24 films to watch on TV this Christmas

Cinema celebrates a landmark on 28 December, as 130 years have passed since Auguste and Louis Lumière presented the first moving picture show to a paying audience in the Grand Café’s Salon Indien. The tele-elves responsible for putting together the festive film schedule have clearly been informed that 2025 has been replete with similarly significant anniversaries, as so many selections have a celebratory connection. 

Everything from Jane Austen’s 250th to Dick Van Dyke’s centenary gets a look in. A clutch of notable films reached milestone anniversaries this year, with Doctor Zhivago and The Sound of Music notching up 60 years, while the 50th anniversaries of both Jaws and The Rocky Horror Picture Show merit accompanying documentaries. It’s also 40 years since Marty McFly went Back to the Future and his subsequent visits are all showing on BBC1. There’s even a chance to wish a certain sheep pig a happy 30th on Channel Four.

It’s not all fond recollection at year’s end, however, and a handful of screenings mark the passing of some of cinema’s major figures. David Lynch, Robert Redford, Terence Stamp, and Tom Stoppard are among those being remembered. Sadly, the Christmas Day screening of When Harry Met Sally… (23:35, BBC1) will now commemorate director Rob Reiner. 

This time next year, everyone will be getting misty-eyed over 80 years of It’s a Wonderful Life (1946). But who can resist a 79th anniversary trip to Bedford Falls on ITV1 on either Sunday 21 December at 12:45 or on Christmas Day itself at 03:50 in the wee smalls?

Sat 20 Dec, 14:45, ITV3

You’re spoilt for choice when it comes to Dickens’s festive masterpiece, with the Alastair Sim (Wed 24, 09:10, Channel 5) and George C. Scott (Sun 21, 16:05, ITV3) versions in the schedule. But Golden Globe victor Albert Finney makes a splendidly nastier piece of work in this underrated musical, which recycled sets from the Oscar-winning Oliver! (1968).

Sun 21 Dec, 00:05, BBC1

We know this is set at Thanksgiving, but the grim truths of festive travel are transferable. It’s hard to see what else could go wrong for advertising executive Steve Martin and shower curtain salesman John Candy, as they try to reach Chicago. But, admit it, you’d still love to see the 225-minute first cut.

Sun 21 Dec, 21:00, BBC2

A terrestrial premiere for Christopher Nolan’s epic biopic, which converted seven of its 13 Oscar nominations and became the highest ever grossing World War II-related film. The subject matter may be sombre for this time of year, but it’s worth reflecting on the 80th anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that their tragic fate has not been repeated.

Sun 21 Dec, 22:10, ITV1

No excuses for not brushing up on the first three chapters (and the Ballerina spin-off) of the all-action neo-noir franchise centring on Derek Kolstad’s Belarusian assassin. But even without the whole harrowing dead puppy context, you’ll still be on the edge of your seat, as Keanu Reeves battles his way across Paris for a showdown at Sacré-Cœur.  

Mon 22 Dec, 22:40, BBC1

Once, we had to wait years for big films to arrive on television. But Luca Guadagnino’s tennis romp premieres less than 18 months after hitting cinemas. Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist play rival aces besotted with Zendaya. But this isn’t really a sports movie. It’s a non-linear exercise in modish image-making, driven by a pulsating techno score. 

Tue 23 Dec, 16:10, Channel 5

Critics weren’t convinced by Steven Spielberg’s big-screen pantomime, which took a grown-up Peter Pan (Robin Williams) back to Neverland to rescue his abducted children from Captain Hook (Dustin Hoffman). But it’s now a cult favourite, although we reckon they shouldn’t have cut the scene of Maggie Smith’s Wendy lip-synching a song sung by Julie Andrews.

Wed 24 Dec, 13:35, Channel 4

Bette Midler declined the role of torch singer Deloris Van Cartier that earned Whoopi Goldberg a Golden Globe nomination. An ensemble nod might have been fairer, although Whoopi works miracles holding focus against inveterate scene-stealers Maggie Smith, Kathy Najimy and Mary Wickes, who all returned for Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993), which shows on Christmas Day.

Wed 24 Dec, 14:55, BBC1

On its release, this sequel to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) was the longest ever American animation. There are six distinctive visual styles, as Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) and Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) assist the Spider Society in its confrontation with The Spot (Jason Schwartzman). Nominated at the Globes, BAFTAs and Oscars, this isn’t just escapism. It’s all-action comic-book art.

Wed 24 Dec, 17:30, Channel 4

Fresh from being named the nation’s favourite festive film in a BBFC poll, the battle between Chicago eight year-old Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) and burglars Harry (Joe Pesci) and Marv (Daniel Stern) still packs a comic punch. Catch the 2015 DRYVRS web short Just Me in the House By Myself to see how Kevin turned out.

Thur 25 Dec, 17:10, Channel 4

Perfect for that post-lunch family flop in front of the box, Disney’s sequel to its 2013 masterpiece takes siblings Anna (Kristen Bell) and Elsa (Idina Menzel) north from Arendelle to the mythical realm of Ahtohallan to heal a long-running feud with the Northuldra people. Full of girl-powered good intentions and shrewd insights into rose-tinted visions of the past. 

Fri 26 Dec, 09:00, BBC2

Of course, Howard Hawks’s screwball gem is all about Katharine Hepburn’s scatty free spirit and Cary Grant’s uptight paleontologist. But a leopard named Nissa and Thin Man dog Asta steal the show as Baby and George, the terrier with a taste for prehistoric intercostal clavicles. Heartfelt homage What’s Up Doc? (1972) follows right behind.

Fri 26 Dec, 15:45, ITV4

The Stanley Kubrick epic that transformed cinematic science fiction gets a rare terrestrial outing. Kubrick won his only Oscar for his contribution to the visual effects that still dazzle almost six decades on. In 2022, 2001 topped the vote among directors for Sight and Sound’s decennial poll of the greatest films of all time.

Fri 26 Dec, 21:30, BBC2

Forty-seven years after they had been paired in The Romantic Englishwoman (1975), octogenarians Michael Caine and Glenda Jackson reunited for this impeccably played and deeply poignant tale of quiet pride and undying respect that was inspired by 90-year-old naval veteran Bernard Jordan’s flit from his nursing home to attend the 70th anniversary commemoration of D-Day in 2014.

Sat 27 Dec, 11:00, Film4

Dismayingly few films directed by women have made the festive schedules, but here is Greta Gerwig expertly guiding her stellar ensemble through the seventh screen incarnation of Louisa May Alcott’s 1868 novel about the March sisters of Concord, Massachusetts. Jacqueline Durran’s costumes earned her an Oscar and a BAFTA, while Gerwig insisted that Alexandre Desplat’s score melded Mozart and Bowie.

Sat 27 Dec, 12:50, BBC2

Seventy years ago, the Production Code guardians felt they had drawn the sting from Billy Wilder’s adaptation of George Axelrod’s comedy of adulterous manners by blue-pencilling numerous lines from the original stage text. But they hadn’t counted on Marilyn Monroe’s guileless sensuality or the updraft from a New York subway grate. Some Like It Hot (1959) follows.

Sat 27 Dec, 19:45, BBC1

It took eight years to realise this biopic of Elvis Presley. Baz Luhrmann’s bold take on the relationship between the singer (Austin Butler) and manager Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks) received eight Oscar nominations, but won none. Footage unearthed during pre-production has been restored for EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert, which will hit cinemas in early 2026. 

Sun 28 Dec, 13:50, TPTV

Monochromed chaos ensues when a bureaucratic snafu deposits St Swithin’s Girls’ School at the boys only Nutbourne College in leafy Hampshire. With Alastair Sim and Margaret Rutherford as rival heads Wetherby Pond and Muriel Whitchurch, Joyce Grenfell as games teacher Miss Gossage, and Richard Wattis as the man from the ministry, what’s not to love? 

Sun 28 Dec, 19:45, Sky Arts

Christmas telly would be incomplete without a classic western. With a shortage of subtitled fare on offer again this year, we have plumped for John Sturges’s reworking of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai (1954) over Howard Hawks’s swan song Rio Lobo (1970), which is on Channel 5 at 10:55 on New Year’s Eve. Elmer Bernstein’s score might have swayed it.

Tue 30 Dec, 16:10, BBC2

Showing as part of a 1950s Hitchcock triple bill, this gripping adaptation of a Cornell Woolrich short story fizzes with the frisson between incapacitated photojournalist James Stewart and fashionista girlfriend Grace Kelly. But the real star is the Greenwich Village courtyard designed by Hal Pereira and Joseph MacMillan Johnson, which remains the biggest indoor set in Paramount history.

Wed 31 Dec, 09:35, BBC1

With pointed and profound things to say about the modern world and its fixations and motivations, this beguiling blend of animation and live-action highlights the value of family and friends, as documentary maker Dean Fleischer Camp moves into an Airbnb and makes a social media superstar of Marcel the seashell (Jenny Slate) and his grandmother Connie (Isabella Rossellini).

Thur 1 Jan, 11:00, Film4

A very rare sighting of Preston Sturges’s screwball masterclass, which plonks brewing heir and snake expert Henry Fonda on the very ocean liner where con artist Barbara Stanwyck and card sharp father Charles Coburn are seeking a suitable sucker. Effortlessly blending slapstick, sex and satire, this is slick, subversive and deliciously silly.

Thur 1 Jan, 14:15, Channel 4

Deriving from Disney’s recent diversity drive, the story of Raya (Kelly Marie Tran) – and her efforts to locate the elusive Sisu (Akwafina), confound the petrifying Drunn spirits and unite the warring factions of Kumandra – is based on painstaking research into various Asian cultures, landscapes and customs. A lesson in acceptance and trust from which we could all learn.

Fri 2 Jan, 21:00, BBC2

For years, The Man Who Never Was (1956) was a festive fixture. But John Madden’s debuting retelling of Ewen Montagu’s scheme to dupe the Nazis into believing the Allies were planning an invasion of Greece seems set to take over. Colin Firth leads the impeccable ensemble with the faintest quiver to the upper lip, as the plan hits several snags. 

Fri 2 Jan, 23:00, BBC2

British-Moroccan director Fyzal Boulifa borrows from 1950s women’s pictures to add a touch of tawdry glamour and biting irony to this unflinching study of a mother (Aïcha Tebbae) and son (Abdellah El Hajjouji) scraping along in the Tangier margins. The performances of the non-professional leads are compelling, as Boulifa reinforces the reputation forged with his debut, Lynn + Lucy (2020).