30 Best Coming-of-Age Movies of All Time, Ranked

Updated Aug 20, 2026, 6:36 AM EDT Jeremy has more than 2700 published articles on Collider to his name, and has been writing for the site since February 2022. He's an omnivore when it comes to his movie-watching diet, so will gladly watch and write about almost anything, from old Godzilla films to gangster flicks to samurai movies to classic musicals to the French New Wave to the MCU... well, maybe not the Disney+ shows. His favorite directors include Martin Scorsese, Sergio Leone, Akira Kurosawa, Quentin Tarantino, Werner Herzog, John Woo, Bob Fosse, Fritz Lang, Guillermo del Toro, and Yoji Yamada. He's also very proud of the fact that he's seen every single Nicolas Cage movie released before 2022, even though doing so often felt like a tremendous waste of time. He's plagued by the question of whether or not The Room is genuinely terrible or some kind of accidental masterpiece, and has been for more than 12 years (and a similar number of viewings). When he's not writing lists - and the occasional feature article - for Collider, he also likes to upload film reviews to his Letterboxd profile (username: Jeremy Urquhart) and Instagram account. He has achieved his 2025 goal of reading all 13,467 novels written by Stephen King, and plans to spend the next year or two getting through the author's 82,756 short stories and 105,433 novellas. Coming-of-age movies have always been — and will always be — relatable and popular. If viewers watch movies that deal with the trials and tribulations of growing up when they are in the process of growing up, they're likely to strike a chord. If they are a little older or have already come of age, then these films can evoke feelings of nostalgia and longing, bringing back memories of times long gone but no less impactful. That's the clearest way to describe coming-of-age movies: they're about the trials and tribulations of growing up and usually center on characters who are children, teenagers, or sometimes even young adults. These can be funny, heartwarming, crushingly sad, or all of the above, and the genre itself is destined to never grow out of style. What follows are some of the greatest coming-of-age movies of all time, ranked from great to greatest. 30 '10 Things I Hate About You' (1999) Image via Buena Vista Pictures The 90s were an amazing time when it came to coming-of-age teen romance comedies, with many of the most prominent ones acting as a modern spin on literary classics of the past. Easily one of the most acclaimed examples of such is 10 Things I Hate About You, a high school romance interpretation of the Shakespeare classic, The Taming of the Shrew. The mixture of the timeless Shakespeare structure with an incredibly endearing case quickly made the film one of the most celebrated teen movies of the era. Like many great teen movies of the era, the film expertly utilizes the conventions and archetypes of teen movies to tell a dynamic story that goes beyond the petty drama and gossip of teenage life. With exceptional supporting performances and an absolutely killer soundtrack, the film has had a special place in the hearts of many who grew up with it, arguably being one of the very best teen movies ever made. —Robert Lee 29 'Petite Maman' (2021) Image via NEON While many coming-of-age fantasy movies find strength in loosely adapting and recreating the timeless fairy tale coming-of-age stories of old, it's especially rare for a fully original modern fantasy film to recreate the inherent magic and timeless charm of those original fairy tales. Petite Maman is one such film that succeeds in creating a fairy tale fantasy for the modern era, telling a beautiful story that intertwines the concepts of coming to terms with loss and growing empathy and understanding towards family. This magical energy that Céline Sciamma fills her film with doesn't come from a place of high fantasy elements or extravagant visuals, but instead a sense of raw, personal earnestness and reflections on human nature from the perspective of a young child. It's easily one of the most underrated fantasy films of recent memory and one of the very best coming-of-age movies of the 2020s. —Robert Lee 28 'Dead Poets Society' (1989) Image via Buena Vista Pictures Robin Williams is the star of Dead Poets Society, a funny movie that's not quite a comedy but a coming-of-age story that focuses on a group of boarding school students. Williams plays Mr. Keating, an English teacher who inspires them to think outside the box, which clashes with the old-fashioned attitudes of their school and its headmaster. Dead Poets Society is sentimental but earnest and ultimately powerful, and its final scenes are likely to move even those viewers with the most hardened of hearts. It's also notable nowadays for featuring one of Ethan Hawke's earliest performances. At just 18, Hawke played Todd Anderson, one of the students and the film's de facto protagonist. 27 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower' (2012) Image via Summit Entertainment Though Stephen Chbosky's 2021 film Dear Evan Hansen certainly doesn't rank as one of the great coming-of-age movies, his 2012 film The Perks of Being a Wallflower certainly does. Interestingly, he wrote the novel on which it was based, adapted it into a screenplay, and then directed the film. It's set in the early 1990s and focuses on a shy high schooler named Charlie, the titular wallflower, who becomes more confident after befriending an older student and her stepbrother. The Perks of Being a Wallflower hits all the right notes and feels impeccably bittersweet, featuring a fantastic soundtrack to boot and some of the most memorable quotes in modern teen cinema. 26 'Boyz n the Hood' (1991) Image via Columbia Pictures A compelling crime-drama film that also doubles as a powerful coming-of-age movie, Boyz n the Hood follows a group of teenagers living in South Central Los Angeles. It's ultimately about the struggles of growing up in an area where drug dealing and violence can sometimes seem like everyday occurrences, even for those who don't want to be directly involved in such a lifestyle. It's one of the bleaker and more intense coming-of-age movies out there, but it has to be to accurately convey such a lifestyle and not sugarcoat it. Boyz n' the Hood has stood the test of time and helped influence an entire sub-genre — the so-called Hood Movies. However, it still stands as arguably the best of the lot, a truly groundbreaking film that only gets better with age. 25 'Persepolis' (2007) Image Via Diaphana Distribution Persepolis is another animated film that shows animation is more a medium rather than a genre itself. Here, it's used to tell an emotionally resonant and intensely personal coming-of-age story. This is a French-language film about a young girl named Marjane growing up in Iran during a turbulent time in history, with things beginning around the time of the 1979 Iranian revolution. With an animation style as unique as the story it tells, Persepolis is an eye-opening historical document and a compelling, powerful coming-of-age journey. The intimate and personal nature of the film likely comes from the fact that Persepolis was based on an autobiographical graphic novel, too, by French-Iranian author/filmmaker Marjane Satrapi, who also co-directed this film adaptation. 24 'Say Anything...' (1989) Image via 20th Century Studios Filmmaker Cameron Crowe is no stranger to the coming-of-age genre, and neither was actor John Cusack, who started his career in the 1980s as a teenager/young adult. The two collaborated on 1989's Say Anything..., which might be best known as that movie where Cusack holds a boombox over his head (it's an admittedly easy image to reference). Of course, the movie itself is much more than just 100 minutes of John Cusack holding a boombox, with the main plot involving a relationship blossoming between an average student (Cusack) and the year's valedictorian (Ione Skye). With a 1989 release, it just sneaks into the 1980s, a decade well-renowned for the quantity and, for the most part, quality of coming-of-age movies released during it. Instantly iconic and deeply relatable, Say Anything... is clever, witty, and heartwarming, a defining piece of Gen X culture that remains impactful today. 23 'Nickel Boys' (2024) Image via Amazon MGM Studios Employing a distinct style of first-person filmmaking to truly place the audience in the shoes of its lead characters, Nickel Boys is an emotional story of pain and forced growth as it follows two young black teenagers navigating the pains of a reform school in Florida. As opposed to entirely relying on its first-person visuals as a gimmick, Nickel Boys seamlessly utilizes its visual distinction to create more raw, impactful storybeats with shocking revelations and powerful immersion. It works in tandem with the dark and painful subject matter of the film as a whole, as it sheds light on the shocking reality and history of covering up the atrocities of the past and having to grow old with a lingering trauma that never truly goes away. The blend of joyful lighthearted moments of teenage fun with the gross painful reality of their situation makes it one of the very best coming-of-age movies of recent memory. —Robert Lee 22 'Pather Panchali' (1955) Image via Aurora Film Corporation When a filmmaker as great as Akira Kurosawa states a film is among his favorites, it's probably worth seeking it out. Such is the case for Pather Panchali, a movie loved by Kurosawa and millions of others, and the first part of the acclaimed Apu trilogy made by legendary Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray. Apu is ultimately the main character of the trilogy, but as he's only a young child in this first installment, the focus is probably more on his family's lives, particularly his father and mother, who face hardships when it comes to providing for their children in a small Bengal village. Although watching the sequels is crucial to truly appreciating Apu's story, Pather Panchali is a remarkable and rewarding film about humanity and universality, a modern classic and nothing short of a masterpiece. 21 'Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.' (2023) Image via Lionsgate Films Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. was an acclaimed novel released all the way back in 1970, and it surprisingly took more than half a century to get adapted into a feature film. The story centers on an 11-year-old named Margaret and follows her pre-adolescent journey after her family moves from New York City into the suburbs of New Jersey. Thankfully, the 2023 adaptation did the novel justice. Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret already feels like an essential coming-of-age movie despite its relatively recent release. It captures the awkwardness and anxieties experienced by girls as they approach their teenage years, doing so in a way that's honest yet accessible, balancing the hardships present in such a premise with heart and humor.