The original version of this article was written by Jess Bacon and published on 29 March 2024.
Amy Winehouse is an artist who needs no introduction. From the early ‘00s to her tragic death in 2011, the British singer-songwriter captivated audiences with her rich, soulful ballads. Naturally, for an artist who died at such a young age, her passing was met with a flurry of documentaries about the weight of fame and the price of stardom, including Asif Kapadia’s Amy, which went on to win Best Documentary at the 2016 Academy Awards.
London-born and bred, Winehouse had a once-in-a-generation voice and topped the charts with songs such as Rehab, Tears Dry on Their Own, Back to Black and Valerie. Her second album, Back to Black, became one of the best-selling albums in UK history. With such a distinctive legacy, it’s no surprise that her life and tragic death have been covered extensively in documentaries and films, including the recent big-budget biopic Back to Black. Read on to discover more about them and use the guide below to find them on platforms like AppleTV, Netflix, Prime Video and elsewhere.
Amy (2015)
Four years after her shocking death from alcohol poisoning, Asif Kapadia directed a documentary, titled Amy, that detailed the singer’s younger years, her rise to fame, her struggles with substance abuse, and her endless war with the merciless British tabloids. Kapadia made the film very much in his signature style (with no interviews or narration), so if you’re a fan of his other biographical docs (either Senna or Diego Maradona), you’ll definitely appreciate it.
After its emotional premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, it went on to win both the BAFTA and Academy Award for Best Documentary and a Grammy for Best Music Film.
Amy Winehouse – A Last Goodbye (2011)
In the years after her death, a succession of documentaries emerged to explore the young singer’s life, her stardom and the events that led to her death. One of the earliest was Amy Winehouse: The Last Goodbye, an intimate doc told in a more conventional style than Kapadia’s. If you generally prefer docs that feature narration, this might be the one for you.
The movie was released in October 2011, just months after the singer’s passing, so if that feels a little bit “too soon”, you might want to try something on this list with a little more historical distance.
Classic Albums: Amy Winehouse (2018)
If you’re into shows that take a deep dive into famous albums (like the podcast Song Exploder), Amy Winehouse: Back to Black might be the doc for you. The hour-long episode was released as part of the BBC’s Classic Albums series, a show that has also looked into Nirvana’s Nevermind and Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours.
Released in 2018, the show includes new interviews with her collaborator Mark Ronson and producer Salaam Remi and features previously unseen archive footage of the artist during the recording of her most famous album—the one that famously earned her six Grammys in a single evening.
27: Gone Too Soon (2018)
27: Gone Too Soon explores not just Winehouse’s untimely passing but the phenomenon of the “27 Club”: a group of legendary musicians who all died at the same age, so if you’re a fan of Amy Winehouse but also of artists like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Kurt Cobain, you’ll want to check this one out.
Released in 2018 by director Simon Napier-Bell, it’s probably fair to say that this one is not the most widely known or highly rated Amy doc.
The Last 24 Hours: Amy Winehouse (2019)
In 2019, Jordan Hill directed a TV movie that detailed the final hours of Amy’s life and explored her public battle with addiction. The documentary was titled The Last 24 Hours: Amy Winehouse and is one of the more in-depth explorations into the tragic events that led to her shocking death. This might be the one for you if you feel like delving a bit deeper into the story.
A film that explores a similar event is Gus Van Sant’s Last Days—however, that 2007 movie is a dramatised version of the events, with Michael Pitt playing a character only loosely based on Kurt Cobain.
Amy Winehouse: The Price of Fame (2020)
In more recent years, there have been additional documentaries that have arguably jumped on the bandwagon to explore the struggles that came with Amy’s skyrocket to fame. One of these was Amy Winehouse: The Price of Fame—an hour-long doc featuring much of the same content as the movies we’ve mentioned above.
If you’ve seen everything we’ve discussed and still want some more, you might want to check it out.
Reclaiming Amy (2021)
In 2021, the BBC released a new documentary aimed at changing the narrative around Winehouse. Titled Reclaiming Amy, it featured rare family archive footage of the singer when she was younger.
This is a movie for anyone who’s grown tired of the usual judgmental tone that comes with docs on the singer. If you appreciated the revisionist history of the 2021 New York Times documentary Framing Britney Spears, this is one you might want to see.
Amy Winehouse & Me – Dionne’s Story (2021)
On the tenth anniversary of her passing, Amy’s god-daughter Dionne Bromfield opened up about her heartbreaking death in the 2021 TV special, Amy Winehouse & Me: Dionne’s Story. This is a deeply personal and moving account from somebody very close to the singer, so just be warned, it’s even more of a tearjerker than the others. If you like docs like A Hidden Star, it might be one for you, though.
The movie was released on MTV in 2021, and though the archival footage was familiar to most fans, it was met with generally favourable reviews.
Fatal Addiction: Amy Winehouse (2023)
As the title might suggest, Fatal Addiction: Amy Winehouse is one of the more sensational additions to the canon of documentaries on the singer, so if you’re a little tired of all that, you might want to give it a miss.
At 60 minutes, however, it is a finely produced and concise account. It’s also directed by Remone Jones, the filmmaker behind Princess Margaret: A Fine Romance and Diddy: Monster’s Fall. If you like your celebrity docs with a true crime approach, this might be the one for you.
Back to Black (2024)
Thirteen years after she passed away, Amy’s life and career was commemorated in Back to Black—a dramatised musical biopic that fans of movies like Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocketman will surely enjoy.
Directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson, Back to Black saw the London-born singer played by Marisa Abela with Jack O’Connell, Eddie Marsan and Lesley Manville rounding out a strong British cast. A breakout star of the excellent HBO series Industry, Abela went on to receive strong reviews for the performance—even if those for the movie itself were a little lukewarm.
