The Best Movie Filmed In Your State and D.C.

“Get Out,” the critically acclaimed movie about a Black man meeting his white girlfriend’s parents, was filmed mostly in the cities of Fairhope and Mobile in Alabama. The movie won Jordan Peele an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, making him the first African American to win the award. He was also the first Black American to be nominated for producing, writing, and directing in the same year.

“Insomnia” was mostly filmed in British Columbia, Canada, but several scenes were shot in Valdez and Hyder, Alaska. The movie, directed by Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight franchise), follows a veteran detective (Al Pacino) who is sent to a small town in Alaska to investigate the murder of a teenage girl.

Much of the horror classic “Psycho” was filmed in a studio in California, but some scenes were also shot in various locations in Arizona, including downtown Phoenix, Gila Bend, and Buckeye. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, the film was nominated for four Oscars. Despite the fact that it was shot in black and white after the advent of color, “Psycho” remains a masterwork of the horror genre and retains the power to keep audiences on the edge of their seats to this day.

Billy Bob Thornton, who won an Oscar for best adapted screenplay, filmed his indie hit “Sling Blade” in Benton, Arkansas, for a reported budget of $1 million. Many of the filming locations within Benton are no longer there or have changed significantly since the 1996 production. The movie follows a man recently released from a mental hospital who starts a new life in a small town.

Home to Hollywood, California is perhaps the most popular shooting location for American movies. And the best one is a silent classic. “Modern Times” is a 1936 Charlie Chaplin comedy about Little Tramp (Chaplin) who struggles to adapt to life in an industrial town. The movie, which was shot in Santa Clarita, Los Angeles, and Long Beach, has a perfect Freshness score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Terrence Malick’s 1973 debut film established the director as a major cinematic talent. Among the movie’s exceptional traits is its showing of America’s wilderness — intended to be South Dakota and Montana. The movie was actually shot in Colorado, primarily the southeast region of the state.

Acclaimed director Ang Lee directed this movie about the strained relationship among the members of a wealthy suburban family and how they fix it. The plot is set in New Canaan, Connecticut, and most of the movie is filmed there.

“Dead Poets Society” stars Robin Williams as an English teacher who inspires students at an exclusive preparatory school in Vermont. The movie was actually filmed in Delaware and used the St. Andrew’s School in Middletown as the prep school.

“Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” follows an idealistic man (James Stewart) who is going to Washington, D.C., to fill up a vacancy in the Senate. Most of the filming locations are in D.C., including the Lincoln Memorial and the U.S. Capitol.

“The Truman Show” tells the story of an insurance salesman (Jim Carrey) who begins to suspect and eventually finds out his whole life is a reality TV show. In addition to Los Angeles, the Oscar-nominated film was filmed at several locations in Florida, including in Panama City and Seaside.

“Avengers: Endgame” is the top grossing film in the hugely popular Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise. The movie, which runs for more than three hours, once again finds the Avengers teaming up to restore order to the universe in the wake of Thanos’s destructive actions. The film was shot in Atlanta, with a few scenes shot in the Durham Cathedral in London.

“From Here to Eternity” tells the story of several people, including a former boxer, a sergeant, a captain, and his wife, whose lives intertwine during World War II. The plot is set in the days before the attack on Pearl Harbor. The movie was filmed at various locations on Oahu, Hawaii.

“Napoleon Dynamite” is a cult classic about an awkward teenager (Jon Heder) in a small high school who tries to help his friend win the class presidency. The comedy was largely shot in the cities of Preston and Franklin in Idaho.

Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” holds a 94% positive rating from both critics and audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. Though the fictional Gotham City in the Batman comics has been associated with New York City, Nolan’s film was shot in Chicago, which the director referred to as “a really cinematic city” in 2008.

“Hoosiers” tells the story of a longshot Indiana high school basketball team that wins the state championship. “The Hoosier State” is the state’s official nickname, so it makes sense the movie would be shot in Indiana. Filming locations included places in Knightstown, Indianapolis, Danville, Elizaville, and Brownsburg.

David Lynch stepped away from his trademark dreamlike filmmaking style to create 1999’s “The Straight Story” — a Disney-distributed movie about a 73-year-old Iowan who travels across state lines on a lawnmower to visit his ill and estranged brother. Lynch filmed in numerous areas of Iowa — in line with the nomadic nature of the film — including in Laurens, Clermont, and Lansing.

“Paper Moon” tells the story of a Depression era conman who teams up with a young girl to trick residents of the Midwest out of their money. The film’s production was based in Hays, Kansas, with some scenes filmed in McCracken and Wilson.

“Goldfinger” is one of the best Bond movies. In it, Bond has to stop Goldfinger, who plans to contaminate the gold at Fort Knox to boost the value of his own gold supply. It is in “Goldfinger” that Bond first uses his catchphrase: “A martini. Shaken, not stirred.” Most of the filming took place in locations in Switzerland and England. In the U.S., the movie was shot mainly in Kentucky.

“Twelve Years a Slave” is based on the memoir of Solomon Northup, a free man who was kidnapped and sold into slavery. The entire movie was filmed throughout Louisiana. Even scenes meant to appear as taking place in areas such as Saratoga, New York, or Washington D.C. were shot in Louisiana.

Nominated for five Oscars, including Best Picture, “In the Bedroom” follows two parents whose son is dating an older woman with two children and a jealous ex-husband. The story takes place on the coast of Maine, and the whole movie has been shot at various locations in the state.

“Philomena” tells the true story of a woman who searches for the son she had when she was a teenager and who was given for adoption against her will. The main character, Philomena, is Irish, and the part of the movie that takes place in Ireland was shot in Northern Ireland and England, and the part that takes place in the U.S. was filmed in Maryland.

The movie follows Will Hunting, an underachieving genius played by Matt Damon, as he attends therapy sessions and navigates life with the woman he’s falling in love with. Most of the movie was shot in Toronto, Canada, as well as in Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Otto Preminger’s 1959 courtroom drama was nominated for seven Oscars, including Best Picture. The movie was filmed in Marquette County, Michigan, and even used local residents as extras.

Director Sam Raimi directed this 1998 crime drama after his cult classic “Army of Darkness” and before he tackled “Spider-Man.” The film is set in Minnesota, and that is also where much of it was shot. Shooting locations include Delano, St. Paul, and Golden Valley.

Two FBI agents (Willem Defoe and Gene Hackman), who have very different investigative methods, are sent to Mississippi to find civil rights activists who have recently disappeared. The movie was shot throughout the state, including in Jackson, Braxton, and Canton.

“Up in the Air” is centered on a corporate downsizer (George Clooney) who enjoys his lifestyle of constant traveling but begins to question it after meeting a woman (Vera Farmiga). Nominated for six Oscars, the movie was filmed largely in Missouri. Filming locations include the Lambert International Airport in St. Louis.

“Little Big Man” is the story of Jack Crabb (Dustin Hoffman) who was raised by Native Americans and who fought with General Custer as a cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the American Indian Wars. While several scenes were shot in Alberta, Canada, and California, most of the movie was filmed at various locations throughout Montana.

While Nebraska is far from the most popular location for filmmaking, it would have been foolish for the team behind the 2013 Oscar-nominated black and white flick “Nebraska” to shoot anywhere else. Among the various cities and towns used as film locations are Lincoln, Hooper, Osmond, Stanton, and Plainview.

“Casino,” starring Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone, and Joe Pesci, is a story about money, power and the fight for both. Like many movies involving the gambling industry, the film was shot in Las Vegas, with a few locations in California.

“On Golden Pond” — which earned Katharine Hepburn and Henry Fonda Oscars — was filmed on New Hampshire’s Squam Lake. Visitors to the lake can still view from the water the original house that appears in the movie.

Director Elia Kazan’s gritty drama “On the Waterfront” is about corruption on the New Jersey waterfront in the 1950s. The movie was shot in Hoboken, where screenwriter Budd Schulberg walked the streets to get a feel for the longshoremen’s lives.

Billy Wilder’s “Ace in the Hole” about a journalist who takes a job writing for an Albuquerque newspaper was partially filmed in Los Angeles and partially in New Mexico. Albuquerque can be seen in the film, as well as the New Mexican desert.

Much of Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Godfather” — considered one of the greatest films of all time — was shot in locations around New York City and Long Island. IN the film, the Corleone home, where the famous wedding scene was filmed, is in Long Island. In real life, the house was on Staten Island.

The sequel to “The Evil Dead” follows the lone survivor from the first movie, who finds himself hidden in a cabin again with a group of strangers. Some of the movie was shot in a studio in Wilmington, North Carolina. A few filming locations were in Detroit.

Filming for “Fargo” took place in locations in both North Dakota and Minnesota. Fans of the Coen Brothers movie may be disappointed to learn that many of the movie’s prominent locations are no longer around, including the “Welcome to Brainerd” Paul Bunyan statue, which was built for the film and dismantled right after.

“The Shawshank Redemption” is a fan favorite, with 98% of audiences giving it a positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie — much of which takes place within a prison — was primarily filmed in Ohio, specifically in the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield. A 25-year anniversary celebration was held at that site in 2019.

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola (“The Godfather”), “Rumble Fish” follows a low-level street thug (Matt Dillon) who is trying to live up to his older brother’s (Mickey Rourke) reputation. The movie was shot at various locations throughout Oklahoma, but mostly in Tulsa.

“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” based on the novel of the same name by Ken Kesey, is about a criminal who encourages rebellion against an oppressive nurse in a mental hospital. The MiloÅ¡ Forman-directed drama was filmed at the Oregon State Mental Hospital in Salem.

“The Silence of the Lambs” was shot in multiple states, with most of the filming taking place around Pittsburgh. Notable Pennsylvania locations in the film include the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and Allegheny County Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum. The house that in the movie is portrayed as the torture house of serial killer Buffalo Bill is located in Layton, Pennsylvania.

Filming of Wes Anderson’s “Moonrise Kingdom” — which boasts a cast of Bill Murray, Bruce Willis, and Francis McDormand among others — took place in different locations across Rhode Island. The movie follows two kids who run away together, prompting a local search.

“Cold Mountain” follows a wounded Confederate soldier (Jude Law) who tries to come home to his wife (Nicole Kidman). The historic drama, based on a book by Charles Frazier, was filmed in multiple states, including South Carolina. All mountain scenes, however, were filmed in the Carpathian Mountains in Romania.

Kevin Costner won the Best Director Oscar and also starred in this movie about a soldier in the American West who makes peace with wolves and Native Americans and is eventually shunned by his peers. “Dances with Wolves,” which won seven Oscars, was filmed in South Dakota, with a few scenes being shot in Kansas, Wyoming, and Nebraska.

Despite its more than three-hour runtime, audiences love “The Green Mile,” which is based on a novel by horror maestro Stephen King. It received positive reviews from 94% of users. The movie tells the story of a death row inmate convicted of murder who appears to have miraculous gifts. Most of the movie scenes, including those at the prison, were shot in Tennessee.

You would think that a movie named after a specific city will be filmed in that city. “Paris, Texas” follows a drifter who struggles to adapt to society and his family after missing for four years. The movie was shot throughout Texas — El Paso, Marathon, Terlingua, even Houston — but not in Paris.

Sydney Pollack’s western, starring Robert Redford as Jeremiah Johnson, was filmed at multiple locations in Utah, including a national park, national forests, a state park, and the famous Sundance Ski Resort (which Redford has owned since 1969).

Exterior shots for Tim Burton’s late ’80s comedy “Beetlejuice” were filmed in the village of East Corinth, Vermont. The house seen in the movie was a fake residence, though the town’s school that is shown at the end of the movie was actually East Corinth’s Mason Hall.

Steven Spileberg’s Oscar-winning drama about Abraham Lincoln’s decision to abolish slavery was filmed throughout Virginia, including in Richmond and Petersburg. Filming locations included the State Capitol and the Executive Mansion.

“Captain Fantastic” follows a father and his six children who live in the wilderness of Washington state. The main filming location of the movie was the Deception Pass State Park in Washington. Some scenes were filmed in New Mexico as well.

“Super 8” is a science fiction thriller that tells the story of a group of friends who witness a train crash and decide to find out what happened. J. J. Abrams filmed at several locations in West Virginia, though the train crash scene was filmed at a ranch in California.

The 1989 baseball comedy was primarily shot in Wisconsin, where filmmakers made use of Milwaukee County Stadium as a stand-in for Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium. Milwaukee native Bob Uecker also appears in the movie, though the story is about the Cleveland Indians.

Director Quentin Tarantino was drawn to Wyoming for its snowy vistas located near Jackson Hole. Other filming locations for “Django Unchained” include California and Louisiana.