The 10 Best Family Films of the 2020s So Far, Ranked
Diego Pineda has been a devout storyteller his whole life. He has self-published a fantasy novel and a book of short stories, and is actively working on publishing his second novel.
A lifelong fan of watching movies and talking about them endlessly, he writes reviews and analyses on his Instagram page dedicated to cinema, and occasionally on his blog. His favorite filmmakers are Andrei Tarkovsky and Charlie Chaplin. He loves modern Mexican cinema and thinks it's tragically underappreciated.
Other interests of Diego's include reading, gaming, roller coasters, writing reviews on his Letterboxd account (username: DPP_reviews), and going down rabbit holes of whatever topic he's interested in at any given point.
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Over the course of the last six years, families around the world have been treated to several of the greatest movies of the family genre to have graced theaters at any point during the 21st century. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the best ways to bring people back to the movies has been to attract families back to theaters. As such, it's no surprise that studios have been making a particular effort in offering high-quality family movies.
Whether it's an animated film like Nimona, a live-action gem like How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies, or a groundbreaking hybrid like Coyote vs. Acme, the best family films of the 2020s so far have been movies so great that anyone, regardless of their age, should be able to enjoy them. Fun, amusing, fast-paced, and hugely creative, they show that families still have plenty of reasons to make their weekend escapades at their nearest movie theater.
10 'Coyote vs. Acme' (2026)
In November of 2023, Warner Bros. announced that they were shelving the completed film Coyote vs. Acme for a $30-million-dollar tax write-off. Following massive public backlash, Warner allowed the filmmakers to shop the movie to other distributors. In came Ketchup Entertainment to save the day. The result? A movie that's genuinely among the Looney Tunes' best big-screen adventures to date.
Coyote vs. Acme is fast-paced, suspenseful, absolutely hilarious, and deliciously anti-corporation considering its background. Its mere existence is a testament to audiences' thirst for high-quality family movie experiences, and the fact that the film actually met those high standards with its clever creativity and sly sense of humor is nothing if not admirable.
9 'Nimona' (2023)
Based on the 2015 graphic novel by ND Stevenson, Nimona is not only one of the most perfect animated movies of the last 10 years, but also one of Netflix's best original films of the 2020s. The movie was in grave danger of being canceled after Disney's acquisition and closure of Blue Sky Studios in 2021; but thankfully, Annapurna Pictures revived the project and delivered one of the 2020s animated films with the biggest heart.
Indeed, as fun and colorful as it may be, Nimona shines mainly because it's such a heartfelt love letter to the beauty of being different and the fluidity of identity, complete with some of the greatest LGBTQ+ representation that the family genre has seen in years. Its story and characters are deeply endearing, and its blend of cyberpunk and Medieval aesthetics works infinitely better than it has any right to.
8 'Flow' (2024)
Had you told even the biggest fan of animation that in 2025, an independent Latvian production made entirely with the free and open-source software Blender would end up winning the ultra-prestigious Best Animated Feature Academy Award, they would have probably called you crazy. Then again, Flow's status as the Little Animated Indie Film That Could is precisely why it's such a special little gem.
Entirely free of dialogue and populated by animals that aren't anthropomorphized in the slightest, Flow is one of the most special animated family movies that the big screen has seen in years. Inspired by artists like Jacques Tati and media like Hayao Miyazaki's Future Boy Conan, this post-apocalyptic adventure movie is so charming that only those with a heart of ice-cold stone could possibly be able to watch it and not enjoy it.
7 'Soul' (2020)
After the pandemic forced Pixar to skip their original theatrical distribution plans, Soul had to be released directly to Disney+. That hardly mattered, because even as the years have passed, this is still deserving of being remembered as Pixar's best movie from the 2020s. It may not have been a box office hit, but that doesn't mean it isn't one of the best family masterpieces of the last six years.
With its having one of the most unique and endearing visual aesthetics of any Pixar movie to date, as well as one of the most philosophically profound and existentially-charged narratives that the studio has ever explored, it's no wonder why Soul continues to be so beloved over half a decade later. Funny, sweet, and wonderfully life-affirming, it really is a must-see for anyone who loves animation, regardless of their age.
6 'The Sheep Detectives' (2026)
Watching the trailer for The Sheep Detectives, you wouldn't have imagined that it would be a particularly special family film. In the end, however, this adaptation of Leonie Swann's 2005 novel Three Bags Full ended up being one of the most beloved family movies of the year so far. As far as movies to introduce kids to the whodunnit genre go, it doesn't get much better than this.
On the one hand, The Sheep Detectives is surprisingly effective with its charmingly silly sense of humor, never allowing to overpower the deeply emotional story—and it's that story that really makes the film shine. It may be effectively twisty and surprising, as well as downright hilarious whenever it needs to be, but Sheep Detectives is also a genuine tear-jerker that celebrates the bittersweet beauty of remembering those who we loved and lost.
5 'Wolfwalkers' (2020)
Irish animation studio Cartoon Saloon have only put out four feature films since they released their first all the way back in 2009, yet they are nevertheless one of the most consistently high-quality animation studios currently producing English-language films. For proof, one needn't look any further than the incredible Wolfwalkers, one of the best Apple TV original movies to date.
For one, the hand-drawn animation is some of the most gorgeous that the 2D-animated genre has ever seen, making this a must-see for all those who love and miss old-school animation. On top of that, Wolfwalkers has a deeply moving and endearing story about parenthood, culture, and colonization to tell, one that viewers young and old should be equally able to appreciate.
4 'The Wild Robot' (2024)
Several great family movies have been released since 2010, and DreamWorks Animation's The Wild Robot is undoubtedly one of the very best. Based on Peter Brown's children's novel of the same name, this is undoubtedly one of DreamWorks' best animated movies ever, a downright gorgeous love letter to nature, community, and motherhood.
The film's hybrid look blends CG animation with hand-drawn aesthetics, resulting in a movie that looks absolutely stunning throughout. Add to that a wonderful score by Kris Bowers, some of the best voice acting of any animated film from the 2020s, and a nearly perfect script, and you get one of the most unforgettable family masterpieces that the big screen has seen in years.
3 'How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies' (2024)
While animation has undoubtedly produced most of the greatest family movies of the decade so far, there are also plenty of exceptional live-action family gems out there to check out, many of them from places other than Hollywood. Case in point: the Thai dramedy How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies, about a university dropout who moves back in to care for his terminally-ill grandmother in the hopes of earning himself a huge inheritance.
The film follows a familiar narrative arc and generally hits just about the same story beats that you'd expect from a family movie like this, but it's the way it gets to those beats that makes it so special. Thematically nuanced and executed with a level of emotional depth that the genre rarely sees on this level, this is one of the most beautifully bittersweet and sharply funny family dramedies from the past few years, let alone just from the 2020s.
Collider Exclusive · Oscar Best Picture Quiz
Which Oscar Best Picture
Is Your Perfect Movie?
Parasite · Everything Everywhere · Oppenheimer · Birdman · No Country
Five Oscar Best Picture winners. Five completely different visions of what cinema can be — and what it can do to you. One of them is the film that was made for the way your mind works. Ten questions will figure out which one.
🪜Parasite
🌀Everything Everywhere
☢️Oppenheimer
🐦Birdman
🪙No Country for Old Men
01
What kind of film experience do you actually want? The best movies don't just entertain — they leave something behind.
02
Which idea grabs you most in a film? Great films are driven by a central obsession. What's yours?
03
How do you like your story told? Form is content. The way a story is shaped changes what it means.
04
What makes a truly great antagonist? The opposition defines the protagonist. What kind of opposition fascinates you?
05
What do you want from a film's ending? The final note is the one that lingers. What do you want it to sound like?
06
Which setting pulls you in most? Where a film takes place shapes everything — mood, stakes, what's even possible.
07
What cinematic craft impresses you most? Every great film has a signature — a technical or artistic element that makes it unmistakable.
08
What kind of main character do you root for? The protagonist is the lens. Who you choose to follow says something about you.
09
How do you feel about a film that takes its time? Pace is a choice. Some films sprint; others let tension accumulate slowly, deliberately.
10
What do you want to feel walking out of the cinema? The best films leave a mark. What kind of mark do you want?
The Academy Has Decided Your Perfect Film Is…
Your answers have pointed to one Oscar Best Picture winner above all others. This is the film that was made for the way your mind works.
Parasite
You are drawn to films that operate on multiple levels simultaneously — that begin in one genre and quietly, brilliantly migrate into another. Bong Joon-ho's Parasite is a film about class, desire, and the architecture of inequality that manages to be darkly funny, deeply suspenseful, and genuinely shocking across a single extraordinary running time. Your instinct is for cinema that hides its true intentions until the moment it's ready to reveal them. Parasite is exactly that — a film that rewards close attention and punishes assumptions, right up to its devastating final image.
Everything Everywhere All at Once
You want it all — and this film gives you all of it. The Daniels' Everything Everywhere All at Once is one of the most maximalist films ever made: action comedy, multiverse sci-fi, family drama, existential crisis, and a genuinely earned emotional core that sneaks up on you amid the chaos. You are someone who responds to ambition, who doesn't want cinema to choose between being entertaining and being meaningful. This film refuses that choice entirely. It is overwhelming by design, and its overwhelming nature is precisely the point — because the feeling of being crushed by infinite possibility is exactly what it's about.
Oppenheimer
You are drawn to cinema on a grand scale — films that understand history not as a backdrop but as a force, and that place their characters inside that force and watch what happens. Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer is a film about the terrifying gap between what we can do and what we should do, told with the full weight of one of the most consequential moments in human history behind it. You want your films to feel important without feeling self-important — to earn their ambition through sheer craft and the gravity of their subject. Oppenheimer does exactly that. It is enormous, complicated, and refuses easy comfort.
Birdman
You are drawn to films that foreground their own construction — that make the how of the filmmaking part of the what it's about. Alejandro González Iñárritu's Birdman, shot to appear as a single continuous take, is cinema examining itself through the cracked mirror of a fading actor's ego. You respond to formal daring, to the feeling that a film is doing something that probably shouldn't be possible. Michael Keaton's performance and Emmanuel Lubezki's restless camera create something genuinely unlike anything else — a film that is simultaneously about creativity, relevance, self-destruction, and the impossibility of ever truly knowing if your work means anything at all.
No Country for Old Men
You are drawn to cinema that trusts silence, that refuses to explain itself, and that treats dread as a form of meaning. The Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men is a film about the arrival of a new kind of evil — implacable, arbitrary, and utterly indifferent to the moral frameworks we use to make sense of the world. It is one of the most formally controlled films ever made, and its controlled restraint is what makes it so terrifying. You want your films to haunt you, not comfort you. You are not interested in resolution if resolution would be dishonest. No Country for Old Men is honest in a way that most cinema never dares to be.
2 'Puss in Boots: The Last Wish' (2022)
With how immensely successful the Shrek franchise immediately proved itself to be, it was unsurprising that the series eventually spun off into the just-good-enough Puss in Boots. And yet, who could have guess that 11 years later, its sequel would end up being one of DreamWorks Animation's best outings to date? Indeed, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is nothing if not one of the best family movies of the last 10 years.
For the little ones of the family, it should be an absolute blast. The animation is endlessly vibrant and colorful, the action and characters are incredibly fun, and the villain is one of the scariest in DreamWorks' whole catalog. Even grown-ups, however, should have a blast with The Last Wish—and that's what makes it so brilliant. Sporting a level of philosophical and thematic complexity not often seen in big-budget animated Hollywood flicks, it genuinely is one of the best movies of the last six years.
1 'Marcel the Shell With Shoes On' (2021)
The 2020s haven't delivered a better family movie so far than A24's Marcel the Shell With Shoes On, and it'll take something really special to top it. Based on the series of short films by Marcel voice actress Jenny Slate and director Dean Fleischer Camp, this mockumentary dramedy leads to one of the most perfect animated movie endings of all time. But as special as that ending is, everything that takes the audience toward it is every bit as magical.
Marcel the Shell is probably a bit too slow-burning and subtle for the youngest ones in the family, but for families with slightly older kids—and even for adults in search of a movie that will fill their hearts with the utmost warmth—, this masterpiece is essential viewing. Poignant yet humorous, this visually delightful and incredibly creative gem is the peak of what the family genre has had to offer throughout the last six years.
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