Boyhood
Films with the child protagonist (especially boys)
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- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsHenry ThomasDrew BarrymorePeter CoyoteA troubled child summons the courage to help a friendly alien escape from Earth and return to his home planet.
- DirectorZoltan KordaStarsSabuJoseph CalleiaJohn QualenA boy raised by wild animals tries to adapt to human village life.
- DirectorFrançois TruffautStarsJean-Pierre LéaudAlbert RémyClaire MaurierA young boy, left without attention, delves into a life of petty crime.
- DirectorLasse HallströmStarsAnton GlanzeliusTomas von BrömssenAnki LidénIn the late '50s, young Ingemar learns a lot about life and himself when he is sent away from his sick mother to live with his aunt and uncle in a town full of eccentrics.
- DirectorRob ReinerStarsWil WheatonRiver PhoenixCorey FeldmanA writer recounts a childhood journey with his friends to find the body of a missing boy.
- DirectorCharles ChaplinStarsCharles ChaplinEdna PurvianceJackie CooganThe Tramp cares for an abandoned child, but events put their relationship in jeopardy.
- DirectorShunsuke OkuboThe story about the boys who do not want to grow up.
- DirectorGerhard LamprechtStarsRolf WenkhausKäthe HaackFritz RaspEmil goes to Berlin to see his grandmother with a large amount of money and is offered sweets by a strange man that make him sleep. He wakes up at his stop with no money. It is up to him and a group of children to save the day.
- DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsTatsuo SaitôTomio AokiMitsuko YoshikawaTwo young brothers throw a tantrum when they discover that their father isn't the most important man in his workplace.
- DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsKeiji SadaYoshiko KugaChishû RyûTwo boys begin a silence strike to press their parents into buying them a television set.
- DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsTakeshi SakamotoYoshiko OkadaChôko IidaUnemployed Kihachi and his two sons struggle to make ends meet. But that doesn't keep Kihachi from wooing single mother Otaka.
- DirectorHiroshi ShimizuStarsReikichi KawamuraMitsuko YoshikawaMasao HayamaTwo young boys are usurped from being the head of their gang of children. Their father is fired and arrested for this, and they are sent to live with their uncle, only to spend their time thinking of ways to escape back home.
- DirectorHiroshi ShimizuStarsTeruo FuruyaMasao HayamaShin'ichi HimoriThe brothers of Children In The Wind deal with declining family fortunes: they must work when the father becomes sick, and eventually live with their grandfather, which means making new friends and struggling with a different environment.
- DirectorVictor FlemingStarsSpencer TracyFreddie BartholomewLionel BarrymoreA spoiled brat who falls overboard from a steamship in the 1920s gets picked up by a New England fishing boat, where he's made to earn his keep by joining the crew in their work.
- DirectorNorman TaurogStarsTommy KellyJackie MoranAnn GillisTom Sawyer and his pal Huckleberry Finn have great adventures on the Mississippi River, pretending to be pirates, attending their own funeral and witnessing a murder.
- DirectorNorman TaurogStarsSpencer TracyMickey RooneyHenry HullWhen a death row prisoner tells him he wouldn't have led a life of crime if only he had had one friend as a child, Father Edward Flanagan decides to start a home for young boys.
- DirectorMark DonskoyStarsAleksei LyarskyVarvara MassalitinovaMikhail TroyanovskiyA drama reveals the great writer's inauspicious early years as an orphan raised by conniving relatives.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsWalter PidgeonMaureen O'HaraAnna LeeAt the turn of the century in a Welsh mining village, the Morgans, he stern, she gentle, raise coal-mining sons and hope their youngest will find a better life.
- DirectorVittorio De SicaStarsRinaldo SmordoniFranco InterlenghiAnnielo MeleTwo shoeshine boys in postwar Rome, Italy save up to buy a horse, but their involvement as dupes in a burglary lands them in juvenile prison; the experience take a devastating toll on their friendship.
- DirectorDavid LeanStarsRobert NewtonAlec GuinnessKay WalshIn Charles Dickens' classic tale, an orphan wends his way from cruel apprenticeship to den of thieves in search of a true home.
- DirectorCarol ReedStarsRalph RichardsonMichèle MorganSonia DresdelA butler working in a foreign embassy in London falls under suspicion when his wife accidentally falls to her death, the only witness being an impressionable young boy.
- DirectorHiroshi ShimizuStarsShunsaku ShimamuraNatuski MasakoGosho ShoichiThe movie focuses on the plight of ten war orphans hailing from different cities across Japan. With nowhere to go, they scavenge around train stations, scratching out an existence by means of black market work for a one-legged tramp whilst avoiding being picked up by the police for vagrancy. Soon however, they find a more inspiring role model in the figure of a nameless soldier just repatriated after the war. An orphan himself, the soldier also has no home to return to, and so sets out across the country with the kids in tow in search of work before settling on the goal of leading them to the orphanage where he himself grew up.
- DirectorRobert J. FlahertyStarsJoseph BoudreauxLionel Le BlancE. BienvenuThe idyllic life of a young Cajun boy and his pet raccoon is disrupted when the tranquility of the bayou is broken by an oil well drilling near his home.
- DirectorJoseph LoseyStarsPat O'BrienRobert RyanBarbara HaleThis parable looks at public reaction when the hair of an American war orphan mysteriously turns green.
- DirectorVittorio De SicaStarsLamberto MaggioraniEnzo StaiolaLianella CarellIn post-war Italy, a working-class man's bicycle is stolen, endangering his efforts to find work. He and his son set out to find it.
- DirectorTed TetzlaffStarsBobby DriscollBarbara HaleArthur KennedyTo avoid the heat of a sweltering summer night a 9-year-old Manhattan boy decides to sleep on the fire escape and witnesses a murder, but no one will believe him.
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsAlfonso MejíaRoberto CoboEstela IndaA group of juvenile delinquents live a violent and crime-filled life in the festering slums of Mexico City, as the morals of young Pedro are gradually corrupted and destroyed by the others.
- DirectorDavid BradleyStarsGeorge MurphyNancy ReaganBilly GrayIn an idyllic setting, a likable but dangerously volatile twelve-year-old boy tries to settle a score with his disagreeable, mysterious neighbor.
- DirectorRay AshleyMorris EngelRuth OrkinStarsRichard BrewsterWinifred CushingJay WilliamsA young boy fears that he shot his older brother, who is only faking. He then runs away to Coney Island, a crowded beach area, and gets money by returning soda bottles for their deposits.
- DirectorSatyajit RayStarsKanu BannerjeeKaruna BannerjeeSubir BanerjeeImpoverished priest Harihar Ray, dreaming of a better life for himself and his family, leaves his rural Bengal village in search of work.
- DirectorSatyajit RayStarsPinaki SenguptaSmaran GhosalKamala AdhikariFollowing his father's death, a boy leaves home to study in Calcutta, while his mother must face a life alone.
- DirectorSatyajit RayStarsSoumitra ChatterjeeSharmila TagoreAlok ChakravartyThis final installment in Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy follows Apu's life as an orphaned adult aspiring to be a writer.
- DirectorNelson Pereira dos SantosStarsModesto De SouzaRoberto BataglinJece ValadãoA semi-documentary on the people of Rio de Janeiro. The camera follows boys from a hillside shanty town who sell peanuts at Copacabana, Sugar Loaf Mountain, and a soccer game. Various subplots, involving characters they meet along the way, are interspersed.
- DirectorAlbert LamorisseStarsPascal LamorisseSabine LamorisseGeorges SellierA red balloon with a mind of its own follows a little boy around the streets of Paris.
- DirectorJacques TatiStarsJacques TatiJean-Pierre ZolaAdrienne ServantieMonsieur Hulot visits the technology-driven world of his sister, brother-in-law, and nephew, but he can't quite fit into the surroundings.
- DirectorBernhard WickiStarsVolker BohnetFritz WepperMichael HinzIn 1945, Germany is being overrun, and nobody is left to fight but teenagers.
- DirectorKaneto ShindôStarsNobuko OtowaTaiji TonoyamaShinji TanakaA family of four are the sole inhabitants of a small island where they struggle each day to irrigate their crops.
- DirectorFons RademakersStarsReitze van der LindenMarie-Louise VidecEllen VogelA young boy coming into puberty is resentful of his mother's budding romance with the best friend of her late husband, and is torn and confused about his emerging feelings for Toni, a young girl in his neighborhood. His fascination with an antique Oriental knife leads him to steal it and he uses it to try to impress Toni while at the same time trying to break up his mother's relationhip.
- DirectorAndrei TarkovskyEduard AbalovStarsNikolay BurlyaevValentin ZubkovEvgeniy ZharikovDuring WWII, Soviet orphan Ivan Bondarev strikes up a friendship with three sympathetic Soviet officers while working as a scout behind the German lines.
- DirectorAlexander MackendrickStarsEdward G. RobinsonFergus McClellandConstance CummingsTen year old Sammy travels 4500 miles on his own from the Suez Canal to Durban, South Africa.
- DirectorPeter BrookStarsJames AubreyTom ChapinHugh EdwardsSchoolboys marooned on a Pacific island create their own savage civilization.
- DirectorNelson Pereira dos SantosStarsÁtila IórioMaria RibeiroOrlando MacedoA poor family in the Northeast of Brazil (Fabiano, the father; Sinhá Vitória, the mother; their 2 children and a dog called Baleia) wander about the barren land searching for a better place to live, with food and work. But the drought and misery destroy their hopes.
- DirectorKarel KachynaStarsFrank ArgusJosef BartaP. BohdaneckyIt is the spring 1945 and the front line is getting closer to the small Moravian village of Nesovice. Twelve-year old Oldrich Vareka, nicknamed Shorty for his tiny stature, observes the events around him, recalls his memories and also finds comfort in his fantasy. Although he is an only son, his father treats him harshly and brutally punishes his every trifle. Maybe he wreaks his vengeance on him for his own unsuccessful effort to compete with the richest farmers in the village. The boys from the wealthy farms poke fun at Shorty and he takes his revenge on them in petty malice.
- DirectorVolker SchlöndorffStarsMathieu CarrièreMarian SeidowskyBernd TischerIn a boarding school, a student observes in passive disgust as his two friends manipulate, humiliate and torture a fellow student, justifying their every act.
- DirectorClaude BerriStarsMichel SimonRoger CarelPaul PréboistIn German-occupied France, a Jewish child is sent away from his family and conceals his religious affiliation from the anti-Semitic elderly man that takes care of him.
- DirectorMaurice PialatStarsMichel TerrazonLinda GutenbergRaoul BillereyAn anguished foster child takes to mischief and lies as his foster parents do their best to love and care for him. But it might be too little, too late in this emotionally devastating portrayal of the orphaned child.
- DirectorNagisa ÔshimaStarsFumio WatanabeAkiko KoyamaTetsuo AbeA young boy reluctantly aids his swindling father in a threatening scam.
- DirectorKen LoachStarsDavid BradleyBrian GloverFreddie FletcherA working-class English boy spends his free time caring for and training his pet kestrel.
- DirectorFrançois TruffautStarsFrançois TruffautJean-Pierre CargolFrançoise SeignerIn a French forest in 1798, a child is found who cannot walk, speak, read or write. A doctor becomes interested in the child and patiently attempts to civilize him.
- DirectorJerzy SkolimowskiStarsJane AsherJohn Moulder-BrownKarl Michael Vogler15-year-old dropout Mike takes a job at Newford Baths, where inappropriate sexual behaviour abounds, and becomes obsessed with his coworker Susan.
- DirectorRobert MulliganStarsJennifer O'NeillGary GrimesJerry HouserDuring his summer vacation on Nantucket Island in 1942, a youth eagerly awaiting his first sexual encounter finds himself developing an innocent love for a young woman awaiting news on her soldier husband's fate in WWII.
- DirectorMel StuartStarsGene WilderJack AlbertsonPeter OstrumA poor but hopeful boy seeks one of the five coveted golden tickets that will send him on a tour of Willy Wonka's mysterious chocolate factory.
- DirectorClaude JutraStarsJacques GagnonLyne ChampagneJean DuceppeSet in cold rural Quebec at Christmas time, we follow the coming of age of a young boy and the life of his family which owns the town's general store and undertaking business.
- DirectorBill DouglasStarsStephen ArchibaldHughie RestorickJean Taylor SmithThe First part of Bill Douglas' influential trilogy harks back to his impoverished upbringing in early-'40s Scotland. Cinema was his only escape - he paid for it with the money he made from returning empty jam jars - and this escape is reflected most closely at this time of his life as an eight-year-old living on the breadline with his half-brother and sick grandmother in a poor mining village.
- DirectorMartin RittStarsCicely TysonPaul WinfieldKevin HooksThe oldest son of a loving and strong family of black sharecroppers comes of age in the Depression-era South after his father is imprisoned for stealing food.
- DirectorLarry PeerceStarsJohn HeylParker StevensonWilliam RoerickTwo roomates at a prep school in New England during World War II come to grips with the war, jealousy and betrayal. Based on a novel by John Knowles.
- DirectorFrançois TruffautStarsGeorges DesmouceauxPhilippe GoldmannNicole FélixThe lives of a motherless boy, who is just starting to get interested in women, and his physically abused friend, who lives in poverty, are mixed with more or less innocent childhood experiences and challenges of a number of children.
- DirectorHenri SafranIan GoddardStarsGreg RowePeter CumminsDavid GulpililMike is a lonely Australian boy living in a coastal wilderness with his reclusive father. In search of friendship he encounters an Aboriginal native loner and the two form a bond in the care of orphaned pelicans.
- DirectorXhanfize KekoStarsSotiraq ÇiliZehrudin DoklePavlina OçaThe Wehrmacht arrives in a small Albanian town after Italy capitulates to the Allies. Tomka and his gang decide to exact revenge when the German soldiers set up camp on their football pitch.
- DirectorPeter YatesStarsDennis ChristopherDennis QuaidDaniel SternA working-class Indiana teen obsessed with the Italian cycling team vies for the affections of a college girl while searching for life goals with his friends.
- DirectorStephen FrearsStarsDerrick O'ConnorGary HoltonRichard ThomasTwo young boys enact a mock fight outside a football ground as a joke, but it goes wrong when one of them is injured. While the victim recovers in hospital, the other boy attempts to hide from the police.
- DirectorKôhei OguriStarsTakahiro TamuraMariko KagaNobutaka AsaharaIn post-War Japan, a boy from a noodle store-owning family befriends a neighboring boy living in poverty.
- DirectorBill ForsythStarsJohn Gordon SinclairDee HepburnJake D'ArcyGregory is a normal teen who is infatuated with a classmate. He must work to win her affection.
- DirectorHector BabencoStarsFernando Ramos da SilvaJorge JuliãoGilberto MouraThe life of a boy on the streets of Sao Paulo, involved with crimes, prostitution, and drugs.
- DirectorEmir KusturicaStarsSlavko StimacSlobodan AligrudicLjiljana BlagojevicA young man's personality is shaped, involving some weird happenings around.
- DirectorBille AugustStarsAdam TønsbergPeter ReichhardtMorten HoffIn the early '60s, 3 Danish classmates join a "den"/tree house. Steen likes his pet fish Zappa because it eats the weaker fish. Bjørn attracts girls and Mulle is a talkative, strong boy. Steen gets them into burglary and later escalates.
- DirectorGaston KaboréStarsSerge YanogoRosine YanogoJoseph NikiemaIn pre-colonial times a peddler crossing the savanna discovers a child lying unconscious in the bush. When the boy comes to, he is mute and cannot explain who he is. The peddler leaves him with a family in the nearest village. After a search for his parents, the family adopts him, giving him the name Wend Kuuni (God's Gift) and a loving sister with whom he bonds. Wend Kuuni regains his speech only after witnessing a tragic event that prompts him to reveal his own painful history.
- DirectorJack ClaytonStarsMary Grace CanfieldRichard DavalosJake DengelIn a small American town, a diabolical circus and its demonic proprietor prey on the townsfolk.
- DirectorEuzhan PalcyStarsGarry CadenatDarling LégitimusDouta SeckSet in 1931, Sugar Cane Alley paints a rich impasto of native life under French colonial rules, filtered through the coming-of-age of a bright, sweetly opportunistic boy.
- DirectorFrancis Ford CoppolaStarsMatt DillonMickey RourkeDiane LaneAbsent-minded street thug Rusty James struggles to live up to his legendary older brother's reputation, and longs for the days of gang warfare.
- DirectorGeorgiy DaneliyaIgor TalankinStarsBoris BarkhatovSergey BondarchukIrina SkobtsevaThe mother of a 5 years old Seryozha remarries. This man becomes a friend and a confident, an adult who see Seryozha not as a child, but as a person.
- DirectorBille AugustStarsMads Bugge AndersenKatarina StenbeckPeter SchrøderBuster is an aspiring magician battling his status as a geek. Making things more difficult is his small size. This movie chronicles Buster's unique way of dealing with bullies, school, his first job and girls.
- DirectorMasahiro ShinodaStarsTakaya YamauchiYoshiyuki ÔmoriShiori SakuraIn this drama at the end of World War II, the inhabitants of a small Japanese fishing village must come to terms with their nation's defeat and the sudden occupation of General MacArthur and his troops.
- DirectorAllan EdwallStarsMartin LindströmLoa FalkmanGunnel FredIn 1929, the film follows the six-year old son of a Swedish country doctor. Åke lives with his parents and his sister Aja in a small provincial town. His best friend is Kalle Nubb. Åke is very frightened of the janitor Bergström as well as the lunatic Anne-Marie, his cousin who lives in the attic. There is also the strict principal Godeman as well as the religious cobbler Ebenholtz.
- DirectorAmir NaderiStarsMadjid NiroumandAbbas NazeriMusa TorkizadehAfter enrolling in a school, an impoverished boy finds conflict with his classmates and decides to compete to earn their respect.
- DirectorHsiao-Hsien HouStarsChi-Kuang WangShu-Chen LiHsiu-Ling LinA coming-of-age story about a young brother and sister who spend a pivotal summer in the country with their grandparents.
- DirectorPeter BogdanovichStarsCherEric StoltzSam ElliottA teenager with a massive facial skull deformity and biker gang mother attempt to live as normal a life as possible under the circumstances.
- DirectorMehdi CharefStarsKader BoukhanefRémi MartinLaure DuthilleulIn a depressing concrete Parisian suburb in the seventies two friends are keeping boredom at bay with loitering and petty crime.
- DirectorElem KlimovStarsAleksey KravchenkoOlga MironovaLiubomiras LauceviciusAfter finding an old rifle, a young boy joins the Soviet resistance movement against ruthless German forces and experiences the horrors of World War II.
- DirectorPaco LucioStarsÁlvaro de LunaJuan Diego BottoMaría Luisa San JoséDark secrets from the past will come to light during a family summer.
- DirectorJean VigoStarsJean DastéRobert le FlonLouis LefebvreIn a repressive boarding school with rigid rules of behavior, four boys decide to rebel against the direction on a celebration day.
- DirectorHsiao-Hsien HouStarsChia-bao ChangNeng ChangChih-Chen ChenThe semi-autobiographical film on director Hou Hsiao-Hsien's childhood and adolescence, when he was growing up in Taiwan, living through the deaths of his father, mother and grandmother.
- DirectorOlle HellbomStarsAllan EdwallErik LindgrenJarl KulleRasmus lives at an orphanage. He's OK, but wants a mom and a dad, and from time to time some comes to find a child, but they always chose little girls curls. Rasmus realizes he has to run away and find parents himself.
- DirectorNikolai EkkStarsNikolay BatalovYvan KyrlyaMikhail DzhagofarovYoung hobos are brought to a new camp to become good Soviet citizens. This camp works without any guards. But crooks kill one of the young people when they try to damage the newly build railroad to that camp.
- DirectorRoberto RosselliniStarsEdmund MoeschkeErnst PittschauIngetraud HinzeA young German boy faces the problems of the tough life in the immediate post-WWII Berlin.
- DirectorAleksander FordStarsMieczyslawa CwiklinskaJerzy LeszczynskiWladyslaw GodikThe story of Polish and Jewish families living side by side in one Warsaw street. Everything changes once and for all with the Nazi invasion.
- DirectorAndrei TarkovskyStarsIgor FomchenkoVladimir ZamanskiyNatalya ArkhangelskayaSeven-year-old Sasha practices violin every day to satisfy the ambition of his parents. Already withdrawn as a result of his routines, Sasha quickly regains confidence when he accidentally meets and befriends worker Sergei, who works on a steamroller in their upscale Moscow neighborhood.
- DirectorJan NemecStarsLadislav JánskyAntonín KumberaIlse BischofovaTwo Jewish boys escape from a train transporting them from one concentration camp to another. The film goes beyond the themes of war and anti-Nazism and concerns itself with man's struggle to preserve human dignity.
- DirectorDick RichardsStarsGary GrimesBilly Green BushLuke AskewYoung farmboy who always wanted to be a cowhand talks a tough trail boss into hiring him on a cattle drive.
- DirectorIlya FrezStarsAndrei VoynovskyRoza AgishevaTatyana PelttserThe fifth-grader Borya, a fidget and an inventor, was appointed a counselor in the first class. Not taking this at first seriously, the boy gradually became interested in new and unexpected duties for him.
- DirectorSergey SolovyovStarsBoris TokarevTatyana DrubichIrina MalyshevaA group of Russian teenagers spend their summer at a summer camp. Mitia falls in love and gets so occupied with his own problems that he forgets the others.
- DirectorSergey BondarchukStarsOleg KuznetsovNikolay TrofimovVladimir SedovA boy in Russia, circa 1900, makes a daunting trip from his home village to a school in the city.
- DirectorPaolo TavianiVittorio TavianiStarsOmero AntonuttiSaverio MarconiMarcella MichelangeliThe son of a shepherd embarks in the quest of emancipating himself from a tough lifestyle that his condition and his father force on him.
- DirectorVolker SchlöndorffStarsDavid BennentMario AdorfAngela WinklerIn 1924, Oskar Matzerath is born in the Free City of Danzig. At age three, he falls down a flight of stairs and stops growing. In 1939, World War II breaks out.
- DirectorKen LoachStarsGraham GreenCarolyn NicholsonTony PittsMick and Alan, two friends who have just left school, are full of dreams for the future. But against the background of Thatcher's Britain, the two soon wake up to reality. From acclaimed Director Ken Loach.
- DirectorIngmar BergmanStarsBertil GuvePernilla AllwinKristina AdolphsonTwo young Swedish children in the 1900s experience the many comedies and tragedies of their lively and affectionate theatrical family, the Ekdahls.
- DirectorGabriel AxelStarsSteen FlensmarkPer GecklerJohannes Meyer
- DirectorJirí MenzelStarsVáclav NeckárJosef SomrVlastimil BrodskýAn apprentice train dispatcher at a village station seeks his first sexual encounter and becomes despondent when he is unable to perform.
- DirectorGordon ParksStarsKyle JohnsonAlex ClarkeEstelle EvansA bittersweet, idyllic story about a year in the life of 14-year-old Newt Winger, born into a poor Black family in Kansas, who learns about love, fear, racial injustice, and immorality.