Screen psychology in date order
Feature films, television series, and documentaries from silent expressionism to contemporary streaming, arranged in one continuous chronology. Open any work for the psychological concepts, portrayal limits, spoiler-safe questions, and matching textbook sections.
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1920 to 1949: Silent era, expressionism and early sound
These selected works use expressionist imagery, comedy, suspense, and noir to explore trust, caregiving, work, and social roles.
- 1920Film (link to this row)
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
A carnival showman uses a sleepwalker to carry out murders.
Directed or created by: Robert Wiene (Germany). OpenStax: Ch. 4, 12.
- 1921Film (link to this row)
The Kid
A rescuer raises an orphan he finds in the streets, with the Tramp character at the center of an early Chaplin feature presented in a restored rerelease edition.
Directed or created by: Charles Chaplin (United States). OpenStax: Ch. 9.
- 1927Film (link to this row)
Metropolis
A powerful businessman in a future city recruits a scientist to suppress labor reformers.
Directed or created by: Fritz Lang. OpenStax: Ch. 12, 13.
- 1929Documentary (link to this row)
Man with a Movie Camera
A cameraman's observations of city life form an experimental documentary without a conventional plot or professional cast.
Directed or created by: Dziga Vertov. OpenStax: Ch. 5.
- 1931Film (link to this row)
M
In this 1931 German thriller directed by Fritz Lang, a city searches for a serial killer of children, and the resulting public hysteria and social tension become as central as the pursuit itself.
Directed or created by: Fritz Lang (Germany). OpenStax: Ch. 12.
- 1932Film (link to this row)
Freaks
A trapeze artist's scheme against her husband sets off conflict in a circus sideshow.
Directed or created by: Tod Browning. OpenStax: Ch. 12.
- 1936Film (link to this row)
Modern Times
A factory worker played by Chaplin struggles with industrial routines and forms a relationship with a young woman. The comedy places work and class conflict in a Depression-era setting.
Directed or created by: Charles Chaplin (United States). OpenStax: Ch. 13.
- 1944Film (link to this row)
Gaslight
Paula puts aside her singing career for marriage. As life with her husband grows threatening, she struggles to trust her own judgment.
Directed or created by: George Cukor. OpenStax: Ch. 8, 12.
- 1945Film (link to this row)
The Lost Weekend
A writer's drinking takes him into a four-day crisis.
Directed or created by: Billy Wilder. OpenStax: Ch. 4, 16.
- 1945Film (link to this row)
Spellbound
A psychiatrist becomes personally involved with a man whose uncertain identity and memory loss are part of a crime mystery.
Directed or created by: Alfred Hitchcock. OpenStax: Ch. 8, 16.
1950 to 1969: Postwar modernization and institutional critique
Compare conflicting testimony, jury deliberation, family tensions, and stories of control across these selected postwar films.
- 1950Film (link to this row)
Rashomon
An encounter involving a samurai, his wife, and a thief ends in violence. At the later trial, four accounts of the incident diverge.
Directed or created by: Akira Kurosawa. OpenStax: Ch. 8, 12.
- 1950Film (link to this row)
Sunset Boulevard
A former silent-film star and a struggling screenwriter enter a relationship.
Directed or created by: Billy Wilder. OpenStax: Ch. 10, 12.
- 1951Film (link to this row)
A Streetcar Named Desire
Blanche DuBois arrives in New Orleans to stay with her sister, Stella. Tension grows between Blanche and Stella's husband, Stanley.
Directed or created by: Elia Kazan. OpenStax: Ch. 10, 14.
- 1952Film (link to this row)
Ikiru
A public servant facing a fatal illness reconsiders his remaining time. Kurosawa’s drama uses that situation to open questions about purpose, responsibility and the choices that make a life feel meaningful.
Directed or created by: Akira Kurosawa (Japan). OpenStax: Ch. 9, 10.
- 1953Film (link to this row)
Tokyo Story
An aging couple travels from Onomichi to Tokyo to visit their adult children, who are absorbed in busy lives. Their widowed daughter-in-law offers them particular warmth, inviting questions about care, family expectations and aging.
Directed or created by: Yasujirō Ozu. OpenStax: Ch. 9.
- 1955Film (link to this row)
Rebel Without a Cause
Three teenagers navigate conflict with their families, peer expectations, and rebellion.
Directed or created by: Nicholas Ray. OpenStax: Ch. 9, 12.
- 1957Film (link to this row)
12 Angry Men
One juror resists a quick guilty verdict, forcing the rest of the jury to reconsider a murder charge against a teenager. Deliberation becomes the setting for competing judgments about evidence and the accused.
Directed or created by: Sidney Lumet (United States). OpenStax: Ch. 12.
- 1957Film (link to this row)
Wild Strawberries
Written and directed by Ingmar Bergman and starring Victor Sjöström, this 1957 Swedish drama follows 78-year-old Professor Isak Borg as he re-evaluates his life and past during a road trip between Stockholm and Lund.
Directed or created by: Ingmar Bergman (Sweden). OpenStax: Ch. 8, 9.
- 1958Film (link to this row)
Vertigo
A former San Francisco detective with a fear of heights is hired to follow a woman and becomes increasingly absorbed in her.
Directed or created by: Alfred Hitchcock. OpenStax: Ch. 5, 10.
- 1960Film (link to this row)
Psycho
After stealing money, Marion Crane stays at an isolated motel run by Norman Bates. Her disappearance brings other people into the mystery.
Directed or created by: Alfred Hitchcock. OpenStax: Ch. 12.
- 1962Film (link to this row)
The Manchurian Candidate
Raymond Shaw returns from Korean War captivity after being conditioned for an assassination plot. Another former prisoner begins to uncover the conspiracy.
Directed or created by: John Frankenheimer (United States). OpenStax: Ch. 4, 12.
1970 to 1989: Institutions, development and technology
The selected works raise questions about education, institutional authority, social perception, and the pace of technological life.
- 1970Film (link to this row)
The Wild Child
Inspired by an incident in 1798, the drama follows a physician attempting to teach a boy who has grown up apart from ordinary social life.
Directed or created by: François Truffaut (France). OpenStax: Ch. 9.
- 1971Film (link to this row)
A Clockwork Orange
A violent young gang leader is imprisoned and subjected to an institutional conditioning procedure intended to make violence repulsive to him. The premise raises questions about learning, punishment, personal choice and the limits of behavior modification.
Directed or created by: Stanley Kubrick. OpenStax: Ch. 2, 6.
- 1975Film (link to this row)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Hoping to avoid prison, a man enters a psychiatric institution and challenges the authority governing life on the ward.
Directed or created by: Milos Forman. OpenStax: Ch. 12, 16.
- 1976Film (link to this row)
Taxi Driver
A New York City cab driver struggles with loneliness and desperation that escalate toward violence. The story invites discussion of social isolation, emotion and the assumptions viewers make about a character’s behavior.
Directed or created by: Martin Scorsese. OpenStax: Ch. 10, 12.
- 1979Film (link to this row)
Being There
After losing the household that sheltered him, a gardener enters Washington social circles. People in positions of power read political insight into his comments about gardening.
Directed or created by: Hal Ashby (United States). OpenStax: Ch. 12.
- 1980Film (link to this row)
Ordinary People
A family tries to recover after a young man’s drowning. Adapted from Judith Guest’s novel and directed by Robert Redford, the drama invites questions about how loss affects communication and close relationships.
Directed or created by: Robert Redford (United States). OpenStax: Ch. 10, 14, 16.
- 1983Documentary (link to this row)
Koyaanisqatsi
Using a sequence of images and time-lapse photography, the film contrasts natural settings with technology-dependent life in the Northern Hemisphere.
Directed or created by: Godfrey Reggio (United States). OpenStax: Ch. 5, 12.
- 1984Film (link to this row)
Paris, Texas
Directed by Wim Wenders and written by Sam Shepard, this 1984 character study follows a nearly mute drifter across the American Southwest as he tries to reconnect with his young son in Los Angeles and with his missing wife.
Directed or created by: Wim Wenders (Germany). OpenStax: Ch. 8, 9.
- 1988Film (link to this row)
Rain Man
Directed by Barry Levinson, this 1988 drama follows a self-absorbed auto dealer who learns after his estranged father's death that a large estate has been placed in trust and discovers an older autistic brother, whom he takes on a cross-country car trip.
Directed or created by: Barry Levinson (United States). OpenStax: Ch. 7, 9.
1990 to 1999: Repetition and constructed reality
Groundhog Day and The Truman Show offer different fictional situations for discussing learning, identity, agency, and how a world becomes familiar.
- 1990Film (link to this row)
Awakenings
In a Bronx chronic-care hospital, research physician Malcolm Sayer tries an experimental drug with patients described as catatonic, beginning with Leonard. The treatment and the patients’ experiences invite questions about experimental care, evidence and the meaning of recovery.
Directed or created by: Penny Marshall (United States). OpenStax: Ch. 3, 16.
- 1993Film (link to this row)
Groundhog Day
A weather presenter covering a Pennsylvania celebration becomes stuck in a day that repeatedly restarts. The comic premise turns repetition into a question about motivation and change.
Directed or created by: Harold Ramis. OpenStax: Ch. 10.
- 1994Documentary (link to this row)
Hoop Dreams
Filmed over five years, this documentary follows two Chicago teenagers and their families as the boys pursue professional basketball dreams through competitive scholastic athletics while facing intense pressures at home and in their neighborhoods.
Directed or created by: Steve James (United States). OpenStax: Ch. 9, 10.
- 1997Film (link to this row)
Good Will Hunting
A 1997 drama about Will Hunting, a headstrong working-class genius at a top American university, who after run-ins with the law is sent to a psychology professor and is forced to confront his past.
Directed or created by: Gus Van Sant (United States). OpenStax: Ch. 7, 16.
- 1998Film (link to this row)
The Truman Show
Truman Burbank believes he is living an ordinary life, while an entire television production organizes the world around him. His town and relationships have been constructed for an audience.
Directed or created by: Peter Weir. OpenStax: Ch. 12.
2000 to 2014: Memory and documentary interpretation
Memento and Grizzly Man invite discussion of memory, narrative perspective, and the limits of interpreting another person through a film.
- 2000Film (link to this row)
Memento
Leonard Shelby pursues his wife's killer while struggling to form new memories. He uses handwritten reminders, instant photographs, and body markings to track information; the film arranges events in reverse order.
Directed or created by: Christopher Nolan (United States). OpenStax: Ch. 8.
- 2004Film (link to this row)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
A 2004 science-fiction romantic drama in which Joel learns that his girlfriend Clementine has had their relationship erased from her mind, contacts the inventor of the process to undergo the same treatment, and realizes as his memories fade how much he still loves her.
Directed or created by: Michel Gondry (United States). OpenStax: Ch. 8, 10.
- 2005Documentary (link to this row)
Grizzly Man
Werner Herzog builds a documentary around Timothy Treadwell's recordings of living near Alaskan bears. The film considers his attachment to the animals and the encounter in which he died.
Directed or created by: Werner Herzog (United States). OpenStax: Ch. 2, 10.
- 2007Film (link to this row)
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Directed by Julian Schnabel and written by Ronald Harwood from Jean-Dominique Bauby's autobiography, this drama follows the story of the Elle editor who suffered a 1995 stroke that left him mute and nearly completely paralyzed, and who dictated his memoir by blinking his left eye.
Directed or created by: Julian Schnabel (France, United States). OpenStax: Ch. 3, 8.
- 2008Series (link to this row)
In Treatment
This drama unfolds through psychotherapy sessions from the perspectives of therapists and patients. Its first season follows Paul through weekly patient sessions and his own visits to a retired therapist, creating space to discuss the therapeutic relationship and the therapist’s need for support.
Directed or created by: Not stated in inspected source. OpenStax: Ch. 16.
- 2008Documentary (link to this row)
Waltz with Bashir
A friend’s recurring nightmare prompts filmmaker Ari Folman to seek accounts of their experiences during the 1982 Lebanon War. Animated reconstruction and interviews open questions about remembering, gaps in recollection and the limits of personal testimony.
Directed or created by: Ari Folman. OpenStax: Ch. 8, 14.
- 2010Film (link to this row)
Black Swan
Nina, a dancer in a New York ballet company, is cast as the swan queen while facing competition from a new rival. The role and the surrounding pressure provide a starting point for discussing motivation, emotion and performance.
Directed or created by: Darren Aronofsky (United States). OpenStax: Ch. 10, 14.
- 2011Film (link to this row)
A Separation
Written and directed by Asghar Farhadi, this 2011 drama set in contemporary Iran follows Simin and Nader as their marriage dissolves over whether to leave Iran with their daughter Termeh or remain to care for Nader's father, who has Alzheimer's disease, with conflict deepening after Nader hires a young woman to help with his care.
Directed or created by: Asghar Farhadi. OpenStax: Ch. 9, 12.
- 2012Documentary (link to this row)
The Act of Killing
Anwar and other former death-squad leaders in Indonesia are invited to stage scenes about killings from 1965 using favorite movie genres. Their performances place personal accounts alongside deliberate reconstruction, raising questions about recollection, self-presentation and the documentary’s method.
Directed or created by: Joshua Oppenheimer, Christine Cynn, Anonymous (Denmark, Norway, United Kingdom). OpenStax: Ch. 12.
- 2013Film (link to this row)
Her
In a near-future Los Angeles, a heartbroken man who writes personal letters for others meets an advanced voice-based operating system, and their friendship deepens into an eventual love, raising questions about intimacy and its risks in a modern world.
Directed or created by: Spike Jonze. OpenStax: Ch. 10, 12.
- 2014Series (link to this row)
BoJack Horseman
This animated comedy-drama series follows BoJack Horseman, a former star of a 1990s sitcom, as he hires a ghostwriter for a memoir while living in Hollywood and contending with dissatisfaction and self-image.
Directed or created by: Raphael Bob-Waksberg. OpenStax: Ch. 12, 14.
2015 to the present: Contemporary screen psychology and digital life
The selected films, series, and documentaries approach emotions, aging, early development, therapy, and identity through different narrative forms.
- 2015Film (link to this row)
Concussion
Forensic neuropathologist Bennet Omalu investigates a professional football player’s brain trauma and faces institutional resistance when trying to make his findings known. The biographical drama invites questions about scientific evidence, professional responsibility and how a discovery reaches the public.
Directed or created by: Not stated in inspected source. OpenStax: Ch. 2, 3.
- 2015Film (link to this row)
Inside Out
A move to San Francisco unsettles Riley and her family. The film turns her emotions into a group of characters, led by Joy, whose competing priorities shape her response to new surroundings.
Directed or created by: Pete Docter. OpenStax: Ch. 8, 10.
- 2015Film (link to this row)
Room
Ma and Jack are confined in a windowless room, where imagination helps make everyday life bearable. Their escape brings unfamiliar surroundings and new difficulties, opening questions about development, safety and adapting to a wider world.
Directed or created by: Lenny Abrahamson. OpenStax: Ch. 9.
- 2015Film (link to this row)
The Stanford Prison Experiment
A 2015 drama starring Billy Crudup as Stanford professor Philip Zimbardo, depicting the 1971 study in which 24 student volunteers were assigned as prisoners and guards in a simulated jail.
Directed or created by: Kyle Patrick Alvarez (United States). OpenStax: Ch. 2, 12.
- 2016Film (link to this row)
Arrival
When spacecraft appear around the world, linguist Louise Banks joins a team trying to understand their visitors. The threat of international conflict gives the communication task urgency and invites questions about how people interpret unfamiliar language.
Directed or created by: Denis Villeneuve (United States). OpenStax: Ch. 7.
- 2017Series (link to this row)
Mindhunter
In a crime drama set in the late 1970s, FBI agents begin interviewing murderers and consult Dr. Wendy Carr as they develop ways of classifying their subjects. The investigation opens questions about interviews, categories and the evidence needed to support them.
Directed or created by: Joe Penhall. OpenStax: Ch. 2, 12.
- 2018Documentary (link to this row)
Three Identical Strangers
Three nineteen-year-olds in New York discover in 1980 that they are identical triplets separated at birth. The documentary follows their reunion and the further questions it raises about their lives and separation.
Directed or created by: Tim Wardle. OpenStax: Ch. 2, 9.
- 2020Documentary (link to this row)
Babies
This two-part documentary series follows infants through their first full year of life, exploring how movement, senses, caregiving relationships, and the interaction of biology and environment shape early development.
Directed or created by: Not stated in inspected source. OpenStax: Ch. 9.
- 2020Film (link to this row)
The Father
An older man resists the help his daughter arranges as their everyday lives become harder to manage. The synopsis frames the story through uncertainty about memory, identity, and reality.
Directed or created by: Florian Zeller. OpenStax: Ch. 8.
- 2020Series (link to this row)
The Queen's Gambit
Co-created by Scott Frank and Allan Scott and adapted from Walter Tevis's novel, this 2020 limited series follows Beth Harmon from a 1950s Kentucky orphanage as she discovers an extraordinary talent for chess while contending with dependence on tranquilizers and a male-dominated competitive arena.
Directed or created by: Scott Frank, Allan Scott. OpenStax: Ch. 4, 7.
- 2022–presentSeries (link to this row)
Severance
Mark leads a team at Lumon Industries, where a surgical procedure separates memories of working life from everything outside it. A mystery unsettles this arrangement and raises questions about what his work involves.
Directed or created by: Dan Erickson (creator), Ben Stiller (director and executive producer). OpenStax: Ch. 10.
- 2022Documentary (link to this row)
Stutz
Jonah Hill films conversations with Phil Stutz, his psychiatrist and friend. Their exchange includes personal experiences of mental health and Stutz's visualization exercises, known as The Tools.
Directed or created by: Jonah Hill. OpenStax: Ch. 16.
- 2024Film (link to this row)
Inside Out 2
Riley's transition into adolescence brings Anxiety and other newcomers into her inner world. The familiar emotions must adjust as her relationships and sense of self change.
Directed or created by: Kelsey Mann. OpenStax: Ch. 10.
- 2025Series (link to this row)
Adolescence
Created by Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham and directed by Philip Barantini, this four-part limited series follows the aftermath when fictional 13-year-old Jamie Miller is accused of murdering a schoolmate, told through perspectives that include his family, police investigators, and a psychologist.
Directed or created by: Jack Thorne, Stephen Graham, Philip Barantini. OpenStax: Ch. 9, 12.
About this timeline
The timeline holds the same 60 screen works as the Directory, ordered by release year. For multi-season television series, the start and end years (or ongoing status) are shown together so long-running shows are not flattened into a single year.
Fictional films and series illustrate how culture imagines memory, emotion, perception, and mental health, while documentaries examine real experiments, personal memoirs, or clinical settings. Neither format is treated as clinical proof, and characters are never diagnosed.
Course connections use OpenStax Psychology 2e. See the Topics and course map and the Sources and credits page for full bibliography and license details.