the two wicked films, a netflix concert film, a satire, a short she directed herself, and the benefit concert that is the most important footage of the lot.
the short answer
the concert film is excuse me, i love you, made on the sweetener world tour and released on netflix in december 2020. the films are wicked and wicked: for good, plus don't look up. the short film brighter days ahead accompanies the 2025 eternal sunshine reissue. one love manchester was broadcast by the bbc and remains the most significant footage of her on a stage.
the concert film
excuse me, i love you (2020) documents the sweetener world tour — a hundred shows, 1.3 million people, and the tour that followed manchester and mac miller's death. it is the best available record of what she is like on a stage at full scale, and it is the one to watch if you have never seen her live.
the films
- wicked (2024) and wicked: for good (2025) — the two-part adaptation, shot as one production. the casting story is here.
- don't look up (2021) — a comet satire in which she plays a pop star and sings the film's best joke.
- brighter days ahead (2025) — a short film she co-wrote and co-directed, built around the eternal sunshine reissue. the first credit where she is the author.
the television that is worth finding
- one love manchester (2017) — the bbc broadcast of the benefit concert. the context is here, and it is the most important footage on this page.
- carpool karaoke — the least glamorous and most conclusive proof that the voice is not a studio product: a car, no processing, no second take.
- the snl appearances (2014–2025) — five of them. the impressions sketch is the one everybody has seen and it is genuinely astonishing.
- kidding (2018) — a small dramatic part in the jim carrey series, and the least-seen good thing in the filmography.
the live footage worth searching for
four of the five tours have no official film, which means the record of them is fan footage and broadcast fragments. that sounds worse than it is: the tour archive carries a short list of search terms per run — the specific performances worth finding rather than a general search that returns reaction videos — and they resolve to real footage on every one.
- the listening sessions (2013) — eleven small rooms, one album, no production. the version of the show every later tour spent millions trying to reproduce at scale.
- the honeymoon tour (2015) — the jump to arenas, and the last run where the staging is bigger than the persona.
- the dangerous woman tour (2017) — the biggest production she had built to that point, and the run that stopped in may.
- one love manchester (2017) — the closing performance of somewhere over the rainbow is the single most-watched thing on this list, for good reason.
what does not exist
there is no authorised feature documentary about her. pages promising one are generally describing either the concert film, the brighter days ahead short, or an unauthorised compilation. if that changes it will be on the filmography page first.
questions people ask
is there an ariana grande documentary?
there is no authorised feature documentary. the closest things are excuse me, i love you, the 2020 concert film from the sweetener world tour, and brighter days ahead, the 2025 short film she co-directed.
what is excuse me, i love you?
her concert film, released on netflix in december 2020, documenting the sweetener world tour.
where can i watch one love manchester?
it was broadcast live by the bbc in june 2017 and footage of it remains widely available. it is the single most significant piece of live footage of her.
what ariana grande film should i watch first?
if you want the music, excuse me, i love you. if you want the acting, wicked. if you want to understand her, one love manchester.