It’s that time of year, folks. If you live in countries or cities that get chillier (or downright freezing), you’re about to get those lovely autumn colours any minute now. Red, orange, brown and yellow leaves all over the ground. The crunching of said leaves underneath your feet. The calming scent that lingers in the slightly cold breeze. As you can tell, fall is my personal favourite season, so it’s a bit strange that I’ve tackled the other seasons with film lists before, but only reached this particular season today. All I can say is “my bad”. Surprisingly, there aren’t many films centred around autumn or containing autumnal imagery that aren’t linked specifically (and only) to Halloween, Thanksgiving or school (all kinds of stories I purposefully avoided here, if the connection was overly strong or the main purpose of the film). Fall is commonly used as a bridge between summer and winter in films, so you’ll find some of those kinds of bridges below. Either way, I believe we still have some stellar films below for you to watch in celebration of the autumn season.

10. The Witch
While not explicitly an autumnal film, The Witch is still clad with barren trees and clearly chilly vibes in a setting that showcases both elements. Even though it’s a bit morbid to think of the season this way, noticing dying plants and crisp leaves (or blades of grass) are usually indications that it’s either fall or that fall has come and gone. Either way, the signs of the transition into a damning winter are there.

9. American Beauty
Considering the amount of time this film takes in other times of the year, the use of fall is quite important in American Beauty. By the time we reach it, the promise of upholding those red flowers in an all American garden are gone; like the hopes of the inhabitants of this film, the desires to keep going are at an all time low. Not everything is grim here, though. Autumn is simply about change, and change is what drives all of the characters here, whether it be from consumerist fear, existentialism, or giving up on relenting against the entire world.

8. Harold and Maude
Another selection that isn’t strictly based around its season, but the use of autumnal colours in Harold and Maude leads me to believe that it’s close enough to this time of year. Besides, the theme of death and rebirth is especially prevalent for the title characters, one of whom is a youth obsessed with his own demise, and the other an elderly lady that finds herself attached to life.

7. When Harry Met Sally…
The last film on this list to not be blatantly about autumn throughout, at least a noticeable portion of When Harry Met Sally… takes place in this season, even in different years. While I don’t believe there is any symbolic reason for this season to be included — outside of serendipity surrounding two people stumbling into each other, and the time based convenience of subsequent events to follow — the use of fall here is still done gorgeously, in a way that actually celebrates the season to some degree.

6. To Kill a Mockingbird
Okay, so there is a film on this list linked to Halloween, but To Kill a Mockingbird isn’t strictly about the holiday, so I believe it doesn’t cross that line too heavily. Fall usually means school is back in session and that a cold, long winter is coming. Both are appropriate for the young children that are about to get their next lesson; this time, it’s about the evils of bigoted, hateful adults, and that’s a winter that will sadly not go away for a long time.

5. All That Heaven Allows
The ending portion of All That Heaven Allows takes place in the winter (specifically around Christmas), but so much of the film leading up to that time of year is the honouring of autumn. With the vibrant enhancement of Technicolor, the warm colours of the leaves just leap off the screen (and so does Rock Hudson’s thematic flannel get up). This season provides a silent space for two unlikely lovers to hide in.

4. Late Autumn/The End of Summer/An Autumn Afternoon
Yasujirō Ozu has made a number of films based on the seasons (both Late Spring and Early Spring topped our spring list), so it’s only natural that his films that explicitly deal with autumn (Late Autumn, The End of Summer, and An Autumn Afternoon) make this list. All three films deal with eye-opening relationships, either stumbled upon or arranged by elders; in other words, Ozu’s autumnal trilogy is heavily invested in change, the seeking of warmth, and the cold chilly breeze of disappointment and miscommunication.

3. Days of Heaven
Even if Days of Heaven isn’t the most fall-obvious film (particularly because of the growth of vegetation as opposed to the death of it), it makes up for its visual content with the explosion of fall heavy colours, particularly a stunning blend of gold and sepia (and a slight warm tint to the sky to tie things up). Tie that to the grains of wheat, trees, and other natural life that surrounds the characters, and you have a calming experience full of rich autumnal beauty.

2. Autumn Sonata
Just pulling up to the house featured in Autumn Sonata features all of the leaves dispersed everywhere, and seeing the wrapped up characters indicates that the air is slightly cool. So what if a good portion of the film takes place inside said house? The way it is decorated, as well as the warm colours used by Sven Nykvist, clearly indicate the importance of the season of change when it comes to a daughter who is distanced from her celebrated mother. Even indoors, you can feel the season’s presence heavily.

1. Hannah and Her Sisters
Not many films are fully obsessed with autumn, but Hannah and Her Sisters is definitely one of them. Sure, a lot of it is based on Thanksgiving (in fact, three different celebrations of it), but so much of Woody Allen’s opus is invested in the lives surrounding the holiday and not the holiday itself. In a film full of characters hoping to turn new leaves, the emphasis on New York City’s autumn identity is subtle yet brilliant. These colours also match Allen’s obsession with visual neutrality, so the brown wardrobes and sets only help compliment the overall vibe of the film. Either way, the season almost feels like a vital character that follows each of the characters throughout the year, only to crash each Thanksgiving celebration.

Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.

Ten Films to Bring in Autumn