The 25 Best Journalism Movies

When a presidential sex scandal hits the airwaves just weeks before the election, a top aide calls on the help of a spin doctor and a Hollywood producer to fabricate a war in Albania that will distract the nation and improve the president’s chances of reelection.

Set in 1971, this historical drama recounts the Washington Post’s fight for freedom of the press as the publisher attempted to report leaked information from the Pentagon Papers, detailing U.S military involvement in Southeast Asia from the 1940s to the Vietnam War.

Set in Indonesia during the reign of Sukarno, the country’s first president, this romantic drama is about an Australian reporter and a local photographer who navigate politics, friendship, and love on the eve of an attempted coup.

After a television reporter witnesses the assassination of a presidential candidate in Seattle, she notices that other witnesses are mysteriously dying and fears that she will be killed next. She turns to her old flame, a newspaper reporter who picks up the mantle to uncover who is behind the conspiracy.

Based on a novel by John le Carré, this drama-thriller involves a British diplomat in Kenya who is attempting to untangle a suspicious web of facts surrounding the death of his wife, an Amnesty International activist who was reporting on local fatalities caused by a trial pharmaceutical drug.

After witnessing a near-disastrous equipment malfunction at a nuclear power plant, a TV reporter and her cameraman attempt to report on the safety coverup, but are impeded by the conspiracy to keep it under wraps.

A dramatization of the true story of Stephen Glass, this film details the unraveling of a popular young journalist’s career as it becomes evident that he has completely fabricated numerous stories for The New Republic magazine.

In a slightly fictionalized retelling of the manhunt for San Francisco’s infamous Zodiac Killer, this mystery thriller follows an amateur sleuth as he helps reporters decipher the killer’s coded messages during years of unsolved murders.

An epic historical drama, “Reds” is a dramatization of the lives of radical American journalists Louise Bryant and John Reed, who juggled their passion for one another with their desire to change the world, eventually traveling to Russia to document the Revolution.

When a passionate television news producer falls for a new pretty-boy reporter, her best friend, a well-seasoned but socially awkward news anchor, develops a professional and romantic rivalry with the newcomer.

Co-written by Richard Boyle, a U.S. photojournalist who covered the Salvadoran Civil War, this historical drama depicts Boyle as he attempts to help his former girlfriend and her children escape El Salvador while rebels battle a military dictatorship and innocent people pay the price.

This historical drama chronicles the dedication of journalist Edward R. Murrow and his producer Fred Friendly in taking down the fearmongering anti-communist senator Joseph McCarthy during the height of the Second Red Scare.

A black-and-white spy thriller, “Foreign Correspondent” follows an American reporter on assignment in London as he attempts to uncover an extensive European spy ring on the eve of World War II.

Based on a play by Peter Morgan, “Frost/Nixon” recounts the famous interviews of Richard Nixon that took place three years after his resignation, highlighting the proficiency of the young talk-show host that succeeded in coaxing the former president into opening up about the Watergate scandal.

When an unscrupulous petty thief begins documenting crimes and graphic accidents to sell footage to a local news station, he starts partaking in the scenes in order to get the best shots and a higher payout.

“Almost Famous” follows a teenage journalist in the ’70s who accompanies a touring rock band in order to write a feature article for Rolling Stone magazine, and learns a lot more than he’d expected during his time on the road.

This biographical drama recounts the horrendous period in Cambodia’s history when the Khmer Rouge killed over a million people, through the stories of two journalists – one American and one Cambodian – who put their lives in danger to cover the war.

In this fictionalized account of real events, Al Pacino plays Lowell Bergman, a CBS producer who takes on his network and the tobacco industry as he fights to air the story of a former tobacco company executive turned whistleblower.

This satirical black comedy concerns a news network with poor ratings as they fire a former star newscaster, only to exploit his deranged on-air reaction as ratings once again begin to soar.

When a cynical reporter whose career is in decline takes a job at a small New Mexico newspaper, he’ll do anything to restore his name to glory – including stalling the rescue efforts of a man stuck in a collapsed cliff dwelling in order to create a national media sensation.

Based on a non-fiction book of the same name by journalists Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, this biographical thriller details the investigation of two Washington Post reporters into Watergate and the events that would lead to Richard Nixon’s resignation.

This screwball comedy stars Cary Grant as a newspaper editor who does everything in his power to retain his star reporter (who happens to be his ex-wife), and keep her from squandering her talent by marrying an insurance agent and becoming a housewife.

When an influential New York reporter finds out that his sister is dating a jazz musician, he enlists a sleazy press agent to ruin his sister’s relationship by publishing unsavory, fabricated stories about her beau.

This biographical drama portrays the true story of a team of journalists at the Boston Globe who investigate numerous allegations of child molestation by local Catholic priests and discover just how deep the corruption and cover-ups go.

“Citizen Kane” – often ranked as one of the greatest American films of all time – is the story of a reporter’s quest to decipher the dying words of a millionaire media tycoon, uncovering the details of his fortune, his rise to fame, and his eventual decline.