It's the movie awards season and plenty of this year's nominees and winners are set in the USA. You don't need to leave your sofa to see awesome places in the USA right now - just watch one of these hot new movies filmed in the USA. Here's our pick of the best movies showing off the USA.
Avengers: Endgame - Georgia
The fourth and final movie in the wildly successful Avengers saga was filmed in Atlanta,
Georgia. Most of the scenes in
Avengers: Endgame were shot on location at Pinewood Atlanta Studios in Fayette County, Georgia. It's the country’s largest purpose built studio outside Hollywood. The iconic Black Panther was also filmed recently in Georgia, as were more recent releases including Jumanji and Jumanji: The Next Level, and Disney’s Jungle Cruise. Find out where these movies were filmed using the Georgia Film Trail. [Photo credit: @filmtourismus]
Little Women - Massachusetts
Some of the prettiest countryside in the
state of Massachusetts gives the backdrop of Greta Gerwig's
Little Women. This adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s famous novel, Little Women was filmed in Massachusetts, where she lived. The movie, starring Emma Watson, Meryl Streep and Florence Pugh and Laura Dern, follows the lives of the four March sisters, Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy as they grow from childhood to adulthood after the Civil War in America. The movie was filmed in a score of locations across Massachusetts. The quintessential New England town of Concord is home to May Alcott's family home,
Orchard House, where the book was set and the movie was filmed. Several scenes in the movie were filmed at properties run by the Trustees of the Reservations including the Fruitlands Museum - where Louisa May Alcott moved to age 10 - as well as Old Manse, Crane Beach, Castle Hill on the Crane Estate, and the Eleanor Cabot Bradley Estate. The Trustees of the Reservations have put together
programs and events that explore the novel, as well as some of the childhood experiences at Fruitlands that inspired Louisa May Alcott, who was ten when her family moved into the Fruitlands farmhouse. The scenes set in Boston, were filmed at locations including the Prescott House, the Gibson House Museum and the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel. For an easy way find out more about the locations, look at
Boston by Foot's Little Women Scavenger Hunt, which takes you on a digital tour of the Little Woman film sites as well as places that were important to Louisa May Alcott and her family.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood - Los Angeles
The internet broke when Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt crossed paths at the Golden Globes where Pitt earned his Best Supporting Actor for his role as ageing stuntman Cliff Booth in Quentin Tarantino's award-winning Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which was filmed in locations throughout
Los Angeles,
California. Once Upon a Time in
Hollywood features a Hollywood Boulevard designed to look like it’s in 1969 and iconic L.A. bars and theatres including El Coyote Mexican Cafe (7312 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles 90036), Regency Bruin Theatre (948 Broxton Ave, Los Angeles 90024), Pacific Theatres' Cinerama Dome (6360 W Sunset Blvd, Hollywood 90028) and Musso & Frank Grill (6667 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood 90028), Hollywood's oldest restaurant, pictured here. Spot table C6 at celebrity haunt Casa Vega (13301 Ventura Blvd, Sherman Oaks 91423) in the scene where Dalton and Booth get a drink. [Photo credit: Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc.]
The Revenant - Montana
Some of the most dramatic wilderness in America is shown in movie epic The Revenant. The movie was shot in the
state of Montana. The 'big sky' state served as the backdrop for much of the filming of the story inspired by the real-life adventures of explorer Hugh Glass, played by Leonardo DiCaprio. It was filmed in
locations across the state including the town of Libby including the famous Kootenai Falls, the film was a hit at the Golden Globes and Oscars. [Photo credit: Credit Donnie Sexton]
The Hateful Eight - Wyoming
A wintry
Wyoming is the backdrop for Quentin Tarantino’s wild 2016 western The Hateful Eight, in which a pair of outlaws join forces with a motley crew as they race through the landscape by stagecoach. It’s the second time Tarantino has used Wyoming as a backdrop; in 2012, he filmed Django Unchained in Jackson Hole.
He's not the only director inspired by this state, with its red deserts, grasslands, high plains, towering peaks of Grand Teton National Park and the geysers and waterfalls of Yellowstone National Park. The state was also the location of Steven Spielberg’s 1977 film release – the iconic Close Encounters of the Third Kind, filmed at Devils Tower National Monument.
Lady Bird - Sacramento, California
Movie goers get a guided tour of the city of Sacramento, California, Greta Gerwig’s directorial debut, coming of age drama
Lady Bird. The movie follows Christine (“Lady Bird”) as she struggles through the final year of her Catholic high school, and deals with her caring but overbearing mother and her blossoming love life. You'll spot many of the city's landmarks in the film, including the golden-sheened Tower Bridge, different street murals (including the recently created Lady Bird mural), Tower Theatre, or the recognisable blue house located in the upscale ‘Fabulous Forties’ neighbourhood.
Harriet - Capital Region
Learn about history and get a big screen tour of the
Capital Region when you watch Harriet, the story of American abolitionist Harriet Tubman, who escaped enslavement and bravely led hundreds of enslaved people to freedom. You can get a map of the 'underground railway' route on the website of the
The Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center and Scenic Byway. The site also offers a dramatic, award-winning audio tour that describes impactful events that occurred at places where Harriet and other Underground Railroad operatives and freedom seekers lived, worked, worshiped and escaped. In
Virginia the movie was shot at the Berkeley Plantation in Charles City, the site of the first official English Thanksgiving in America, and Petersburg, situated along the James River and a site of Civil War battles and of great historical significance in American history. Look up
Bon Voyage’s 10-day self-drive itinerary on their website, which shows many of the places where Harriet Tubman lived, sites associated with the Underground Railroad, Civil War, and African American history and culture, and filming locations for the movie. It also shows parts of the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Scenic Byway, a 125-mile scenic drive through the beautiful Chesapeake Bay that follows the secret network of people, places, and routes that provided shelter to escaping slaves.
[Photo credit: Jill Jasuta]