"Cannibalism is always 'symbolic' even when it is real"
- Marshall Sahlins.

Attempting a comprehensive list of films (fiction and documentary) featuring cannibalism, either as a featured act or in discussion.

A work in progress, always.
In an essentially random order, for now.

A film will only qualify if the cannibalistic act is committed by a living human being. Zombies & other supernatural beings do not qualify, different dynamic & thematic meaning. Entirely different.

Films will be included if the mention of cannibalism has significance to plot, character, or themes & ideology. If cannibalism is only mentioned in passing, as a casually tossed off joke for instance, then I probably will not add it. Maybe. The lines around this are loose and erratic.

I am working on a secondary list of 'cannibalism adjacent' films, which I will link here when it is more comprehensive (TBC as of January 2025). Those are films which make the objectification inherent in cannibalism explicit through symbolic & metaphorical exploitation of humans. It is a difficult list to compile as to broad a net would make such a list almost meaningless in its engagement with the specfic functions of cannibalistic metaphors. The easiest film examples that illustrate my interest in such a list, that also demonstrate why I have kept exclusively symbolic cannibalism out of this list, see the filmography of the Wachowskis. There are many frameworks through which to engage with human objectification, transforming the subjective individual into commodity. Their films have consistently approached this key problem of civilisation through a myriad of avenues, only becoming explicit in Cloud Atlas.
This is a topic I can & will explore further.

All suggestions welcome, no matter how obscure or how minor an element of the film the cannibalism is.
If I've listed something that doesn't actually contain an act of or reference to cannibalism, or instead fits into a non-human 'cannibalism' category, please do let me know & I'll remove it.

I update this whenever I find something. It will only stop when I die.
Viva la kino-anthrophagia!