17 Dark Academia Movies and TV Series

Movies

1. Dead Poets Society (1989)

• Director: Peter Weir

Maverick teacher John Keating uses poetry to embolden his boarding school students to new heights of self-expression.

2. Theory of Everything (2014)

Director: James Marsh

A look at the relationship between the famous physicist Stephen Hawking and his wife.

3. Black Swan (2010)

Director: Darren Aronofsky

A committed dancer struggles to maintain her sanity after winning the lead role in a production of Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake".

4. A Beautiful Mind (2001)

Director: Ron Howard

After John Nash, a brilliant but asocial mathematician, accepts secret work in cryptography, his life takes a turn for the nightmarish.

5. Tolkien (2019)

Director: Dome Karukoski

The formative years of the orphaned author J.R.R. Tolkien as he finds friendship, love and artistic inspiration among a group of fellow outcasts at school.

6. Little Women (2019)

Director: Greta Gerwig

Jo March reflects back and forth on her life, telling the beloved story of the March sisters - four young women, each determined to live life on her own terms.

7. Pride and Prejudice (2005)

Director: Joe Wright

Sparks fly when spirited Elizabeth Bennet meets single, rich, and proud Mr. Darcy. But Mr. Darcy reluctantly finds himself falling in love with a woman beneath his class. Can each overcome their own pride and prejudice?

8. The Goldfinch (2019)

Director: John Crowley

A boy in New York is taken in by a wealthy Upper East Side family after his mother is killed in a bombing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

9. Enola Holmes (2020)

Director: Harry Bradbeer

When Enola Holmes-Sherlock's sister-discovers her mother missing, she sets off to find her, becoming a sleuth in her own right as she outwits her famous brother and unravels a dangerous conspiracy around a mysterious young Lord.

10. Whiplash (2014)

Director: Damien Chazelle

A promising young drummer enrolls at a cut-throat music conservatory where his dreams of greatness are mentored by an instructor who will stop at nothing to realize a student's potential.

11. Hidden Figures (2016)

Director: Theodore Melfi

The story of a team of female African-American mathematicians who served a vital role in NASA during the early years of the U.S. space program.

12. A Little Princess (1995)

Director: Alfonso Cuarón

A young girl is relegated to servitude at a boarding school when her father goes missing and is presumed dead.

13. Dorian Gray (2009)

Director: Oliver Parker

A corrupt young man somehow keeps his youthful beauty eternally, but a special painting gradually reveals his inner ugliness to all.

14. The Imitation Game (2014)

Director: Morten Tyldum

During World War II, the English mathematical genius Alan Turing tries to crack the German Enigma code with help from fellow mathematicians.

---

TV shows

1. Sherlock (2010-2017)

Creator: Mark Gatiss, Steven Moffat

A modern update finds the famous sleuth and his doctor partner solving crime in 21st century London.

2. A Series of Unfortunate Events (2017-2019)

Director: Various

After the loss of their parents in a mysterious fire, the three Baudelaire children face trials and tribulations attempting to uncover dark family secrets.

3. Peaky Blinders (2013-Present)

Creator: Steven Knight

A gangster family epic set in 1900s England, centring on a gang who sew razor blades in the peaks of their caps, and their fierce boss Tommy Shelby.

4. The Queens Gambit (2020)

Creators: Scott Frank, Allan Scott

Orphaned at the tender age of nine, prodigious introvert Beth Harmon discovers and masters the game of chess in 1960s USA. But child stardom comes at a price.

---