17 best True Story movies of 2018

In 2011, the volleyball team of Iowa City West High School suffered a tragic loss with the accidental death from their captain, Caroline Found. Led by coach Kathy Bresnahan, the team has regrouped and pursued her quest for a championship title despite her sorrow. Helen Hunt, Oscar winner, directs the cast as Bresnahan in this touching and galvanizing sports film. (6 April)

Tami Oldham has spent an incredible 41 days stranded after a boat in which she was sailing with her boyfriend was destroyed in a hurricane in 1983. Shailene Woodley plays Oldham and Sam Claflin plays boyfriend Richard Sharp. The film is based on Tami's self-published memoir in 1998, Red Sky in the Mourning. (June 1)

This is wild. Virginia Vallejo, a reporter in the 1980s, was caught in a love affair with the famous drug tsar Pablo Escobar, putting his life in danger, not to mention his job. Real-life spouses and Oscars winners Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem play Vallejo and Escobar in this festival hit. (June 15)

Of all the true stories made in movies this year, this one could be the most incredible. A group of friends continued the same game of labels for 30 years, until one of them (Jeremy Renner) decided to retire. The band (including Jon Hamm and Isla Fisher) converge on Renner's marriage to try to keep the game alive. Yes, it actually happened. (June 15)

Matthew McConaughey plays Richard Wershe, Sr., a blue-collar who suffers from his son, played by Richie Merritt, becomes the youngest informant of the FBI. At the age of 14, Rick Jr. was recruited by FBI agents to help them prosecute drug dealers in his neighborhood. Rick Jr. was not involved in the drugs and the official FBI records indicated that his father was the current informant. This film tells the incredible story of the interior. (14 September)

Rupert Everett has written, directed and starred in this film about the last days from Oscar Wilde he was apparently born to play. Publicly dishonored after being convicted and jailed for "gross indecency", Wilde finds himself outcast and struggles to regain his place in society. Everett plays Wilde in his last days and in flashbacks detailing his fall of grace and the life that could have been. (5 October)

Once upon a time the space that was the last frontier and Neil Armstrong was one of his early pioneers. Ryan Gosling plays the astronaut while he prepares for the lunar landing. Director Damien Chazelle, who won an Oscar for La La Land, returns with his star for this true story. (12 October)