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Best Nun Movies

Ranked by how strongly each film carries the visual signature of nun cinema — measured across 1,389 indexed frames from 20 films, against a 408,752-frame catalogue baseline. Not by box office, and not by vote.

Nun films over-index on wimple, habit and nun — the objects that make the genre recognisable before a line is spoken.

  1. 1

    The Nun (2018)

    Corin HardyDP Maxime AlexandreIMDb 5.4TMDB 5.9See in full on FrameThrower →

    When a young nun at a cloistered abbey in Romania takes her own life, a priest with a haunted past and a novitiate on the threshold of her final vows are sent by the Vatican to investigate. Together they uncover the order's unholy secret. Risking not only their lives but their faith and their very souls, they confront a malevolent force in the form of the same demonic nun that first terrorized audiences in 'The Conjuring 2,' as the abbey becomes a horrific battleground between the living and the damned.

  2. 2

    Black Narcissus (1947)

    Michael Powell, Emeric PressburgerDP Jack CardiffIMDb 7.7TMDB 7.5See in full on FrameThrower →

    Sister Clodagh, currently posted at the Convent of the Order of the Servants of Mary in Calcutta, has just been appointed the Sister Superior of the St. Faith convent, making her the youngest sister superior in the order. The appointment is despite the reservations of the Reverend Mother who believes Sister Clodagh not ready for such an assignment, especially because of its isolated location. The convent will be a new one located in the mountainside Palace of Mopu in the Himalayas, and is only possible through the donation by General Todo Rai of Mopu - "The Old General" - of the palace, where the Old General's father formerly kept his concubine. On the Old General's directive, the convent is to provide schooling to the children and young women, and general dispensary services to all native residents who live in the valley below the palace. Accompanying Sister Clodagh will be four of the other nuns, each chosen for a specific reason: Sister Briony for her strength, Sister Phillipa who is to tend to the garden for food, Sister Blanche - more commonly referred to as Sister Honey - for her general ability to spread happiness, and troubled Sister Ruth, who the Reverend Mother believes will truly find her faith from the change in locale. The palace comes with an elderly female caretaker, slightly off kilter Angu Ayah, and a holy man who meditates in solitude and silence outside the palace grounds night and day, he who is not to be disturbed. The General also provides a young boy, six year old Joseph Anthony, the General's cook's son, who will live at the convent to provide translation services. But the sisters' primary liaison to the General and the outside world is his agent, native Brit Mr. Dean, which may prove to be problematic in his gender and doing any work around the convent. Sister Clodagh faces early challenges in feeling the need to accept two people to the convent: seventeen year old Kanchi, who is pushing the boundaries of her sexuality; and the Old General's son, the "Young General", who wants the same educational opportunities, if not better, than that offered to his female counterparts. Beyond these issues, each of the sisters is challenged by this posting, from the cultural differences, to the isolation, to the general openness of their environment. Sister Clodagh, as the leader, feels that she has no one to turn to in her confusion, her thoughts turning back to her time in Ireland before joining the order and her love for a young man named Con that was partly the reason for her decision to devote her life to God. But it is Sister Ruth whose issues may be the most problematic as she is becoming unhinged in her growing romantic obsession with Mr. Dean, especially as jealousy emerges in she also believing that Sister Clodagh is falling in love with him as well, which may or may not be the case.

  3. 3

    Benedetta (2021)

    Paul VerhoevenDP Jeanne LapoirieIMDb 6.7TMDB 6.6See in full on FrameThrower →

    17th-century Tuscany, Italy. As the sinister threat of the Plague looms over Europe, the sincerely devout eight-year-old novice, Benedetta Carlini, is brought into the Theatine Convent of the Mother of God in Pescia as a bride for Jesus Christ. Eighteen long years later, as ominous whispers of disputable miracles scandalise the cloistered sisters, a test of faith awaits deeply pious Benedetta in the shape of bruised, abused, and earthly Bartolomea: a young woman fleeing her violent father. Now, while under the vigilant eye of cynical Abbess Felicita, fleeting glimpses of the forbidden fruit invite a tentative intimacy, ungovernable desires, and intense diabolical obsessions in, and suddenly, the holy signs of faith are manifest in Sister Benedetta's body. But, few can wrestle with guilt and emerge unscathed. Is there an escape from sin when the flesh is the enemy?

  4. 4

    Immaculate (2024)

    Michael MohanDP Elisha ChristianIMDb 5.8TMDB 6.2See in full on FrameThrower →

    An American nun embarks on a new journey when she joins a remote convent in the Italian countryside. However, her warm welcome quickly turns into a living nightmare when she discovers her new home harbours a sinister secret and unspeakable horrors.

  5. 5

    Ida (2013)

    Paweł PawlikowskiDP Ryszard LenczewskiIMDb 7.4TMDB 7.2See in full on FrameThrower →

    Poland, 1962. Anna, an orphan brought up by nuns in the convent, is a novice. She has to see Wanda, the only living relative, before she takes her vows. Wanda tells Anna about her Jewish roots. Both women start a journey not only to find their family's tragic story, but to see who they really are and where they belong. They question what they used to believe in.

  6. 6

    Nacho Libre (2006)

    Jared HessDP Xavier GrobetIMDb 5.9TMDB 6.5See in full on FrameThrower →

    Ignacio, a disrespected cook at a Mexican monastery, can barely afford to feed the orphans who live there. Inspired by a local wrestling hero, he decides to moonlight as the not-so-famous Luchador "Nacho Libre" to earn money for the monastery -- not to mention the admiration of beautiful nun Sister Encarnación.

  7. 7

    Bad Lieutenant (1992)

    Abel FerraraDP Ken KelschIMDb 7.0TMDB 7.0See in full on FrameThrower →

    A police Lieutenant goes about his daily tasks of investigating homicides, but is more interested in pursuing his vices. He has accumulated a massive debt betting on baseball, and he keeps doubling to try to recover. His bookies are beginning to get agitated. The Lieutenant does copious amounts of drugs, cavorts with prostitutes, and uses his status to take advantage of teenage girls. While investigating a nun's rape, he begins to reflect on his lifestyle.

  8. 8

    The Phoenician Scheme (2025)

    Wes AndersonDP Bruno DelbonnelIMDb 6.6TMDB 6.5See in full on FrameThrower →

    Wealthy businessman Zsa-zsa Korda appoints his only daughter, a nun, as sole heir to his estate. As Korda embarks on a new enterprise, they soon become the target of scheming tycoons, foreign terrorists, and determined assassins.

  9. 9

    The First Omen (2024)

    Arkasha StevensonDP Aaron MortonIMDb 6.5TMDB 6.8See in full on FrameThrower →

    When a young American woman is sent to Rome to begin a life of service to the church, she encounters a darkness that causes her to question her own faith and uncovers a terrifying conspiracy that hopes to bring about the birth of evil incarnate.

  10. 10

    Doubt (2008)

    John Patrick ShanleyDP Roger DeakinsIMDb 7.5TMDB 7.2See in full on FrameThrower →

    It's 1964, St. Nicholas in the Bronx. A charismatic priest, Father Flynn, is trying to upend the school's strict customs, which have long been fiercely guarded by Sister Aloysius Beauvier, the iron-gloved Principal who believes in the power of fear-based discipline. The winds of political change are sweeping through the community, and indeed, the school has just accepted its first black student, Donald Miller. But when Sister James, a hopeful innocent, shares with Sister Aloysius her guilt-inducing suspicion that Father Flynn is paying too much personal attention to Donald, Sister Aloysius sets off on a personal crusade to unearth the truth and to expunge Flynn from the school. Now, without a shard of proof besides her moral certainty, Sister Aloysius locks into a battle of wills with Father Flynn which threatens to tear apart the community with irrevocable consequences.

What nun films are made of

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

  • wimple128.7×
  • habit126.8×
  • nun125.5×
  • crucifix31.5×
  • cross16.3×
  • veil13.4×
  • candle5.6×
  • stone wall3.7×

What breaks the pattern

The Ring Two (2005) 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 1,389 frames from 20 films carrying the nun 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/nun

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