The 2020s did not settle on one kind of romance movie. A Regency meddler in a candy-colored England, a time loop that would not let a wedding end, a Netflix marriage of convenience that actually went to war, a Prime Video first-son-and-prince truce, and an A24 weekend about the life you did not live all arrived in the same decade. From Emma. and Palm Springs to Purple Hearts, Anyone but You, Challengers, and Past Lives, 2020s romance movies kept asking the same question: what do you do with a feeling once the algorithm, the family, or the calendar has already made other plans?
This list gathers thirteen essential romance movies from the 2020s — Austen updates, teen-finale sendoffs, queer destination weeks, sports triangles, and the quiet adult films that treated a reunion like a plot twist. Every pick uses TMDB-backed metadata and a short guide to why it belongs on a 2020s romance watchlist.
1. Emma.
- Movie Title: Emma.
- Release Date: February 13, 2020
- Main Cast: Anya Taylor-Joy, Johnny Flynn, Josh O’Connor
- Director: Autumn de Wilde
- TMDB Score: 7.0/10
Why We Included Emma. on This List
Autumn de Wilde’s film is the 2020s romance that opened the decade by handing Jane Austen a pastry box and a period at the end of the title. Anya Taylor-Joy’s Emma, Johnny Flynn’s Mr. Knightley, and Josh O’Connor’s Mr. Elton turn a well-meaning busybody into someone whose matches keep landing on the wrong people, including herself. It belongs here because so many 2020s romances are about people who think they can manage other people’s hearts from a safe distance. On a 2020s watchlist it is the theatrical Austen movie that treated courtship as a comedy of manners you can still get wrong in a pretty room.
Quick Emma. Summary
In 1800s England, a well-meaning but selfish young woman meddles in the love lives of her friends. Emma has money, taste, and a habit of arranging other people as if they were furniture. The trouble starts when the arrangements refuse to stay where she put them. The romance is not only who she ends up with. It is whether she can see the people in front of her once she stops casting them.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Emma.
De Wilde — a photographer and music-video director — made this as her first feature, with Anya Taylor-Joy as Austen’s most confident matchmaker and Johnny Flynn as the neighbor who has been watching her miss the point. Josh O’Connor plays the clergyman who thinks Emma’s attention is a proposal. Focus Features released it in February 2020, in the last quiet weeks before theaters emptied. It is the 2020 romance people still start with when they want a period comedy that looks like a confection and behaves like a warning.
2. The Half of It
- Movie Title: The Half of It
- Release Date: May 1, 2020
- Main Cast: Leah Lewis, Daniel Diemer, Alexxis Lemire
- Director: Alice Wu
- TMDB Score: 7.1/10
Why We Included The Half of It on This List
Alice Wu’s film is the 2020s romance that took a Cyrano plot and gave the letters to a girl who was not supposed to want the same person as the jock who hired her. Leah Lewis’s Ellie, Daniel Diemer’s Paul, and Alexxis Lemire’s Aster turn a small-town homework job into a triangle where the writer is also the one falling. It belongs here because the decade’s best teen romances often hide the real confession inside someone else’s. On a 2020s watchlist it is the Netflix movie that asked what happens when the person composing the love is the one who cannot send it as herself.
Quick The Half of It Summary
Shy, straight-A student Ellie is hired by sweet but inarticulate jock Paul, who needs help wooing the most popular girl in school. But their new and unlikely friendship gets tricky when Ellie discovers she has feelings for the same girl. The essays get better. The crush does not stay a secret she can outsource. The romance is a comedy of ghostwriting until it has to become a conversation in her own voice.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About The Half of It
Wu returned to features years after Saving Face with this Netflix original, writing Ellie as a Chinese American teen in a square of a town that would rather she stay useful than visible. Leah Lewis carries the letters; Diemer and Lemire play the two people those letters keep pulling into the same room. It arrived in May 2020, when a lot of viewers were already living inside other people’s messages. It is the 2020 romance people recommend when they want a coming-out story that is also a comedy about who gets credit for a feeling.
3. Palm Springs
- Movie Title: Palm Springs
- Release Date: July 10, 2020
- Main Cast: Andy Samberg, Cristin Milioti, J.K. Simmons
- Director: Max Barbakow
- TMDB Score: 7.3/10
Why We Included Palm Springs on This List
Max Barbakow’s film is the 2020s romance that trapped a wedding inside a time loop and then refused to let the loop be only a science-fiction joke. Andy Samberg’s Nyles, Cristin Milioti’s Sarah, and J.K. Simmons turn a desert reception into a day two people have to keep surviving together. It belongs here because so many 2020s romances are about being stuck — in a chat, a family, a city — and this one makes the stuckness literal. On a 2020s watchlist it is the Hulu movie that asked whether love is what you do when tomorrow will not arrive unless you change.
Quick Palm Springs Summary
When carefree Nyles and reluctant maid of honor Sarah have a chance encounter at a Palm Springs wedding, things get complicated when they find themselves unable to escape the venue, themselves, or each other. The first loops are a party. The later ones are a relationship with no next morning to hide in. The mystery is not how the day resets. It is whether two people can still choose each other once they have seen every version of the same afternoon.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Palm Springs
Barbakow premiered this at Sundance in January 2020, then Hulu and Neon brought it out that July as a pandemic-era rom-com people could watch on the couch and still feel like they had been somewhere. Samberg plays a man who has already given up on the day; Milioti plays the woman who will not. Simmons is the third person in the loop who treats it like a job. It is the 2020 romance people still cite when they want a time-loop movie that is actually about staying.
4. To All the Boys: Always and Forever
- Movie Title: To All the Boys: Always and Forever
- Release Date: February 12, 2021
- Main Cast: Lana Condor, Noah Centineo, Janel Parrish
- Director: Michael Fimognari
- TMDB Score: 7.5/10
Why We Included To All the Boys: Always and Forever on This List
Michael Fimognari’s film is the 2020s romance that closed a Netflix teen trilogy by making college the antagonist instead of another secret letter. Lana Condor’s Lara Jean, Noah Centineo’s Peter, and Janel Parrish’s Margot turn senior year into a map of cities that may not include both of them. It belongs here because the decade’s most-watched romances were often sequels that had to invent a new problem once the first kiss was already public. On a 2020s watchlist it is the Jenny Han finale that treated “where are you applying” as a breakup question.
Quick To All the Boys: Always and Forever Summary
Senior year of high school takes center stage as Lara Jean returns from a family trip to Korea and considers her college plans — with and without Peter. The letters are no longer the secret. The future is. A relationship that started as a fake boyfriend now has to survive real applications, real families, and a calendar that ends in June. The romance is about whether the person who made high school feel finished can follow you into the next town.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About To All the Boys: Always and Forever
Fimognari — who shot the first film and directed the second — finished the Netflix trilogy adapted from Jenny Han’s novels, with Condor and Centineo back as the couple the internet had already adopted. Janel Parrish returns as the older sister whose advice now has an expiration date. It arrived in February 2021 as comfort viewing that still had to end high school. It is the 2021 romance people finish when they want the letters trilogy to say goodbye without pretending college is just another dance.
5. The Worst Person in the World
- Movie Title: The Worst Person in the World
- Release Date: October 13, 2021
- Main Cast: Renate Reinsve, Anders Danielsen Lie, Herbert Nordrum
- Director: Joachim Trier
- TMDB Score: 7.4/10
Why We Included The Worst Person in the World on This List
Joachim Trier’s film is the 2020s romance that spent four years with a woman who keeps changing her mind and then refused to punish her for it. Renate Reinsve’s Julie, Anders Danielsen Lie’s Aksel, and Herbert Nordrum’s Eivind turn Oslo into a city where love is a series of chapters instead of a single proposal. It belongs here because a lot of 2020s romances are about choosing; this one is about how choice looks when you are still becoming someone. On a 2020s watchlist it is the Norwegian film that treated indecision as a love story, not a character flaw to be cured by the right man.
Quick The Worst Person in the World Summary
The chronicles of 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. She leaves medicine. She tries photography. She loves people who are on different clocks. The romance is not a meet-cute that resolves. It is a portrait of what you keep and what you outgrow.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About The Worst Person in the World
Trier made this as the third film in his Oslo trilogy, with Renate Reinsve winning Best Actress at Cannes for a role that had to hold comedy, grief, and a lot of walking. Anders Danielsen Lie and Herbert Nordrum play the two men who meet Julie at different points in the same becoming. NEON brought it to U.S. theaters, and it picked up Oscar nominations for Best International Feature and Best Original Screenplay. It is the 2021 romance people recommend when they want a love story that lets the woman remain unfinished.
6. Licorice Pizza
- Movie Title: Licorice Pizza
- Release Date: November 26, 2021
- Main Cast: Alana Haim, Cooper Hoffman, Sean Penn
- Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
- TMDB Score: 6.9/10
Why We Included Licorice Pizza on This List
Paul Thomas Anderson’s film is the 2020s romance that sent first love running around the San Fernando Valley in 1973 and refused to tidy it into a lesson. Alana Haim’s Alana, Cooper Hoffman’s Gary, and Sean Penn turn waterbeds, teen-actor hustles, and night drives into a courtship that keeps changing age in the same conversation. It belongs here because the decade still needed a movie about the awkward years before anyone knows what the relationship is. On a 2020s watchlist it is the Valley hangout that treated a crush as a small business, a ride, and a dare.
Quick Licorice Pizza Summary
The story of Gary Valentine and Alana Kane growing up, running around and going through the treacherous navigation of first love in the San Fernando Valley, 1973. Gary is already selling something. Alana is already older than the rooms he walks her into. They keep finding each other between errands that look like plots. The romance is the running around. The danger is how much of themselves they are still inventing while they do it.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Licorice Pizza
Anderson cast Alana Haim — of the band HAIM — and Cooper Hoffman, son of Philip Seymour Hoffman, as first-time leads who still feel like they invented the camera. Sean Penn turns up as the kind of Valley man the 1970s kept on a motorcycle. MGM released it at the end of 2021 as a memory piece that is also a first-love movie. It is the 2021 romance people argue about as a vibe and a problem in the same breath, which is usually a sign it belongs on the list.
7. Fire Island
- Movie Title: Fire Island
- Release Date: June 2, 2022
- Main Cast: Joel Kim Booster, Bowen Yang, Margaret Cho
- Director: Andrew Ahn
- TMDB Score: 6.9/10
Why We Included Fire Island on This List
Andrew Ahn’s film is the 2020s romance that took Pride and Prejudice to the Pines and let a found family do the matchmaking Austen used to assign to drawing rooms. Joel Kim Booster’s Noah, Bowen Yang’s Howie, and Margaret Cho turn a week of drinks, dance floors, and class jokes into a story about who gets to be desired on vacation. It belongs here because queer rom-coms in this decade finally got studio sunlight, and this one still remembered to be specific about money, race, and who pays for the house. On a 2020s watchlist it is the Searchlight movie that treated a ferry ride as the start of a marriage plot.
Quick Fire Island Summary
A group of queer best friends gather in the Fire Island Pines for their annual week of love and laughter. However, desires, dramas, drink and drugs push their bonds to the limits. Noah wants Howie to have a great love story. Howie is not sure the island is offering him one. The week keeps introducing men who look like answers until they look like the same old sorting. The romance is a comedy of manners with sunscreen.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Fire Island
Booster wrote the script and stars; Ahn directs; Yang — Booster’s friend from comedy — plays the Bennet sister energy as a best friend who would rather be kind than strategic. Margaret Cho is the host of the house that makes the week possible. Searchlight Pictures released it in June 2022 as a Pride-season rom-com that quoted Austen without putting anyone in a bonnet. It is the 2022 romance people still send when they want a queer vacation movie that is actually about friendship as the dowry.
8. Purple Hearts
- Movie Title: Purple Hearts
- Release Date: July 29, 2022
- Main Cast: Sofia Carson, Nicholas Galitzine, John Harlan Kim
- Director: Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum
- TMDB Score: 8.0/10
Why We Included Purple Hearts on This List
Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum’s film is the 2020s romance that took a fake marriage, a deployment, and a songwriter and made it the decade’s most-watched convenience contract. Sofia Carson’s Cassie, Nicholas Galitzine’s Luke, and John Harlan Kim turn benefits paperwork into a relationship that a tragedy will not let stay fake. It belongs here because streaming romance in the 2020s ran on this exact engine: two people who agree to a deal, then have to live inside it. On a 2020s watchlist it is the Netflix movie people finished in one night and then argued about as a love story and a recruitment poster.
Quick Purple Hearts Summary
An aspiring musician agrees to a marriage of convenience with a soon-to-deploy Marine, but a tragedy soon turns their fake relationship all too real. Cassie needs health insurance. Luke needs the extra pay. The arrangement is supposed to be a form. Then the war, the songs, and the people they lied to start collecting on it. The romance is what happens when a contract outlives the reason you signed.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Purple Hearts
Rosenbaum made this for Netflix with Sofia Carson as the bartender-songwriter and Galitzine as the Marine who would become one of the decade’s default romance leads. John Harlan Kim is in the circle that has to believe the marriage. Carson also performs the film’s songs, which is part of why it traveled as a playlist as much as a plot. It is the 2022 romance people still mean when they say they want a fake-dating movie that does not stay in a coffee shop.
9. Past Lives
- Movie Title: Past Lives
- Release Date: June 2, 2023
- Main Cast: Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, John Magaro
- Director: Celine Song
- TMDB Score: 7.7/10
Why We Included Past Lives on This List
Celine Song’s film is the 2020s romance that treated a childhood goodbye, an ocean, and one New York weekend as enough plot for a whole life. Greta Lee’s Nora, Teo Yoo’s Hae Sung, and John Magaro’s Arthur turn destiny talk into something you can sit across a bar from and still not solve. It belongs here because the decade’s richest romances are often about the person you did not marry. On a 2020s watchlist it is the A24 film that asked whether in-yun is a love story or just the name you give to a coincidence you cannot stop feeling.
Quick Past Lives Summary
After decades apart, childhood friends Nora and Hae Sung are reunited in New York for one fateful weekend as they confront notions of destiny, love, and the choices that make a life. They were kids in Korea. They are adults with other cities in their mouths. The weekend is long enough for a walk and not long enough for a rewrite. The romance is the space between the life she built and the one that arrived at her door.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Past Lives
Song — a playwright — made this as her first feature, drawing on the shape of her own immigration and a visit that would not stay a private anecdote. Lee, Yoo, and Magaro play the triangle without turning the husband into a villain or the childhood friend into a fantasy you can simply choose. A24 released it in June 2023; it went on to Oscar nominations including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. It is the 2023 romance people still lower their voices for, which is a useful test of whether a love story landed.
10. Red, White & Royal Blue
- Movie Title: Red, White & Royal Blue
- Release Date: July 27, 2023
- Main Cast: Taylor Zakhar Perez, Nicholas Galitzine, Uma Thurman
- Director: Matthew López
- TMDB Score: 7.9/10
Why We Included Red, White & Royal Blue on This List
Matthew López’s film is the 2020s romance that turned a tabloid shove into a transatlantic love story and then let the White House and the palace both have opinions. Taylor Zakhar Perez’s Alex, Nicholas Galitzine’s Prince Henry, and Uma Thurman’s president-mother turn a staged truce into the opposite of a photo op. It belongs here because this decade’s studio-adjacent romances finally put a gay love story in tuxedos and treated it as a crowd-pleaser instead of a side plot. On a 2020s watchlist it is the Prime Video movie people watched when they wanted enemies-to-lovers with motorcades.
Quick Red, White & Royal Blue Summary
After an altercation between Alex, the president’s son, and Britain’s Prince Henry at a royal event becomes tabloid fodder, their long-running feud now threatens to drive a wedge in U.S./British relations. When the rivals are forced into a staged truce, their icy relationship begins to thaw and the friction between them sparks something deeper than they ever expected. The cake is public. The emails are not supposed to be. The romance is what two people do once the performance of getting along starts telling the truth.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Red, White & Royal Blue
López adapted Casey McQuiston’s bestselling novel for Prime Video, with Perez and Galitzine as the first son and the prince the book’s readers had already cast in their heads. Uma Thurman plays the American president who has to love her kid and win an election in the same news cycle. Galitzine arrived here after Purple Hearts, which is how one actor became a 2020s romance constant. It is the 2023 film people still put on when they want a political rom-com that is actually about two people hiding in a hotel room.
11. Anyone but You
- Movie Title: Anyone but You
- Release Date: December 21, 2023
- Main Cast: Sydney Sweeney, Glen Powell, Mia Artemis
- Director: Will Gluck
- TMDB Score: 6.7/10
Why We Included Anyone but You on This List
Will Gluck’s film is the 2020s romance that proved a theatrical rom-com could still sneak into Christmas, quote Shakespeare, and make a destination wedding feel like a contact sport. Sydney Sweeney’s Bea, Glen Powell’s Ben, and Mia Artemis turn a disastrous first date into a fake couple act that Australia will not let them drop. It belongs here because the decade kept being told the big-screen rom-com was over, and then this one sold tickets anyway. On a 2020s watchlist it is the Sony comedy that treated hatred as just another kind of unfinished conversation.
Quick Anyone but You Summary
After an amazing first date, Bea and Ben’s fiery attraction turns ice cold — until they find themselves unexpectedly reunited at a destination wedding in Australia. So they do what any two mature adults would do: pretend to be a couple. The families want a story. The wedding wants photos. The two people who already decided they were done have to share a room and a lie. The romance is the thaw you cannot schedule.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Anyone but You
Gluck — of Easy A — loosely borrowed the shape of Much Ado About Nothing and sent Sweeney and Powell to a Sydney wedding instead of a Messina villa. Mia Artemis is in the family circus that keeps shoving them together. Sony released it in December 2023; audiences kept it in theaters into the new year, which is not supposed to happen to a mid-budget rom-com anymore. It is the 2023 romance people still mean when they say they want a movie where the couple is already fighting in the first act.
12. Challengers
- Movie Title: Challengers
- Release Date: April 18, 2024
- Main Cast: Zendaya, Mike Faist, Josh O’Connor
- Director: Luca Guadagnino
- TMDB Score: 6.9/10
Why We Included Challengers on This List
Luca Guadagnino’s film is the 2020s romance that put a marriage, an ex, and a Challenger tournament on the same court and let tennis do the talking the dialogue was too proud to finish. Zendaya’s Tashi, Mike Faist’s Art, and Josh O’Connor’s Patrick turn a losing streak into a reunion neither man can pretend is only about ranking. It belongs here because desire in this decade often arrived as a sport, a job, or a brand, and this one made all three collide. On a 2020s watchlist it is the sweaty triangle people quoted as a meme and then had to admit was a love story.
Quick Challengers Summary
Tennis player turned coach Tashi has taken her husband, Art, and transformed him into a world-famous Major champion. To jolt him out of his recent losing streak, she signs him up for a “Challenger” event — close to the lowest level of pro tournament — where he finds himself standing across the net from his former best friend and Tashi’s former boyfriend. The match is the present tense. The flashbacks are the relationship. The romance is three people who never learned how to leave the court.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Challengers
Guadagnino made this after Call Me by Your Name and Bones and All, with Zendaya as a former player who now runs the men she used to play with. Faist and O’Connor — O’Connor also appeared in Emma. earlier on this list — are the husband and the ex who have to share a locker room of unfinished history. Amazon MGM Studios released it in April 2024; the score and the stares did as much advertising as the plot. It is the 2024 romance people still put on when they want a love story that sweats.
13. The Idea of You
- Movie Title: The Idea of You
- Release Date: May 2, 2024
- Main Cast: Anne Hathaway, Nicholas Galitzine, Ella Rubin
- Director: Michael Showalter
- TMDB Score: 7.2/10
Why We Included The Idea of You on This List
Michael Showalter’s film is the 2020s romance that took an age-gap, a boy band, and a forty-year-old gallery owner and asked the internet’s favorite argument to sit through a whole relationship. Anne Hathaway’s Solène, Nicholas Galitzine’s Hayes, and Ella Rubin turn Coachella into the start of a tour that will not stay a secret. It belongs here because this is the third Galitzine stop on this list, and because the decade kept returning to famous-person love as a problem of cameras, not just feelings. On a 2020s watchlist it is the Prime Video movie that treated a pop star as a person you might actually have to parent a life around.
Quick The Idea of You Summary
40-year-old single mom Solène begins an unexpected romance with 24-year-old Hayes Campbell, the lead singer of August Moon, the hottest boy band on the planet. As they begin a whirlwind romance, it isn’t long before Hayes’ superstar status poses unavoidable challenges to their relationship, and Solène soon discovers that life in the glare of his spotlight might be more than she bargained for. The age difference is the headline. The real plot is whether two people can date once the headline has a photographer.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About The Idea of You
Showalter adapted Robinne Lee’s novel for Prime Video, with Hathaway as the woman the internet would have opinions about and Galitzine — after Purple Hearts and Red, White & Royal Blue — as the pop star who keeps ending up in 2020s romances. Ella Rubin plays the daughter who can see the relationship more clearly than the tabloids. It arrived in May 2024 as a streaming event that was also a conversation about who is allowed to want someone younger. It is the 2024 romance people still argue about as a fantasy and a workplace, which is exactly why it closes this list.
If this 2020s romance watchlist sent you back toward a time-loop wedding, a fake marriage, or a New York weekend you have already lived once, keep wandering the related lists — the decade’s comedies, dramas, and mysteries are full of the same people trying to stay, leave, or start over. Tell us which title you still rewind to the first look.
