It’s that time of year again, and we all knew this was going to come up and all have some opinions. Just asking all y’all for your nominations for the following Christmas film categories:
1) Best classic Christmas film: A film that is clearly intended for Christmas viewing and celebration, and preferably hit cinemas (or streaming, etc.) during the season. Examples include It’s A Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, Elf, Nativity!, The Polar Express, Santa Claus the Movie, most adaptations of A Christmas Carol (including Scrooged etc.), and (God help us) most Hallmark Christmas movies.
2) Best alternative Christmas film: A film that doesn’t really fit into the category above but is widely recognised as a Christmas film because it takes place at Christmas and does in fact celebrate the spirit of the season in some way. Examples include Love Actually (ugh), The Holdovers, Tokyo Godfathers, The Ref, Rent, Home Alone, and Trading Places.
3) Best film that happens at Christmas: These films don’t do much to celebrate the season but do clearly happen at Christmas, and the characters note this. Clearly the distinction between this category and the one above is highly subjective and depends on whether you think a given film is “in the spirit of the season”. Examples include Die Hard, The Family Stone, The Thin Man, The Apartment, The Sure Thing, and While You Were Sleeping.
1) Best classic Christmas film: A film that is clearly intended for Christmas viewing and celebration, and preferably hit cinemas (or streaming, etc.) during the season. Examples include It’s A Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, Elf, Nativity!, The Polar Express, Santa Claus the Movie, most adaptations of A Christmas Carol (including Scrooged etc.), and (God help us) most Hallmark Christmas movies.
- My nomination here is Klaus, which for me is absolutely the perfect Christmas film and one of the best animated films of all time.
2) Best alternative Christmas film: A film that doesn’t really fit into the category above but is widely recognised as a Christmas film because it takes place at Christmas and does in fact celebrate the spirit of the season in some way. Examples include Love Actually (ugh), The Holdovers, Tokyo Godfathers, The Ref, Rent, Home Alone, and Trading Places.
- My nomination here is The Holdovers, which I thought was the best film of 2023, with some very fine performances from the main cast (especially Paul Giamatti and Da’Vine Joy Randolph).
3) Best film that happens at Christmas: These films don’t do much to celebrate the season but do clearly happen at Christmas, and the characters note this. Clearly the distinction between this category and the one above is highly subjective and depends on whether you think a given film is “in the spirit of the season”. Examples include Die Hard, The Family Stone, The Thin Man, The Apartment, The Sure Thing, and While You Were Sleeping.
- My nomination here is The Apartment, which has Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine at their cynical but heartfelt best, with great direction from Billy Wilder and some lovely camera tricks (such as the typing room).
