Top 20 movies like Shenzhen: The Silicon Valley of Hardware (2023)

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey

Humanity finds a mysterious object buried beneath the lunar surface and sets off to find its origins with the help of HAL 9000, the world's most advanced super computer.

It has an average vote of 8.087 on TMDB.

2. Brazil

Low-level bureaucrat Sam Lowry escapes the monotony of his day-to-day life through a recurring daydream of himself as a virtuous hero saving a beautiful damsel. Investigating a case that led to the wrongful arrest and eventual death of an innocent man instead of wanted terrorist Harry Tuttle, he meets the woman from his daydream, and in trying to help her gets caught in a web of mistaken identities, mindless bureaucracy and lies.

It has an average vote of 7.684 on TMDB.

3. Peripheral

Bobbi Johnson is a young literary sensation facing her difficult second novel. Already dealing with a crazed stalker and her junkie ex-boyfriend, Bobbi is convinced by her publisher to use new smart editing software and finds herself going head-to-head with an artificial intelligence determined to write her book for her.

It has an average vote of 6 on TMDB.

4. Best of Luck with the Wall

A video directed by Josh Begley shows the preposterous effort that would be required to build a border wall.

5. The Conversation

Surveillance expert Harry Caul is hired by a mysterious client's brusque aide to tail a young couple. Tracking the pair through San Francisco's Union Square, Caul and his associate Stan manage to record a cryptic conversation between them. Tormented by memories of a previous case that ended badly, Caul becomes obsessed with the resulting tape, trying to determine if the couple is in danger.

It has an average vote of 7.542 on TMDB.

6. The University

On a NASA research base in Silicon Valley, there's an organization that's changing the world ... Singularity University . Created by renowned futurist Ray Kurzweil and entrepreneur Peter Diamandis, with support from NASA, Google, and others, the university brings in some of the smartest students from around the world, and gives them a crash course in the most powerful exponential technologies on the planet. The students are then given a challenge: create companies that will impact a billion people within ten years. The film follows the students and their companies over five years, as they use the support of scientists, astronauts and billionaires in their attempt to make a dent in the universe.

7. The Truth Is Out There

Two people on different parts of the world are murdered in the exact same way at the exact same time. The FBI and MI5 claim this case was never solved, but recently declassified files may reveal that the truth is out there.

It has an average vote of 10 on TMDB.

8. DSKNECTD

As clichés go, in 1999 the World as we knew it was about to change - and we'd been expecting it. Since childhood we'd been promised that the 21st century would bring us dramatic new technologies like flying cars and Utopian cities. Instead it bought us the smart-phone, social media, and virtual societies. And as it turns out these technologies began to transform society almost as dramatically as the moon colonies we'd been expecting. Now over a decade into the revolution, 'DSKNECTD' explores how digital communication technology is profoundly changing the way we interact and experience each other - for the good and for the bad.

It has an average vote of 7.5 on TMDB.

9. The Electric State

In a retro-futuristic past, orphaned teenager Michelle traverses the American West with an eccentric drifter and a sweet but mysterious robot in search of her younger brother.

10. Jexi

Phil's new phone comes with an unexpected feature, Jexi...an A.I. determined to keep him all to herself in a comedy about what can happen when you love your phone more than all else.

It has an average vote of 6.877 on TMDB.

11. Return to Eden

When Natural and human interests impinge on each other and over-regulation disturbs our biological balance, important questions arise. Do we belong to nature or does nature belongs to us? A thought-provoking story in which documentary maker Marijn Poels explores the human urge to control our climate, security and preferably the other. Balancing on a razor-thin line between regulation and manipulation. When technology reigns supreme and common sense vaporizes through the test of time, humanity is on the brink of becoming the tool. Miles away from the collective panic, fear and chaos, there is hope, inspiration and reconnection.

12. Extract

The owner of a factory that produces flavor extracts, Joel Reynold seems to have it all, but really doesn't. What's missing is sexual attention from his wife, Suzie. Joel hatches a convoluted plan to get Suzie to cheat on him, thereby clearing the way for Joel to have an affair with Cindy, an employee. But what Joel doesn't know is that Cindy is a sociopathic con artist, and a freak workplace accident clears the way for her to ruin Joel forever.

It has an average vote of 5.813 on TMDB.

13. All That Is Solid Melts Into Data

Traces the historical evolution of these structures that make-up “the cloud”, the physical repositories for the exponentially growing amount of human activity and communication taking form as digital data.

14. The X Team

Members of a secret op unit of the national security agency of the United States of America is called in when a kidnapping occurs during a helicopter tour in New Zealand. The helicopter driver being an ex-member of the X-Team.

It has an average vote of 3.8 on TMDB.

15. Musical Recordings from the Realm of the Dead

Four separate individuals at the dawn of wireless technology unknowingly become accidental collaborators of a musical composition that is pieced together through radio waves.

16. No One is Listening Anymore!

She blames technology. He blames the plumber. And therapy has never been so revealing...

17. The World of Robert Abel

This Japanese release documents many advertising works by the American Computer Graphics company, Robert Abel and Associates.

18. Nothing to Hide

NOTHING TO HIDE is an independent documentary dealing with surveillance and its acceptance by the general public through the "I have nothing to hide" argument. The documentary was produced and directed by a pair of Berlin-based journalists, Mihaela Gladovic and Marc Meillassoux. It was crowdfunded by over 400 backers. NOTHING TO HIDE questions the growing, puzzling and passive public acceptance of massive corporate and governmental incursions into individual and group privacy and rights. After the emotion initially triggered by the Snowden revelations, it seems that the general public has finally accepted to live in a monitored digital world.

It has an average vote of 7.1 on TMDB.

19. Interior

What starts as a simple paranormal investigation inside a mundane Florida house soon becomes a terrifying experience through the unknown and beyond.

It has an average vote of 5.2 on TMDB.

20. El Crazy Che (El Crazy Che)

'Bill Gaede: El Crazy Che' is a documentary about the most amazing case of industrial espionage: the incredible story of an argentine engineer born in Lanús, programmer, and cold war spy who worked at AMD and Intel. While at AMD, he provided the Cuban Government with technical information from the semiconductor industry which the Cubans passed on to the Soviet bloc, primarily to the Soviet Union and East Germany.

It has an average vote of 6.5 on TMDB.