10 Best Documentaries of the Last 25 Years, Ranked

Perhaps thanks to advancements in technology that have made capturing footage easier than ever, there seems to have been an increase in interesting, thought-provoking, and unique documentary movies in the last couple of decades. Unlike bigger feature films, documentaries can sometimes be made with smaller crews, especially if things are focused directly on a single subject or individual, though great documentaries on larger scales have existed and thrived in recent years, too.

With the rise in documentaries, there are also inevitably many that feel a bit rushed. Documentaries on certain streaming services – particularly those that are made to be miniseries, rather than features – can feel more like “content” than true films. So, the following titles are intended to highlight the best of the best, and work to emphasize how documentary films, when made with care and attention to deal, can be genuine works of art, and just as compelling as more traditional feature films.

10 ‘They Shall Not Grow Old’ (2018)

Directed by Peter Jackson

Released 100 years on from the end of World War I, They Shall Not Grow Old uses impressive technology to colorize and enhance old footage shot during the war in question. Given so much of World War I had previously only been seen through black-and-white, grainy, and sometimes damaged film, the approach here aims to better capture the war in question, and further humanize the people who were made to participate in it.

As such, They Shall Not Grow Old is impressively eye-opening and also very moving, doing remarkable work to make World War I not feel as distant or alien as it might otherwise seem to modern-day eyes. It’s one of the best war documentaries in recent memory, and one of the most impressive things Peter Jackson has directed to date, too.

Rent on Apple TV

9 ‘Collective’ (2019)

Directed by Alexander Nanau

Collective is grim but essential viewing, documenting the aftermath of a catastrophic fire that blazed out of control inside a Romanian nightclub in 2015. For as horrifying as the event was, what happened in its wake was just as alarming, but in a different way, considering the high number of burn victims who passed away in hospital while being treated. This prompted an investigation into the health system by a group of investigative journalists, which is what Collective focuses on narratively.

The film is about more than just a fire, looking at the broader implications following that particular event, and showcasing disturbing corruption that exists within – and is related to – an institution that purports to help/heal people. The revelations contained within Collective are confronting but eye-opening. It’s a brave film about injustice and the ways people can get away with doing horrific things, and thereby stands as a viewing experience that’s difficult to shake or forget.

Watch on Amazon

8 ‘Waltz with Bashir’ (2008)

Directed by Ari Folman

Taking a look at a conflict that has been ongoing for decades now, Waltz with Bashir cannot document the entire history of the conflict between Israel and Palestine, nor does it try to. Instead, it is focused mostly on PTSD regarding one event in that broader conflict: the Sabra and Shatila massacre, which occurred in 1982 during the Lebanese Civil War, and saw between 1300 and 3500 Palestinian and Lebanese Shia civilians murdered.

Its focus is on the perpetrators and the guilt felt by certain soldiers who were young men when they participated in these events, which could rub some viewers the wrong way. Observed broadly, Waltz with Bashir does succeed in putting forth what’s an ultimately anti-war sentiment, and there isn’t any ambiguity about whom the victims were (even if they’re not the focus until the film’s gut-punch of a conclusion). Taken for what it is, rather than what it’s not or could be, this is a powerful documentary about memory, war, atrocities, and PTSD, and stands out owing to its presentation, with surreal/nightmarish animation and a haunting score making it feel unlike any other documentary out there.

7 ’13th’ (2016)

Directed by Ava DuVernay

Earlier, there was some shade thrown at documentaries that appear on streaming services and, indeed, many are not good. Streaming libraries need content, and Netflix, over the years, has seemed more than happy to fund plenty of documentary films and miniseries that might be somewhat engaging, yet ultimately feel sadly disposable. Such negative things can’t be said about 13th, though, which stands out from the pack as a genuinely phenomenal documentary available on the platform.

It’s a film that passionately argues something alarming, and argues the point distressingly well: that a form of slavery still exists in the U.S., owing to how the prison system there functions in the modern day. 13th looks at the history of racism and slavery in the U.S., tying it expertly to prejudices found in the justice system well into the 21st century, and proves thoughtful, eye-opening, and powerful as a damning visual essay of sorts.

Watch on Netflix

6 ‘Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father’ (2008)

Directed by Kurt Kuenne

From a technical perspective, Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father can seem a bit rough, but that roughness also enhances how raw and harrowing the documentary manages to feel. It’s about an awful crime involving a man being murdered by his girlfriend, only for things to be complicated when that girlfriend gives birth to the man’s son, the titular Zachary.

It has a reputation for being one of the saddest films of all time, documentary or otherwise, and it’s not hard to see why. There is an emotional brutality to Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father that is undeniably impressive, even if the whole thing is quite hard to watch (not to mention potentially impossible to revisit). But it’s a remarkable – perhaps even revolutionary – accomplishment, and finds new territory for the documentary format to go in.

5 ‘For Sama’ (2019)

Directed by Waad al-Kateab, Edward Watts

Another close-to-perfect war documentary released relatively recently, For Sama has a similar title and premise to Dear Zachary, in a way. It is a filmed document intended for a child to tell her things about her early life, with the titular Sama being born within a warzone. The film documents some harrowing events happening within Aleppo, Syria throughout the 2010s, often up close and personal.

The entirety of For Sama intends to viewers feel as though they’re really there, and few documentaries have captured an active warzone quite as effectively, not to mention with as much immediacy. It’s impressive on a technical front and also an essential historical document of the earlier years of the Syrian civil war, which began in 2011 and has continued on, with varying levels of intensity, in the years since.

Rent on Apple TV

4 ‘Grizzly Man’ (2005)

Directed by Werner Herzog

For numerous decades now, Werner Herzog has consistently been one of the most interesting filmmakers out there, thriving as both a documentarian and a director of feature films. When it comes to his documentaries at least, there’s an argument to be made that Grizzly Man is his very best, exhibiting his distinctive style as a filmmaker while also telling a bizarre true story.

Beyond the core narrative, though – which focuses on Timothy Treadwell and his love of grizzly bears, which eventually led to his death – Grizzly Man also serves as a fascinating exploration of human nature, loneliness, and the dangers that can come with passion. It asks difficult questions and offers no easy answers, but the experience of watching the whole thing, and sitting with what it wants you to sit with, is undeniably absorbing.

3 ‘The Act of Killing’ (2012)

Directed by Joshua Oppenheimer

The Act of Killing functions like the documentary equivalent of The Zone of Interest, a 2023 film that explored a real-life atrocity, and the way people willingly took part in it, through the format of a feature film. The Act of Killing looks at different real-life events, but features actual people who participated in a series of mass killings, and attempts to get them to grapple with what they’ve done.

A series of mass executions in Indonesia are recreated through film by people who participated in those killings, with The Act of Killing being brutally effective as far as explorations of the banality of evil go. It’s a tough film to watch, and viewers won’t exactly come away with many positive thoughts about humanity and human nature overall. But it’s an essential piece of documentary filmmaking not despite its difficulty and bleakness, but because of those qualities.

Watch on Netflix

2 ‘Amy’ (2015)

Directed by Asif Kapadia

There are almost too many documentaries about musicians out there, and at first glance, Amy might look like “just another” one of them. As the title might suggest, the central figure whose life is explored here is Amy Winehouse, with her story defined by its tragic brevity. She was an interesting new voice in pop music, found some success, battled personal demons, was harassed by the media, and then passed away far too young.

Amy does tell this story and hits the beats you might expect, but it’s also so much more than just a document of how sad Winehouse’s life was. It’s a film that asks its viewers to look inward, and condemns the way both institutions and individuals might trivialize the problems of the famous, or even just people one doesn’t know personally. Amy suggests a widespread complicity among countless individuals in the death of Winehouse, and serves as a stark reminder to be kinder in the digital age. It’s not preachy, it sugarcoats nothing, and it hits hard; the sort of film that could genuinely shift attitudes on a broad societal level, were more people willing to watch it and grapple with their own flaws once the end credits have finished rolling.

1 ‘O.J.: Made in America’ (2016)

Directed by Ezra Edelman

Another documentary that begins by telling one person’s story, but uses that person to make larger points about things on a societal level, O.J.: Made in America could well be the greatest documentary of all time, were it to be counted as a movie. It was, in part, and received an Academy Award before certain rules were changed, but now stands as something far more definable as a documentary miniseries.

And if you want to define it that way, then it’s probably the best documentary miniseries ever made, too. O.J.: Made in America documents the chaos of O.J. Simpson’s life and controversial murder trial, all the while also being a look back on American history throughout the back half of the 20th century. The amount of things it discusses, explores, and sheds light on across its lengthy runtime is staggering, and it is so intelligently put together, amazingly edited, and endlessly thought-provoking. It proves troubling, compelling, fascinating, and emotionally involving, all in equal measure.

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