10 Movies Made in Georgia You Can Watch Online
By: Anna Vecellio, Assistant Programmer
Let’s face it, online streaming is a messy sea of endless titles that is both gargantuan and intimidating even to the most avid film buff. How are you expected to chose something to watch when it seems like practically every movie is out there waiting for you to grace it with your attention?
Well, when you inevitably find yourself wading through the potential options—take a moment to consider these titles. After all what’s better than watching a good film—watching a good film shot in your home state, obviously.
Filmed in Atlanta and Cartersville, Georgia, The Fundamentals of Caring was the opening night film for the 40th Annual Atlanta Film Festival and follows Ben (Paul Rudd), a man suffering an incredible amount of loss who enrolls in a class about care-giving that changes his perspective on life.
Starring: Craig Roberts, Paul Rudd, Selena Gomez
Directed by: Rob Burnett
Fun Fact: The film was shot in only 26 days.
Watch The Fundamentals of Caring (2016) on Netflix!
Filmed in part at Emory University, Into the Wild (based on the novel by Jon Krakauer) follows Christopher McCandless who, after graduating from Emory University, abandons his possessions, gives his all savings to charity and hitchhikes to Alaska to live in the wilderness.
Starring: Emile Hirsch, Kristen Stewart, Catherine Keener
Directed by: Sean Penn
Fun Fact: Emile Hirsch lost 40 pounds for the role.
Watch Into the Wild (2007) on Amazon Prime!
Filmed in a variety of beachy locations including our very own Savannah, GA, Cape Fear is Martin Scorsese’s remake of the 1962 classic thriller. The film follows lawyer Sam Bowden (Nick Nolte) and his family, who find themselves stalked by a recently-released rapist (Robert De Niro) who Sam failed to successfully defend from conviction.
Starring: Robert De Niro, Nick Nolte, Jessica Lange
Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Fun Fact: Scorsese found the accent Robert De Niro used so creepy that as a joke, De Niro would call Scorsese’s house and leave voicemails in character.
Watch Cape Fear (1991) on HBO GO.
Captain America: Civil War, like most of the Marvel films, was shot in part at Pinewoods Studios, Atlanta. The film details one of the most famous comic book stories in Marvel history: the breakdown of Iron Man and Captain America’s relationship, as the growing political tensions around “superheroes” forces everyone in the Marvel Universe to pick a side.
Starring: Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson
Directed by: Anthony & Joe Russo
Fun Fact: The day before filming a Winter Soldier vs. Iron Man fight, Sebastian Stan sent Robert Downey Jr. a video of him lifting weights in front of an Ironman head with the message: “Looking forward to our scene tomorrow Robert”.
Filmed all over Georgia—in particular at the original McDonald's in Thomaston—The Founder follows Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton), the man responsible for the explosion of the family-owned restaurant into the fast food giant we know today, and all the hard work, luck, and backstabbing it took to get there.
Starring: Michael Keaton, Nick Offerman, John Carroll Lynch
Directed by: John Lee Hancock
Fun Fact: The screenplay for The Founder was featured in the 2014 Blacklist.
Watch The Founder (2016) on Netflix.
The follow-up to Wes Craven’s cult classic was actually filmed, in part, at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, GA. The film follows the re-emergence of a new “ghostface” as the survivors of the first Scream head off to college.
Starring: Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette
Directed by: Wes Craven
Fun Fact: Wes Craven kept the identity of the killer a secret from the entire cast, by removing the last ten pages of the script, until the very last day of shooting.
Watch Scream 2 (1997) on HBO GO.
All the Hunger Games films, with the exception of the original, were filmed in part in Georgia. The shooting locations varied wildly from a parking garages, to an empty water park, to the Atlanta History Center’s Swan House. The final film in the franchise, Mockingjay Part 2 follows Katniss during the escalation of the war with the capitol.
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth
Directed by: Francis Lawrence
Funnish Fact?: This was Philip Seymour Hoffman’s final film and premiered a year after his death.
Watch The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 (2015) on Amazon Prime.
Filmed throughout the American South, including Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama, 42 chronicles Jackie Robinson’s journey to become a Brooklyn Dodger and the first African American to play Major League Baseball.
Starring: Chadwick Boseman, T.R. Knight, Harrison Ford
Directed by: Brian Helgeland
Fun Fact: 42 broke the record for highest grossing opening weekend for a baseball movie - stealing the title from 2008’s Benchwarmers.
Trouble with the Curve made use of locations all over Georgia including multiple baseball fields such as Turner Field in Atlanta, Luther Williams Field in Macon, and Dunwoody High School field in Dunwoody. The film follows the daughter of a famous baseball scout (Amy Adams) as she travels with her father (Clint Eastwood) on what could be his last recruiting trip in an attempt to repair their strained relationship.
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Amy Adams, John Goodman
Directed by: Robert Lorenz
Fun Fact: This film marked the first time Clint Eastwood acted in a film he did not also direct in almost nineteen years.
Filmed entirely in Georgia, Driving Miss Daisy won four Oscars including: Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Makeup. The film follows the relationship between an elderly Jewish woman (Jessica Tandy) and her African-American chauffeur (Morgan Freeman) in the American South during the late 1940s.
Starring: Morgan Freeman, Jessica Tandy, Dan Aykroyd
Directed by: Bruce Beresford
Fun Fact: At 81, Jessica Tandy became the oldest woman to win the Oscar for Best Actress for her role as Daisy Werthan.