The Best International Christmas Movies

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: In this 30-minute special from Aardman, the world's favourite sheep stars in his very own winter's tale. Shaun's seasonal excitement turns to dismay when a... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Justin Fletcher

Directed By: Steve Cox

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: After taking a very nasty fall on Christmas Eve, grinchy Jorge blacks out and wakes up one year later, with no memory of the year... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Leandro Hassum, Elisa Pinheiro, Miguel Rômulo, Louise Cardoso

Directed By: Roberto Santucci

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: Middle-aged Paul (Mimi Branescu) lives in a pleasant Bucharest apartment with his wife, Adrianna (Mirela Oprisor), and their 9-year-old daughter. But unbeknown to Adrianna, Paul... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Mimi Branescu, Maria Popistasu, Mirela Oprisor, Dragos Bucur

Directed By: Radu Muntean

Critics Consensus: The poignant humanity on display in Joyeux Noel makes its sentimentality forgivable.

Synopsis: With the advent of World War I, Europe is thrown into a brutal and vicious chaos as men are forced to kill or be killed.... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Diane Kruger, Benno Fürmann, Guillaume Canet, Gary Lewis

Directed By: Christian Carion

Critics Consensus: Featuring some of the best French actresses working today, 8 Women is frothy, delirious, over-the-top fun.

Synopsis: At an isolated mansion in the snowy countryside of 1950s France, a family is gathered for the holiday season. But there will be no celebration... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert, Emmanuelle Béart, Fanny Ardant

Directed By: François Ozon

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: A scissor-wielding psychopath (Béatrice Dalle) terrorizes a pregnant widow (Alysson Paradis) on Christmas Eve.

Starring: Alysson Paradis, Béatrice Dalle, Nathalie Roussel, François-Régis Marchasson

Directed By: Alexandre Bustillo, Julien Maury

Critics Consensus: Director Wong Kar-Wai has created in 2046 another visually stunning, atmospheric, and melancholy movie about unrequited love and loneliness.

Synopsis: A train in a futuristic landscape takes passengers to a place where they can recapture their memories, a place from which no one has ever... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Gong Li, Takuya Kimura, Faye Wong

Directed By: Kar-Wai Wong

Critics Consensus: A sharp black comedy about a chaotic family holiday gathering, A Christmas Tale is always involving, thanks to an impressive ensemble cast.

Synopsis: When steely French matriarch Junon learns she has leukemia, she asks her children and grandchildren at the family Christmas gathering to see if they are... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Jean-Paul Roussillon, Anne Consigny, Mathieu Amalric

Directed By: Arnaud Desplechin

Critics Consensus: Beautiful and substantive, Tokyo Godfathers adds a moving -- and somewhat unconventional -- entry to the animated Christmas canon.

Synopsis: Middle-aged alcoholic Gin (Toru Emori), teenage runaway Miyuki (Aya Okamoto) and former drag queen Hana (Yoshiaki Umegaki) are a trio of homeless people surviving as... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Yoshiaki Umegaki, Aya Okamoto, Toru Emori

Directed By: Satoshi Kon

Critics Consensus: Rare Exports is an unexpectedly delightful crossbreed of deadpan comedy and Christmas horror.

Synopsis: A young boy named Pietari (Onni Tommila) and his friend Juuso (Ilmari Järvenpää) think a secret mountain drilling project near their home in northern Finland... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Onni Tommila, Jorma Tommila, Ilmari Järvenpää, Peeter Jakobi

Directed By: Jalmari Helander

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: When her health begins to fail, Berthe (Marthe Villalonga), an aging widow, is forced to live with her successful but emotionally distant daughter, Emilie (Catherine... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Daniel Auteuil, Marthe Villalonga, Jean-Pierre Bouvier

Directed By: André Téchiné

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: Jean-Louis (Jean-Louis Trintignant) is a devout Roman Catholic who subscribes to an austere moral code influenced by the philosophy of Blaise Pascal. When he spots... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Françoise Fabian, Antoine Vitez, Marie-Christine Barrault

Directed By: Éric Rohmer

Critics Consensus: Ingmar Bergman conveys the sweep of childhood with a fastidious attention to detail and sumptuous insight into human frailty in Fanny & Alexander, a masterwork that crystalizes many of the directors' preoccupations into a familial epic.

Synopsis: As children in the loving Ekdahl family, Fanny and Alexander enjoy a happy life with their parents, who run a theater company. After their father... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Pernilla Allwin, Bertil Guve, Erland Josephson, Gunn Wållgren

Directed By: Ingmar Bergman