What the Many Mothers of the Movies Reflect Back to Us

Angela Bassett’s Queen Ramonda is powerful matriarch, a mother whose strength steadies both her family and her nation. Black Panther became the first superhero film nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards and received seven Oscar nominations overall, marking a historic milestone for comic book cinema. It has since become known as one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s most emotionally resonant films.

As the iconic “Dancing Queen” Donna, Meryl Streep represents a gleefully free-spirited mother, reckoning with her own past as she watches her daughter become an equally free-spirited, independent young woman. Messy, radiant, and stubbornly independent, Donna is flawed—but it is her love for Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) that always shines through. Set on a picturesque Greek island and powered by an ABBA soundtrack, Mamma Mia! continues to be one of the most joyful movie musicals ever made.

Based on Wild by Cheryl Strayed, this film follows a grieving woman (Reese Witherspoon) hiking the Pacific Crest Trail in the wake of her mother’s death. In flashback scenes, Laura Dern portrays this mother, remembered most keenly through the imprint she leaves behind. The film earned Dern a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination and remains a deeply moving portrait of grief, healing, and maternal memory.

One of Julie Andrews’s most beloved roles is, of course, Maria, the governess-turned-surrogate mother at the heart of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music. Arriving in the von Trapp household as a nun, Maria soon becomes the family’s emotional center, and sees them through a period of immense grief and upheaval. The five-time Oscar-winning musical, which took home Best Picture, remains endlessly re-watchable—and yes, the soundtrack still holds up.

As Evelyn Quan Wang, Michelle Yeoh brilliantly depicts a Chinese-American immigrant mother who struggles to connect with her daughter, Joy—and this generational chasm between them soon manifests as multiversal chaos. Winning seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, the genre-bending science-fiction and action film is, in fact, a deceptively intimate story about mothers and their love for their children.

Diane Keaton plays a mother rediscovering herself in this early-aughts romantic comedy, which proves a woman’s story doesn’t end with motherhood—it simply opens another chapter. Nancy Meyers’s cozy coastal interiors and razor-sharp dialogue, as well as Keaton’s Oscar-nominated performance, make Something’s Gotta Give a comfort-watch classic.

Stepmom became a late ’90s tearjerker staple for a reason, pairing two powerhouse performances with the kind of emotional ending that viewers debate and discuss to this day. As Isabel Kelly and Jackie Harrison, Julia Roberts and Susan Sarandon portray a vignette of shared motherhood as their characters navigate divorce, illness, blended families, and what it means to love children in different ways.

María Cecilia Botero and Olga Merediz voice the matriarch at the center of Disney’s animated film Encanto—a grandmother holding her family together with equal parts love and pressure. Encanto became a global phenomenon thanks to its unforgettable music while also offering one of Disney’s most nuanced portrayals of generational trauma.

Joan Crawford’s titular Mildred embodies a self-sacrificial mother, building an entire life around giving her daughter opportunities she never had. Crawford’s performance won the Academy Award for Best Actress, and the film continues to be one of classic Hollywood’s most devastating portraits of maternal devotion.

In Cameron Crowe’s semi-autobiographical rock film, Frances McDormand plays protective mother Elaine Miller, desperately trying to keep her son safe while knowing she can’t stop him from growing up. The film won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and is widely considered one of the best coming-of-age pictures ever made.

This long-awaited adaptation of Judy Blume’s novel Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret was widely praised for honoring the beloved classic while giving mothers their own nuanced storyline. In the 2023 film, Rachel McAdams stars as a mother doing everything she can to “get it right,” balancing support, independence, and the challenge of letting her daughter become herself.

Played by Jamie Lee Curtis, Tess Coleman is a mother who just doesn’t “get it”—or so her teenage daughter, Anna (Lindsay Lohan), believes. That all changes when a body swap forces mother and daughter to live in each other’s lives. Freaky Friday became a millennial favorite by turning a wildly fun premise into a surprisingly heartfelt lesson in empathy. The film further proved its staying power with last year’s sequel, Freakier Friday.

As Inez de la Paz, Teyana Taylor portrays a single mother determined to build a stable life for her son after kidnapping him from foster care and raising him in New York City against impossible odds. A Thousand and One won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and became one of the most powerful recent portrayals of motherhood, sacrifice, and survival.

Toni Collette portrays Sheryl Hoover, a mother trying to hold her chaotic family together while supporting her daughter’s big pageant dreams. The indie hit won two Academy Awards and serves as a reminder that family dysfunction can also be both funny and deeply endearing.

Charlize Theron stars as Marlo Moreau, a mother of three, who befriends her night nanny, Tully (Mackenzie Davis), as she attempts to shoulder the invisible labor, exhaustion, and identity loss that can accompany early motherhood. Written by Diablo Cody, Tully is a deeply honest portrayal of postpartum struggle—and the kind of film that can make adult children look back and appreciate how much their own mothers might have been carrying.