If you care about truth-telling on screen, 2025 is your year. Hulu has stacked the calendar with hard-hitting originals, intimate biographies, and headline-grabbing true-crime sagas. Below you’ll find the best Hulu documentaries scheduled—or already streaming—this year, complete with premiere dates, story angles, and reasons they deserve a spot in your queue.
1. Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything – Jan 17
Hulu opens its slate by celebrating the late broadcast legend. Rare newsroom footage, never-heard phone recordings, and fresh interviews with Diane Sawyer and Oprah Winfrey anchor a portrait that is equal parts admiration and critique.
“She changed the power dynamic between journalist and subject,” Sawyer says in the film’s third act.
2. Call Her Alex – Feb 22
Social-media megastar Alex Greco goes behind the ring light to reveal the toll of day-to-day virality.
Directors Brooke Bowman and Yohance Hill follow Alex for nine months, capturing panic attacks, brand-deal negotiations, and a high-stakes rebrand after a trolling scandal. Expect sharp commentary on creator burnout and monetized identity.
3. Hey Beautiful: Anatomy of a Romance Scam – Mar 14
Rom-con victims lose an estimated $1.3 billion a year. This four-part series reconstructs three high-profile deception rings with chat logs, undercover footage, and Europol sting video. Digital-forensics expert Valentina de Luca breaks down how crooks weaponize AI chatbots—a first in the genre.
4. Last Take: Rust and the Story of Halyna – Apr 28
Director Rachel Mason revisits the 2021 set tragedy that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. New search-warrant files, slowed-down on-set footage, and Hutchins’ personal journals paint a meticulous picture of systemic safety failures. The finale lobbies for federal oversight on firearms in filmmaking.
5. Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke – Jun 30
Mom-fluencer Ruby Franke rose on family-values content and crashed amid child-abuse charges. Hulu’s cameras track the investigation from 911 call to courtroom plea, juxtaposing “perfect-mom” vlogs with police interrogation tapes. Viewers calling 2024’s Shiny Happy People their favorite will deem this one of the best Hulu documentaries of 2025.
6. Memes & Nightmares – Aug 9
Part satire, part sociology report, this essay film dissects how a joke can morph into an extremist rallying cry. Meme historians, alt-platform founders, and a former 4chan moderator decode the life cycle from LOL to IRL damage, set to glitch-art animation that zips by at TikTok pace.
7. Got To Get Out – Sep 20
Survival expert Maya Santoro leads a rotating cast of escape artists who reenact bold jailbreaks and hostage rescues. Think Free Solo tension, but every episode features a different “impossible exit,” all recreated with cinema-grade stunt rigs.
8. The Fox Hollow Murders: Playground of a Serial Killer – Oct 4
Fifty hours of sealed evidence become public for the first time. Forensic genealogists and a surviving witness revisit the Indiana campus where three students vanished in 1985. Drone LIDAR scans reveal burial sites police never searched—a revelation that elevates this title into the top tier of best Hulu documentaries.
9. Born to Be Viral: The Real Lives of Kidfluencers – Nov 12
What happens when your allowance comes from brand deals? Child-labor lawyers, family therapists, and tween creators weigh in on unregulated earnings, privacy contracts, and digital footprints that never fade. Parents of would-be TikTok stars should start here.
10. SLY LIVES! – Dec 18
Music doc maestro Asif Kapadia ( Amy) turns his lens on glam-rock survivor Sylvester “Sly” Rivas. The film jumps from 1980s dive bars to 2020s stadium tours, mixing 8-mm rehearsal reels with Dolby Atmos concert audio. The closing performance of “Neon Blood” might be Hulu’s most immersive music sequence yet.
Why These Titles Stand Out
- Unprecedented access – From Barbara Walters’ private archives to newly unsealed police files, each film leverages materials the public has never seen.
- Topical urgency – AI romance scams, set-safety debates, influencer meltdowns—subjects ripped from today’s headlines.
- Premium storytelling – Hulu continues to invest in cinema-caliber visuals and surround-sound mixes, a trend that makes its originals competitive with HBO Docs and Netflix’s Untold franchise.
How to Stream
All ten projects are Hulu Originals, viewable on any plan. Download for offline viewing in 4K where available, or bundle with Disney+ for ad-free playback. For the fullest experience, enable “Enhanced Audio” in the settings menu.
Quick FAQ
Q: Are any of these documentaries available free on Hulu’s ad-supported tier?
A: Yes, every title streams on the ad tier the same day it lands on the ad-free plan.
Q: Which title is best for true-crime fans?
A: Hey Beautiful and Fox Hollow Murders deliver the highest investigative punch.
Q: Will there be mid-season episode drops?
A: Only Got To Get Out follows a weekly release; the rest binge-drop at launch.
Final Verdict
The sheer range of 2025 releases cements Hulu as a first-stop destination for documentary lovers. Whether you crave investigative rigor, cultural critique, or biographical depth, the best Hulu documentaries this year earn that label through access, craft, and relevance. Queue them now—conversation-starters guaranteed.
