6 Best Beauty Pageant Movies

By Vlad Zakh · February 27, 2026

Pageants mix ambition, artifice and unlikely underdogs, which makes them reliable ground for comedy. Little Miss Sunshine road-trips a dysfunctional family to a children’s contest, Drop Dead Gorgeous turns a small-town pageant into a fight to the finish with scheming mothers, Dumplin’ enters a plus-sized teenager in protest, and Miss Bala forces a contestant to work for a drug cartel. Miss Congeniality and Smile round out the list.

Miss Bala (2019)

TMDB ★ 5.3

A beauty pageant contestant is coerced into working for a dangerous drug cartel after witnessing a shooting.

Directed by Catherine Hardwicke · 1h 44m · Rated PG-13

Where to watch

Stream: Amazon Prime Video, fuboTV, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Starz Apple TV channel · Rent: Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home, Spectrum On Demand · Buy: Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home

▶ Trailer Letterboxd

Dumplin' (2018)

TMDB ★ 6.3

A plus-size teenager enters her mother's beauty pageant to challenge its narrow standards of beauty.

Directed by Anne Fletcher · 1h 50m · Rated PG-13

Where to watch

Stream: Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads

▶ Trailer Letterboxd

Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

IMDb ★ 7.8 RT 91% Metacritic 80

A dysfunctional family road-trips a young girl to a beauty pageant she barely wants to attend.

Directed by Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris · 1h 42m · Rated R

Won 2 Oscars73 wins & 112 nominations

Where to watch

Rent or buy: Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home

▶ Trailer Letterboxd

Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999)

TMDB ★ 6.7

A small-town Minnesota beauty pageant descends into cutthroat sabotage between rival contestants.

Directed by Michael Patrick Jann · 1h 38m · Rated PG-13

Where to watch

Rent or buy: Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Fandango At Home

▶ Trailer Letterboxd

Miss Congeniality (2000)

TMDB ★ 6.4

A tough FBI agent goes undercover as a beauty pageant contestant to stop a bombing threat.

Directed by Donald Petrie · 1h 50m · Rated PG-13

Where to watch

Stream: HBO Max Amazon Channel, HBO Max, Starz Apple TV channel · Rent: Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home, Spectrum On Demand · Buy: Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home

▶ Trailer Letterboxd

Smile (1975)

TMDB ★ 6.9

A small-town beauty pageant's organisers grapple with marital strife and teenage mischief on the biggest day of the year.

Directed by Michael Ritchie · 1h 53m · Rated PG

▶ Trailer Letterboxd

Streaming availability data from JustWatch, via TMDB. Availability changes often, so check the service before you plan a movie night.

Vlad Zakh

Founder, Movieix

Founder of Movieix. He started the site because most recommendation pages felt like noise. Here, lists are sorted by who's in the film, where it's from and what mood you're in tonight.

6 Best Beauty Pageant Movies

Miss Bala (2019)

Dumplin' (2018)

Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999)

Miss Congeniality (2000)

Smile (1975)

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