Here’s a list of some of my favorite art movies you can show in your classroom. Since every school district has different rules for what can be shown to students, I have divided the movies by rating instead of grade levels. Many of these are available on streaming platforms but those things change all the time so I am not going to give links. If you search any of these titles in Google, it will tell you where they are currently available.
Unrated/G
Linnea in Monet’s Garden
30 minutes
In this animated movie based on a children’s book, a girl and her friend, travel across Europe to see the places that inspired Claude Monet’s paintings.
A Pixar Story
1 hour 28 minutes
The Pixar Story takes audiences behind the scenes of the groundbreaking company. It shows how they took animation to a new level and forever changed the face of filmmaking.
Bob Ross: The Happy Painter
1 hour 4 minutes
Bob Ross is public television’s most beloved personality and here is the behind-the-story look at his journey to becoming an art and pop-culture icon.
Kusama: Infinity
1 hour 16 minutes
Artist Yayoi Kusama and experts discuss her life and work, from her modest beginnings in Japan to becoming an internationally renowned artist.
PG
Corpse Bride
1 hour 17 minutes
This is a Tim Burton movie. A shy groom practices his wedding vows in the presence of a deceased young woman. She rises from the grave assuming he has married her.
Waste Land
1 hour 39 minutes
On the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro is Jardim Gramacho, the world’s largest landfill, where men and women sift through garbage for a living. Artist Vik Muniz produces portraits of the workers and learns about their lives.
PG-13
Girl With The Pearl Earring
1 hour 40 minutes
A young peasant maid working in the house of painter Johannes Vermeer becomes his talented assistant and the model for one of his most famous works.
Big Eyes
1 hour 46 minutes
A drama about the awakening of painter Margaret Keane, her phenomenal success in the 1950s, and the subsequent legal difficulties she had with her husband, who claimed credit for her works in the 1960s.
R
I’m sure most people can’t show R-rated movies but for anyone who can, I’m including these two movies because they’re just that good.
Exit Through the Gift Shop
1 hour 27 minutes
Following the style of some of the world’s most prolific street artists, an amateur filmmaker makes a foray into the art world.
Pollock
2 hours 2 minutes
A film about the life and career of the American painter, Jackson Pollock.
Happy movie watching! – Trista
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