The Christmas movie has, in recent years, become its own industrial complex, algorithmically churned out by streaming services to hit various subscriber demographic sweet spots. Perhaps the seemingly disposable likes of Hot Frosty and Meet Me Next Christmas will be treasured for many Decembers to come, but they have a tough canon to crack, as represented by our all-star Advent calendar of festive movie favourites, chosen by some of the film industry’s best and brightest, invited by the Observer New Review to help our readers count down to the big day itself.
Some of the films here are as firmly entrenched in the season as mince pies and fir trees – who can argue with director Gurinder Chadha’s selection of It’s a Wonderful Life or actor Joe Alwyn’s of The Snowman? Others are less obvious: you wouldn’t expect John Waters, Hollywood’s emperor of bad taste, to go cosy and cute, and sure enough, his choice of the notorious video nasty Christmas Evil would make many a person bring up their turkey dinner. For a lot of us, meanwhile, our personal Christmas classics aren’t technically Christmas films at all, but made so by timing and association: we’re steering clear of the played-out Die Hard debate, but Himesh Patel certainly isn’t alone in finding the holiday incomplete without the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and screenwriter David Nicholls makes a strong case for Phantom Thread as festive viewing. To each their own Christmas, and to all a good night.
1. Tokyo Godfathers (Satoshi Kon, 2003)
Chosen by Will Sharpe, director of The Electrical Life of Louis Wain and Landscapers, star of The White Lotus and Giri/Haji
Tokyo Godfathers by renowned Japanese animator Satoshi Kon is a funny, heartwarming tale but without being overly saccharine. Three homeless people – a grumbly alcoholic man, a larger than life transgender woman and a punky runaway teenage girl – come across a baby in a bin while rummaging for presents. They form a sort of hotchpotch family in a brilliant dynamic that reminds me of some of Kore-eda’s films. Backstories intertwine with a quest to find the baby’s parents that takes us through drag bars, yakuza action sequences, car chases and even a Christmas miracle of sorts. The animation is stunning. It’s festive but not without a bit of grime. And hey – it’s 88 minutes long.
2. Radio Days (Woody Allen, 1987)
Chosen by Mike Leigh, director of Secrets and Lies, Vera Drake and Hard Truths, out on 31 January
What better movie for warming the December cockles than Radio Days? I’m by no means a fan of all Woody Allen’s films, but this joyous masterpiece is one of my favourites of all cinema, and I revisit it regularly.
Sumptuously evocative of the 30s and 40s, it combines brilliantly the tawdry razzmatazz of Manhattan showbusiness with a hard-edged, tragicomic yet moving portrayal of suburban New York Jewish working-class life, all viewed through the perceptive eyes of a sharp young lad. The acting throughout is immaculate. Headed by Mia Farrow, the huge cast deliver a stunning gallery of realistic character performances, and the whole glorious feast is accompanied by numbers from Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington and Cole Porter, to name but a few. It’s wonderful!
3. Love Actually (Richard Curtis, 2003)
Chosen by Thea Sharrock, director of Wicked Little Letters and The Beautiful Game
As with all Christmas classics, Love Actually offers great comfort with every watch. Richard Curtis at his very best, giving audiences exactly what they want: actors we all adore, great music, comedy, love, heartbreak, family. Simple, relatable human stories set at Christmas time. Emma Thompson with Joni Mitchell is pure gold; Bill Nighy’s laugh; Alan Rickman’s twinkle; Hugh Grant’s dancing; Keira Knightley’s smile. Perfection. We watch it every Christmas, guaranteed, although we’re always open to new additions to go alongside it on the Christmas watchlist. Anywhere, any time is good for watching Love Actually; the only non-negotiable is to have my sons with me. They are teenagers now, and it’s their favourite too. They have grown up with it so it became a family classic as they looked forward to it every year. To be honest, I prefer birthdays and new year to Christmas, although I do love going away over the holidays. And I’m a sucker for a good stocking.
4. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (Stanley Donen, 1954)
Chosen by Abi Morgan, writer of The Split, Eric, The Hour and Suffragette
Christmas has a huge legacy for me: it’s years of joy and fights and dramas and laughter and great movies and a lot of chocolate. It’s impossible not to get picked up in the swell of it. This is a film that I loved as a kid, a Technicolor musical filled with swashbuckling men and beautiful women. I’ve always loved the songs, and the whole will-they-won’t-they of it, but it’s also deeply disturbing. It’s about a guy who goes into town one day, meets the beautiful Jane Powell and proposes to her, but fails to reveal that he’s got six brothers at home and she’s responsible for looking after them all. Then the brothers go out and basically kidnap a load of women. Watching it, you’re reminded that history repeats itself as women’s rights are being taken away in the US. But it’s got some damn good songs and it’s really beautiful film-making – a fascinating bit of history to chew over at Christmas.
5. Phantom Thread (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2017)
Chosen by David Nicholls, screenwriter and author of, most recently, You Are Here. On screen he has had hits with Us, Patrick Melrose and adaptations of his novels One Day and Starter for 10
The parties, the dressing-up, the food and cocktails, the chilly, anxious atmosphere; I have no doubt that Phantom Thread is a Christmas film. A gothic love story – Rebecca by way of Powell and Pressburger, with Lesley Manville in the Mrs Danvers role – on first viewing I found it quite bizarre, but I’ve grown to love it more and more, not least for its knowingness, a sly humour that saves it from absurdity. Daniel Day-Lewis and Vicky Krieps are wonderful, it’s immaculately made and eminently quotable, has one of the great New Year’s Eve scenes and the greatest breakfast too, the famous “hungry boy”. Altogether now: “Welsh rarebit with a poached egg on top, not too runny, and bacon, scones, butter, cream, jam (not strawberry)…”
6. Christmas Evil (Lewis Jackson, 1980)
Chosen by John Waters, director of Pink Flamingos, Hairspray and Female Trouble
I, with no irony, love Christmas: I do 20 Christmas shows a year; I wrote a chapter of my book called Why I Love Christmas. I’ve learned how to exploit Christmas, even though I know Christmas exploits me.
This is the only Christmas movie I like; I find most of them so horribly sentimental. I don’t watch it every Christmas. But if I meet somebody new, it would be a first date – and if they didn’t like it, I would end it. It’s a litmus test. It starts as someone putting on shaving cream, then looking in the mirror, and suddenly they think: “Oh my God! I’m Santa Claus.” Well, I like that. That’s a disturbing psychological profile. If you think about it, Santa is a pervert. He sneaks around children’s lives and spies through windows and keeps notes if they’re bad – that would be getting him arrested today. He slides down your chimney without permission. That’s a home invasion. He eats your food in your house. That’s unsafe. So this movie celebrates the insanity of someone really believing they were Santa Claus. And I love that the children save him at the end, even though he’s killed people, because they believe in him and the adults don’t.
This film was actually banned in the UK during the “video nasty” panic. This film isn’t nasty. It’s delightful to me. What’s nasty is all the other sentimental Christmas movies that make you gag. They should have the opposite of the nasties – they should have had a ban on the whimsical. That’s the one I’d join.
7. Carol (Todd Haynes, 2015)
Chosen by Mahalia Belo, director of The End We Start From
At this time of year, on a cold night, I find myself wanting to be swept up in the world of Carol. There’s something about the intimacy of it, and the Saul Leiter-style cinematography, that brings you completely into its universe rich with desire. It’s about a young woman who sees across the floor of the department store where she works an enigmatic, beautiful woman named Carol. The film, set in the 1950s, explores the connection these women make as the world rattles on and tries to interrupt them. Cate Blanchett, as Carol, beautifully plays a woman trying to find her own space in the world, while not losing everything she loves. It’s very seductive and incredibly well told – and it’s set at Christmastime.
8. The Snowman (Jimmy T Murakami and Dianne Jackson, 1982)
Chosen by Joe Alwyn, star of The Favourite, Conversations With Friends and The Brutalist, out on 24 January
I love this film. A boy and his snowman on Christmas Eve. It feels nostalgic and bittersweet. There’s a wonder to it, a dreamlike possibility. Magic, joy, escapism – but also heartbreak. The painful truth that nothing lasts for ever. Everything melts. Watching the film takes me back to memories of my grandparents, and of sitting by the fire at home. I think of being a boy – dreaming, longing, needing magic to exist. The version we watched was introduced by David Bowie, and that takes me straight to my mum, and to Life on Mars playing throughout our house. I remember the hand-drawn animation – a picture book brought to life. And then, of course, the music: Walking in the Air fills the room, hairs prickling, neck tingling, as the boy and his snowman leap into the night sky, hand in hand. It’s a haunting melody and voice; as lonely as it is beautiful.
9. Babes in Toyland (Gus Meins and Charley Rogers, 1934)
Chosen by Sean Baker, director of Anora, The Florida Project, and Tangerine
This was the holiday movie growing up, or at least my holiday movie. Television stations in the New York area played it on Thanksgiving to get you psyched up for Christmas. It’s a very early example of breaking the fourth wall and the humour is quite modern, though it gets pretty dark and scary. Laurel and Hardy are basically playing themselves in the world of Toyland. There’s an evil businessman in town, Barnaby, who’s reclaiming Mother Peep’s house because she’s failed to pay off her mortgage. He has these boogeymen who he sets on Toyland at the end. It’s the most disturbing thing but also incredibly artistic – the sets and costumes are amazing. It delivers everything you need for a holiday movie. I saw it many times as a kid, to the point where I actually used Toyland, the song, in Tangerine – that’s how much of an impact it had on my life.
Christmas gives me a break. Anytime the world shuts down for a little bit so I can catch up, that’s what I look forward to. Obviously we all like the family stuff, blah blah blah. Yeah, I’m fine with Christmas.
10. It’s a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946)
Chosen by Gurinder Chadha, director of Bend It Like Beckham and Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging
This is my favourite Christmas film because it does everything a holiday movie should do in this season of goodwill to all. It touches you, makes you feel connected to humanity, and takes you on an emotional rollercoaster where you come away appreciating life, love, family and community. Each year I take my kids to watch it on the big screen at the Prince Charles Cinema in Leicester Square with a big bucket of popcorn. When the kids were little they didn’t like that the film was black and white, but now that they’re 17, they enjoy our tradition and understand why every year I’m in tears at the scene when everyone brings whatever savings they have to save the almost ruined George Bailey. I love the film even more because upon release it was considered a flop. How gratifying for me as a film-maker that years later Frank Capra and Jimmy Stewart are given the respect they deserve for making an unsurpassed, timeless classic.
The film is inspired by Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. I’m currently in the edit room endeavouring to make my own Christmas film. It’s a joyous modern musical where my Scrooge is British Indian and dislikes poor, disenfranchised people. If I can make a film that moves future generations and becomes a holiday tradition like It’s a Wonderful Life, I’ll feel like I’ve taken the spirit of Frank Capra and tried my best to emulate his craft, compassion and heartfelt plea to view life through a lens of gratitude.
11. Miracle in Milan (Vittorio De Sica, 1951)
Chosen by Alice Rohrwacher, director of La Chimera, Happy As Lazzaro and 2022 Christmas short Le Pupille
This is a sociopolitical fairytale about a boy who is born under a cabbage. He is very poor, but always thinks that everything is possible. There is one scene when all the people try to get some sun in a world that has none, and there is just one ray of sunshine coming out, so they all have to run to it to warm up. And it’s so touching. When I did Le Pupille I was asking myself, what is a Christmas movie? And the difference between a movie and a Christmas movie is that it’s a story with a moral message. In Le Pupille, the moral is “destiny works in mysterious ways”. The moral of Miracolo a Milano is that, if you change your eyes, things change – society changes.
12. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Peter Jackson, 2003)
Chosen by Himesh Patel, star of Yesterday, Don’t Look Up and Station Eleven
When I think of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, I think of Christmas. The films were released during the festive period from 2001 to 2003 and became one of the most important cultural touchstones of my generation. Those Christmases held not just the usual festive joys, but the promise of the next chapter in this epic, gamechanging cinematic trilogy. Tolkien’s world filled my head for the entire holiday period. The Return of the King was the culmination, the finale. In my memory, it was all anyone at school was talking about in the lead up to the holidays.
It’s not something I watch every Christmas – convincing my family to sit through three hours and 21 minutes of an epic fantasy film isn’t something I’m silly enough to attempt. Not to mention the first two films or the extended editions… Generally the festive period now is about catching up on the year’s best films.
For me the perfect Christmas film is something that brings the whole family together, takes us through a rollercoaster of emotions and leaves us all tearily hugging one another or jumping for joy. So one day I hope to find myself in the ideal scenario: watching The Return of the King with my wife and my daughters, making our way through a feast of snacks, all trying not to cry when Aragorn says to the hobbits: “My friends, you bow to no one.”
13. The Holdovers (Alexander Payne, 2023), preceded by the short film Anthony (Jonathan van Tulleken, 2014)
Chosen by Jack Thorne, award-winning playwright and screenwriter who co-wrote the animated short An Almost Christmas Story (on Disney+). His adaptation of A Christmas Carol runs until 7 January at the Old Vic, London
I think cinema should be made into more of an event again, so this is a petition for the restoration of the short film that comes before the main feature. The one I remember from childhood was Tummy Trouble, with Roger Rabbit, before Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. Both were brilliant. I loved Rick Moranis already, but him combined with Roger? Fantastic.
We start with Anthony, a short film of remarkable brutality. The plot is that the sled crash lands and only Santa and a single elf, Anthony, have survived and they have to work out how to save Christmas. I don’t want to spoil too much but reindeers are murdered and then worn and that causes further murder. It’s really funny and brilliant. After the acrid taste of Anthony comes the acrid teacher Paul Hunham in The Holdovers. He is a man who has had his heart ripped out by life. He spends Christmas with a student called Angus, played by Dominic Sessa, and cafeteria manager Mary (Da’Vine Joy Randolph). It is a film where little shards of dialogue reveal a gulf of unspoken truth. The end left me both punching the air and crying. It depends who your family are, but mine are mostly self-destructive and will be uplifted by this film, just as they were disgusted by Anthony.
14. Fanny and Alexander (Ingmar Bergman, 1982)
Chosen by Richard Eyre, director of Iris, Notes on a Scandal and The Children Act
Bergman’s film revolves around two overlapping worlds that fascinate me: the family and the theatre. There’s a Dickensian profligacy in the range of characters in the film but they’re all portrayed with a meticulous humanity worthy of Chekhov: the family saga resonates with realism about life’s compromises.
The choreography of the film – the movement of characters (living and dead), of the camera, of the locations, of the festivities – is miraculously fresh and inventive. Bergman’s cool draughtsman’s eye combines with his forgiving heart to create extraordinary performances and, for a director who is often castigated for his gloom and sense of mortality, the film is radiant with warmth and fun.
15. Gone With the Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939)
Chosen by James Ivory, director of Howards End, The Remains of the Day and The Golden Bowl
I must have been 12 when I first watched Gone With the Wind. At the very end Clark Gable says, “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn”, and it was considered so shocking that that word had been used in a family movie. I went to a school that was taught by nuns, and they said: “When Clark Gable uses that word, you must cover your ears.” I don’t know how the sisters in the school knew he was going to say that – they hadn’t seen the movie. Who came and told the nuns that Clark Gable said “damn”? Of course I didn’t cover my ears. My mother said “damn”, and so did my father. Sometimes “goddamn”.
Somewhere in the film, there’s a scene where Ashley Wilkes comes home for Christmas from the front, and his wife has knitted him a pair of gloves, and he’s very touched by that. That’s what I remember – him coming home for Christmas and being given a present by a woman who loves him passionately. It was a very muted scene, with quiet colours – the colour of a pair of new woollen gloves.
16. The Silent Partner (Daryl Duke, 1978)
Chosen by Peter Strickland, director of The Duke of Burgundy, In Fabric and Berberian Sound Studio
I was very lucky to enjoy Christmas as a child even if I was bored out of my brains at church – a double dose with Greek Orthodox followed by Anglican. I love films like A Charlie Brown Christmas and Meet Me in St Louis. But the film that indiscriminately tramples on all festive goodwill is The Silent Partner. Though hardly embodying the Christmas spirit, the film technically takes place during that period. Christopher Plummer, sporting a shocking string vest under his Santa Claus bank robber outfit, portrays a hideously sleazy psycho that I struggle to tally up with his more gentlemanly Captain von Trapp in The Sound of Music. My elder brother and I covertly saw the film late at night on television in the late 80s, but the screaming woke our mum and she stormed downstairs to turn it off. It took more than 20 years to see the rest of the film in its entirety, and I’d concede that my mum had a point, given how terrifying it is.
17. Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (Chris Columbus, 1992)
Chosen by Leila Farzad, star of I Hate Suzie, Kaos and Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, out on 14 February
Home Alone 2 is the perfect Christmas film because it encapsulates a particular nostalgia that is so cosy and calming to me. When I watch it, it’s 1994 and I’m in my pyjamas, excited about Christmas, fixated on my Advent calendar and full of that pure hygge feeling. I watch it every Christmas without fail sometime around mid-December to ignite the festive feeling. The cast of this film is incredible: Macaulay Culkin at his height, Catherine O’Hara with her exquisite comic timing, Brenda Fricker as the beautifully tragic bird lady, Tim Curry being camp and hysterical, and of course Daniel Stern and Joe Pesci being the best bozo criminals you’ve ever seen. The Christmas films that really give me the feels are often set in 1990s New York where the city feels almost fictitious. It’s skyscrapers, Fifth Avenue, yellow cabs honking, everyone rushing about in great big fur coats holding piles of gifts, steam billowing up from the streets and everyone’s problems are, fundamentally, not actual problems. Ideally I watch it with my family (some of whom groan) on a chilly December evening with the glow of our tree in the corner of the room and me trying not to say all my favourite lines and hum the music. It’s not profound but it sure is Christmassy.
18. The Kid (Charlie Chaplin, 1921)
Chosen by Paul King, director of Wonka and the first two Paddington films
I love Christmas and London, where I live, is a great Christmas city. When there’s mist illuminated by street lamps, the shops are full of goodies and there’s everything to look forward to, it’s a wonderful time of year. It’s a great moment for families coming together, and what I love most about The Kid is that it’s a very strange family that gets put together. A woman abandons her baby son in the back of a rich person’s car but he ends up in the hands of Charlie Chaplin’s Tramp character, who brings him up without a penny to his name and they form the most deep and beautiful screen relationship I know. It’s heartwarming and incredibly funny and I love its dark twists. I showed it to my daughter aged four or five and she laughed like a drain and howled at the end. It’s a great movie to watch by the fire at Christmas with your family.
19. The Dead Zone (David Cronenberg, 1983)
Chosen by Mark Jenkin, director of Bait and Enys Men
I’m quite happy watching anything at Christmas – just sitting down and watching films at 10 o’clock in the morning is such a luxury. I try to tell myself that, because I’m a film director, I can do that, it’s work. This is a film I saw at Christmas when I was probably too young to watch it – I would have been about nine or 10. I rediscovered it a few years ago and have watched it several times since. It always takes me back to being a kid, at that age when Christmas is still quite magical, which is in complete contrast to the film – although it is set in the winter, and there is a Christmas scene. They call it a science-fiction thriller, but for me, it’s just a straight-up horror film.
Christopher Walken stars as Johnny Smith, a schoolteacher who suffers a near-fatal car accident. He’s in a coma for several years, and when he comes round he’s left with this gift to see into people’s lives if he physically comes into contact with them. He’s able to do some amazing work in terms of helping people out and avoiding disaster, but at the cost of the relationship that he lost. Watching it again in the light of the US election, there’s some interesting parallels. Martin Sheen plays a rightwing populist who’s running for president and might not have the world’s best interests at heart. It’s quite eerie.
20. The Lion in Winter (Anthony Harvey, 1968)
Chosen by Maxine Peake, star of Shameless, Peterloo and Funny Cow
A stonking melodrama set in the castle of King Henry II on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, 1183, The Lion in Winter is about the interplay between members of a dysfunctional family: jealousy, parental neglect and favouritism, marital infidelity. It may be set in the royal court, but it has red hot flashes of relatability. Christmas in my family has always been a troublesome time of year, so seeing a family dynamic like this writ large is oddly comforting. I adore this film for James Goldman’s rich and knotty screenplay and the two extraordinary and exquisite lead performances of Katharine Hepburn and Peter O’Toole. Watching the chemistry and freedom between these two behemoths of the screen always reduces me to tears, it reminds me why I love my job and always spurs me on to try harder and be better in the new year to come. It’s a day after Boxing Day, late afternoon… I get the fire on, make myself a snowball (eggnog and ginger ale) and settle down on the sofa with my husband and dog… It’s that kind of film.
21. Bad Day at Black Rock (John Sturges, 1955)
Chosen by Daniel Kokotajlo, director of Apostasy and Starve Acre
I’ve got a weird relationship with Christmas because it was sort of taken away from me when I was very young. My family became Jehovah’s Witnesses, so I didn’t celebrate for a large period of my life. But since I met my partner, whose family are avid Christmas lovers, I celebrate now, and I love it. I always watch ghost stories on the BBC on Christmas Eve, and then on Christmas Day I’ll watch something that’s a classic, that transports you, and Black Rock does that for me.
It’s a genre-bending film: part western, part noir thriller, part horror movie, part war movie with a message. It’s about this lonely figure who turns up in the west in this small town, where everybody is very hostile to him, and he’s looking for someone who has disappeared. It’s got themes of resilience in it, and redemption; there’s nostalgia running through it. Spencer Tracy’s amazing in it: his character isn’t a hero in the traditional sense – he’s disabled and unsure of himself, but represents a compassion and dedication to truth that still resonates with me today. It’s a great film. It’s got an uplifting feel that’s perfect for Christmas, but it’s probably more suited to those who enjoy a bit of darkness and suspense in their holiday viewing.
22. Dean Spanley (Toa Fraser, 2008)
Chosen by Gillian Anderson, star of The X Files, Sex Education and Scoop
I love this offbeat tear-jerker of a comedic tale and have recommended it for years. It’s fantastic to watch at Christmas with family for its snowy scenes and cosy interiors. But also, because it’s a whimsical and profoundly moving exploration of the relationships between father and son and… master and dog. Set in Edwardian England immediately after the Boer war, the elderly, self-obsessed and offensively bigoted Horatio Fisk (Peter O’Toole) struggles to deal with his eldest son’s death in the war as well as the subsequent death of his grieving wife. His remaining son, Henslowe (Jeremy Northam), is beholden to his cantankerous father and tries tirelessly to console him during his reluctant weekly Thursday visits, but simply cannot win his love. But through chance encounters with a curious local Dean (Sam Neill), Henslowe and his mischievous mate Wrather (Bryan Brown), lure the dean to a series of surreal dinners where he begins to recount curious remembrances of his past life that inadvertently leads to the elder Fisk finding his heart. The film is wonderfully directed by Toa Fraser, with astonishingly good performances, and has one of my favourite scores of all time by Don McGlashan. It’s just delightful and I challenge anyone who has ever struggled with a parental relationship, or ever loved a dog, not to weep during some of the later scenes.
23. Song of the Sea (Tomm Moore, 2014)
Chosen by Jamie Demetriou, star of Stath Lets Flats, Fleabag and Barbie
To avoid being the 1,000th person to choose The Muppet Christmas Carol, my pick is this exquisite Irish animated feature. Christmas family time is lovely, in a way, sure. But my most treasured Christmas tradition is the precious two to 10 hours I get to spend alone in my bedroom on Christmas Eve wrapping presents, watching Song of the Sea on my laptop. It is the most lovingly crafted film: every character, setting and texture oozing with a bygone truth and warmth that only the magic of 2D animation can conjure. It isn’t the most traditionally Christmassy film in the world – it’s about the children of a grieving lighthouse keeper and some mythical Irish seals – but to me Christmas is largely about feeling warm despite the cold, and this film is a hot-water bottle when the heating’s broken.
24. Miracle on 34th Street (George Seaton, 1947)
Chosen by Carol Morley, director of The Falling, Dreams of a Life, and Typist Artist Pirate King
If I saw that Miracle on 34th Street was on the telly, I’d have to stop whatever I was doing and watch. The film takes me back to when I knew Father Christmas existed. This all ended when I was six and my brother Paul, nine years older than me, told me he didn’t exist. I acted cool, but inside I was devastated. Santa was better than believing in Jesus: Santa brought you presents! I love that Miracle on 34th Street is about putting the real Santa on trial for lunacy, and explores commercialism and what it is to believe in something. I adore young Natalie Wood as the cynical child who finds her imagination, and Maureen O’Hara as her single mother struggling with her broken dreams. Edmund Gwenn’s benign but feisty Father Christmas is perfect in every way: he says “Christmas isn’t just a day, it’s a frame of mind”. And I look for a film that can transport me to times of hope, where we can all believe in miracles.
Interviews by Kathryn Bromwich & Killian Fox
