Where to watch free movies online? Let’s get you started. First, we have listed dozens of free, high quality films that you can watch online. Then, below, you can find movie sites that feature free movie collections. Classics, international, film noir, documentaries, indies — they’re all here, waiting to be watched. So please
- A Farewell to Arms (1932) With Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes.
- A Fistful of Dollars (1964) Italian spaghetti western film directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood. (US viewers only)
- A Woman (1915) With Charlie Chaplin.
- Adaptation (2002) Directed by Spike Jonze. Nicolas Cage. (US viewers only)
- A Story of Healing (1997) Academy Award for best documentary short subject.
- Alexander Nevsky (1938) A historical drama film directed by the great Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein.
- Angel on My Shoulder (1946) A gangster comedy starring Claude Rains and Paul Muni.
- Battleship Potemkin (1925) Directed by the great Russian director, Sergei Eisenstein.
- Behind the Screen (1916) With Charlie Chaplin.
- Birth a Nation (1915) Directed by DW Griffith. A landmark work in film history (1915) with racist undertones. Also see his later movie, Abraham Lincoln.
- Beat the Devil (1953) Directed by John Huston, with Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre.
- Blackmail (1929) Directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
- Bon Voyage (1944) A French language WWII propaganda film by Alfred Hitchcock. Also see Aventure Malgache.
- Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, with Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Anthony Hopkins. (US viewers only)
- Carnival of Souls (1962) A low budget B film that became a cult classic.
- Charade (1963) Starring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. (US viewers only)
- Cry Baby (1990) One of Johnny Depps early ones. (US viewers only)
- Death Mills (1945) Billy Wilder’s documentary in German showing what Allies found when they liberated Nazi extermination camps.
- Death Rides a Horse (1967) Giulio Petroni’s top spaghetti western.
- Dementia 13 (1963) A horror film that was one of Francis Ford Coppola’s early mainstream efforts..
- Detour (1945) Edgar Ulmer’s cult classic noir film shot in 6 days.
- D.O.A. (1950) Rudolph Maté’s classic noir film. You can also watch the movie here.
- Dry Summer (1974) Turkish film restored by Martin Scorsese’s WCF.
- Eyes Without a Face (1960) Directed by Georges Franju. French film subtitled in English.
- Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) Starring Johnny Depp. (US viewers only)
- For a Few Dollars More (1965) Italian spaghetti western film directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood. (US viewers only)
- Happy Go Lovely (1951) A classic comedy with David Niven and Cesare Romero.
- Hell’s House (1932) With Bette Davis.
- His Girl Friday (1940) Directed by Howard Hawks. A classic comedy with Cary Grant.
- Home (2009) Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s film that will make you look at our planet in a new way.
- Impact (1940) Arthur Lubin’s well reviewed noir flic.
- In Cold Blood (1967) With Robert Blake. (US viewers only)
- Intolerance (1916) D.W. Griffith’s most ambitious silent film is one of the landmarks in cinematic history.
- It Happened One Night (1934) Directed by Frank Capra, with Clark Gable.
- It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) Directed by the great Frank Capra. Starring Jimmy Stewart.
- Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914) With Charlie Chaplin.
- Koyaanisqatsi (1982) By Godfrey Reggio, with music composed by Philip Glass. (US viewers only)
- La Femme Nikita (1990). Directed by Luc Besson. (US viewers only)
- Lost in Translation (2003) With Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray. (US viewers only)
- M (1931) Directed by Fritz Lang, with Peter Lorre. In German.
- Meet John Doe (1941) Frank Capra’s comedy, with Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck.
- Monty Python’s And Now For Something Completely Different (1971)
- Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) Directed by Frank Capra, with Jimmy Stewart.
- Murder! (1930) Directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
- My Best Friend’s Birthday (1987) Directed by Quentin Tarantino.
- Night of the Living Dead (1968). A cult horror classic.
- Nosferatu (1922) Classic German silent film.
- Of Mice and Men (1992) With John Malkovich. (US viewers only)
- Panic in the Streets (1950) A great noir movie directed by Elia Kazan, with Jack Palance.
- Paradise Canyon (1935) Starring John Wayne.
- Penny Serenade (1941) With Cary Grant and Irene Dunne.
- Quicksand (1950) With Mickey Rooney and Peter Lorre.
- Rashomon (1950) By the great Japanese director Akira Kurosawa.
- Reefer Madness (1936) A drug film for the ages.
- Rembrandt’s J’accuse (2008) An indie directed by Peter Greenaway.
- Requiem for a Dream (2000) With Jennifer Connelly and Ellen Burstyn. (US viewers only)
- Road to Bali (1952) With Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour.
- Romance Sentimentale (1930) Directed by Sergei Eisenstein.
- Rich and Strange (1931) Directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
- Ronin (1998) With Robert DeNiro. (US viewers only)
- Royal Wedding (1951) With Fred Astaire.
- Scarlet Street (1945) Directed by Fritz Lang with Edward G. Robinson. A film noir great.
- Shadow of a Doubt (1943) Directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
- She Done Him Wrong (1933) With Mae West and Cary Grant.
- Secret Agent (1936) Directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
- Sex Madness (1938) This is to sex what Reefer Madness is to drugs. YouTube version here.
- Sid and Nancy (1986) The Sex Pistols revisited. With Gary Oldman and Chloe Webb.
- Sisters (1973) Directed by Brian DePalma with Margo Kidder.
- Sita Sings the Blues (2008) New prize-winning animated film by Nina Paley.
- Slacker (1991) Richard Linklater’s Gen-X, generation defining indie film.
- Spartacus (1959) Starring Laurence Olivier and Kirk Douglas. (US viewers only)
- Suddenly (1954) With Frank Sinatra and James Gleason.
- SuperSize Me (2004) Morgan Spurlock’s documentary on fast food in America. Also watch here.
- Taxi Driver (1976) Directed by Martin Scorsese, with Robert DeNiro. (US viewers only)
- The 39 Steps (1935) One of Alfred Hitchcock’s first hits.
- The Alphabet (1968) David Lynch’s early short film.
- The Amazing Quest of Ernest Bliss (1936) With Cary Grant.
- The Battle of Midway (1942) Directed by John Ford. Narrated by Henry Fonda.
- The Battle of San Pietro (1945) John Huston’s war time documentary.
- The Bell Boy (1918) Featuring Fatty Arbuckle and Buster Keaton.
- The End of America (2008) By Naomi Wolf.
- The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (2003) Errol Morris’ documentary on Robert McNamara. Won Academy Award for Best Documentary. Score by Philip Glass.
- The Hitch-Hiker (1953) The first noir film made by a woman noir director, Ida Lupino.
- The Invisible Frame (1983) Directed by Cynthia Beatt. In German with English subtitles.
- The General (1926) With Buster Keaton. YouTube version here.
- The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966) Italian spaghetti western directed by Sergio Leone, starring Clint Eastwood. (US viewers only)
- The House Maid (1960) South Korean film restored by Martin Scorcese’s WCF.
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) With Lon Chaney.
- The Little Shop of Horrors (1960) Directed by Roger Corman.
- The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, with Peter Lorre.
- The Outlaw (1943) Directed by Howard Hughes.
- The Ring (1929) Directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
- The Pawnshop (1916) With Charlie Chaplin.
- The Pride of the Yankees (1942) Starring Gary Cooper. (US viewers only)
- The Phantom of the Opera (1925) A classic featuring Lon Chaney.
- The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970) Directed by Billy Wilder. (US viewers only)
- The Rink (1916) With Charlie Chaplin.
- The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934)
- The Sheik (1921) Silent film with Rudolph Valentino.
- The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952) With Gregory Peck.
- The Skin Game (1931) Directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
- The Stranger (1946) Directed by Orson Welles with Edward G. Robinson.
- The Street Fighter (1974) One of Quentin Tarantino’s favorite karate films.
- The Terror (1963) With Jack Nicholson and partly shot by Francis Ford Coppola.
- The Times of Harvey Milk (1984) Rob Epstein’s Oscar winning documentary.
- Throne of Blood (1957) Directed by Akira Kurosawa. Adapts the plot of William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth to feudal Japan.
- Tillie’s Punctured Romance (1914) With Charlie Chaplin.
- Touki Bouki (1973) Senegalese film restored by Martin Scorcese’s WCF.
- Transes (1981) Film from Morocco restored by Martin Scorcese’s WCF.
- Triumph of the Will (1935) The major Nazi propaganda work by Leni Riefenstahl. With subtitles.
- Un Chien Andalou (1929) Salvador Dali and Louis Bunuel’s short, silent surrealist film.
- Utopia (1951) Laurel & Hardy’s last film.
- Whistle Stop (1946) A noir flic with Ava Gardner.
- White Heat (1949) With James Cagney, a classic gangster film.
- Young and Innocent (1937) Directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
- 28 Days Later (2002) By Danny Boyle, who later directed Slumdog Millionaire. (US viewers only)
Free Movie Sites
Internet Archive – Feature Films: When you’re looking for free movies online, the Internet Archive should be your first stop. It features large collections of classic comedies, film noir and sci-fi/horror flix. Many films listed above come from the Internet Archive.
Google Video: For some time now, major classics have appeared on Google’s site. You will find many such films above.
Australian Screen Archive: The Australian National Film and Sound Archive provides free and worldwide access to over 1,000 film and television titles – a treasure chest of down-under video 100 years in the making.
Babelgum Films: Babelgum’s goal is to act as an international ‘glue’, bringing a huge range of professional and semi-professional films to a global audience – like a modern-day Tower of Babel. They’re also making an effort to get their content to smartphones. They have an iPhone app now and apps for other phones on the horizon. Get more detail on the mobile apps here.
BestOnlineDocumentaries: As one reader previously told us, “This site is a bit out of date and some of the links are broken, but it’s still a great compilation of online documentaries.” For more documentaries, you should also see Snagfilms mentioned below.
Classic Cinema Online: This site nicely pulls together hundreds of classic films, ranging from Action to Westerns and even old cinema shorts and news reels.
Crackle.com: If you’re looking for more mainstream movies, here you go. This is Sony’s online movie play. Note: there’s probably some geo-blocking that comes with this. Also, one of our readers has also suggested the UK-based Blinkbox, which seems to offer another platform for more mainstream films.
Creative Commons: The folks who gave us the Creative Commons license host a wiki where you can find a good number of freely available films. Handy and worth keeping an eye on. I’d also suggest keeping tabs on CC’s Video blog.
Daily Motion Movies: This YouTube-style video site features a section that offers short films in HD. The collection is small, and you won’t find well known films here. But some movies get decent reviews. This looks to be part of a beta project that could expand.
Documentary Film Network: This site has been archiving documentaries for the past 4 years and serving them free of charge. Among the 181 films, you can find some of the Nixon-Frost interviews and a Che Guevara Biography.
Europa Film Treasures: Thanks to Europa Film Treasures, you can spend hours looking back through an archive of European film. Theses films range from “comedy to science fiction, from westerns to animation, from erotic to ethnological movies.” Highly recommended by our readers.
Fancast: This Comcast-owned site features a long list of free movies.
Film Annex: This site has one of the largest selections of online films for you to watch or download. You can find free classic movies and television shows right here. And you’ll also find at the Film Annex many films from independent filmmakers and directors. The site gives you the ability to download or stream films to your PC, laptop or iPhone. The films are ad-supported.
FMO: FreeMoviesOnline features a large selection of public domain films.
Free Documentaries Online: The name says it all.
Free Documentaries.Org: Specializes in showing provocative documentaries for free.
Free Movies Cinema: A mixture of yet more free films, which includes Quentin Tarantino’s early film, My Best Friend’s Birthday.
Hulu: Unfortunately Hulu limits its programming to a US audience (a policy that really needs to change), but it’s the 800 pound gorilla in the US, and there are some decent films here. You will find some Hulu titles sprinkled in above.
IMDB: This is perhaps a little redundant, but the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) also hosts some free online films (as well as TV shows) on its site. From what I can tell, it’s done in partnership with Hulu. But this collection has the advantage of pointing you to some decent films. Click here and scroll down. You can also find another re-packager of Hulu flix over at Veoh.com.
Indie Movies Online: Just as it sounds. A good place to watch full-fledged indie films on the web. Right now, you can find Peter Greenaway’s film, Rembrandt’s J’accuse and The Future We Will Create – Inside the World of TED. The site seems to be available in the US, UK, Canada and Australia, but perhaps also beyond.
Jaman: Jaman is mainly a pay-per-download site that focuses on indie-style films, but they do host some free movies. Even though they have a page devoted to their free films, it’s actually not that easy to find the freebies. You have to fish around a little.
Legal Torrents: Pretty much what the name says. Legaltorrents.com hosts high quality open-licensed (Creative Commons) digital media and art. This link takes you to their movie section.
NFB.ca: NFB.ca is a web site where you can watch films produced by the National Film Board of Canada. It offers access to 100s of documentaries, animated films and trailers. You can also access this collection via a free iPhone app. (p.s. You should also check out our own free iPhone app, which will let you download free audio books, free courses, free language lessons, and other types of intelligent media.)
OVGuide: If you’re looking for more free films, you should pay this site a visit. OVGuide is an up-to-date guide to online video, including TV shows, movies, and video games. It offers another way to find free movies online.
PBS Video: PBS hosts online a new film based on Michael Pollan’s bestseller, Botany of Desire. Other PBS productions are also housed here.
QuickSilverScreen: This site essentially puts torrents online and lets you watch films posted by other users, including many new films. It’s hard to believe that this site is entirely kosher, but it’s very popular (one of the top 3,000 sites on the web) and hardly a closely held secret.
Sling.com: This collection contains some dreck, but also some decent documentaries and classic films. So it gets on the list.
SnagFilms: SnagFilms “finds the world’s most compelling documentaries, whether from established heavyweights or first-time filmmakers, and makes them available to a wide audience.” You can watch full-length documentary films for free. Currently includes over 550 films.
Steven Spielberg Film and Video Archive: This online catalog “provides access to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Steven Spielberg Film and Video Archive. The Archive serves as a comprehensive informational and archival resource worldwide for moving image materials pertaining to the Holocaust and related aspects of World War II. ”
The Auteurs.com: Though this site typically offers arts films on a pay-per-view basis, it does feature a series of free films. Each month, a free film is featured (see example here). The site also hosts free international films restored by Martin Scorsese’s Word Cinema Foundation, mentioned below. And you can find another set of free films here.
Veoh.com: Tends to redistribute films from Hulu but some other gems one can be found here.
Video on Demand at Amazon.com: Ok, it’s not the most enriching collection of films. But if you’re looking for something light…
World Cinema Foundation: The WCF, created by Martin Scorsese in 2007, has restored a series of classic international films. You can watch them for free online.
YouTube Movies: YouTube hosts a series of full-length movies (that are likely geo-restricted).
YouTube Screening Room: The Screening Room presents high quality, short independent films to YouTube users and promises to roll out four new films every two weeks. The collection includes some Academy-Award winners and other quality films. More info here.
Sources Used to Create This List
- Public domain collection of film noir at Archive.org – Boing Boing
- The Best: Movies in the Public Domain – Wired
- Films in the Public Domain – Wikipedia
- Fimoculous list of Hulu Movies
- About.com: Download the Classics
- Salon: The Future is Almost Now
- Future Tense: Public Radio
For more Free Culture, see our other major collections:
Intelligent Video: The Top Cultural & Educational Video Sites
Good list
Will check 'em out!
Thanks!
Good list
Will check 'em out!
Thanks!
Great list! An addition for you. They only post their own but Vice Magazine puts plenty of documentaries up for free too: http://www.vbs.tv/shows/label/Culture – Now this is a bit of a grey area as Vice labels these videos as “series” but check out the Vice Guide to Travel, Balls Deep (ahem) and Motherboard to find some thought provoking and feature length (though chopped in to clips to show commercials) material.
I'd add http://www.blinkbox.com to that list if I was you Dan – amazing quality here in the UK. I use it for all my movies that I watch over the weekends and a great selection of TV – http://www.blinkbox.com/TV
I can't see any programmes from Hulu here in the UK! (booooo!)
Thanks a zillion for the links…..it is very hard to find good prints of the old classics.
Thanks a lot for this article…Absolutely love it. Love cinema.
Hey, you can't forget http://www.freemooviesonline.com
I would like to suggest a site where you can watch free documentaries on humanity and social issues free visit http://www.cultureunplugged.com
You really need to see http://www.ovguide.com They have all the best movie and tv sites with free streaming content.
Thanks! Very useful list to have
Hi,
Great list, I have bookmarked this page and will spend a lot of times searching through all the sites you mention. I just love movies, this is a great resource.
Harry
these are some good ones.. surf the channel times out after you watch a certain ammount of time.. ohh well good quility
Terrific post — I was just looking for something like this and so pleased to discover your well organized list. Thanks!
Thanks for a great post!
Unfortunately, some of these movies are no longer available (Botany of Desire, 28 Days, Eternal Sunshine…Maybe others?).
This is a great resource! Thanks.
A heads-up: you misspelled A Farewell To Arms in the first movie you list (you wrote “Farwell”).
Cheers,
~Eugene
@eugenephotoblog
For great quality Canadian indie short films, check out the year-round NSI Online Short Film Festival run by the National Screen Institute: http://www.nsi-canada.ca/film_festival.aspx
[...] only to a US audience. But if you live outside the US, you can find many more free films in our Free Movie Collection. As a quick side note, this collection was the jumping-off point for a short interview that I did [...]
[...] 30 Places to Watch Free Movies Online | Open Culture (tags: movies free online video film movie resources films) [...]
[...] Archive, where you can watch the film in larger/different formats, and it is also listed in our collection of Free Movies Online, which currently has about 120 films and will keep growing. [...]
서울비의 알림…
20 Places to Watch Free Movies Online….
[...] so much.And, even more randomly … here’s a site I read about this morning. It lists free movies available on line … and looks fascinating. Be sure to scroll down, as there are lots of good sites listed, [...]
Bram Stocker’s Dracula doesn’t seems to be available
[...] You can download Sita Sings the Blues here, watch it on YouTube here, or find it in our collection of Free Movies Online. [...]
[...] It’s not exactly the same as watching a film on the silver screen. But you get what you pay for. Below, we have Frank Capra’s 1939 classic, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, starring Jimmy Stewart and Claude Rains. For those who cling to the hope that democracies can rid themselves of corruption and special interests, this film is for you, and it also appears in our collection of free online movies. [...]
[...] NOTE: You can find this film in our collection of free online movies. [...]
[...] Fimoculous has nicely highlighted a series of good films that Hulu has made freely available. The one obvious downside is that, unless something has changed at Hulu, the flicks will only be available to viewers in the US. (Hulu needs to do better than this!) Nonetheless, here they are, and thanks to Kotkke.org for helping flag these. (Update: For many excellent films, please see our collection of Free Movies Online.) [...]
[...] Definitely worth a mention. Craveonline has pulled together some classic Hitchcock films. The list includes The 39 Steps, The Secret Agent, The Man Who Knew Too Much (above), Young and Innocent, and Blackmail. And from what I can tell, they’re all available in full (surprisingly) and can be watched in full screen format. If you’re having problems viewing these films, you can find them in our collection of Free Movies Online. [...]
[...] Our hunt to find universally accessible Hitchcock films brought us back to the Internet Archive yesterday, and it now seems worth highlighting some of the other gems buried in this collection. This archive of feature films contains some important classics from the 1920s, 30s, 40s and 50s. We’ve featured ten good ones below, and don’t forget to see our collection of Free Movies Online. [...]
[...] Over at his Think Again blog, Stanley Fish, the eminent literary critic, has listed his all-time favorite American films. The list is a good one, so we figured why not add some video clips to the mix, and give you a little taste of each classic. See the full list after the jump. And if you have your own favorites, feel free to list them in the comments. (Also don’t forget to see our lengthy list of free movies online.) [...]
[...] A good find by the folks at BoingBoing: Dementia 13, Francis Ford Coppola’s slasher/thriller from 1963, can be downloaded for free over at Archive.org (which is where you can also download a nice version of Orwell’s 1984).You can watch an embedded version below, or download an AVI file here. Here’s the gist of the plot: “An old Irish family is haunted by dark secrets around the death of a little girl seven years earlier. Two women, one married into the family and one soon to be, start unraveling the secrets at a price that couldn’t have imagined.” And, if you haven’t already, check out our big list of free movies online. [...]
[...] the Day Breaks, comes to us via The National Film Board of Canada, which appears on our list of places to watch free movies online. (Scroll to the bottom of the page.) In this film directed by Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis, [...]