Son of a nutcracker! It’s the great Christmas film guide 2025

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery

View image in fullscreen Starry … Cailee Spaeny, Kerry Washington, Thomas Haden Church, Glenn Close, and Daryl McCormack in Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. Photograph: John Wilson/Netflix

Daniel Craig’s quirky sleuth Benoit Blanc is again the connecting thread in this twisty Knives Out case, but writer-director Rian Johnson boldly keeps him – and the murder – off screen for a good half an hour. Instead, at its heart is Jud (a superb Josh O’Connor), a young Catholic priest who butts heads with his new monsignor, Josh Brolin’s fire-and-brimstone Jefferson. Their flock – Glenn Close, Jeremy Renner, Andrew Scott, Kerry Washington – provide starry support in an unexpectedly moving exploration of truth and belief. Simon Wardell

Out now, Netflix

F1

View image in fullscreen Suitably spectacular … Javier Bardem and Brad Pitt in F1. Photograph: Warner Bros

Made in conjunction with Formula One’s governing body, Joseph Kosinski’s pit-lane drama smacks of the real thing. Filmed at actual grand prix alongside actual drivers, it’s a high-gloss redemption tale in which Brad Pitt’s rule-bending, has-been racer is asked to save a failing F1 team threatened with a takeover – but only has nine races to do it. Damson Idris (surely based on producer Lewis Hamilton) is the rookie with lessons learn from the older man. It’s great fun watching Pitt do his laconic charmer routine and the action is suitably spectacular. SW

Out now, Apple TV

Elf

View image in fullscreen Christmas spirit incarnate … Will Ferrell and Zooey Deschanel in Elf. Photograph: New Line/Sportsphoto/Allstar

Elf is a festive comedy that, in less accomplished hands, could easily have fallen into a vat of schmaltz. Luckily, Jon Favreau’s hardy perennial has an extremely high gag rate, and in star Will Ferrell a performer with exquisite timing. Ferrell plays Buddy, adopted as a baby by Papa Elf and as a grownup sent to New York to finally meet his birth father, Walter (James Caan). Christmas spirit incarnate, Buddy’s perpetual joy at the season, and endearingly unfiltered honesty, should make even the Scroogiest of viewers melt a little. SW

Saturday 13 December, 8.05pm, Sky Showcase

Paris, 13th District

View image in fullscreen A tangled web … Paris, 13 th District. Photograph: Shanna Besson

Jacques Audiard’s tangled drama may be shot in black-and-white but there’s nothing monochrome about the young people it focuses on. Call centre worker Émilie (Lucie Zhang) rents a room to teacher Camille (Makita Samba), but their instant attraction soon dissolves into hostility. Meanwhile, Noémie Merlant’s mature student Nora is mistaken by her classmates for online sex worker Amber (Jehnny Beth), but then the two start to video chat … Romantic but realistic, it’s a film about wanting the same thing – but not necessarily at the same time. SW

Saturday 13 December, 12.45am, BBC Two

The Wedding Banquet

View image in fullscreen Doubling down … Lily Glads