List of World War II films
This is a list of fictional feature films or miniseries which feature events of World War II in the narrative.
There is a separate list of World War II TV series.
Restrictions
- The film or miniseries must be concerned with World War II and include events which feature as a part of the war effort.
- For short films, see the List of World War II short films.
- For documentaries, see the List of World War II documentary films and the List of Allied propaganda films of World War II.
Common topics
Many aspects of this conflict have repeatedly been the subject of drama. These common subjects will not be linked when they appear in the film descriptions below:;Europe
- Adolf Hitler, Nazis and Nazism
- Nazi Germany
- Gestapo and SS
- Benito Mussolini
- Fascism
- Death camps, concentration camps, earlier concentration camps
- Partition and occupation of Poland and Polish resistance
- Occupied France, Vichy France and French Resistance
- Occupied Norway
- The Holocaust
- Emperor Shōwa
- POW
Films made during the War of Ethiopia and the Sino-Japanese War
China had been fighting against Japan since the 1931 invasion of their northeastern province of Manchuria in a war that completely opened in 1937, called the Second Sino-Japanese War, until Japan attacked the U.S.A. at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. then the British Empire and the Dutch East Indies colonial possessions also in December 1941.
1936
1937
1938
Films made during the Second World War
Note: Soviet films are in Russian and originate in the Russian SFSR, unless otherwise noted.1939
1940
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
Late 1940s">1940s in film">Late 1940s
| Year | Country | Main title | Original title | Director | Battles, campaigns, events depicted |
| 1946 | France | Battle of the Rails | La bataille du rail | René Clément | Resistance on French railways |
| 1946 | Italy | Before Him All Rome Trembled | Avanti a lui tutta Roma tremava | Carmine Gallone | Italian resistance in German-occupied Rome |
| 1946 | United States | ' | William Wyler | 1946 Best Picture depicting American servicemen struggling to return to civilian live after the war | |
| 1946 | United Kingdom | ' | Basil Dearden | British POWs in Germany | |
| 1946 | Italy | ' | Un giorno nella vita | Alessandro Blasetti | A group of Italian partisans seek refuge in a cloistered convent |
| 1946 | Philippines | Death March | Leopoldo Salcedo | Bataan Death March | |
| 1946 | Poland | Forbidden Songs | Zakazane piosenki | Leonard Buczkowski | Musical. Polish resistance 1939–1945 |
| 1946 | Philippines | Garrison 13 | Gregorio Fernandez | War crimes committed by Imperial Japanese Army in the Philippines | |
| 1946 | Philippines | Golden Clock | Orasang Ginto | Manuel Conde | Battle of Bataan and Battle of Corregidor |
| 1946 | Poland Italy | ' | Wielka droga | Michał Waszyński | Polish Campaign 1939, Russia, Africa, Italy 1944 |
| 1946 | Philippines | Guerilyera | Guerilyera | Octavio Silos | Guerrilla movement in the Philippines during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines |
| 1946 | Philippines | I Remember Bataan | Dugo ng Bayan | Fernando Poe, Sr. | Filipino resistance |
| 1946 | Soviet Union Yugoslavia | In the Mountains of Yugoslavia | V gorach Yugoslavii U planinama Jugoslavije | Abram Room | Yugoslav partisans; Draza Mihailovich and Chetniks |
| 1946 | United Kingdom | Journey Together | John Boulting | Three RAF pilots from recruitment to first combat | |
| 1946 | Italy | Monte Cassino | :it:Montecassino |Montecassino | Arturo Gemmiti | Battle of Monte Cassino and destruction of the abbey |
| 1946 | Italy | O sole mio | O sole mio | Giacomo Gentilomo | Four days of Naples |
| 1946 | United States | O.S.S. | Irving Pichel | US agents infiltrate in German-occupied France | |
| 1946 | United States | Rendezvous 24 | James Tinling | Germans planning revenge on Allies through atomic weapons | |
| 1946 | Italy | Outcry | Il sole sorge ancora | Aldo Vergano | Italian disbanded soldiers after the armistice and resistance |
| 1946 | United Kingdom | School for Secrets | Peter Ustinov | Operation Biting | |
| 1946 | United States | ' | Orson Welles | A member of the United Nations War Crimes Committee hunts down a Nazi war criminal who has fled to Connecticut | |
| 1946 | United Kingdom | Theirs is the Glory | Brian Desmond Hurst and Terence Young | Operation Market Garden | |
| 1946 | Philippines | Walang Kamatayan | Walang Kamatayan | Tor Villano | Japanese Occupation of the Philippines |
| 1947 | Italy | Christmas at Camp 119 | Natale al campo 119 | Pietro Francisci | Comedy-drama. Italian POWs in a US camp before repatriation |
| 1947 | United Kingdom | Frieda | Basil Dearden | ||
| 1947 | Italy | How I Lost the War | Come persi la guerra | Carlo Borghesio | Comedy. An unlucky soldier fights in nearly every Italian campaign since the Second Italo-Ethiopian War |
| 1947 | Denmark | Jenny and the Soldier | Soldaten og Jenny | Johan Jacobsen | |
| 1947 | Poland | ' | Ostatni etap | Wanda Jakubowska | Auschwitz-Birkenau |
| 1947 | Italy | Men and Skies | :it:Uomini e cieli|Uomini e cieli | Francesco De Robertis | Regia Aeronautica |
| 1947 | Seven Journeys | In jenen Tagen | Helmut Käutner | Twelve years of Nazi rule as experienced by a car | |
| 1947 | China | ' | Yījiāng Chūnshuǐ Xiàng Dōng Liú | Cai Chusheng, Zheng Junli | Sino-Japanese War |
| 1947 | United States | ' | Henry Hathaway | US agents infiltrate in German-occupied France | |
| 1947 | Italy | To Live in Peace | Vivere in pace | Luigi Zampa | Two former American PoWs hide in an Italian village occupied by the Germans in 1944 |
| 1947 | Japan | War and Peace | Sensō to heiwa | Fumio Kamei | Japanese soldier falls prisoner of the Chinese and then returns to his home |
| 1948 | Italy | ...And Not Say Goodbye | ...E non dirsi addio | Silvio Laurenti Rosa | Three escaped Allied PoWs and three German soldiers fraternize near Rome in November 1943 |
| 1948 | United Kingdom | Against the Wind | Charles Crichton | Commando raid into occupied Belgium | |
| 1948 | Austria | ' | Der Engel mit der Posaune | Karl Hartl | Drama based on Ernst Lothar novel. Salzburg through both world wars |
| 1948 | Poland | Border Street | :pl:Ulica Graniczna |Ulica Graniczna | Aleksander Ford | Holocaust in occupied Poland |
| 1948 | United Kingdom Netherlands | But Not in Vain | Niet Tevergeefs | Edmond T. Gréville | Drama. |
| 1948 | United States | Command Decision | Sam Wood | Command stresses in the US Eighth Air Force | |
| 1946 | Italy | Damned War!... | :it:Accidenti alla guerra!...|Accidenti alla guerra!... | Giorgio Simonelli | Comedy. An Italian disguises himself as a German soldier and is chosen to take part to the Lebensborn |
| 1948 | United States | Fighter Squadron | Raoul Walsh | P-47 fighters in the air war in Europe | |
| 1948 | Italy | ' | La grande strada | Michał Waszyński, Vittorio Cottafavi | Polish Campaign 1939, Russia, Africa, Italy 1944 |
| 1948 | United States | Jungle Patrol | Joseph M. Newman | P-40 fighters in the air war in the New Guinea campaign | |
| 1948 | Italy | ' | La mascotte dei Diavoli Blu | Carlo Baltier | An Italian child becomes blind due to an accident with German cavalrymen during an American bombing, but regains his sight thanks to American physicians |
| 1948 | Occupied Germany | Morituri | Morituri | Eugen York | |
| 1948 | Yugoslavia | On Their Own Territory | Na svoji zemlji | France Štiglic | Slavs fighting to kill Germans and Italians on Eastern Front |
| 1948 | Norway France | ' | La Bataille de l'eau lourde Kampen om tungtvannet | Jean Dréville, Titus Vibe-Müller | Docudrama. Norwegian heavy water sabotage |
| 1948 | Italy | Phantoms of the Sea | :it:Fantasmi del mare|Fantasmi del mare | Francesco De Robertis | The effects of the Italian armistice on an Italian warship |
| 1948 | United States Switzerland | ' | Fred Zinnemann | Displaced persons in postwar Germany | |
| 1948 | Poland | ' | Stalowe serca | Stanisław Januszewski | Silesia, Poland 1944 / 1945 |
| 1948 | Denmark | ' | Støt står den danske sømand | Bodil Ipsen, Lau Lauritzen Jr. | Docudrama. Danish sailors |
| 1949 | United States | Battleground | William A. Wellman | 101st Airborne Division in the Battle of the Bulge | |
| 1949 | Soviet Union | ' | Stalingradskaya bitva | Vladimir Petrov | Battle of Stalingrad |
| 1949 | Philippines | Capas | Capas | Gregorio Fernandez | Bataan Death March survivor, appointed hometown mayor by Japanese, supports guerrilla activity |
| 1949 | Soviet Union | Encounter at the Elbe | Vstrecha na Elbe | Grigori Aleksandrov, Aleksei Utkin | Elbe Day |
| 1949 | Soviet Union | ' | Padeniye Berlina | Mikheil Chiaureli | Battle of Berlin |
| 1949 | Italy | ' | La fiamma che non si spegne | Vittorio Cottafavi | Italian hero Salvo D'Acquisto |
| 1949 | United Kingdom United States | ' | Vincent Sherman | British and US wounded soldiers in the Burma campaign | |
| 1949 | United States | Home of the Brave | Mark Robson | Black soldier paralyzed after unit attacked on Pacific island | |
| 1949 | United States | Lost Boundaries | Alfred L. Werker | Drama. White US Navy officer is actually Negro | |
| 1949 | United States | Malaya | Richard Thorpe | Smuggler paroled to sneak rubber crop out of Japanese-held Malaya | |
| 1949 | France | Mission in Tangier | Mission à Tanger | André Hunebelle | Journalist carries documents to London from Tangiers |
| 1949 | Italy | Monastery of Santa Chiara | :it:Monastero di Santa Chiara |Monastero di Santa Chiara | :it:Mario Sequi|Mario Sequi | Drama. Naples during the German and then the Allied occupations |
| 1949 | Spain | Neutrality | Neutralidad | Eusebio Fernández Ardavín | A neutral Spanish merchantman rescues American sailors from a sunk ship |
| 1949 | Poland | ' | Za wami pójdą inni | Antoni Bohdziewicz | Warsaw, Polish resistance |
| 1949 | United Kingdom | Private Angelo | Michael Anderson, Peter Ustinov | Light-hearted story. Reluctantly conscripted Italian soldier | |
| 1949 | Italy | Sailors Without Stars | :it:Marinai senza stelle|Marinai senza stelle | Francesco De Robertis | Italian boys embark on a torpedo boat |
| 1949 | United States | Sands of Iwo Jima | Allan Dwan | Battle of Tarawa and Battle of Iwo Jima | |
| 1949 | United Kingdom | Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger | Bomb disposal | ||
| 1949 | Denmark | That applies to us all | Det gælder os alle | Alice O'Fredericks | Young survivor from a concentration camp |
| 1949 | United Kingdom | They Were Not Divided | Terence Young | The British Guards Armoured Division | |
| 1949 | United States | Twelve O'Clock High | Henry King | B-17 bombers of the US Eighth Air Force |
Films made during the Cold War
Early 1950s
Late 1950s
Early 1960s
Late 1960s
Early 1970s
Late 1970s
Early 1980s
Late 1980s
Films made since the Cold War
Early 1990s
Late 1990s
Early 2000s
Late 2000s
2010s
In development
Science fiction, fantasy and horror
TV series
Dramatised documentaries
A dramatised documentary is a documentary film which includes dramatised scenes using actors in costume.This format is distinct from a docudrama, which is a fully dramatised fact-based fictional work in a documentary style.
| Year | Country | Main title | Original title | Director | Battles, campaigns, events depicted |
| 1940 | France | My Crimes After Mein Kampf | :fr:Après Mein Kampf, mes crimes|Après Mein Kampf, mes crimes | "Jean-Jacques Valjean" | Assassinations of Ernst Röhm and Kurt von Schleicher on Night of the Long Knives, 1934, then Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuß, also 1934 |
| 1940 | Mein Kampf – My Crimes | Norman Lee | |||
| 1992 | Canada | ' | Brian McKenna | Drama. Royal Rifles regiment at Battle of Hong Kong, 1941 | |
| 1992 | Canada | ' | Brian McKenna | Drama. RCAF Lancaster bombing of German cities | |
| 1992 | Canada | ' | Brian McKenna | Drama. Black Watch regiment at Battle of Verrières Ridge, 1944 | |
| 1995 | Canada | ' | Brian McKenna | Drama. | |
| 1995 | Canada | ' | Brian McKenna | Drama. | |
| 1996 | Canada | ' | Brian McKenna | Drama. Polish Gen. Wladyslaw Anders | |
| 2003 | United Kingdom | Killing Hitler | Jeremy Lovering | Drama. Operation Foxley plan to kill Hitler, 1944 |
Spanish Civil War
In the Spanish Civil War, the Nationalists are supported by Mussolini's Italy, Hitler's Germany, and a small number of international rightist volunteers. The Republicans are supported by Stalin's Soviet Union and a large number of leftist volunteers, the International Brigades.The Nationalists under Francisco Franco win.
During World War II, Franco remains neutral – so Gibraltar is never overrun – but nevertheless he sends the Blue Division to fight for Germany on the Eastern Front.
For films about the Blue Division, see the List of World War II films since 1950.