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I have always found that there’s something undeniably powerful about movies based on true stories. They can transport us to the lives of real people, showcasing their triumphs, struggles, and moments of profound inspiration.

Related: 10 Best Biopics of All Time, Ranked by Viewers

In this article, we will explore ten inspiring true-story movies that have received critical acclaim and have the power to tug at your heartstrings.

Get ready to be moved by the remarkable journeys of these real-life heroes and heroines!

1 ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’ (2006)

Inspired by the life of Chris Gardner, “The Pursuit of Happyness” portrays the incredible story of a struggling salesman who faces homelessness while trying to provide a better life for his young son.

Related: Will Smith Movies List: Top 10 Best Ranked

This series had a special hold over me as the storyline touches on heavily emotional topics. I was drawn in by the intense relationships between the characters.

In the offices of Dunder Mifflin (Scranton branch), salesmen, accountants and even Hr got together to decide once and for all: Is Hilary Swank hot or not? They’re referring to her looks, but one could just as easily be talking about her career. At what point was Hilary Swank hot in her career? In 2008, when the episode aired: Yeah. In the years between her Oscars? Not exactly. Now? No. So, let’s take a look and find out…Wtf Happened to…Hilary Swank?

But to truly understand what the fuck happened to Hilary Swank, we go back to the beginning. And the beginning began when she was born on July 30th, 1974, in Lincoln, Nebraska. As a youth, Swank bounced around a bit, going from Nebraska to Washington to California, developing a love for both gymnastics (Junior Olympian; state finalist) and acting (appearing in The Jungle Book at 9 as Mowgli...

Toss on the life jackets (or as they were called during WWII, “Mae Wests”) and prepare yourself for a nautical thriller, one “inspired by true events” (barely a month into 2016 and here’s the second “non-fiction” flick after 13 Hours). Now it’s not a wartime actioner with destroyers battling subs. As you may have gathered from the numerous TV spots, this story is more of “man versus Mother Nature” one, along the lines of The Perfect Storm from way back in 2000. Since then we’ve seen film heroes fighting storms and killer waves in Life Of Pi, All Is Lost, and the very recent (maybe six weeks) In The Heart Of The Sea. This new flick is not set a couple hundred years ago like that whale-hunting adventure, only 64 years next month. This is a tale of determination and courage exemplified by the Us Coast Guard in one of the most astounding sea rescues,...

Day five of the 21st Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival promises a smorgasbord of great films and there are still 6 days to go!

Sliff’s main venues are the the Hi-Pointe Theatre, Tivoli Theatre, Plaza Frontenac Cinema, Webster University’s Winifred Moore Auditorium, Washington University’s Brown Hall Auditorium and the Wildey Theatre in Edwardsville, Il

The entire schedule for the 21st Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival be found Here.

http://cinemastlouis.org/sliff-2012

Here is what will be screening at The 21st Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival today, Monday, November 12th

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Doc Shorts – Longevity plays at 5:00pm at the Tivoli Theatre

A quintet of shorts exploring issues of aging and persistence.

Free To Attendees 50 And Older

Bo (Kelly McCoy & Dave Schwep, U.S., 2012, 22 min.): When attorney and Playboy photographer Bo Hitchcock is diagnosed with cancer, he decides to forgo chemo and Western...

The annal Toronto Jewish Film Festival in Toronto kicks off May 7 with 118 films from 21 countries, including 1 world premiere, 1 international premiere, 3 North American premieres, 34 Canadian Premieres, 7 free programmes and 1 World Class Film Festival. The festival runs until the 15 of May and will also feature a tribute to “Three Lennys” – Bernstein, Cohen and Bruce – with special guests Alexander Bernstein and Kitty Bruce; and with Offerings From Eytan Fox, Lou Reed, Claude Lanzmann, Dani Levy, Tony Palmer. Also the festival will screen China’s First Animated Film To Deal With The Holocaust.

Here is the official press release:

One of the largest festivals of its kind in the world, Tjff returns May 7 and runs through May 15, with films from 21 countries that reflect aspects of Jewish identity and diversity with universal themes. This year’s Tjff features 118 films from Argentina, Austria, Brazil, China, Cuba, Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, Mexico, The Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia,...

Conviction is an inspirational tour-de-force, hitting cinemas on 14th January. Based on the true story, it stars Hilary Swank as a working mother called Betty Anne Waters who puts herself through law school to defend her brother who was falsely accused of murder. It stars Sam Rockwell as Betty-Anne’s brother Kenny Waters and Minnie Driver as her best friend Abra Rice. It is the latest in a long line of double Oscar-winning actress Hilary Swank’s films to deal with significant real-world issues and make a difference.

Here are 10 other recent films that go beyond entertainment and actually try to improve the world we live in.

Boys Don’t Cry (1999)

Also starring Swank, this film tells the story of Brandon Teena, a transgendered teenager who identified as a male but was actually born female. Teena has to overcome adversity to be accepted as a man.

A Mighty Heart (2007)

Angelina Jolie plays Marianne Pearl,...

Actress Hilary Swank has a penchant for choosing roles based on actual people. In 1999 she won her first Oscar for portraying Brandon Teena -- a Nebraska transgender male who was murdered six years earlier -- in the indie drama Boys Don't Cry. In 2005 Swank earned Golden Globe and SAG nominations for her work in the HBO movie Iron Jawed Angels, in which she played suffragette Alice Paul. Since then, Swank portrayed California school teacher Erin Gruwell in the 2007 drama Freedom Writers and legendary airplane pilot Amelia Earhart in director Mira Nair's 2009 biopic, Amelia. Swank's latest real-life project is the Tony Goldwyn-directed drama Conviction. In the film she dramatizes the extraordinary journey of Betty Anne Waters -- a Massachusetts woman who spent eighteen years fighting to exonerate her imprisoned brother, Kenny. He was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison for a crime she believed he didn't commit.

There have been many movies made about inspirational stories of individuals who have overcome great and insurmountable odds, but Tony Goldwyn's Conviction is one that's extremely effective in telling the story of Betty Anne Waters, played by Hilary Swank, a woman who spent 18 years getting her high school Ged, going to college and eventually law school with the sheer purpose of getting her brother Kenny out of prison, where he was convicted for life--she believes wrongly--for first degree murder. It's another strong role for Swank, following previous inspirational characters like Amelia Earhart and Erin Gruwell in Freedom Writers , but we're big fans of Sam Rockwell here at ComingSoon.net, having spoken to him a number of times in the last few years, and we were just blown away...

This review was written for the theatrical release of "Freedom Writers".Intriguing glimpses into the lives of poor, disadvantaged, racially divided kids in contemporary American society get waylaid in "Freedom Writers" as it becomes a 21st century redo of "Blackboard Jungle".

Because the film is based on a real-life high school English class in Long Beach, Calif., whose teacher is played by two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank, this undoubtedly was a foolproof way to get a commercially risky subject developed and greenlighted. But it ill serves the original material, a published collection of journal entries by at-risk students written over several years that explain and explore their lives, fears and aspirations.

So the Hollywood development process has produced a movie at war with itself. On one hand, this is a Hilary Swank vehicle with undue focus on the mundane problems -- at least compared to the high drama in her students' lives -- of a neophyte teacher. On the other, there are these students starting to make connections between their lives and the lives of others through introspective writing.

The film has inspired moments and fine performances from its young actors. Swank's name might boost the urban drama's boxoffice potential into the $25 million-$30 million range, which considering its modest budget would be a success.

According to this movie, written and directed by Richard LaGravenese, Erin Gruwell (Swank) comes to Wilson High School after the Rodney King riots, much like Alice the day she fell down that rabbit hole. Brimming with self-confidence over her lesson plans and holding a concept of inner-city youths that can charitably be called naive, Erin is shocked by the blatant disrespect, racism and hostility exhibited by her students.

Remarkably, she quickly turns into a savvy teacher with seemingly years of experience. She turns a racist classroom drawing into a brilliant teaching aid and instinctively realizes that reading "The Diary of Anne Frank" will hugely impact her students' outlooks. Before you know it, her class is one big rainbow coalition/summer camp love-in. Only in the margins do the students share their lives with viewers -- abuse, broken homes, drive-bys, drugs and racism are everyday challenges. Strangely but presumably to maintain a PG-13 rating, the film never touches on the teens' sexual activity.

The key student is Eva, played by April Lee Hernandez with a bitter scowl darkening her strikingly beautiful face. Indeed, the film starts off as if she were the central figure before the focus shifts to her teacher, then fragments into a classwide diffusion. Yet her dilemma -- as a Latina caught up in gang culture who faces a moral decision about testifying in court against one of "her own" -- is the on-and-off central thread of the film.

Other glancing though effective performances come from Jason Finn as a young man living on the street, Grammy-nominated Mario as a teen coping with his brother's travails in the legal system, Hunter Parrish as a white youth ostracized from all camps and Jaclyn Ngan as a Cambodian survivor of a refugee camp.

Far too much time is spent with Erin and her naysayers: the husband (Patrick Dempsey) who sulks nightly over red wine when she comes home late, an ex-civil rights champion father (Scott Glenn) who now scorns ghetto youths and a jealous fellow teacher (Imelda Staunton) who has several "Captain Queeg" moments that betray her utter contempt for the students.

Swank, who exec produced the film, marches through the story with a curiously inappropriate grin on her face. No teacher in America could possibly smile this often. Never once do you see the iron in the character that enables her to cope and connect with such challenging students.

Production values are sharp with a fine use of contemporary music and smart cinematography. But the film is both too short and too long at two hours-plus. Not enough time is spent with the teens and far too much with their teacher.

FREEDOM WRITERS

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures in association with MTV Films present a Jersey Films/Double Feature Films production

Credits:

Screenwriter-director: Richard LaGravenese

Based on the book by: the Freedom Writers with Erin Gruwell

Producers: Danny DeVito, Michael Shamberg, Stacey Sher

Executive producers: Hilary Swank, Tracey Durning, Nan Morales, Dan Levine

Director of photography: Jim Denault

Production designer: Laurence Bennett

Music: Mark Isham, will.i.am

Costume designer: Cindy Evans

Editor: David Moritz

Cast:

Erin Gruwell: Hilary Swank

Scott Casey: Patrick Dempsey

Steve Gruwell: Scott Glenn

Margaret Campbell: Imelda Staunton

Eva: April Lee Hernandez

Andre: Mario

Marcus: Jason Finn

Ben: Hunter Parrish

Sindy: Jaclyn Ngan

Running time -- 122 minutes

MPAA rating: PG-13...

Intriguing glimpses into the lives of poor, disadvantaged, racially divided kids in contemporary American society get waylaid in "Freedom Writers" as it becomes a 21st century redo of "Blackboard Jungle".

Because the film is based on a real-life high school English class in Long Beach, Calif., whose teacher is played by two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank, this undoubtedly was a foolproof way to get a commercially risky subject developed and greenlighted. But it ill serves the original material, a published collection of journal entries by at-risk students written over several years that explain and explore their lives, fears and aspirations.

So the Hollywood development process has produced a movie at war with itself. On one hand, this is a Hilary Swank vehicle with undue focus on the mundane problems -- at least compared to the high drama in her students' lives -- of a neophyte teacher. On the other, there are these students starting to make connections between their lives and the lives of others through introspective writing.

The film has inspired moments and fine performances from its young actors. Swank's name might boost the urban drama's boxoffice potential into the $25 million-$30 million range, which considering its modest budget would be a success.

According to this movie, written and directed by Richard LaGravenese, Erin Gruwell (Swank) comes to Wilson High School after the Rodney King riots, much like Alice the day she fell down that rabbit hole. Brimming with self-confidence over her lesson plans and holding a concept of inner-city youths that can charitably be called naive, Erin is shocked by the blatant disrespect, racism and hostility exhibited by her students.

Remarkably, she quickly turns into a savvy teacher with seemingly years of experience. She turns a racist classroom drawing into a brilliant teaching aid and instinctively realizes that reading "The Diary of Anne Frank" will hugely impact her students' outlooks. Before you know it, her class is one big rainbow coalition/summer camp love-in. Only in the margins do the students share their lives with viewers -- abuse, broken homes, drive-bys, drugs and racism are everyday challenges. Strangely but presumably to maintain a PG-13 rating, the film never touches on the teens' sexual activity.

The key student is Eva, played by April Lee Hernandez with a bitter scowl darkening her strikingly beautiful face. Indeed, the film starts off as if she were the central figure before the focus shifts to her teacher, then fragments into a classwide diffusion. Yet her dilemma -- as a Latina caught up in gang culture who faces a moral decision about testifying in court against one of "her own" -- is the on-and-off central thread of the film.

Other glancing though effective performances come from Jason Finn as a young man living on the street, Grammy-nominated Mario as a teen coping with his brother's travails in the legal system, Hunter Parrish as a white youth ostracized from all camps and Jaclyn Ngan as a Cambodian survivor of a refugee camp.

Far too much time is spent with Erin and her naysayers: the husband (Patrick Dempsey) who sulks nightly over red wine when she comes home late, an ex-civil rights champion father (Scott Glenn) who now scorns ghetto youths and a jealous fellow teacher (Imelda Staunton) who has several "Captain Queeg" moments that betray her utter contempt for the students.

Swank, who exec produced the film, marches through the story with a curiously inappropriate grin on her face. No teacher in America could possibly smile this often. Never once do you see the iron in the character that enables her to cope and connect with such challenging students.

Production values are sharp with a fine use of contemporary music and smart cinematography. But the film is both too short and too long at two hours-plus. Not enough time is spent with the teens and far too much with their teacher.

Hilary Swank is set to star alongside her Oscar rival Imelda Staunton in high school drama Freedom Writers. The double Oscar-winner piped Vera Drake star Staunton to the Best Actress Academy Award at this year's ceremony, with her performance in Million Dollar Baby. Swank will take the lead as an English teacher seeking to inspire a class of ethnically diverse students, and Staunton will appear as one of her colleagues. R&B heart-throb Mario will also feature in the big screen adaptation of Erin Gruwell's novel.