York Times Magazine, July 6, 2012 | Georgetown (2019) |
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in terms of "a filmmaking practice, a cinematic tradition, and mode of audience reception [that remains] a practice without clear boundaries".
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American filmmaker. He emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He has received many accolades, including an Academy Award, four BAFTA Awards, three Emmy Awards, a Grammy Award, and three Golden Globe Awards. He has been honored with the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1997, the Film Society of Lincoln Center tribute in 1998, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2007, the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2010, and the BAFTA Fellowship in 2012. Four of his films have been inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".
The Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film is an award for documentary films. In 1941, the first awards for feature-length documentaries were bestowed as Special Awards to Kukan and Target for Tonight. They have since been bestowed competitively each year, with the exception of 1946. Copies of every winning film are held by the Academy Film Archive.
Man with a Movie Camera is an experimental 1929 Soviet silent documentary film, directed by Dziga Vertov, filmed by his brother Mikhail Kaufman, and edited by Vertov's wife Yelizaveta Svilova. Kaufman also appears as the eponymous Man of the film.
Morgan Valentine Spurlock is an American documentary filmmaker and television producer.
Cinema of Colombia refers to film productions made in Colombia, or considered Colombian for other reasons. Colombian cinema, like any national cinema, is a historical process with industrial and artistic aspects.
Albert Lamorisse was a French filmmaker, film producer, and writer of short films which he began making in the late 1940s. He also invented the strategic board game Risk in 1957.
These are lists of works of fiction that have been made into feature films. The title of the work and the year it was published are both followed by the work's author, the title of the film, and the year of the film. If a film has an alternate title based on geographical distribution, the title listed will be that of the widest distribution area.
Laura Dawn is an American political activist, filmmaker and singer-songwriter. She has been the cultural director for MoveOn.org from 2003 to 2011 and was named the organization's national creative director in 2007. In 2019 she helped to found progressive news aggregator Front Page Live, where she is Chief Creative Officer.
The King and the Mockingbird is a 1980 traditionally-animated fantasy film directed by Paul Grimault. Prior to 2013, it was released in English as The King and Mister Bird.
The Animation Kobe was an event established by Kobe in 1996 to promote anime and other visual media. The Animation Kobe Awards (アニメーション神戸賞) were given annually until 2015 by Kobe and the Organising Committee to creators and creations.
The Tokyo Anime Awards started in 2002, but was named in 2005. The first, second and third award ceremonies were simply named 'Competition'. The award ceremonies were held at the Tokyo International Anime Fair (TAF) until 2013. In 2014, after the merger of the Tokyo International Anime Fair with the Anime Contents Expo and the formation of the AnimeJapan convention, the Tokyo Anime Awards was changed into a separate festival called Tokyo Anime Awards Festival (TAAF).
Flava Works, Inc. is an independent company that produces gay media featuring black and Latino men. Its headquarters are in Miami, Florida, with a satellite office in Chicago, Illinois.
Food, Inc. is a 2008 American documentary film directed by Robert Kenner and narrated by Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser. It examines corporate farming in the United States, concluding that agribusiness produces food that is unhealthy in a way that is environmentally harmful and abusive of both animals and employees. The film received positive reviews and was nominated for several awards, including the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and the Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Feature. A sequel, Food, Inc. 2 was released on April 12, 2024.
Canada's Top Ten is an annual honour, compiled by the Toronto International Film Festival and announced in December each year to identify and promote the year's best Canadian films. The list was first introduced in 2001 as an initiative to help publicize Canadian films.