Despite the endless crises in the film business, there are still too many films to watch. Plus, many of them are too beautiful to miss. And so God gave us Christmas to catch up. The place to watch films remains, of course, the cinema, where you can still find some of the best films of the year. (Anora for one; a lucky few might track it down Another man.)

But many others are now streamable. Some speak powerfully to the world in which we find ourselves. Some are more escapist. The rest lies somewhere in the gray area in between. But together I hope they all live up to the brief: a private festival for the festive season.

The beast

Do you remember the future? In The beastLéa Seydoux and George MacKay work in French and English and across time. Director Bertrand Bonello is inspired by the novella by Henry James The beast in the junglethen he jumps into scary science fiction.

The film spans the years 1910, 2014 and a cool point in two decades. Thematic rhymes abound: love and loneliness, foreshadowing and QR codes. But the real common thread is the pain of nostalgia – for the past And Things to come that never were.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+ and others

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flash

Steve McQueen could have made this list twice. In the documentary Occupied cityhe matched images of modern Amsterdam to the city’s history under Nazi control. All four remarkable hours of this film are also more than worth your time.

But flash is a London film to the bone, a panorama of the capital in flames in 1941, emanating from a single Stepney family. The visual audacity is breathtaking, and yet the film also feels timeless – as stirring as any milestone in British war cinema, even as it turns the genre’s clichés on their head.

On Apple TV+

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La Chimera

Excavating the past is a theme in more than one of the best films of the year. In the singular La ChimeraThe very look of Alice Rohrwacher’s film seems archaeological: a vintage grain, just right for the 1980s Tuscany setting.

In the lead role, Josh O’Connor plays an English ne’er-do-well in Italian who takes on the ragtag tombaroli (grave robbers) to steal buried Etruscan artifacts. The mood is anarchic, but also overshadowed by sadness – and surprises.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+ and others

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Dahomey

La Chimera is a story about stolen treasure. In DahomeyDirector Mati Diop focuses on relics that have been away from home for a long time – until now. At the most basic level, the documentary follows 26 African works of art that were looted by France in the 19th century but are now being returned to Benin.

Early scenes coolly observe giant statues made of iroko wood, still standing in Paris, being packed for travel. However, inside the film begins an explosion of ideas surrounding the legacy of colonialism. The rest is a film of rare and restless intelligence.

On MUBI, Apple TV+ and others

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Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

“What the hell am I watching?” is a great question that every film asks us. You may notice it popping up Furiosaa wired and idiosyncratic action blockbuster. The short answer is the origin story of the post-apocalyptic heroine from George Miller’s Last Virtuoso Crazy Max Film, Fury Road – one that revolves around the otherworldly star presence of Anya Taylor-Joy.

Like Francis Ford Coppola’s quickly infamous film Megalopolisthe film just marches to its own tune. But as Coppola sprawls, Miller and Taylor-Joy keep things taut and dynamic – their film is brutal but a rush.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+ and others

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killer

We’ve all seen too many movies about assassins, and killer knows it. Instead, Richard Linklater gives us a very entertaining Russian doll. The Promise is a true story with some crazy fun in it. Inside Theis, however, a tough meditation on how much of the world we (mis)understand from films.

Glen Powell plays a philosophy professor from New Orleans who goes undercover with the police to pose as a hitman. The comedy is brisk; Powell’s chemistry with co-star Adria Arjona is banging. And the sting in the tail? We even get something to think about.

On Netflix

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My favorite cake

Telling the truth in a hardline regime is always heroic. My favorite cake does it in the form of a gentle comic drama. The story may not seem subversive: an ironic portrait of a 70-year-old widow from Tehran who turns her romantic gaze to a surprised elderly taxi driver.

And yet, the moral police in Iran considered the film criminal because of the scenes in which women at home were not wearing hijabs. It was enough for directors Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha to face interrogations and have their passports confiscated. But watching the film is not only a small act of solidarity, but also a joy.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+ and others

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No other country

No other country is a film about a place: Masafer Yatta, a series of Palestinian villages in the West Bank whose homes and schools are often demolished by the Israeli military. But this intense and gripping documentary is also about people: of course about the villagers and about two of the four co-directors, Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham.

Adra also comes from Masafer Yatta. For him, the film is made after years of documenting tanks, bulldozers and the violence of soldiers. Abraham is now an Israeli journalist, whose friendship with Adra adds even more dimension to this deeply human film.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+ and others

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Robot dreams

The charming animation Robot dreams is suitable for all age groups. Younger children are sure to giggle. However, adults may experience a lump in their throat even though they have enjoyed a nostalgic rush for the first time against the colorful backdrop of 1980s New York.

But here the break dancers, punks and Coney Island excursionists are cartoon animals, like the melancholic dog at the center of the film, who buys a shipping robot as a sidekick. From this simple beginning, Pablo Berger’s film weaves endless ingenuity and emotional complexity – all without a word of dialogue.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+ and others

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The Vourdalak

Christmas Eve in the UK isn’t the same without a ghost story – but without Adrien Beau’s vampire story The Vourdalak will be a good alternative. The story is an old one, based on a Russian novel from 1839. It concerns a noble French courtier who finds himself stranded in rural Eastern Europe with a strange local family.

What follows is an extremely colorful gothic horror. The balance of creeping unrest and surrealistic comedy is perfectly balanced – just right to ensure that you wake up on Christmas morning still shivering.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+ and others