framethrowerSign up for free

Best Cancer Movies

Ranked by how strongly each film carries the visual signature of cancer cinema — measured across 1,524 indexed frames from 22 films, against a 408,752-frame catalogue baseline. Not by box office, and not by vote.

Cancer films over-index on boy, chair and book — the objects that make the genre recognisable before a line is spoken.

  1. 1

    Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2015)

    Alfonso Gomez-RejonDP Chung Chung-hoonIMDb 7.7TMDB 7.5See in full on FrameThrower →

    Greg is coasting through senior year of high school as anonymously as possible, avoiding social interactions like the plague while secretly making spirited, bizarre films with Earl, his only friend. But both his anonymity and friendship threaten to unravel when his mother forces him to befriend a classmate with leukemia.

  2. 2

    First Reformed (2017)

    Paul SchraderDP Alexander DynanIMDb 7.1TMDB 7.0See in full on FrameThrower →

    Forty-six year old Reverend Ernst Toller is the pastor at the historic First Reformed Church in upstate New York. It is seen as the "tourist" church or the "souvenir shop" (its historical significance partly it being a stop on the underground railroad before the slaves crossed into Canada) by Abundant Life, which owns the church and which operates a modern self-named five thousand seat church overseen by Reverend Joel Jeffers. First Reformed is celebrating its two hundred fiftieth anniversary this year, for which a major event is planned, modest in size only at First Reformed itself although the dignitaries like the governor and mayor will be at attendance there, while the event will be simulcast at Abundant Life. Most of the speech-making will be done by local industrialist Ed Balq, a major benefactor of Abundant Life and who is the major donor for the necessary upgrades at First Reformed to be able to hold the event there, and for the event itself, while Toller's participation will be minimal beyond the introductory sermon. First Reformed is generally a sparsely attended church meaning that Toller doesn't have to do much direct ministering, although he does have the stock answers when asked how God factors into this or that situation in one's life. Toller himself has long been divorced, his marriage which could not survive the death of their son, Joseph, in war. Because of that history, Toller believes he is incapable of human love, despite a brief relationship with Esther, the choir mistress at Abundant Life, she who is arguably still in love with him. Toller is neglecting the warning signs about his poor health, the symptoms pointing to a probable diagnosis of stomach cancer, which is only exacerbated by his largely liquid (i.e. alcohol) diet. Toller is already examining his life and work in writing a daily journal for a year, that journal which he intends no one ever to read, but these issues in Toller's life become more pointed when a new pregnant congregant, Mary, asks him to speak to her husband Michael, who Toller will learn is an environmentalist concerned about bringing another human life into what he already sees as a world doomed because of man's role in climate change.

  3. 3

    A Walk to Remember (2002)

    Adam ShankmanDP Julio MacatIMDb 7.3TMDB 7.8See in full on FrameThrower →

    In North Carolina especially in Beaufort a prank on a guy goes wrong and puts the student in the clinic. Carter, a famous student with no plans for the future, is held responsible and forced to join in after-school community service activities as consequence, which include starring as the lead in the play. And participating in these activities is Jamie Sullivan, the reverend's daughter who has great ambitions and nothing in common with Landon. When Landon decides he wants to take his activities seriously, he asks Jamie for help and begins to spend most of his time with her. But he starts to like her, that he did not expect to do. They relationship, much to the chagrin of Landon's old popular friends and Jamie's strict reverend father. But when a heart-breaking secret becomes known that puts their relationship to the test, it is then that Landon and Jamie realize the true meaning of love and fate.

  4. 4

    The Life of Chuck (2024)

    Mike FlanaganDP Eben BolterIMDb 7.3TMDB 7.3See in full on FrameThrower →

    In this extraordinary story of an ordinary man, Charles 'Chuck' Krantz experiences the wonder of love, the heartbreak of loss, and the multitudes contained in all of us.

  5. 5

    First Man (2018)

    Damien ChazelleDP Linus SandgrenIMDb 7.3TMDB 7.0See in full on FrameThrower →

    A Biopic on the life of the legendary American Astronaut Neil Armstrong from 1961-1969, on his journey to becoming the first human to walk the moon. Exploring the sacrifices and costs on the Nation and Neil himself, during one of the most dangerous missions in the history of space travel.

  6. 6

    Cries and Whispers (1972)

    Ingmar BergmanDP Sven NykvistIMDb 7.9TMDB 7.9See in full on FrameThrower →

    In turn-of-the-century Sweden, cancer-stricken, dying Agnes is visited in her isolated rural mansion by her sisters Karin and Maria. As Agnes' condition deteriorates and pain management becomes increasingly more difficult, fear and revulsion grip the sisters, who seem incapable of empathy, and Agnes' only comfort and solace comes from her maid Anna. As the end draws closer, long repressed feelings of grudging resentment and mistrust cause jealousy, selfishness, and bitterness between the siblings to surface.

  7. 7

    Big Fish (2003)

    Tim BurtonDP Philippe RousselotIMDb 8.0TMDB 7.8See in full on FrameThrower →

    United Press International journalist Will Bloom and his French freelance photojournalist wife Josephine Bloom, who is pregnant with their first child, leave their Paris base to return to Will's hometown of Ashton, Alabama on the news that his father, Edward Bloom, stricken with cancer, will soon die, he being taken off chemotherapy treatment. Although connected indirectly through Will's mother/Edward's wife, Sandra Bloom, Will has been estranged from his father for three years since his and Josephine's wedding. Will's issue with his father is the fanciful tales Edward has told of his life all his life, not only to Will but the whole world. As a child when Edward was largely absent as a traveling salesman, Will believed those stories, but now realizes that he does not know his father, who, as he continues to tell these stories, he will never get to know unless Edward comes clean with the truth before he dies. On the brink of his own family life beginning, Will does not want to be the kind of father Edward has been to him. One of those stories from Edward's childhood - that he saw his own death in the glass eye of a witch - led to him embracing life since he would not have to fear death knowing when and how it would eventually come. The question is whether Will will be able to reconcile Edward's stories against his real life, either directly from Edward before he dies and/or from other sources, and thus allow Will to come to a new understanding of himself and his life, past, present and future.

  8. 8

    The Worst Person in the World (2021)

    Joachim TrierDP Kasper TuxenIMDb 7.7TMDB 7.4See in full on FrameThrower →

    A modern dramedy about the quest for love and meaning in contemporary Oslo. It chronicles four years in the life of Julie, a young woman who navigates the troubled waters of her love life and struggles to find her career path, leading her to take a realistic look at who she really is.

  9. 9

    Annihilation (2018)

    Alex GarlandDP Rob HardyIMDb 6.8TMDB 6.4See in full on FrameThrower →

    A biologist's husband disappears. She puts her name forward for an expedition into an environmental disaster zone, but does not find what she's expecting. The expedition team is made up of the biologist, an anthropologist, a psychologist, a surveyor, and a linguist.

  10. 10

    The Map of Tiny Perfect Things (2021)

    Ian SamuelsDP Andrew WehdeIMDb 6.8TMDB 7.1See in full on FrameThrower →

    The film follows a teenager contentedly living the same day in an endless loop who gets his world turned upside-down when he meets a girl who's also stuck in the time warp. What follows is a love story with a fantastical twist, as the two struggle to figure out how and whether to escape their never ending day.

What cancer films are made of

How much more often each element appears in a cancer frame than in an average frame from the catalogue. A ratio, not a share — boy is not in most frames, it is simply far more common here than anywhere else.

  • boy2.3×
  • chair2.0×
  • book2.0×
  • wooden chair1.8×
  • curtain1.8×
  • pillow1.7×
  • plaid shirt1.6×
  • sofa1.6×

How cancer films are shot

Weaker signals than the objects above, and worth saying so: most dramatic genres skew dark and night-heavy, so these numbers separate cancer from the catalogue far more than they separate it from its neighbours.

  • 25%widevs 20% baseline
  • 85%eye levelvs 69% baseline
  • 15%high keyvs 12% baseline

What breaks the pattern

Creed (2015) is the least typical film here — it carries the least of what the rest of this list is made of. Which is either a failure of the genre label, or the most interesting film on the page.

Method

Every frame in the FrameThrower catalogue is tagged for shot size, lighting, time of day, camera angle, colour and the objects visible in it. This page aggregates those tags across 1,524 frames from 22 films carrying the cancer label, and compares each figure to the same measurement across the whole catalogue (408,752 frames). Films are ranked by how closely they match the theme’s over-indexed elements, weighted by how distinctive each element is; one film per series. Only films with at least 20 indexed frames and 500 TMDB votes are listed.

Machine-readable: /api/list/cancer

What is FrameThrower?

Great films start with great references.

The numbers on this page come from the same index you can search directly. Every frame is tagged for lighting, lens, shot size, colour and mood — so you can find the reference you already have in your head, by describing it, by dropping in an image, or by picking a colour.

  • The largest film library in the world — searchable frame by frame
  • Search by light, colour, lens or mood — or by dropping in an image
  • Script to lookbook in an afternoon — a board for every scene, from real frames
  • Moodboards you can share on one link — your DP, designer and client see the same film
  • API and MCP access — for agentic and developer workflows
  • Free to start — no card required

A pitch trailer takes weeks of work and a budget most projects never get. The lookbook gets you there in an afternoon.

Start free — search the library7-day free trial of everything · cancel anytime

DiscoveryResearchReferencesEducation

These are real movie frames, shown at reduced resolution. All rights remain with their respective owners; they appear here for study, commentary and education under fair-use principles. How these are meant to be used