Film
Emma.
Autumn de Wilde's Emma. is Austen played as candy-coloured comedy of manners: fussy interiors, snapping fans, and Anya Taylor-Joy's exquisitely self-satisfied heroine getting everyone's romantic business wrong while sorting her own. It's brisk, arch and very funny, closer to a stylish farce than a solemn heritage drama. Good for anyone who wants Austen with sharper edges and better costumes than usual.
If you liked this
Pride & Prejudice2005
Joe Wright's Austen adaptation has the same wit and pride-goeth-before-a-fall romance, plus a muddy, sweeping visual sense that makes the drawing rooms feel alive rather than staged.
But More swoony and less comic than Emma.; if you wanted satire over sighing, this leans further into the sighing.

Clueless1995
This is Emma in a Beverly Hills high school, and it's a genuinely brilliant transposition — same meddling heroine, same comeuppance, just with plaid skirts and Alicia Silverstone's line delivery.
But Very '90s in texture and slang; if that aesthetic isn't your thing, the Austen bones underneath won't rescue it for you.

Sense and Sensibility1995
Emma Thompson's script and performance give this the same blend of comedy and real feeling, with Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman doing very different flavours of romantic hero.
But Gentler and sadder than Emma.; the humour is drier and the stakes feel higher throughout.

The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Fleabag2016
Both are built around a clever, self-deceiving woman who mistakes control for love and only sees herself clearly once it's almost too late — Emma's drawing room, Fleabag's confessional camera.
A modern, confessional comedy about a witty woman convinced she understands everyone's inner life except her own — funny, cutting, and quietly heartbreaking underneath the jokes.
But Contemporary London, fourth-wall-breaking, and much rawer emotionally and sexually than anything Austen would touch.

More like this (8)
Love & Friendship2016no page yet
Whit Stillman's take on a lesser-known Austen novella is drier, meaner, and funnier than most Austen adaptations, with Kate Beckinsale playing a schemer who'd eat Emma Woodhouse alive.
But Its comedy is verbal and deadpan rather than visual or broad; some find it too clever-clever and cold.
Bridgerton2020
If you liked the matchmaking, gossip, and marriage-market maneuvering, this gives you eight hours of it, with soapier plotting and a lot more heat.
But It's a different beast entirely — bawdier, less interested in wit than melodrama, and its anachronistic style may grate if you wanted Austen's actual voice.

Persuasion1995no page yet
A quieter, more melancholy Austen film, with Amanda Root superb as a heroine defined by restraint rather than mischief — the flip side of Emma's meddling.
But Slower and sadder, with none of Emma.'s pastel comic energy; this one aches rather than sparkles.
The Favourite2018
Same corseted world of social maneuvering and cruel wit, but turned savage — a costume drama willing to be genuinely nasty about power and desire.
But Far darker and stranger than Austen; the comedy curdles into something closer to horror by the end.

Little Women2019
Greta Gerwig's take on another headstrong, flawed heroine navigating marriage, ambition and family shares Emma.'s warmth and its refusal to let a woman be simply likeable.
But American and 19th-century rather than English Regency; the tone is more tender than satirical.

Pride and Prejudice
The BBC miniseries that made Colin Firth a phenomenon gives Austen room to breathe over six episodes — patient, funny, and quietly devastating in its social comedy.
But It's a slow burn by design; if Emma.'s pace felt zippy, this will feel positively glacial by comparison.
The Philadelphia Story1940
Same engine forty-odd years before Austen got the Hollywood treatment: a self-assured, privileged woman who needs to be humbled by love before she can actually recognize it.
Katharine Hepburn plays a wealthy, whip-smart woman whose confidence and meddling in her own romantic life cause exactly the kind of chaos Emma causes in others' — screwball comedy at its sharpest.
But Black and white, rapid-fire 1940s dialogue, and an American high-society setting a world away from Highbury.

Marie Antoinette2006
Both films use bright, stylised production design and a knowingly modern soundtrack to make a historical woman's interior life feel immediate rather than embalmed.
Sofia Coppola's candy-coloured, needle-drop-scored costume drama uses the same trick as Emma. — anachronistic pop energy inside a period setting — to get inside a young woman's boredom and desire.
But Far more melancholy underneath its sugar-rush surface, and deliberately thin on plot; it's mood over narrative.

People
Cast
Anya Taylor-JoyEmma Woodhouse
Johnny FlynnGeorge Knightley
Josh O'ConnorMr. Elton
Callum TurnerFrank Churchill
Mia GothHarriet Smith
Miranda HartMiss Bates
Bill NighyMr. Woodhouse
Rupert GravesMr. Weston
Gemma WhelanMiss Taylor / Mrs. Weston
Amber AndersonJane Fairfax
Tanya ReynoldsMrs. Elton
Connor SwindellsRobert Martin
Directing
- Autumn de WildeDirector
- Deborah SabanFirst Assistant Director
- Zoe MorganScript Supervisor
- Barney ShakespeareThird Assistant Director
Writing
- Jane AustenNovel
- Eleanor CattonScreenplay
Production
- Chelsea BullochAssistant Production Coordinator
- Shana BahAssistant Production Coordinator
- Jessica RonaneCasting
- Christopher WorrallCasting Associate
- Jo WallettCo-Producer
- Amelia GrangerExecutive Producer
- Ben KnightExecutive Producer
- Louise SinclairPost Production Coordinator
- Sophia Vas-JonesPost Production Coordinator
- Eric FellnerProducer
- Graham BroadbentProducer
- Peter CzerninProducer
- Tim BevanProducer
- Samantha BeddoeProduction Accountant
- Lindani NdabandabaProduction Assistant
- Jannika ÖbergProduction Coordinator
- Sally HillProduction Secretary
- Rachel NealeUnit Production Manager
Recommended by
Pride & Prejudice, Little Women, Pride and Prejudice, Little Women, Crazy Rich Asians, EverAfter, Thoroughbreds