17 Best Thanksgiving Movies Of All Time

Before discussing the Thanksgiving movies first let us know what is Thanksgiving and why it is celebrated.

What is Thanksgiving?

Thanksgiving is a popular American holiday. It is celebrated every year. It is primarily associated with the United States. It is celebrated every year on the fourth Thursday in November. Thanksgiving is an important part of the country’s culture and marks the beginning of the holiday season, which also includes Christmas and New Year.

Why Is Thanksgiving Celebrated?

Thanksgiving is known as a way to commemorate the colonial Pilgrims’ harvest meal that they shared with Indians in the year 1621. As years went on, designating feasts dedicated to giving thanks “on an annual or occasional basis became common practice in other New England settlements as well.”

Now, Let us discuss the Best Thanksgiving Movies Of All Time.

Here is a list of the 17 Best Thanksgiving Movies Of All Time. Let us take a look at each one by one.

S.No Movie Names Release Year Age Rating
1.  Planes, Trains & Automobiles 1987 R
2. Hannah and Her Sisters 1988 PG-13
3. Addams Family Values 1993 PG-13
4. The Ice Storm 1997 R
5. Avalon 1990 PG
6. She’s Gotta Have It 1986 TV-MA
7.  Krisha 2015 R
8. Home for the Holidays 1995 PG-13
9. ‘Thanksgiving’ 2007
10. Scent of a Woman 1992 R
11.  Pieces of April 1992 PG-13
12. Rocky 1976 PG
13. The Last Waltz 1978 PG
14. The House of Yes 1997 R
15.  Alice’s Restaurant 1969 R
16. Broadway Danny Rose 1984 PG
17. Tadpole  2002 PG-13

Let us take a look at the 17 Best Thanksgiving Movies Of All Time one by one.

Planes, Trains & Automobiles

A Chicago advertising man must struggle to travel home from New York for Thanksgiving, with a lovable oaf of a shower curtain ring salesman as his only companion.

Director John Hughes
IMDB Rating 7.6/10
Genre Drama, Comedy
Release Year 1987
Distributor Paramount Pictures

Hannah and Her Sisters

Hannah, Holly, and Lee are adult sisters from a show business family, their boozy actress mother still believes she’s an ingénue that can attract any man she wants, despite still being married to the girls’ father, Evan.

Director Woody Allen
IMDB Rating 7.9/10
Genre Drama, Comedy
Release Year 1988
Distributor HBO/Cannon Video

Addams Family Values

The members of the family are up to more macabre antics in this sequel. Gomez Addams and his wife, Morticia are celebrating the arrival of a baby boy. But siblings Wednesday and Pugsley are none too happy about the new addition and try their best to eliminate the infant. When nanny Debbie Jelinsky appears to keep the kids in line her presence leads to an unexpected twist.

Director Barry Sonnenfeld
IMDB Rating 6.8/10
Genre Drama, Fantasy
Release Year 1993
Distributor Paramount Pictures

The Ice Storm

The Ice Storm is about two dysfunctional New Canaan, Connecticut, upper-class families who are trying to deal with the tumultuous social changes of the early 1970s, and their escapism through alcohol, adultery, and sexual experimentation.

Director Ang Lee
IMDB Rating 7.4/10
Genre Drama,
Release Year 1997
Distributor Twentieth Century Fox

Avalon

A Polish-Jewish family comes to the U.S. at the beginning of the twentieth century. There, the family and their children try to make themselves a better future in the so-called promised land.

Director Barry Levinson
IMDB Rating 7.2/10
Genre Drama
Release Year 1990
Distributor TriStar Pictures

She’s Gotta Have It

It is a story of a woman and her three lovers.

Director Spike Lee
IMDB Rating 6.8/10
Genre Comedy, Romance
Release Year 1986
Distributor Island Pictures

 Krisha

Krisha returns for Thanksgiving dinner after ten years away from her family, but past demons threaten to ruin the festivities.

Director Trey Edward Shults
IMDB Rating 7.1/10
Genre Drama
Release Year 2015
Distributor A24

Home for the Holidays

The film follows Claudia Larson, who after losing her job, kissing her ex-boss, and finding out that her daughter has plans of her own for the holidays, departs Chicago to spend her Thanksgiving with her dysfunctional family.

Director Jodie Foster
IMDB Rating 6.5/10
Genre Drama, Comedy, Romance
Release Year 1995
Distributor Paramount Pictures

‘Thanksgiving’

Parody of holiday slasher movie trailers.

Director Eli Roth
IMDB Rating 7.7/10
Genre
Release Year 2007
Distributor

Scent of a Woman

Frank is a retired Lt. Col. in the US army. He is blind and impossible to get along with. Charlie is at school and is looking forward to going to college. To help pay for a trip home for Christmas, he agrees to look after Frank over Thanksgiving. Frank’s niece says this will be easy money, but she did not reckon on Frank spending his Thanksgiving in New York.

Director Martin Brest
IMDB Rating 8.0/10
Genre Drama
Release Year 1992
Distributor Universal Pictures

 Pieces of April

Quirky and rebellious April Burns lives with her boyfriend in a low-rent New York City apartment miles away from her emotionally distant family. But when she discovers that her mother has a fatal form of breast cancer, she invites the clan to her place for Thanksgiving. While her father struggles to drive her family into the city, April — an inexperienced cook runs into kitchen trouble and must ask a neighbor for help.

Director Peter Hedges
IMDB Rating 7.0/10
Genre Comedy, Drama
Release Year 1992
Distributor United Artists

Rocky

A small-time boxer gets a supremely rare chance to fight the world heavyweight champion in a bout in which he strives to go the distance for his self-respect.

Director John G. Avildsen
IMDB Rating 8.1/10
Genre Sport, Drama
Release Year 1976
Distributor Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

 The Last Waltz

After joining seventeen years of forces as the backing band for rockabilly cult hero Ronnie Hawkins, Canadian roots rockers The Band called it quits with a lavish farewell show at San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom on Nov. 25, 1976. Filmed by Martin Scorsese, this documentary features standout performances by rock legends such as Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, Joni Mitchell, and Muddy Waters, as well as interviews tracing the group’s history and discussing road life.

Director Martin Scorsese
IMDB Rating 8.1/10
Genre Documentary, Biography, Music
Release Year 1978
Distributor United Artists

The House of Yes

A man and his fiancee visit his warped clan, complete with a dark mansion and incestuous twin sister.

Director Mark Waters
IMDB Rating 6.6/10
Genre Comedy, Drama
Release Year 1997
Distributor Miramax

 Alice’s Restaurant

It is a cinematic adaptation of Arlo Guthrie’s classic song story.

Director Arthur Penn
IMDB Rating 6.2/10
Genre Comedy, Drama
Release Year 1969
Distributor United Artists

Broadway Danny Rose

In his attempts to reconcile a lounge singer with his mistress, a hapless talent agent is mistaken as her lover by a jealous gangster. Danny Rose is a manager of artists, and although he’s not very successful, he nevertheless goes out of his way to help his acts.

Director Woody Allen
IMDB Rating 7.4/10
Genre Comedy
Release Year 1984
Distributor Orion Pictures

 Tadpole

Oscar is a renaissance man. He is very sensitive and compassionate, he speaks fluent French, is conversant in the classics, has a passion for Voltaire, and can tell all he needs to know about a woman with one look at her hands, and he is 15 years old. When he returns home from boarding school to his parents’ New York City apartment for Thanksgiving, Oscar has one thing on his mind an older woman.

Director Gary Winick
IMDB Rating 6.2/10
Genre Comedy, Drama, Romance
Release Year 2002
Distributor Miramax

You can watch the 17 Best Thanksgiving Movies Of All Time for the year 2022.

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