36 Finest Thanksgiving Films

That is removed from probably the most conventional Thanksgiving film on the listing, however the scene on this 1993 darkish comedy through which Wednesday is forged as Pocahontas within the Thanksgiving play at Camp Chippewa and decides to enact revenge on her fellow camp friends who’re portraying pilgrims makes this definitely worth the watch alone.

On this 2021 horror comedy starring former teen heartthrob Devon Sawa, Michael Jai White and Bruce Campbell, a bunch of toy retailer workers have a fair worse night time than anticipated once they present as much as work the night time of Thanksgiving and discover themselves keeping off throngs of Black Friday consumers who’ve been contaminated by a parasitic organism.

The story on the middle of this 2009 biographical sports activities drama is well-known, however there’s one thing additional particular about watching Sandra Bullock’s Leigh Anne Tuohy soak up 17-year-old foster child “Large Mike” Oher the night time earlier than Thanksgiving on the precise vacation. (Nevertheless, there was real-life drama over this movie: Oher has stated he doesn’t just like the film, and he and the Tuohys have engaged in authorized motion because it was launched.)

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, primarily based on Charles M. Schulz’s Peanuts caricature, is a story of two Thanksgiving dinners that finds Charlie Brown making new traditions with buddies Peppermint Patty, Marcie, Franklin and Snoopy. The particular initially aired on Nov. 20, 1973.

Ed O’Neill stars on this 1991 comedy as Dutch Dooley, a median Joe who endures a sequence of mishaps on a street journey along with his girlfriend’s snooty son, Doyle, whom he agrees to select up from his non-public faculty in Georgia and produce residence to Chicago for the Thanksgiving vacation.

On this 2010 Hallmark Channel Authentic Film, a high-powered legal professional reconsiders her life as a single profession lady when a mysterious older lady introduces her to an alternate actuality on Thanksgiving Day the place she’s a fortunately married spouse and mom.

When an older lady is gunned down in a comfort retailer whereas searching for Thanksgiving dinner, her foster sons, performed by Mark Wahlberg, Tyrese Gibson, André Benjamin and Garrett Hedlund, resolve to take issues into their very own fingers and avenge her homicide.

On this 2013 animated comedy, two turkeys, voiced by Woody Harrelson and Owen Wilson, journey again in time to the primary Thanksgiving to vary the course of historical past and cease people from domesticating and consuming their type.

Primarily based across the Thanksgiving pattern that’s turn into a convention of its personal for people eager to rejoice with their discovered household, Friendsgiving is a little bit of a cautionary comedy about two buddies whose plans for a low-key vacation dinner get turned the wrong way up when one too many friends present up on the dinner desk. The 2000 movie stars Kat Dennings, Aisha Tyler, Chelsea Peretti, Jane Seymour and Wanda Sykes.

The Thanksgiving scene on this in any other case non-holiday flick is what lands this 2009 Judd Apatow movie on the listing. The black comedy-drama stars Adam Sandler as a retired comic who tries to repair his relationships with the individuals in his life after he’s identified with a terminal sickness. It options an all-star lineup of expertise together with Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann, Eric Bana and Jonah Hill.

On this 1989 animated particular primarily based on the Garfield caricature, the well-known food-loving orange cat is none too happy when he’s pressured to go on a weight loss program the day earlier than Thanksgiving.

Subsequent-door neighbors John Gustafson and Max Goldman’s longstanding feud is taken to larger ranges once they discover themselves competing for the love of a girl who’s new to the neighborhood after they discover out their mutual pal has had Thanksgiving dinner together with her.

On this 2014 coming-of-age comedy-drama starring Rachel Keller, a bunch of highschool buddies reunite of their hometown of Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, throughout Thanksgiving break following their first semester away at school.

A single mom whose daughter opts to spends Thanksgiving together with her boyfriend returns to her childhood residence alone for a vacation dinner together with her dysfunctional household. The 1995 movie stars Holly Hunter, Robert Downey Jr., Claire Danes and Dylan McDermott.

On this 1997 darkish comedy, Parker Posey performs a girl obsessive about Jackie-O who, not too long ago launched from a psychiatric hospital, plots to interrupt up her twin brother’s engagement over the Thanksgiving vacation.

On this 2021 American psychological drama starring Richard Jenkins, Amy Schumer and Steven Yeun, Thanksgiving takes a darkish flip when three generations of the Blake household collect collectively for vacation dinner in a rundown New York Metropolis condo.

Set throughout Thanksgiving 1973, The Ice Storm is a narrative about two upper-class Connecticut households who use alcohol and sexual experimentation to flee the social modifications of the early ‘70s. The ensemble forged contains Tobey Maguire, Christina Ricci, Elijah Wooden, Katie Holmes and Sigourney Weaver.

One other entry whose Thanksgiving dinner scene lands it on the listing, 2018’s Immediate Household stars Mark Wahlberg and Rose Byrne as a pair who turn into a mother and pop of three in a single day when their plans to undertake one baby are thwarted upon assembly siblings in want of a house.

The Emmerson household occupies their internet-free time chasing a monstrous legend within the quaint city of Turkey Hole the place they’ve come to go to their Aunt Cly for the vacations on this 2015 Lifetime Authentic Film.

On this 2015 psychological drama, a 60-something recovering addict makes an attempt to reconcile together with her household on Thanksgiving Day.

When a school scholar can’t afford to fly residence throughout Thanksgiving break she finds herself terrorized by a cult whereas on campus alone on this 2014 horror starring Haley Bennett and Ashley Greene.

George Seaton’s Miracle on thirty fourth Avenue is as a lot a Thanksgiving Day custom as cranberry sauce. The Academy Award-winning movie begins on the morning of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and tells the story of an outdated man who’s employed to play Santa Clause on the iconic division retailer on thirty fourth Avenue in New York Metropolis and claims to be the actual factor.

This 2003 comedy-drama starring Katie Holmes facilities on eldest daughter April Byrnes as she makes an attempt to arrange what’s anticipated to be her estranged household’s final Thanksgiving dinner collectively following her mom’s breast most cancers prognosis.

Steve Martin and John Sweet encounter hilarious misadventures on their surprising three-day journey again residence for Thanksgiving dinner on this street journey comedy.

The kidnapping of two younger ladies following a Thanksgiving dinner in Conyers, Pennsylvania, is the topic of this 2013 thriller starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Hugh Jackman and Viola Davis.

Rocky isn’t a Thanksgiving film per se, however the date does maintain significance within the unique 1976 sports activities drama, even when it doesn’t imply a lot to the movie’s lead Rocky Balboa, performed by Sylvester Stallone, who, within the movie, delivers the well-known line, “To you it’s Thanksgiving, to me it’s Thursday.”

In 1992’s Scent of a Girl, Chris O’Donnell stars as a preparatory scholar who takes a short lived job as an assistant to a blind and depressed retired Military lieutenant colonel, performed by Al Pacino, forward of the Thanksgiving vacation.

This 1986 Spike Lee joint makes the listing for its scene the place Nola Darling invitations three of her male suitors to her Brooklyn condo for Thanksgiving dinner.

A South Dakota farm city valedictorian brings an unlikely free spirit from her Los Angeles faculty residence for Thanksgiving on this 1993 cult basic starring Pauly Shore and Carla Gugino.

Giant Sunday dinners are the norm for the Josephs — and the place the place household drama unfolds in 1997’s Soul Meals staring Nia Lengthy, Vanessa Williams, Vivica A. Fox, Michael Seaside and Mekhi Phifer.

Keanu Reeves and Charlize Theron star reverse one another on this 2001 romantic comedy a few couple who engages in a one-month trial courtship that has an surprising final result.

On this 2023 Eli Roth slasher movie starring Patrick Dempsey, a small Massachusetts city is terrorized by a killer through the Thanksgiving vacation.

Actor Richard Thomas, who performed John-Boy Walton within the unique CBS historic drama The Waltons, stars on this movie which follows the Walton household as they put together for Thanksgiving and the annual Harvest Pageant Truthful.

In Gore Verbinski’s The Climate Man, Nicholas Cage stars as a Chicago meteorologist who, amid a mid-life disaster, reconnects along with his estranged household through the Thanksgiving vacation.

On this 2000 comedy-drama starring Mercedes Ruehl, Kyra Sedgwick, Julianna Margulies, Alfre Woodard and Dennis Haysbert, 4 ethnically various households — Vietnamese, Latino, Jewish and African American — share a Thanksgiving meal, every having their very own tackle the standard vacation dishes.

The Thanksgiving scene is what lands this nostalgic 1998 rom-com about two strangers who fall in love by way of e mail, starring Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks, on the listing.