The greatest Thanksgiving movie of all time is quite clearly Babette’s Feast. I’ll spoil that for you, right now. Just go watch Babette’s Feast this holiday. However, folks keep digging around, asking me: what thanksgiving movies are there out in the wide world of film?

I’m going to make a quick, incomplete list. Mainly because the sooner you watch or rewatch Babette’s Feast, the better. I’ll finish with a synopsis of that film, but first:

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (1973)

Charming, wholesome. Charlie Brown takes on both Lucy and a Turkey. As always, I’m partial to the Luke 2 reading of this team’s other holiday special. But their rallying together around a meal works very, very well in this piece.

If you need a cartoon, this is your bet.

PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES (1987)

Other than coming out the year I was born just like Babette’s Feast, I love this John Candy + Steve Martin duo. Man tries to go home on a holiday trip.

Fails miserably.

Solicits help.

Chaos ensues. And he learns a bit about real community.

Big Night (1996)

Friend of the site and film critic Dr. Doug Welch said:

As the second biggest on screen meal, second only to Babette’s Feast, Big Night is a movie about food that makes you want to make food even more than eat it.

(You will also want to eat it).

— Dr. Doug Welch

LITTLE WOMEN (1994)

I prefer the 1994 version for several reasons. For starters, I prefer the actresses. And nostalgia has a… nostalgic place for me. Mainly, though, I found the most recent version preachy. Grossly so. If you really need to outright resort to polemical rhetoric to get your feminist ideals out there for any movie adapted from the text of a feministic transcendentalist’s novel, one that features five women growing up into feministic transcendentalists, then… maybe talk to the Evangelicals and see why it doesn’t work so well for them either? Movies are made to incarnate ideas — they’re supposed to be the opposite of stump speeches in almost every way. The 1994 incarnates the book, in my view, the recent one makes a sort of popsicle stick puppet out of the text. It’s not that the new one isn’t art, it’s just more ars rhetorica.

The most recent version has beautiful shots reminiscent of the Hudson school (Thomas Cole and his ilk) and brilliant costuming.

Short of that, 1994 Little Women is the way to go for solid nostalgia and thanksgiving.

MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET (1947)

Ra ra Macy’s.

Also, it is a classic.

JIM HENSON’S TURKEY HOLLOW (2015)

Any time you want a weird Jim Henson.

And turkey.

This is the sort of place you should turn.

National Lampoon’s Holiday Reunion (2003)

Meh.

I’ve never been a Chevy Chase fan. I’m of the opinion that Chevy Chase is more of a prop for every other cast member, crew member, and the set itself to use in various comedic situations that great writers drummed up.

This film is fine. I’m not really looking for fine, myself, thus the long list below…

Horror Thanksgiving films: either Hannibal (2001) or Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

Apologies for the tasteless humor, but my late father used to say, “You know why Jeffery Daumer had a blender on the front porch?”

And I’d say, “I don’t want to.”

And dad would say, “So he could greet you with a hand shake.”

If that’s your kind of humor, go for Hannibal (2001) for your thanksgiving movie.

If you want a creepy feast aesthetic, go Pan’s Labyrinth (2006).

Romero (1989)

This is a movie about a man.

Trying to have a single meal.

The Trip (BBC — 2010)

Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon play fictionalized versions of themselves traveling, eating at amazing restaurants, talking about great poets, and performing incredible impressions for each other. Four films in the series.

— Dr. Doug Welch

Of Gods and Men (2010)

What if your entire community’s single Thanksgiving meal was under threat?

What if, at the end of the day, your meal could cost you your life?

Should they stay and eat?

Should they abandon their posts and leave?

This is what some Trappist monks must face.

The New World (2005)

I’m uncertain, but it’s possible this film introduced me to Terrance Malick’s body of work. It features many tropes from the Americana pagan fall feast mythos. It subverts many others.

What I find interesting is its dialectic. It interacts with long, stoic shots reminiscent of the Hudson school of painters. Where the modern Little Women fails in this regard, THE NEW WORLD succeeds.

Babette’s Feast (1987)

AKA — The greatest thanksgiving movie of all time.

You heard me right. Babette’s Feast is the list if you’re looking for a Thanksgiving movie.

French woman has to flee on account of the revolution.

She settles in with a Dutch reformed commune of sorts. These folks eat salted fish, wear black and white, paint their bland plaster walls a brilliant shade of… taupe.

She was a chef in France. One of the greatest at this high-dollar, five-star joint.

Man comes to town and tells her she won the lottery. Ten thousand francs. The equivalent of $256,000 today.

What does she do with it? This chef?

I won’t spoil it further. Go watch it.

You know what?

We’re already here, I might as well just make a comprehensive list of all thanksgiving movies.

If I miss, one, drop it in the comments and I’ll edit the list. In no particular order. This will help us find the answer to:

How many thanksgiving movies are there?

1. THE GOLD RUSH (1925)
2. MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET (1947) 
3. KRISHA (2015) 
4. FANTASTIC MR. FOX (2009)
5. THE HUMANS (2021) 
6. PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES (1987)
7. ROCKY (1976) 
8. HANNAH AND HER SISTERS (1986)
9. SPIDER-MAN (2002)
10. SCENT OF A WOMAN (1992)
11. ONE TRUE THING (1998)
12. THE ICE STORM (1997)
13. PIECES OF APRIL (2003)
14. SOUL FOOD (1997) 
15. MISTRESS AMERICA (2015) 
16. INSTANT FAMILY (2018)
17. TADPOLE (2002)
18. ADDAMS FAMILY VALUES (1993) 
19. THE SANTA CLAUSE (1994)
20. HOLIDAY INN (1942) 
21. A CHARLIE BROWN THANKSGIVING (1973) 
22. LEZ BOMB (2018)
23. AVALON (1990)
24. STARTING OVER (1979)
25. HOLLIDAYSBURG (2014)
26. ROCKY II (1979)
27. THE BIG CHILL (1983) 
28. MY BLUE HEAVEN (1990) 
29. THE VICIOUS KIND (2009) 
30. FUNNY PEOPLE (2009) 
31. YOU’VE GOT MAIL (1998) 
32. TOWER HEIST (2011)
33. THE BLIND SIDE (2009)
34. BLACK FRIDAY (2021)
35. HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS (1995)
36. GRUMPY OLD MEN (1993) 
37. ALICE’S RESTAURANT (1969)
38. THE MORNING AFTER (1986)
39. THE OATH (2018)
40. THE HOUSE OF YES (1997)
41. THE MYTH OF FINGERPRINTS (1997)
42. THE WAR AT HOME (1996)
43. SQUANTO: A WARRIOR’S TALE (1994)
44. JIM HENSON’S TURKEY HOLLOW (2015)
45. STUCK IN LOVE (2012)
46. THE OBJECT OF MY AFFECTION (1998) 
47. WHAT’S COOKING? (2000) 
48. FOUR BROTHERS (2005) 
49. THE WIZ (1978)
50. PAUL BLART: MALL COP (2009)
51. BEETHOVEN (1992)
52. THE PRINCE & ME (2004)
53. SON-IN-LAW (1993)
54. FREE BIRDS (2013)
55. FRIENDSGIVING (2020)
56. DUTCH (1991) 
57. SWEET NOVEMBER (2001)
58. NOT COOL (2014)
59. HANGING UP (2000)
60. JACK AND JILL (2011)
61. CHICKEN RUN (2000)
62. Holidate (2020)
63. Dutch (1991)
64. Friendsgiving (2020)
65. Home for the Holidays (1995)
66. A Family Thanksgiving (2010)
67. The House Of Yes (1997)
68. Garfield’s Thanksgiving (1989)
69. For Your Consideration (2006)
70. Sweet November (2001)
71. The Last Waltz (1978)
72. The Ice Storm (1997)
73. Funny People (2009)
74. Autumn in New York (2000)
75. Dan In Real Life (2007)
76. American Experience: The Pilgrims (2015)
77. Soul Food (1997)
78. Crooklyn (1994)
79. Hollidaysburg (2014)
80. Curly Sue (1991)
81. The Turkey Bowl (2019)
82. An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving (2008)
83. Love at the Thanksgiving Day Parade (2013)
84. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society(2018)
85. The Preacher’s Wife (1996)
86. The Big Chill (1983)
87. She’s Gotta Have It (1986)
88. Cold Turkey (2013)
89. Almost Christmas (2016)
90. For Your Consideration (2006)
91. Driving Miss Daisy (1989)
92. The One Hundred Foot Journey (2014)
93. Pig (2021)
94. Ratatouille (2007)

What other thanksgiving movies exist? As long as it’s not NC-17, I’ll add it to the list if you comment below /