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.