Affectionately known as The Big Easy, New Orleans is a city famous for its colorful culture, stunning architecture, and lively celebrations. The Louisiana hotspot has in recent years been regarded as “Hollywood South” due to its outstanding role in the entertainment industry and pop culture, with many memorable television shows and films set in the vibrant city. With more than 390,000 people calling the area home, New Orleans is esteemed for its unique dialects, tasty Creole cuisine and exciting festivals and holidays, most notably the beloved Mardi Gras celebration.



Some of the cinema’s most memorable and acclaimed pictures have been shot and set in New Orleans, from edgy thrillers to feel good comedies and everything in between. The great actor Marlon Brando became a certified leading man when he appeared in the 1951 Southern Gothic drama A Streetcar Named Desire, while Disney brought the popular Brothers Grimm folk tale to spectacular life with the 2009 animated fantasy musical The Princess and the Frog, both of which are set in the popular and spirited city. These are some of the best movies set in New Orleans.

9 The Big Easy

The 1986 neo-noir romantic thriller The Big Easy chronicles the relationship between corrupt police lieutenant Remy McSwain (Dennis Quaid) and relentless district attorney Anne Osborne (Ellen Barkin) as the former investigates a violent murder and prepares for an impending gang war. The picture naturally takes place in New Orleans, with the city serving as an atmospheric protagonist in the gritty thriller.

The filmmakers utilized many recognizable locations such as the French Quarter, bayou, Tipitinas, Antoine’s and Blane Kern’s warehouse where many of the Mardi Gras parade floats are housed. New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison even makes a cameo, who became infamous in the 1960s for his Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories.

8 Girls Trip

Featuring a sensational cast of leading ladies including Regina Hall, Queen Latifah, Tiffany Haddish and Jada Pinkett Smith, the 2017 comedy Girls Trip centers on a group of long-time friends who set out for a vacation in New Orleans to attend the Essence Music Festival, with the women reconnecting during their hilarious adventure.

Writer Tracy Oliver expressed her desire to tackle the barriers of respectability politics and portray “Black women being carefree and having fun just like everybody else. I think we need to show all aspects of black lives. I love Moonlight, I love Hidden Figures, but I also want to see some people who are having fun and just showing female friends hanging out.”

7 Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans

The quirky and one-of-a-kind Nicolas Cage delivered a delightfully unhinged performance as the titular bad lieutenant Terence McDonagh in the 2009 crime drama Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, which follows the drug-addicted lawman as he investigates a series of immigrant murders in a post-Katrina New Orleans.

Related: Is Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans the Weirdest Nicolas Cage Movie?

Despite the film’s name and story loosely resembling Abel Ferrara’s Bad Lieutenant, the drama’s director Werner Herzog has stated it is not a remake and the only similarity is that of a corrupt policeman. The picture had its worldwide premiere at the Venice Film Festival where critics raved about Cage’s superb portrayal, with Roger Ebert declaring, “Nicolas Cage is as good as anyone since Klaus Kinski at portraying a man whose head is exploding. It’s a hypnotic performance.”

6 Déjà Vu

The always brilliant Denzel Washington headlined Tony Scott’s 2006 sci-fi action film Déjà Vu, in which the seasoned star portrays ATF agent Douglas Carlin who joins a top-secret program that sends him back in time to prevent a tragic domestic terrorist attack in New Orleans and the death of the woman he loves. The flick was shot in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, with some scenes depicting the devastation of the destructive storm including the Canal Street Ferry on the Mississippi River; Washington was “adamant about returning to New Orleans to film after Hurricane Katrina devastated the region” and believed it was “a good thing to spend money there and put people to work there.”

5 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Loosely based on the F. Scott Fitzgerald short story of the same name, the Oscar-winning 2008 fantasy romantic drama The Curious Case of Benjamin Button features Brad Pitt in a charming performance as a man who ages in reverse, beginning as an elderly man in a New Orleans nursing home and slowly aging backwards. Despite his unusual circumstances, Benjamin begins a whirlwind romance with the beautiful dancer Daisy (Cate Blanchett), with their touching love affair spanning decades.

Initially conceptualized during the 1980s with Martin Short once attached as the lead, the poignant picture was eventually directed by David Fincher, with the filmmaking finding inspiration from the loss of his own father and the desire to tell a story about “Love measured against this graph paper of something we try so desperately to ignore.”

4 The Cincinnati Kid

Silver screen legend Steve McQueen appears as the eponymous character in the 1965 drama The Cincinnati Kid, which centers on gifted poker player Eric “The Kid” Stoner as he attempts to prove himself and engage in a high-stakes match against an older player widely considered the best.

Set in New Orleans during the Depression, the film is adapted from Richard Jessup’s novel and opted to alter the story’s location to The Big Easy instead of St. Louis, Missouri. The climactic poker game against The Kid and his adversary Lancey “The Man” Howard was famously held in the historic LaFayette Hotel in the drama, with the exterior shots being of the stunning building; other locations featured include the Gumbo Shop Restaurant, Jackson Square, and the French Quarter of New Orleans.

3 The Princess and the Frog

Disney’s 2009 animated musical romantic comedy The Princess and the Frog is loosely based on the Brothers Grimm folk tale and tells the story of a hard-working waitress named Tiana, who is devoted to her dream of becoming a restaurant owner in 1926 New Orleans. The motivated young woman finds her life turned upside down when she is transformed into a frog after kissing a prince who was the victim of a nefarious witch doctor.

Related: Here’s What Makes The Princess & The Frog a Groundbreaking Disney Movie

Directors John Musker and Ron Clements partially based the character of Tiana on famed New Orleans restaurateur Leah Chase, who was known as the Queen of Creole Cuisine, with Clements describing how she “was a waitress and ultimately opened a restaurant with her husband … we met with her and we talked with her and she went to kind of into her story, her philosophy about food, which is a big element of the movie.”

2 A Streetcar Named Desire

Adapted from Tennessee Williams’ Pulitzer Prize-winning play, the 1951 Southern Gothic drama A Streetcar Named Desire stars Vivien Leigh as debutante Blanche DuBois who abandons her aristocratic life after tragic losses in order to find comfort with her sister and brother-in-law in a rundown New Orleans apartment. Featuring fellow cinema icon Marlon Brando and Kim Hunter (both of whom originated their roles on Broadway), the renowned picture is lauded as a silver screen masterpiece.

Fellow filmmaker Woody Allen praised the drama in his autobiography, writing, “All the performances are sensational. Vivien Leigh is incomparable, more real and vivid than real people I know. And Marlon Brando was a living poem… The magic, the setting, New Orleans, the French Quarter, the rainy humid afternoons, the poker night. Artistic genius, no holds barred.”

1 Interview with the Vampire

Anne Rice’s famed gothic horror novel was brought to the big screen in the 1994 adaptation Interview with the Vampire, chronicling the lives of vampires Lestat and Louis and their time together as they experience love, heartbreak, and betrayal as well as their decision to turn the 10-year-old Claudia. With a star-studded cast led by Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, and Kirsten Dunst, the riveting film is told from the modern-day perspective of Louis (Pitt), beginning with his early days as a plantation owner in 1791 Spanish Louisiana and his subsequent time in New Orleans with his undead pseudo family. Interview with the Vampire was a massive commercial hit and led to the less-than-well-received 2002 sequel Queen of the Damned; AMC has adapted the novel into an upcoming television series set to be released this fall.