Van Gogh Movies: The Full List, from Lust for Life to Loving Vincent

Reviewed October 2026. The best-known Van Gogh movies are Lust for Life (1956, Kirk Douglas), Vincent & Theo (1990, Tim Roth), Van Gogh (1991, by Maurice Pialat), Loving Vincent (2017, the animated film painted in oils) and At Eternity’s Gate (2018, Willem Dafoe). Below you’ll find every feature film with its year, director and the actor who plays Vincent, followed by the main Van Gogh documentaries and TV episodes, including Van Gogh: Painted with Words with Benedict Cumberbatch and the Doctor Who episode “Vincent and the Doctor.”

Van Gogh movies at a glance

In Loving Vincent, Robert Gulaczyk’s filmed performance was painted over frame by frame. Documentaries and TV episodes are listed further down the page. For the real story behind the scripts, see our biography of Van Gogh.

Lust for Life (1956), with Kirk Douglas

Directed by Vincente Minnelli and produced by John Houseman, Lust for Life adapts Irving Stone’s 1934 novel of the same name, with a screenplay by Norman Corwin. Kirk Douglas plays Van Gogh and James Donald plays his brother Theo. The film covers almost all of the painter’s adult life: his time as a preacher in a poor mining community, his first drawings with the help of the painter Anton Mauve, Paris and the Impressionists, the move to Arles and the stormy months with Paul Gauguin, the cut ear, the asylum and the final weeks painting in the countryside.

Anthony Quinn, who plays Gauguin, won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Douglas was nominated for the Oscar for Best Actor and won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama and the New York Film Critics Circle Award. The film also received Oscar nominations for its adapted screenplay and its color art direction. One of its most famous scenes shows Vincent painting Wheatfield with Crows just before shooting himself; Wikipedia notes that the film popularized the idea that this was his last painting, while his letters suggest it was finished around July 10, 1890, before other works such as Tree Roots.

Vincent & Theo (1990), by Robert Altman

Robert Altman‘s film, written by Julian Mitchell, tells the story of the two brothers side by side: Vincent (Tim Roth) and Theo (Paul Rhys), the art dealer who supported him. It opens with documentary footage of the 1987 auction of a Van Gogh painting at Christie’s in London, then covers 1883 to 1891: Vincent’s move from Theo’s Paris apartment to Provence, Theo’s gallery and his marriage to Jo Bonger, Gauguin, the ear, Dr. Gachet, and the deaths of both brothers a few months apart. It was made as a four-hour miniseries for television, and a shorter version was released in theaters.

Dreams (1990): “Crows,” with Martin Scorsese as Van Gogh

Dreams (Yume, also released as Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams) is an anthology of eight vignettes written and directed by Akira Kurosawa, inspired by his own recurring dreams. In “Crows,” an art student finds himself inside the world of Van Gogh’s paintings and meets the artist in a field. Van Gogh, played by the American filmmaker Martin Scorsese, tells him his left ear gave him trouble while he was working on a self-portrait, so he cut it off. The student then loses him and travels through several of his works, ending in Wheatfield with Crows, the painting the episode is based on.

Vincent and Me (1990)

A French Canadian family fantasy film directed by Michael Rubbo, part of the Tales for All (Contes pour tous) series; its French title is Vincent et moi. Jo, a girl from Quebec who wants to paint like her hero Van Gogh, sells some drawings to a mysterious European art dealer, and they later turn up as “newly discovered” drawings by the young Van Gogh. To clear things up, she and her friends set out to find the dealer in Amsterdam, or even Vincent himself in 19th-century Arles. Van Gogh is played by Tchéky Karyo. The film also features Jeanne Calment as herself at age 114: she said she had met Van Gogh around 1888, when she was 12 or 13.

Van Gogh (1991), by Maurice Pialat

Written and directed by Maurice Pialat, this French film follows the last 67 days of Van Gogh’s life in 1890, the weeks he spent in Auvers-sur-Oise, and his relationships with Theo, with his doctor Paul Gachet and with the women around him, including Gachet’s daughter Marguerite. The film is noted for its unsensational approach: it spends little time on the famous episodes and much more on everyday life. Jacques Dutronc won the 1992 César Award for Best Actor as Vincent. The film competed at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival and was France’s submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, although it was not nominated.

Loving Vincent (2017): the painted animated film

Directed by Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman, Loving Vincent is the first fully painted animated feature film. Each of its 65,000 frames is an oil painting on canvas, made with Van Gogh’s techniques by a team of 125 painters over scenes shot with live actors (a form of rotoscoping). Robert Gulaczyk plays Vincent, with Douglas Booth as Armand Roulin, Saoirse Ronan as Marguerite Gachet, Jerome Flynn as Dr. Gachet and Chris O’Dowd as the postman Joseph Roulin. It premiered at the Annecy festival in June 2017 and opened in the United States on September 22, 2017.

The story takes place a year after the painter’s death. Joseph Roulin asks his son Armand to deliver Vincent’s last letter to Theo, and the errand takes Armand from Paris to Auvers-sur-Oise, where he questions the people who knew Vincent in his final weeks. Many of the characters step straight out of his portraits. The film won the European Film Award for Best Animated Feature and was nominated for the Oscar, the Golden Globe and the BAFTA for best animated film.

At Eternity’s Gate (2018), with Willem Dafoe

Julian Schnabel directed At Eternity’s Gate from a screenplay he wrote with Jean-Claude Carrière and Louise Kugelberg. It follows Van Gogh’s final years: the landscapes around Arles and the Yellow House, Gauguin’s arrival and departure (Oscar Isaac), the ear, the asylum in Saint-Rémy and the last months in Auvers-sur-Oise. Rupert Friend plays Theo, Mads Mikkelsen a priest, Mathieu Amalric Dr. Gachet and Emmanuelle Seigner Madame Ginoux. It was shot on location in Arles and Auvers-sur-Oise, and it dramatizes the theory, taken from Naifeh and Smith’s biography, that Van Gogh’s death was caused by others rather than by suicide.

Willem Dafoe won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the 2018 Venice Film Festival and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor and the Golden Globe for Best Actor – Drama. The film shares its title with a painting Van Gogh made in Saint-Rémy in May 1890, Sorrowing Old Man (At Eternity’s Gate), which shows an old man by the fire with his head in his hands. It is now in the Kröller-Müller Museum: see At Eternity’s Gate, the painting (in Spanish).

Van Gogh documentaries and TV episodes

Van Gogh (1948), by Alain Resnais

A 20-minute French black-and-white documentary short that uses only Van Gogh’s canvases, with narration by Claude Dauphin. It won the Oscar for Best Short Subject (Two-Reel) at the 1950 ceremony.

Vincent: The Life and Death of Vincent van Gogh (1987), by Paul Cox

The Australian director Paul Cox covers the last eight years of the artist’s life through his paintings and drawings in chronological order, footage of the places where he lived and a few dramatized scenes. The soundtrack is John Hurt reading Vincent’s letters to Theo. It was an art-house hit and ran for two years in New York City.

Simon Schama’s Power of Art (2006): the Van Gogh episode

An eight-part BBC series written and presented by the historian Simon Schama, each episode devoted to one artist and one key work. Episode 6 centers on Van Gogh and Wheatfield with Crows, with Andy Serkis playing the painter in the reenactments. It first aired on BBC Two in October 2006 and was later shown in the US on PBS.

Van Gogh: Painted with Words (2010), with Benedict Cumberbatch

A docudrama by Andrew Hutton in which Benedict Cumberbatch plays Van Gogh and Jamie Parker plays Theo. The script is based on the real letters between the brothers and shows the circumstances in which they were written.

Doctor Who: “Vincent and the Doctor” (2010)

The tenth episode of the fifth series of the British show, written by Richard Curtis and directed by Jonny Campbell, first broadcast on BBC One on June 5, 2010. The Doctor (Matt Smith) and Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) spot a strange figure in a window of The Church at Auvers at the Musée d’Orsay and travel back to 1890 to meet Van Gogh (Tony Curran). Near the end, they take Vincent to see his own exhibition at the Musée d’Orsay. Reviewers praised Curran’s performance.

Other Van Gogh titles

• Vincent the Dutchman (1972): a documentary-drama by Mai Zetterling and David Hughes, with Michael Gough as Van Gogh, filmed in the places where he lived and died.
• Vincent: Leonard Nimoy’s one-man play, adapted from Phillip Stephens’s Van Gogh; a performance was televised in 1981.
• The Van Gogh Legacy (Van Gogh: een huis voor Vincent, 2013): a Dutch miniseries with Barry Atsma as Vincent, told through the eyes of his nephew Vincent Willem.

Where to watch Van Gogh movies

Streaming, digital rental and DVD availability changes often and varies by country, so we don’t list specific services. Search for the original title on the platform you use; some films also appear under alternative titles, such as Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams or Vincent et moi.

Frequently asked questions

Which movie has Willem Dafoe as Van Gogh?

At Eternity’s Gate (2018), directed by Julian Schnabel. Dafoe plays Van Gogh in his final years; he won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor in Venice and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor.

Is Loving Vincent really painted?

Yes. Loving Vincent (2017) is the first fully painted animated feature film: each of its 65,000 frames is an oil painting on canvas, made by 125 painters over scenes shot with actors. It was nominated for the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.

Who played Van Gogh in Lust for Life?

Kirk Douglas. In Lust for Life (1956), Anthony Quinn plays Paul Gauguin and won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the role; Douglas was nominated for Best Actor and won the Golden Globe.

In which movie does Martin Scorsese play Van Gogh?

In Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams (1990), in the episode “Crows,” where an art student steps into Van Gogh’s paintings and meets the artist in a field.

Is At Eternity’s Gate named after a painting?

The film shares its title with a painting Van Gogh made in Saint-Rémy in May 1890, Sorrowing Old Man (At Eternity’s Gate), showing an old man by the fire with his head in his hands. It is in the Kröller-Müller Museum.

Is there a movie about Vincent and his brother Theo?

Yes: Vincent & Theo (1990), directed by Robert Altman, with Tim Roth as Vincent and Paul Rhys as Theo.

What is the best-known Van Gogh documentary?

Alain Resnais’s short Van Gogh (1948) won an Oscar, and Paul Cox’s Vincent (1987) is built on John Hurt reading the letters. On TV, there is the Van Gogh episode of Simon Schama’s Power of Art (2006) and Van Gogh: Painted with Words (2010), with Benedict Cumberbatch.

Where can I watch Van Gogh movies?

It changes often and depends on your country. Search for the original title on your streaming or rental service.

Sources

Years, directors, cast and awards checked on October 13, 2026 against these pages:

• Wikipedia: Lust for Life (1956 film)
• Wikipedia: Vincent & Theo
• Wikipedia: Dreams (1990 film)
• Wikipedia: Vincent and Me
• Wikipedia: Van Gogh (1991 film)
• Wikipedia: Loving Vincent
• Wikipedia: At Eternity’s Gate (film)
• Wikipedia: At Eternity’s Gate (painting)
• Wikipedia: Wheatfield with Crows
• Wikipedia: Van Gogh (1948 film)
• Wikipedia: Vincent (1987 film)
• Wikipedia: Simon Schama’s Power of Art
• Wikipedia: Vincent and the Doctor
• Wikipedia: Death of Vincent van Gogh
• Wikipedia: Cultural depictions of Vincent van Gogh