Cover Here’s a list of films and shows to watch if you loved the Netflix movie ‘My Oxford Year’. (Photo IMDb)
Here’s a list of films and shows to watch if you loved the Netflix movie ‘My Oxford Year’. (Photo IMDb)
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If the Netflix series ‘My Oxford Year’ left you laughing, crying and thinking about it for days, these titles deserve a spot on your watchlist
If you’re one of the people who came into the Netflix movie My Oxford Year thinking it was a romcom, but stayed after discovering it wasn’t. Here are a few more films that you might want to add to your watchlist. Like My Oxford Year, the films and series here explore love in all its forms: messy, transformative, fleeting, sometimes tragic, but always unforgettable. From slow-burn romances that unfold over decades to contemporary love stories shaped by chance and circumstance, these titles will make you swoon, ache and perhaps even reflect on the “what ifs” in your own life. Clear your schedule, keep tissues nearby and prepare to fall in love all over again.
‘One Day’
Above The series offers a front-row seat to the very real ways love comes together and falls apart.
Skip the 2011 film and go straight to the Netflix series. Adapted from David Nicholls’s bestselling novel, the series follows Dexter Mayhew (Leo Woodall) and Emma Morley (Ambika Mod) on the same day each year, tracing the highs and lows of their personal lives and their relationship. It offers a front-row seat to the very messy, very real ways they come together and fall apart. Equally heart-warming and heartbreaking, Dex and Em’s romance is anchored by the scorching chemistry of the leads and their searing performances.
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‘Me Before You’
Above ‘Me Before You’ explores the transformative power of love and loss.
Based on the popular novel penned by Jojo Moyes, the film explores the transformative power of love and loss—how they shape the choices we make and the chances we take. When emotionally guarded Will Traynor (Sam Claflin) and bubbly Louisa Clark (Emilia Clarke) fall in love, it changes the way they see life. Will surprising Lou with a pair of bumblebee tights—in a scene that still has fans swooning—speaks of how much he has changed, even if his devastating life-changing decision doesn’t.
‘20th Century Girl’
Above This coming-of-age romance features secret crushes, mistaken identity and a love quadrangle.
This coming-of-age romance has all the hallmarks of a sweet, youthful romcom—secret crushes, mistaken identity and a love quadrangle. They say first love never dies, and adult Na Bo-ra (Kim Yoo-jung) has never stopped wondering about Poong Woon-ho (Byeon Woo-seok), the boy who ghosted her and broke her heart in high school. The reveal, which comes later in the film, gives Bo-ra—and the audience—closure and heartbreak. Buoyed by the leads’s charisma and chemistry, it’s a story of first love found and lost.
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‘Past Lives’
Above ‘Past Lives’ is a portrait of mature romance—real, raw and unflinching.
Writer and director Celine Song’s critically acclaimed film is a bittersweet love story steeped in yearning, regret, loss and acceptance. It’s a portrait of mature romance—real and raw, tender yet unflinching. When Na-young (Greta Lee) and Hae-sung (Yoo Teo), childhood friends who were separated when Na-young’s family emigrated to the United States, reconnect in adulthood, the meeting is loaded with unspoken emotion and what-ifs. Exploring themes of in-yun, fate, soulmates and red strings, layered with the modern immigrant experience, the film is a meditation on love, chance and the lives we might have lived, further elevated by the beautifully restrained performances of Lee, Yoo and John Magaro, who plays Na-young’s husband, Arthur.
Don’t miss: Celine Song breaks down modern love in ‘Materialists’
‘Normal People’
Above ‘Normal People’ captures the intense push and pull of first love.
Adapted from Sally Rooney’s bestselling novel, this coming-of-age tale follows Marianne Sheridan (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Connell Waldron (Paul Mescal) as they navigate love, friendship and self-discovery from their school days in a small Irish town through to university in Dublin. Intimate, unflinching and emotionally charged, it captures the intense push and pull of first love, the ways we hurt the people we care for most and how some connections are impossible to forget.
The ‘Before’ Trilogy (‘Before Sunrise’, ‘Before Sunset’, ‘Before Midnight’)
Above This trilogy is a love letter to slow-burn romances.
Richard Linklater’s trilogy is a love letter to slow-burn romances. The love story between Celine (Julie Delpy) and Jesse (Ethan Hawke) spans decades and the globe. In Before Sunrise, audiences watch them fall in love in Vienna, flush with the idealism and blush of youth. In Before Sunset, viewers are reunited with the couple in Paris, now older, wiser and world-weary. In Before Midnight, they are married with twins, on a holiday in Greece, and navigating the complexities of a long-term relationship. By revisiting the couple every nine years, the trilogy provides audiences a rare glimpse into what happens after the credits roll, capturing the ebb and flow of a romance over a lifetime.
Maggie Adan is a content writer, editor, and strategist with extensive experience across print, digital, and social media publishing. Formerly editor-in-chief at K-Zone Philippines, Summit Books and Content Lab, she has written lifestyle stories covering everything from entertainment and travel to beauty and wellness. A storyteller at heart with a keen editorial eye and a passion for narrative, she contributes to various publications and helps brands create and curate content for their social media platforms.
