It’s the hap-happiest season of all. We bring nature inside as we adorn our living spaces with seasonally appropriate trees, and we light up the longer nights with bright and colourful lights. Music from generations long since passed is re-played and re-contextualised, and centuries old iconography is re-evaluated and repurposed.

There’ll be parties for hosting, marshmallows for toasting, and carolling out in the snow. If we’ve been good, we’ll receive gifts (thanks Santa!), and if we’re lucky we’ll eat so much food we can barely move. Almost certainly, we’ll watch a movie. From the Netflix Originals of the current era to the silver screen classics of wartime Hollywood, Christmastime movie watching doesn’t discriminate based on picture quality, colour or the lack thereof, acting powerhouses or barely trained actors – if it works, it works. And if it’s good, we’ll hold onto it forever.

In this Movie List from The Film Magazine, we’ve scoured the annals of Christmas movie history to bring you the very best of the best to watch this holiday season. These films are Christmas classics and beloved cult hits, some culturally significant and others often overlooked. These films are seasonal treats; two advent calendars worth of movie magic from the big-wigs in Hollywood and beyond.

Short films (those with a runtime of under one hour) will not be included here, nor will films that cross multiple seasons but feel like Christmas movies – sorry You’ve Got Mail and Bridget Jones’s Diary. Debatable Christmas movies like Gremlins have also been omitted because of their inclusion in our alternative list “10 Excellent Non-Christmas Films Set at Christmas“. Seasonal classic The Apartment has also been disqualified on the grounds that it covers Christmas and beyond, and is arguably more of a new year’s movie.

These are 50 Unmissable Christmas Movies as chosen by The Film Magazine team members. Entries by Mark Carnochan, Kieran Judge, Martha Lane, Sam Sewell-Peterson and Joseph Wade.

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1. Remember the Night (1940)

Golden Era stars Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray (who would go on to star in The Apartment) spark an unlikely romance when Stanwyck’s Lee Leander steals a bracelet from a jewellery store and MacMurray’s John “Jack” Sargent is assigned to prosecute her over the Christmas holidays.

One of the era’s many beloved studio romantic comedies, Remember the Night features all the elements that would come to define the genre while encompassing some screwball comedy and classic transatlantic accents. The tagline read “When good boy meets bad girl they remember the night”, and it’s likely you’ll remember this seasonal treat too. JW

2. The Shop Around the Corner (1940)

Few things signal classic Hollywood Christmases like Jimmy Stewart, and 6 years before arguably his most memorable performance in the iconic Frank Capra Christmas movie It’s a Wonderful Life, he starred in a seasonal favourite that was just as beloved by critics, The Shop Around the Corner.

This holiday romance from Ernst Lubitsch (who also directed Heaven Can Wait) sees Stewart’s Alfred fall in love with his pen pal who, unbeknownst to him, is the colleague he most despises at his gift store job – You’ve Got Mail has got nothing on this. With some hearty moments and all of the circumstantial comedy of the best movies of the era, The Shop Around the Corner will make you laugh and fill your heart in that special way that only the best Christmas movies can. JW

3. Holiday Inn (1942)

Early sound pictures were revolutionised by famed tap dancer Fred Astaire, and by 1942 he was a certified movie musical megastar. In Mark Sandrich’s seasonal musical Holiday Inn, he teams with would-be Christmas icon and man with a voice as sooth as silk, Bing Crosby. The result is one of the most iconic and influential Christmas movies ever made.

The film’s outdated attitude towards race are cringe-inducing and inexcusable in a 21st century context (there’s a whole sequence featuring blackface), but its other dated sensibilities shine bright amongst more modern and commercial Christmas films; its wholesome aura, classic dance scenes, and era-defining songs making for an unmissable experience. To top it all, Bing Crosby sings “White Christmas” for the first time in this film, cementing it in history as a seasonal classic. JW

4. Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)

Widely acknowledged as one of the holiday season’s best-ever films, Vincente Minnelli (An American in Paris) illuminates his would-be wife Judy Garland in arguably her most established performance, bringing Christmas cheer to all without sacrificing any of the harsh realities facing the American people in the first half of the 20th century.

Featuring the original (and arguably the best) rendition of Christmas classic “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”, and being anchored by some heartbreaking story elements, Meet Me In St. Louis maintains its power and relevance 80 years on. It offers a Christmas movie that will forever mark the height of its sub-genre, as well as the two filmmaking careers (of Minnelli and Garland) that helped to define the era. JW

Recommended for you: There’s No Place Like St. Louis at Christmas

5. Christmas in Connecticut (1945)

Remember the Night star Barbara Stanwyck is once again front and centre for a Golden Era Hollywood Christmas movie, this time playing a city magazine editor whose lies about being a perfect housewife are put to the test when her boss and a returning war hero invite themselves to her house.

This is screwball comedy with all the spirit of the festive season is as romantic as it is funny, and prominently features the shadows of World War II to gift the film a unique emotionality that has ensured it is rewatched year on year. JW

Frankly, choosing the ten best films ever made is incredibly difficult. When considering such a list there are endless criteria from which one could choose to base their list off: popularity, originality, box office success, how it did at the Oscars. Really, there is no one single way of creating a definitive list of the greatest movies ever made. Even if I were to only take in my own personal opinion, I know that I would change my mind week to week. After all, I haven’t seen every film ever made, I have a lot of catching up to do; who’s to say I wouldn’t swap out something for Interstellar or Stagecoach when I finally get around to ticking those off the list?

As if that wasn’t bad enough, there is the fear of the backlash I may receive by leaving certain films off the list. I don’t have any John Ford on the list, which means that Steven Spielberg will hate me, and I just know the middle class art students are going to come for me due to the lack of Godard, Truffaut or Varda.

Making a top ten greatest films ever made list is a lot of pressure, something that is not lost on me. All I can do is provide the top ten films which, until this point in my life, have had the most profound effect on me. Those films that I have not stopped thinking about since the day I first saw them, that I have introduced to whomever will let me, and that I have watched and rewatched until my heart’s content over the last twenty-six years. Wish me luck.

Follow me on X (Twitter) – @MarkJurassic

10. Aftersun (2022)

Aftersun Review

The only film on this entire list that was released during my time writing for The Film Magazine. Thus far, only one of two new releases I have given full marks to (alongside Celine Song’s beautiful Past Lives).

Since I first saw Charlotte Wells’ debut feature film at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, I have seen it a further three times in the cinema and have both directly and indirectly introduced many to the film. My passion shines brightly for this one.

With Aftersun, Charlotte Wells introduced herself to the world as an immensely talented director whose delicate portrayal of a father-daughter holiday in Turkey plays out like a gentle hand on your shoulder, leading you carefully through the complex relationship between the pair that eleven-year-old Sophie is yet to understand.

Releasing the same year as the wonderful Everything Everywhere All at Once, another film that handles the relationship between a daughter and a parent, Aftersun handles the relationship in a much more natural manner, making use of the finer details of the film to provoke the issues facing the pair, and equally providing two of the years most natural performances from Paul Mescal and Frankie Corio. 

It is a simple film told in a relatively simple way, but one which is filled with layers of subtext that linger on the mind long after the credits have rolled. Frankly, given more time to cement its legacy, the debut feature of Charlotte Wells could find itself much higher on this list.

Aftersun is not only one of the greatest feature film debuts of all time, but could be one of the greatest films of all time.

9. North by Northwest (1959)

Let’s not kid ourselves, this spot is essentially a revolving door for Hitchcock projects, and though the likes of Psycho and Rear Window have not been chosen this go around they most certainly would be any other time. Right now, I do genuinely believe that North by Northwest is the great director’s most impressive achievement.

Coming years before the first James Bond film Dr. No (1962), North by Northwest is incredibly ahead of its time in regard to not only what would come in the form of the Bond series but how action cinema would evolve as a whole.

Cary Grant’s advertising executive Roger Thornhill is no secret agent, though after being thrust into a story of espionage and mistaken identity he proves that he has all the charm, wit and cunning that one would hope for. Given its immortal recognition as an early formulation of the James Bond-style film, Cary Grant more than lives up as an early iteration of that type of character. And of course, Hitchcock more than lives up to the Bond style with sex references and innuendos galore.

Most importantly, however, Hitchcock takes the action scenes needed to make a film of this magnitude work and crafts sequences that are impressive by today’s standards but simply revolutionary for the cinema of the 1950s, ultimately changing the way action movies would be created forever.

Recommended for you: Top 10 Alfred Hitchcock Films

As I made this list, I wanted to give an overview of film history, honing in on pieces that are important in Western (especially American) cinema’s evolution. While the Koker Trilogy is undeniably great, its reach in shaping the broader cinematic medium, especially in the West, is limited (despite reflecting present-day leanings towards found footage and maximal realism). I have also chosen to avoid films I have not seen all the way through. I’ve seen the Odessa Steps segment in Battleship Potemkin and studied Eisenstein’s revolutionary editing techniques, but I could not recommend a film I have not seen as one of the best of all time no matter the expert consensus.

Another factor in my selection process was the overall trajectory of the filmmaker(s) involved to the best of my knowledge at the time of writing. While The Matrix is a great movie and highly regarded within its era, the Wachowskis’ later works have polarized audiences and critics considerably. It’s important to note that my list leans heavily male, reflecting both a historical bias in the industry and my personal gravitation towards directors who cater to male viewers. This list also restricts itself to feature-length films, ruling out shorts like the Lumiere brothers’ 50-second The Arrival of a Train. I also tried my best to include a variety of genres, otherwise this would devolve into a list of the 10 best crime films of all time.

With these considerations in mind, here are my selections for the 10 Best Films of All Time. You may have seen some, but I encourage you to watch those you haven’t, as they are sure to entertain and enlighten in various ways. These films are presented in no chronological order because ranking them is an impossible task, as they are each exceptional in their own right.

Follow me on X (Twitter) – @JacobFilmGuy

10. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)

Do you hate the idea of silent movies but are curious about giving one a try? Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin may be an easier starting point, as their comedic styles have a timeless appeal that resonates across generations. However, if you find yourself intrigued by the dramatic offerings of 1920s cinema, The Passion of Joan of Arc should be your first choice.

This film immerses viewers into Joan of Arc’s harrowing trial for heresy at the hands of English-aligned Frenchmen during the Hundred Years’ War, faithfully adapted from the event’s historical records. The director, Carl Theodor Dreyer, is hailed as one of the silent cinema’s maestros, standing tall among Europe’s early cinematic innovators.

As a silent film, it places emphasis on the visual aspects of film in a way that theater cannot replicate, showing the unique artistic power of cinema to put viewers right in the face of subjects. Renée Jeanne Falconetti’s portrayal perfectly conveys Joan’s torment and unwavering resolve. Dreyer’s directorial style is uniquely his own, blending techniques from various European cinematic movements to craft this masterwork.

Created on the cusp of the sound era, it may even be considered the pinnacle of the silent era, representing the apex of a crescendo that laid the foundation for the visual elements of the movies we know and love today.

9. Seven Samurai (1954)

Akira Kurosawa worked in many genres and eras, but is best remembered for his films about historical Japan. Rashomon and Yojimbo have stood the test of time, but Seven Samurai is undoubtedly his greatest work. It’s a simple story of a ragtag group of warriors who come together to defend a village from bandits, told exceptionally well in a way only film can.

Seven Samurai may be the breeziest three-hour film of all time, with not a moment wasted and excellent pacing to boot. The group’s interactions with each other and the villagers are what really make the film, and frequent Kurosawa collaborator Toshiro Mifune stands out for his attitude and posturing as a 16th century ronin. Kurosawa and cinematographer Asakazu Nakai’s talent as visual artists is shown in the stunningly composed shots that capture the Japanese countryside, intense action, and the good but complex nature of the film’s heroes.

The film also represents a cultural exchange between Western and Eastern cinema that will continue as long as those traditions exist – John Ford was an influence on Kurosawa whose films inspired directors like Sergio Leone, George Lucas, and the folks at Pixar who made A Bug’s Life… not to mention the film’s influence on the concept of team-ups in general.

No matter what type of film or genre you prefer, Seven Samurai and its influence is nearly inescapable within cinema.

Recommended for you: Akira Kurosawa, Toshiro Mifune: Cinema’s Greatest Collaborations

In truth, all these aspects have to be considered, including more abstract qualities such as themes and impact on the course of cinema and wider society. In short, the films I have included are ones that have profoundly moved me in some way. Cinema is art that has the honour of enchanting us through its enriching in both the dimensions of time and space. And art therefore shall be assessed in this list by its emotive qualities.

Follow me on X (Twitter) – @Katie_TFM

10. Ben-Hur (1959)

Kicking off the list is William Wyler’s directorial crowning achievement, the second of three Hollywood adaptions of Lew Wallace’s novel: “Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ”. This film is often considered to be the definitive religious epic, with enough sweat and sand to be the envy of all other rival sword and sandal flicks.

Indeed, no aspect of the movie falls short of this description, from the next level ham acting from Charlton Heston in the titular role to the now infamous chariot scene which boasted an 18 acre set and 15,000 extras. Each element complemented a story of immense highs and lows filled with treachery, revenge and redemption.

The film’s extremely brief depiction of Christ remains one of the most popular with a rarely bestowed Vatican approval – a faceless Christ helping the ailing Judah Ben Hur with the gentle offer of water remains spine-tingling to this day. Consequentially, MGM’s gamble paid off, with the film’s return saving the studio from bankruptcy (for when accounting for inflation it is the 13th highest-grossing film of all time). It would also earn critical and peer approval, becoming the first film to earn the legendary 11 Academy Awards including Best Picture.

Ben-Hur is now such an integral part of Western Pop Culture it is often imitated but never bested, with numerous homages and parodies from the pod race in The Phantom Menace to the hilarious “A Star is Burns” episode of ‘The Simpsons’.

9. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

Not only is this one of the most beautiful films to look at on this list, it is also the foundation of one of the biggest empires of the modern era.

The film project, based on The Brothers Grimm fairy tale, was nicknamed “Disney’s folly” during its production, as it was expected to flop. However, the revenue it earned was responsible for building the Disney Studios at Burbank: accounting for inflation, it remains the highest grossing-animated film of all time.

It would be difficult to argue that Snow White doesn’t deserve this accolade, considering its innovation and the sheer effort in creating the first-ever feature length animation – there are several stories of animator frustrations regarding the months of agonising labour put into sequences of cell-animation that would only last one minute on screen (the dwarves “Heigh-ho” march) or would be cut entirely.

These hand-drawn and hand painted efforts (actual rouge was used for Snow White’s rosy cheeks) were not in vain considering their legacy. The meticulous animation resulted in unforgettable characterisation, notably the Queen’s regal villainy and the charm of the dwarfs, particularly Dopey. The enormous production efforts poured into Disney’s gamble means this animation stands out as the most beautiful to this day, particularly in comparison to Disney’s Xerox era. Furthermore, Snow White was the last true animation trailblazer for decades until the advent of Computer Generated animation, meaning the success of most 2D animation productions is owed to Snow White.

Beyond animation, Snow White was a trend setter to other industry practices being one of the first movies to sell related merchandise on its release (which became another significant cornerstone of the Disney empire) alongside a released soundtrack – with Disney’s music now being just as famous as its animation.

As Snow White edges closer to its century anniversary, the film’s place on this list is validated by the fact that children around the world continue to be intrigued and enthralled by this film. Even if the Disney empire eventually collapses, the continuing popularity of Snow White means the name will still be regarded as legendary.

Of course, for any movie critic, there are films that rise above the rest. I have chosen ten films that have shaped me as a person and made this world a creepier, scarier, funnier, and more interesting place to live. These are my 10 Best Films of All Time.

Follow me on X (Twitter) – @emii_grant

10. Coraline (2009)

Are you a child looking to dip your foot into the wonderful world of horror? Coraline is a great place to start.

The film is as magical as it is scary – an impressive boast for a film with a PG rating.

Coraline Jones marches us through worlds we could have never imagined and somehow even makes rats feel ethereal and otherworldly. 

9. Gone Girl (2014)

“Cool girl is hot. Cool girl is game.” While “cool girl” status isn’t attainable, watching Gone Girl and memorizing the infamous monologue gets you part of the way there.

Perfectly cast with Rosamund Pike as a psychotic and whip-smart writer, Amy, and Ben Affleck as her sloppy, loser husband, the two are a match made in hell.

As feminist as it is deranged, Gone Girl will keep you enthralled whether it’s the first time or the hundredth time you’ve watched the film. 

Recommended for you: David Fincher Movies Ranked

The films that have been selected are, I believe, the peak of cinematic mastery. They span nearly the length of cinema’s existence, and are deliberately chosen to reflect a wide range of genres, countries, and times. One major reason for this is to force myself to list films that are not exclusively 1980s horror movies, which I could quite easily do. The second is because that list would be wrong, as although they could be peak horror, some would undoubtedly be worse than films outside the genre.

Therefore, for better or for worse, at the time of writing, listed from oldest to youngest and with no system of ranking, here are my picks for the 10 Best Films of All Time.

Follow me on X (Twitter) – @KJudgeMental

10. La Voyage dans la Lune (1902)

It is impossible to understate how important this film was.

From the grandfather of special effects, Georges Méliès, come fifteen minutes of sheer adventure, adapting the Jules Verne novels “From the Earth to the Moon”, and “Around the Sun”, along with H. G. Wells’ “First Men on the Moon”, it is a film which pushed the limits of the medium, bringing thrills beyond the stars to the screen for all to see.

Hand-painted frame by frame to add a splash of colour, employing all of Méliès’ stage magic knowhow, it still has the power to captivate to this day, despite being created only seven years after the Lumiere brothers demonstrated their kinematograph at the 1895 December World Fair. The rocket splatting into the eye of the moon is an image almost everyone in the world has seen, despite rarely knowing where it comes from.

It is fun and joyous and, thanks to restoration work and new scores, able to keep its legacy going over 120 years later. Not a single cast or crew member from this film is alive today, yet A Trip to the Moon lives on.

9. Psycho (1960)

We could argue over Hitchcock’s best film for decades. Indeed, many have done, and we still never will agree. Vertigo famously dethroned Citizen Kane in Sight and Sound magazine as the best film ever in 2011, a title the Welles film had held for many decades. Yet Psycho takes my vote for numerous reasons.

Not only is its story iconic – the shower scene one of the greatest sequences in cinema history – and its production history something of legend, but it is supreme mastery of cinematic craftsmanship.

Every shot is glorious, every moment timed to perfection. Suspense is at an all-time high, mystery around every corner. Yet perhaps what is most startling is its efficiency, Hitchcock’s most underappreciated skill. If a scene required 50 cuts, he’d have it. If it required a simple shot/reverse shot with the most subtle of powerful, timed camera cuts to a tighter or a lower angle (see the dinner between Marion and Norman), he did it. It is an exercise in extreme precision, in efficiency of storytelling, and it cuts deeper than almost any other film.

Recommended for you: The Greatest Film Trailer of All Time? Psycho (1960)

Follow me on X (Twitter) – @poor_and_clean

10. Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)

Starring the incredible Aubrey Plaza, and loveable goofs Mark Duplass and Jake Johnson, Safety Not Guaranteed is a heart-warming time travel jape. While it has big names attached – including director Colin Trevorrow, who went on to steer the wheel of the Jurassic World franchise, it has a real indie charm.

It begins with an intriguing want-ad in a local Washington newspaper. Jeff (Jake Johnson), a journalist at a different paper, assembles a motley crew to investigate. While everything is set up for us to believe Kenneth (Mark Duplass) is a weirdo, and delusional at the very least, he isn’t and the film’s beauty lies in how deftly it draws the viewer to his side.

It has heart, humour and Jake Johnson. I’m not sure you need much else in a film.

9. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Review

As a rule, I don’t do superheroes. DC, Marvel, I don’t really care, they’re all the same, aren’t they?

I grew up in a strange era where Val Kilmer was Batman and Lois Lane was a Desperate Housewife and the genre just never really hooked me. Then along came Miles Morales and I fell hard. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is a visually stunning and standout offering in (what I and seemingly I alone feel is) a saturated market.

The Spider-verse animation is just incredible – unusual and unique. The film is brimming with detail and flashes of brilliance. I could watch it 100 times (100 more times) and notice something new with each viewing. The characters are larger than life yet somehow completely grounded and believable, and who knew the match up of Nicholas Cage and John Mulaney is what we needed in our lives? The soundtrack is perfect and the message behind it is so important.

The first time my kid saw it, she said, ‘oh so I could be spiderman’ and for that reason alone it deserves a mention in my Best Films of All Time.

Recommended for you: Spider-Man Movies Ranked

Since this is a subjective list of the films I personally find great or important, I am limited by what I have and have not seen. Unfortunately, you will not find Lawrence of Arabia, On the Waterfront, or Jeanne Dielman on this list as I have yet to watch them (and I intend to).

You will find a few classics that I and dozens of other critics, academics, and audiences agree are cinematic masterpieces, as well as some beautiful, thought-provoking modern classics that I believe are worthy of sharing their company.

Without further ado, let’s dive into this list of the 10 Best Films of All Time.

10. The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

The Grand Budapest Hotel Review

Wes Anderson is one of the most distinctive directors in history and The Grand Budapest Hotel is the crown jewel of his oeuvre. The film follows a legendary European hotel concierge, Monsieur Gustave H. (Ralph Fiennes), and his loyal lobby boy, Zero Moustafa (Tony Revolori), who become embroiled in a scandalous art theft. The newfound friends must find a priceless painting while dodging persecution by the growing power of a fascist regime. The A-list cast of quirky characters includes Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Saoirse Ronan, Tilda Swinton, Edward Norton, Jeff Goldblum, Harvey Keitel, and more.

The film is Anderson’s magnum opus and a masterpiece of narrative storytelling. The auteur’s unique style is front and centre with his characteristic symmetrical framing, deadpan delivery, and whip pan transitions in collaboration with cinematographer Robert Yeoman. Adam Stockhausen’s production design and Milena Canonero’s costumes bring the film’s whimsical, visually stunning world to life. With an offbeat score by Alexandre Desplat and makeup and hair by Frances Cannon and Mark Coulier, this expert creative team earned the film four Academy Awards.

The BBC and IndieWire have both named The Grand Budapest Hotel one of the best movies of the 21^st century, an important honour for a comedy, which is a genre that often goes overlooked by hard-hitting dramas.

Recommended for you: Wes Anderson Movies Ranked

9. Arrival (2016)

‘Arrival’ and the Language of Cinema

Canadian director Denis Villeneuve’s name has become synonymous with slow-burn science-fiction and there is no better example than his 2016 film, Arrival.

Starring Amy Adams as linguist Louise Banks and Jeremy Renner as physicist Ian Donnelly, the story follows their efforts to communicate with extraterrestrial beings who have arrived on Earth. This tale of contact with alien life forms forces us to re-examine our own human relationships with each other and our world, and challenges our perceptions of war, peace, space, and time.

There are several important science fiction films that could be included on this list, such as Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar. However, until I see these critically acclaimed films for myself, Arrival remains one of the best films I have ever seen. It profoundly changed the way I think about my place in time and space.

The power of Villeneuve’s directorial style is his meditative pacing and sweeping visuals that force you to grapple with the challenges of what it means to be human. Critics and academics have also praised the film for its accurate representation of language and communication. The film was honoured with seven Academy Award nominations and one win for Best Sound Editing, no doubt in part for its genius use of silence.

My parents nurtured my love, especially my mother whose knowledge of old movie stars seemed limitless. I started going to see movies in theaters around four years old when I saw Toy Story 2. My parents took me to see everything from Star Wars: Attack of the Clones to the Sam Raimi Spider-Man films. Nothing – not even an R rating – stopped me from watching a movie I wanted to see, and my parents quickly learned that parental controls on the TV were futile. When I was younger, my favorite movies were epic adventure movies from the late 90s and early 2000s. I went through an unfortunate Russell Crowe phase that involved repeated watches of Gladiator and Master and Commander. As I got older, I found my niche in literary adaptations, off-beat indies and the beautiful violence of Jane Campion.

In this list, you’ll find just a few of the movies that made me who I am. From fairy tales and Jane Austen to epic romances and animated classics. They are movies I watched during the formative years of my life, movies that influenced the kind of person I grew up to be. They’re movies I could watch a million times – and trust me, I have – and never, ever get bored. The movies on this list remind me of why I fell in love in the first place.

I don’t know if these are the best movies ever made, but they certainly made me. These are the 10 Best Films of all Time.

Follow me on X (Twitter) – @ManicMezzo

10. Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)

“We are what they grow beyond. That is the burden of all masters.”

Star Wars: The Last Jedi Review

Star Wars has been a part of my life for a long time – for as long as I can remember. My fourth birthday was Star Wars-themed and my godmother dressed up as Darth Vader for the occasion, much to my horror. I was obviously thrilled when The Force Awakens was announced, but I left the theater feeling empty. It wasn’t exactly what I wanted, and I couldn’t quite put my finger on why it bothered me so much. It was just missing something.

The Last Jedi has divided fans and critics for years, but for me the film is the only recent Star Wars film or television show that has made me feel something. That has made me remember why I even liked Star Wars to begin with. Rian Johnson made a film that didn’t solely rely on nostalgia, a film that wasn’t so heavily, painfully self-referential. It was trying to pave the way for the future of the franchise, not just hide in its past. The Last Jedi doesn’t do it perfectly, but I admire the effort. I admire the risk it took.

I also really love Mark Hamill’s performance in this film. I think it’s one of the best performances of his career. He was famously unhappy with Luke’s arc in this movie, and as someone who’s played his character for decades his initial feelings are understandable. But he didn’t let them affect his performance. He really gave it his all and it shows. It’s such a beautiful send-off for him and for Luke. I will always take this movie and his performance over the robotic, deepfake Luke of ‘The Mandalorian’. I will always love The Last Jedi because it gave me something real.

I’ll never get over my disappointment with how the sequel trilogy ended, but The Last Jedi will always be a reminder to me of what we could have had.

Recommended for you: Star Wars Live-Action Movies Ranked

9. Ever After (1998)

“A bird may love a fish, Signore, but where would they live?”

“Then I shall just have to build you wings!”

Ever After, starring Drew Barrymore, is a retelling of “Cinderella”, set in 16th-century France and featuring actual historical figures like King Francis and Leonardo da Vinci. It’s the kind of film you watch when you’re sad and you need something to believe in. It’s lush, romantic and funny. Ever After is on this list because it’s a love story and those have always been my favorite.

I grew up during the early 2000s when the ‘not like other girls trope’ was running rampant in media. I remember being ashamed that my favorite stories were love stories, and that I shouldn’t want to explore them. After all, girls were made for more than love and I felt like I should want more for myself.

Luckily, I grew out of that phase and now I revel, without shame, in all things romance. Ever After holds a special place in my heart because it has everything I could ever want in that department and I think it’s one of the best fairy tale adaptations of all time. There’s a sense of innate justice in Ever After, that good things happen to good people and bad people eventually get what’s coming to them, which makes me cling to this movie. Real life isn’t like this, real life is messy and unfair. But with Ever After, I can leave the real world for a bit and spend some time in a fairy tale.

Film gets me where I live like little else and has done ever since I was a teenager. It’s almost impossible to pick just 10 films to stand in for over a century of my favourite form of artistic expression, so what follows are a combination of groundbreaking, ageless films and the most personally impactful cinematic works for me, today. 

Follow me on X (Twitter) – @SSPThinksFilm

10. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Review

This one’s a twofer. I love animation and I love superhero movies, and Spider-Verse is one of the finest examples of both to release in the last decade.

After being bitten by a radioactive spider, awkward teen Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) is thrust into inter-dimensional superherodom when his universe’s Spider-Man is killed in action. Miles must overcome self-doubt and team up with the many very different spider-people from other realities to stop his, and all other worlds, from being destroyed. 

Animation is cinema, it has the potential to visualise anything you can imagine, and while I could have picked any number of films from Studio Ghibli, Laika, Disney or Pixar, nothing else was as revolutionary and influential to the medium’s aesthetic than Sony Picture Animation’s Spider-Verse in recent years. This didn’t look or feel quite like anything else, a living comic book packed with pleasing details and gags referring back to print mediums and constant movement and dynamism. 

Few adaptations of popular characters manage to sum up their very essence with a single perfect phrase, but this film distils it all with “anybody can wear the mask”. So many superhero movies get the basics fundamentally wrong, but this gets it just so right – Spider-Man has always had incredible powers but struggled to balance his superhero responsibilities with everyday ones, and the same goes if you’re a dual heritage teenager, a cartoon pig or a black-and-white detective voiced by Nicolas Cage.

Recommended for you: Spider-Man Movies Ranked

9. The Wizard of Oz (1939)

The titanic cultural influence of the MGM fantasy musical The Wizard of Oz is often criminally overlooked. Musicals speak to me as a form of extroverted expression I could never hope to take part in myself, but Oz also stands for the whole fantasy genre.

This rough adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s children’s fantasy novel follows young Dorothy Gale (instant star Judy Garland), a Kansas dreamer who is swept away to the magical land of Oz by a tornado where she is persecuted by the Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton, still terrifying) as she quests to find her way home.

It wasn’t just the way film musicals were staged for decades it inspired, either. Next time you watch Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings Trilogy and see the orc armies marching past the gates of Mordor, think about how similar the blocking and the aesthetic is to the patrols outside the Wicked Witch’s castle.  Speaking of the Wicked Witch, you know the classic green-skinned, warty-nosed, pointy-chinned default look for such characters at Halloween? That comes from this film as well. And Margaret Hamilton’s all-timer of a baddie performance in contrast to the uncomplicated good of Dorothy and her companions is still one to behold. 

The “it was all a dream, or was it?” story structure is clichéd now, but this helped start it all. Startling Technicolor fantasy is kept entirely separate from sepia reality (the moment one world becomes the other still takes your breath away), but there is always that playful, winking final scene for you to hope that Dorothy perhaps has further adventures on her horizon.