There are many Christmas films about Santa Claus and his elves, about various magical creatures from Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer to Frosty the snowman that charm and delight us. Lots of laugh-out-loud Christmas movies about families in crisis Home alone To Christmas holidays. These are all wonderful films with truly heartwarming messages about the true meaning of Christmas.

Christmas is of course marked by the birth of Jesus Christ and is one of the most important holidays in the Christian faith. There are also many films about the Nativity, although it has always been difficult for faith-based films to reach a wider audience.

The youngest of these was Travel to Bethlehem which hit theaters in November 2023. You can watch this movie on Netflix now, but be warned: it’s a musical. Personally, I love musicals, but they’re not for everyone. A faith-based musical will certainly appeal to a smaller audience. Travel to Bethlehem Newcomers Fiona Palomo as Maria and Antonio Banderas as Herod the Great were there. It has a humorous and silly tone, with bright and lively songs and over-the-top performances.

This year’s faith-based nativity film takes a very different approach. Mary was released on Netflix today and tells broadly the same story as Travel to Bethlehemit requires a completely different approach. Newcomer Noa Cohen plays Mary, while Anthony Hopkins takes on the role of King Herod. The majority of the cast is Israeli, with director DJ Caruso saying, “It was important to us that Mary and most of our lead actors were chosen from Israel to ensure authenticity.”

This led to some backlash on social media, where the decision to cast Israeli rather than Palestinian actors was seen as politically motivated. Given that Mary and Joseph (Ido Tako) were Jewish, the casting choice makes perfect sense. At a time when this sort of thing is incredibly important to advocates of authentic representation, the controversy seems more than a little silly and contrived. But I digress.

The story is about Maria and her parents Anna and Joachim in Nazareth. Mary is presented in the temple and prepares for her marriage to Joseph. After the immaculate conception she has to hide. When Herod the Great orders the so-called Massacre of the Innocents, Mary and a faithful Joseph have to flee to Egypt.

Here is the trailer:

“Love will cost you dearly. It will pierce your heart. But in the end, love will save the world.” I’m generally skeptical of faith-based films, whose messages can be syrupy and which often suffer from low budgets and overly ambitious plots. But this looks pretty good, and Anthony Hopkins is such a great actor that you can really feel him crushing the role just from this trailer.

It’s easy to get lost in this season’s consumerism. Christmas movies – secular and religious – are a great way to remind ourselves that there is more to this time of year than shopping deals and presents. Whether Mary We’ll have to see whether it’s biblically accurate or not.

If you’re looking for a third nativity movie suggestion for Christmas, check out this one The nativity story The young Oscar Isaac plays the main role in it before he made his big breakthrough:

Finally the big faith film hit of the year, The best Christmas competition ever, is set to make its streaming debut on December 10th, but will cost $24.99 to purchase. No word on when and where it will be streamed for free.