Films

Film	Year	Notes
The Mermaid	1904	Silent film by Georges Méliès and starring an unknown actress as The Mermaid. This whimsical, four-minute-long film is the first ever to feature mermaids.
Siren of the Sea (or The Mermaid)	1911	Silent film starring Annette Kellerman as the first mermaid to actually swim in a costume tail in a film.
Neptune's Daughter	1914	Starring Annette Kellerman.
A Daughter of the Gods	1916	Starring Annette Kellerman.
Queen of the Sea	1918	Starring Annette Kellerman.
Venus of the South Seas	1924	Starring Annette Kellerman.
King Neptune	1932	King Neptune and an array of sea creatures come to the rescue of a mermaid captured by lecherous pirates.
Ikan Doejoeng	1941	From the Dutch East Indies
Miranda	1948	Starring Glynis Johns
Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid	1948	Starring Ann Blyth
Million Dollar Mermaid	1952	Based on the life of Annette Kellerman.
Peter Pan (1953 film)	1953	Produced by Walt Disney and released by RKO Radio Pictures. Mermaids have a minor role in the film, as appear in the mermaid lagoon. The mischievous mermaids enjoy tormenting Wendy, but flee at the sight of Captain Hook.
Mad About Men	1954	Sequel to Miranda (1948).
Pekka ja Pätkä sammakkomiehinä (Pekka and Pätkä as Frogmen)	1954	In this Finnish Pekka Puupää comedy, the heroes rescue a foundered mermaid and carry her to Pekka's apartment. They set her on the bathtub. Pekka's wife Justiina initially sees only her fish-tail and is initially surprised by "a big fish the menfolks have caught" and gets a knife to prepare it as a dinner, but she faints as she sees the mermaid's upper body.
Night Tide	1961	Starring Dennis Hopper and Linda Lawson
The Mermaids of Tiburon	1962	Starring Diane Webber, George Rowe, and Timothy Carey
Beach Blanket Bingo	1965	Starring Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello, and includes a sub-plot of the character Bonehead (Jody McCrea) falling for a mermaid portrayed by Lost in Space's Marta Kristen.
Head	1968	Starring The Monkees, briefly features two mermaids in the opening "Porpoise Song" sequence, surrounded by psychedelic effects.
Local Hero	1984	Marine researcher Marina (Jenny Seagrove) is suspected by her love interest of being a mermaid.
Splash	1984	Starring Daryl Hannah and Tom Hanks, Hannah plays a mermaid who falls in love with a human. She can walk on dry land when in human form, but her legs change into a fish tail whenever she gets wet. Much of the movie revolves around her humorous attempts to conceal her true identity from her lover. A made-for-television sequel, Splash, Too followed in 1988, starring Amy Yasbeck and Todd Waring.
Talk Dirty To Me Part III	1984	The third and fourth films in the adult film series Talk Dirty To Me feature mermaids who come ashore to find men. As in Splash, the mermaids can walk on dry land, and their legs become tails in water. The film endured controversy when it became public knowledge in 1986 that, at the time of filming, actress Traci Lords was 16-year-old and, therefore, underage in the US.
The Little Mermaid	1989	Produced by Walt Disney Studios, this film portrays a variant of the story by Hans Christian Andersen about the mermaid who wished for legs. This film was followed by a prequel TV series (The Little Mermaid), a direct-to-video sequel titled The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea featuring the title character's daughter, and a DTV prequel movie in 2008 titled The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning.
Hook	1991	Produced by TriStar Pictures Amblin Entertainment, three mermaids appear when Peter Pan (Robin Williams) is dropped into the ocean in Neverland.
The Secret of Roan Inish	1994	Incorporates mysticism into the selkies and their fae children.
Mermaid Got Married	1994	This Hong Kong romantic-comedy (based on Splash) tells the story of a school teacher who falls in love with a mermaid who'd rescued him as a young boy. The film stars Asian cinema idols Ekin Cheng, Christy Chung, and Takeshi Kaneshiro.
Magic Island	1995	Lily, a young mermaid, befriends a group of buccaneers and joins them on their quest for Blackbeard's treasure.
Sabrina Down Under	1999	Sabrina (Melissa Joan Hart) travels to Australia's Great Barrier Reef with her best friend Gwen, a fellow witch from England, for a week-long vacation where they try to help protect a hidden mermaid colony whose habitat is threatened by ocean pollution, and by a local marine biologist, Dr. Julian Martin.
The Thirteenth Year	1999	A teen learns that his birth mother is a mermaid after he begins to grow fins and slimy scales on his thirteenth birthday.
She Creature	2001	Circa 1900, a carnival barker named Angus discovers a mermaid held captive in a tank by a disturbed old man. Angus steals the mermaid and loads her on a ship headed for America. When the mermaid is discovered, Angus's lover Lily begins to suspect that the mermaid is more dangerous than she first seemed.
Mermaids	2003	Erika Heynatz, Nikita Ager, and Sarah Laine are a trio of mermaids who solve their father's murder.
Mermaid in the Manhole	1988	A Tokyo-based shock film centered around a decaying mermaid found living in the Tokyo sewer system. This is a very gruesome film; it focuses on the mermaid's decay and subsequent death from exposure to toxic environment of the sewer.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe	2005	Mermaids appear briefly at the end of the story.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire	2005	Merpeople appear briefly during the second task.
Mermaidia	2006	In this Barbie doll direct-to-video movie, Elina travels to Mermaidia to save her friend Nalu, the merman Prince, who's been kidnapped by the evil Laverna. It's up to Elina to stop them with the help of Nori, a headstrong mermaid who doesn't trust outsiders.
Aquamarine	2006	The title character is a mermaid (Sara Paxton) who is washed ashore after a violent storm. She decides to search for true love on land, and makes two good human friends (Joanna "JoJo" Levesque and Emma Roberts) along the way.
Legend of Sudsakorn	2006	The main character, Charlie Trairat, is the son of a mermaid who is sent on a magical quest to find his father, a prince.
Peter Pan	2003	Mermaids appear in a small segment: the narrator says they "are not like the mermaids in stories" though Wendy is thrilled by them. These mermaids have webbed fingers and markings on their faces. Peter asks them if Captain Hook has kidnapped John and Michael, which the mermaids confirm. One of them also tries to drown Wendy.
Sirène song	2005	Short feature by Fanny Jean-Noel. A mermaid is seeking for a job.
Princess	2008	Starring Shileen Paton as a mermaid named Cala who lives under the pond.
Bedtime Stories	2008	A mermaid appears in the book that Skeeter gives to Bobbi and Patrick.
Ponyo	2009	Japanese film starred by Noah Cyrus, Frankie Jonas and directed by the director Hayao Miyazaki.
Hoshisuna no Shima no Chiisana Tenshi (Mermaid Smile)	2010	Japanese film starring D-Boys members Tetsuya Makita and Masashi Mikami, and Riho Iida of Love Live! fame. The story is of a girl who is found washed up on the shore in a tourist area of Okinawa, and suspected of being a mermaid.
Barbie in A Mermaid Tale	2010	In this Barbie doll direct-to-video movie, Barbie stars as Merliah, a surfing champion from Malibu. One minute she's a normal teenager and the next she learns a shocking family secret: she's a mermaid! Merliah and her dolphin friend Zuma set off on an undersea adventure to rescue her mother, the queen of Oceana.
Empires of the Deep	2011	A human falls in love with a mermaid in a fantasy world.
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides	2011	During his search for the Fountain of Youth, Jack Sparrow encounters several mermaids.
Barbie in A Mermaid Tale 2	2012	In this Barbie doll direct-to-video movie sequel, Merliah heads to Australia for the ultimate surfing competition. When the evil mermaid Eris escapes from her whirlpool, thanks to Kylie Morgan who steals Merliah's necklace, with plans to take Callissa's spot on the throne of Aquellia and get the power of Merilia, Merliah and her sea friends dive in to stop her.
Barbie: The Pearl Princess	2014	In this Barbie doll direct-to-video movie Barbie stars as Lumina, a mermaid who dreams of being a princess. Lumina and her best friend Kuda, a pink seahorse, embark on an adventure to a majestic mer-kingdom. There, she discovers that her magic is the key to unlocking her true destiny and ultimately saving the kingdom.
Maidens of the Sea	2014	The second feature film by writer/director Kerri Kuchta, this film tells the story of a lonely sailor who discovers an island of mermaids.
The Lure	2015	Polish horror-musical film directed by Agnieszka Smoczyńska which chronicles two carnivorous mermaids who begin working as nightclub performers in 1980s Warsaw.
The Mermaid	2016	Chinese film starred by Lin Yun and directed by the Hong Kong comedian Stephen Chow.
The Legend of Sarila	2013	Features a mermaid-like goddess named Sedna.
Small Fry	2011	Part of the Toy Story Toons short animations. Buzz Lightyear meets a plastic mermaid named Neptuna who always carries her trident and sits on a rock.
My Fairy Tail Love Story	2018	A girl finds a rock while diving and becomes a mermaid.
The Lighthouse	2019	Several parts of the movie involve Winslow having visions of a mermaid, including having sexual intercourse with it.
Onward	2020