Critically acclaimed Prison movies that are award winners or nominees

Actors : Taye Diggs, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Renée Zellweger, Richard Gere,
Directors : Rob Marshall,

Murderesses Velma Kelly and Roxie Hart find themselves on death row together and fight for the fame that will keep them from the gallows in 1920s Chicago.

Actors : Thomas Kretschmann, Emilia Fox, Adrien Brody, Frank Finlay,
Directors : Roman Polanski,

A Polish Jewish musician struggles to survive the destruction of the Warsaw ghetto of World War II.

Actors : Peter Brocco, Michael Berryman, Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher,
Directors : Milos Forman,

A criminal pleads insanity after getting into trouble again and once in the mental institution rebels against the oppressive nurse and rallies up the scared patients.

Actors : Peter O'Toole, John Lone, Joan Chen, Ruocheng Ying,
Directors : Bernardo Bertolucci,

The story of the final Emperor of China.

Actors : Halle Berry, Taylor Simpson, Gabrielle Witcher, Billy Bob Thornton,
Directors : Marc Forster,

After a family tragedy, a racist prison guard reexamines his attitudes while falling in love with the African American wife of the last prisoner he executed.

Actors : Domhnall Gleeson, Miyavi, Jack O'Connell, Garrett Hedlund,
Directors : Angelina Jolie,

After a near-fatal plane crash in WWII, Olympian Louis Zamperini spends a harrowing 47 days in a raft with two fellow crewmen before he's caught by the Japanese navy and sent to a prisoner-of-war camp.

Actors : Bartosz Bielenia, Aleksandra Konieczna, Eliza Rycembel, Tomasz Zietek,
Directors : Jan Komasa,

Daniel experiences a spiritual transformation in a detention center. Although his criminal record prevents him from applying to the seminary, he has no intention of giving up his dream and decides to minister a small-town parish.

Actors : Kate Winslet, Geoffrey Rush, Joaquin Phoenix, Michael Caine,
Directors : Philip Kaufman,

In a Napoleonic era insane asylum, an inmate, the irrepressible Marquis De Sade, fights a battle of wills against a tyrannically prudish doctor.

Actors : Ed Harris, Dragos Bucur, Colin Farrell, Jim Sturgess,
Directors : Peter Weir,

Siberian gulag escapees travel 4,000 miles by foot to freedom in India.

Actors : Morgan Freeman, Tim Robbins, Bob Gunton, William Sadler,
Directors : Frank Darabont,

Two imprisoned men bond over a number of years, finding solace and eventual redemption through acts of common decency.

Actors : J.D. Cannon, Strother Martin, Paul Newman, George Kennedy,
Directors : Stuart Rosenberg,

A laid back Southern man is sentenced to two years in a rural prison, but refuses to conform.

Actors : Cate Blanchett, Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Troy Garity,
Directors : Barry Levinson,

Two bank robbers fall in love with the girl they've kidnapped.

Actors : David Morse, Michael Clarke Duncan, Bonnie Hunt, Tom Hanks,
Directors : Frank Darabont,

The lives of guards on Death Row are affected by one of their charges: a black man accused of child murder and rape, yet who has a mysterious gift.

Actors : Frank Coughlan, Sean Kearns, Daniel Day-Lewis, Daragh Donnelly,
Directors : Jim Sheridan,

Young Danny Flynn is released from prison after 14 years after "taking the rap" for the IRA and tries to rebuild his life in his old Belfast neighborhood.

Actors : Clifton James, Otis Young, Jack Nicholson, Randy Quaid,
Directors : Hal Ashby,

Two Navy men are ordered to bring a young offender to prison but decide to show him one last good time along the way.

Actors : Peter Fonda, Patricia Richardson, Christine Dunford, Tom Wood,
Directors : Victor Nunez,

A reclusive beekeeper slowly pulls his dysfunctional family back together, but not without having to fight his son's previous dastardly cohorts.

Actors : Edward Norton, Edward Furlong, Beverly D'Angelo, Jennifer Lien,
Directors : Tony Kaye,

A former neo-nazi skinhead tries to prevent his younger brother from going down the same wrong path that he did.

Actors : Sam Bottoms, Ryan Simpkins, Michelle Hurst, Maggie Gyllenhaal,
Directors : Laurie Collyer,

Sherry tries to integrate again into society and become a good mother.

Actors : Matthew McConaughey, Nicole Kidman, John Cusack, Zac Efron,
Directors : Lee Daniels,

A reporter returns to his Florida home-town to investigate a case involving a death row inmate.

Actors : Nick Nolte, Frank McRae, Eddie Murphy, Annette O'Toole,
Directors : Walter Hill,

A hard-nosed cop reluctantly teams up with a wise-cracking criminal temporarily paroled to him, in order to track down a killer.