BBC confirms 2025 Christmas movies line-up with one of the best films of the decade
Seven movies are coming to the BBC and iPlayer for Christmas
The BBC has confirmed seven movies as part of its 2025 Christmas TV line-up – and it includes one of the best films of the decade (if not the century).
After gorging on turkey, roast potatoes, and chocolate, millions of people across the UK will plonk themselves down in front of the telly on Christmas Day.
The BBC is a mainstay of the festive season, and its holiday offerings are particularly strong this year. For example, there’s the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special, Call the Midwife, and Amandaland.
There are also seven big movies coming to the BBC and iPlayer over the Christmas period. We don’t have their exact air dates yet, but we know which films to expect.
BBC Christmas movies line-up for 2025
Elvis
- Genre: Biography, Drama
- Year: 2022
- Cast: Austin Butler, Tom Hanks, Olivia DeJonge
- Director: Baz Luhrmann
- Runtime: 2 hours 39 minutes
What it’s about: Elvis Presley, a young, charismatic singer from Mississippi, rises to fame under the dubious control of his enigmatic manager, Colonel Tom Parker. As he reaches unprecedented levels of stardom – and meets the love of his life, Priscilla – he starts to lose control.
Why to watch: The biopic genre gets all shook up in Elvis, a dazzling, splashy jukebox chronicle of the king of rock’s turbulent, epic life.
Tom Hanks plays unrecognisably against type, while Austin Butler delivers a career-defining performance as the titular singer (to the point it’s permanently changed his voice in real life).
Don’t just take it from us: Priscilla Presley said it made her cry within five minutes and that Butler captured her late husband “beautifully”.
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
- Genre: Animation, Family
- Year: 2022
- Cast: Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek Pinault, Harvey Guillén
- Director: Joel Crawford
- Runtime: 1 hour 42 minutes
What it’s about: Puss in Boots, the swashbuckling, sword-twirling cat from the Shrek movies, only has one of his nine lives left. Instead of retiring, he heads into the Black Forest to find a mythical Wishing Star – and he’ll need to face off against Death itself.
Why to watch: The Puss in Boots franchise was a gamble; how do you live up to the astronomically iconic stature of Shrek?
However, while the first two films in the spin-off series were perfectly fine, The Last Wish is extraordinary. As ridiculous as it sounds, it’s the franchise’s answer to Logan: a sweet, emotional, and exciting adventure with some of the best animated set pieces you’ll ever see.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
- Genre: Animation, Action
- Year: 2023
- Cast: Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Oscar Isaac
- Directors: Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson
- Runtime: 2 hours 20 minutes
What it’s about: Miles Morales, Brooklyn’s newest friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man, joins forces with Gwen Stacy to take on a new villain: the Spot. However, he comes into conflict with a vast legion of Spider-People in the multiverse, led by Spider-Man 2099.
Why to watch: How do you top one of the best animated movies ever made? You go bigger and better, and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, a meticulous, breathtaking sequel, makes it look easy.
There is still one movie to come in this trilogy, but going by the standard of the first two films, this may be the greatest on-screen Spider-Man story ever told. If you watch one film on TV as a family, this should be it.
Oppenheimer
- Genre: Drama, War
- Year: 2023
- Cast: Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon
- Director: Christopher Nolan
- Runtime: 3 hours
What it’s about: At the height of the Second World War, J. Robert Oppenheimer is recruited for a top-secret project: to create an atomic bomb, a revolutionary, catastrophic weapon that haunts him for the rest of his life.
Why to watch: Oppenheimer isn’t Christopher Nolan’s best film (that honour goes to Interstellar), but it is the culmination of his directing oeuvre.
Is it the quickest three-hour movie ever? It could be, barreling towards its inevitable boom with a breathless rhythm. You’d think a three-hour, part-black-and-white epic about the atomic bomb wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but it almost made $1 billion. You could say… they heard the music.”
Operation Mincemeat
- Genre: War, Drama
- Year: 2021
- Cast: Colin Firth, Matthew Macfadyen, Kelly Macdonald
- Director: John Madden
- Runtime: 2 hours 8 minutes
What it’s about: In 1943, two British intelligence officers come up with a cunning plan to dupe the Nazis and break Adolf Hitler’s grip on occupied Europe: planting a corpse with false papers in Spain.
Why to watch: Operation Mincemeat is a vintage home front British movie: well-cast, with a wry, cosy sense of humour, and an endearing reverence that will have you diving into the Wikipedia of the real-life operation.
In this case, the facts are actually more outlandish than the film, but the movie is a thoroughly entertaining version of the story. It’s also the final film appearance of Friday Night Dinner and Chernobyl star Paul Ritter.
Challengers
- Genre: Drama, Romance
- Year: 2024
- Cast: Zendaya, Mike Faist, Josh O’Connor
- Director: Luca Guadagnino
- Runtime: 2 hours 11 minutes
What it’s about: Tashi Duncan, a former tennis prodigy, has transformed her husband, Art, into a champion. However, in the midst of a losing streak, they find themselves pitted against an old friend.
Why to watch: Challengers is a modern rarity. It’s not sexually explicit, but it is an erotically charged (in every direction) response to the plague of prudes.
It’s also powered by three mega-watt star performances – best of all, Zendaya, whose fiery, spiky screen presence will convince anyone of her talents. Prepare to listen to the score on loop for a week.
Back to Black
- Genre: Biography, Music
- Year: 2024
- Cast: Marisa Abela, Jack O’Connell, Eddie Marsan
- Director: Sam Taylor-Johnson
- Runtime: 2 hours 2 minutes
What it’s about: Amy Winehouse, a young singer from Camden, quickly rises to fame as one of the UK’s most revered singers. Meanwhile, a toxic relationship and her struggles with addiction threaten to overwhelm her.
Why to watch: Back to Black is a tough film to recommend. Does it capture Winehouse’s talent and one-of-a-kind charisma? No. Is it a fair representation of her life, as far as we’ve seen in documentaries and read since her death? Not really.
However, Industry star Marisa Abela delivers a strong performance, Jack O’Connell is expectedly great, and despite its many issues, it’s clearly well-intentioned.
Read more: The 30 best films on BBC iPlayer right now
