In honor of the 79th Annual Academy Awards, which aired on ABC last night, I thought I would bring to your attention Entrepreneur.com’s Entrepreneurs in the Movies, a list of 13 movies that embody the entrepreneurial spirit. The list even inspired a film festival at Chapman University in Orange, California.

Though I won’t discuss all 13 movies, I wanted to touch on some of my favorites on the list.

High Fidelity
This movie reveals every entrepreneurs innate desire to start a business directly connected to something they love. Rob Gordon, played by John Cusack, taps into his passion for music and opens a record store all his own. Pretty cool job if you ask me. And the movie’s pretty great too.

The Aviator
Entrepreneur.com refers to Howard Hughes (Leonardo DiCaprio) as a “serial entrepreneur,” and I love the image that portrays. If only we all had the guts to dive into something as hardcore as he did, even if everyone around us thinks we’re nuts (despite the fact that Hughes sort of was).

Based on the actual life story of Howard Hughes, we see the many hats he wore, and wore well, of director, producer, head of RKO Pictures, creator and owner of Hughes Aircraft (which included designing airplanes), and major shareholder (which resulted in his control) of TWA. Despite his extreme eccentricities, “serial entrepreneur” couldn’t have described him better.

Forrest Gump
Dey’s uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There’s pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich. That- that’s about it.

Ah, dear Bubba. Who can blame Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks) for being inspired by his dear friend to start Bubba Gump Shrimp? With a ratty old shrimping boat and a depressed friend (Lt. Dan played by Gary Sinise), Forrest Gump is the only fictitious movie on the list to result in the start of an actual company, with Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Restaurant & Market spanning 15 locations in the US.

And my personal favorite movie on the list…

Ghostbusters
Their luck runs out and their careers in the academic field are over, but nothing will get them down. Instead, the charming businessman Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), the devoted scientist Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) and the supernatural historian Raymond Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) start a business hunting ghosts.

There you have it, my top picks from the Entrepreneurs in the Movies list. Which is your favorite?

Bookmark to: