On Christmas Eve at Tower Sky, an ultra-luxurious building complex, a White Christmas party is held to dazzle its equally high-end tenants and VIP guests. Dae-ho, the manager of the building and single father, is forced to cancel plans with his daughter Hana to work the event. His Christmas is saved when Yoon-hee, the food mall manager with a secret crush on Dae-ho, offers to babysit Hana during the party. Meanwhile, Young-ki the legendary fire chief of Yoido Station has finally promised his first holiday date night to his long suffering wife. The party is in full swing with the spectacular sight of two helicopters flying overhead just to spray snow on the partygoers and make everything perfect. When unthinkable disaster strikes, Dae-ho and Young-ki must summon all their strength and courage to save the lives of thousands but at what cost to themselves and their loved ones?

Christmas in Tokyo, Japan. Three homeless friends: a young girl, a transvestite, and a middle-aged bum. While foraging through some trash, they find an abandoned newborn. Hana, the transvestite with delusions of being a mother, convinces the others to keep it overnight. The next day, using a key found with the baby, they start tracking down the parents, with many adventures along the way.

A royal prince and heir shows little interest in politics or marriage, so his royal parents stage a ball to find a (somewhat) suitable match. His (junior) Highness prefers prancing at the hunt in fields and woods with his courtier buddies. Hunting, he's fascinated by a mysterious cocky youth crossbow-sharpshooter who keeps outclassing them in tree-climbing--and keeps eluding his royal party. It turns out to be tomboy Popelka (Cinderella), whose stepmother shares nothing of the inheritance with her and has reduced her to being an unpaid servant at the lucrative estate manor. Cinderella's closest friend is her father's stallion, who helps her greatly, as do the wishes granted by three magical hazelnuts. When her stepmother and stepsisters cruelly crush her hopes to attend or at least watch the ball, she manages to intrude veiled and is followed how by the prince, who can't resist such an atypical hunt.

1973 Czechoslovak/East German fairy-tale film directed by Václav Vorlíček

The Vuillard family gathers: Junon and Abel, a daughter Elizabeth and her son Paul, Henri and a girlfriend, Ivan, his wife Sylvia and their young sons, and cousin Simon. Six years before, Elizabeth paid Henri's debts and demanded he never see her again or visit their parents' home. Paul, at 16, has mental problems and faces a clinical exam. Junon learns she needs a bone marrow transplant if she's to live beyond a few months: thus the détente bringing all together. Two family members have compatible marrow, but the spats, fights, cruel words, drunken toasts, and somewhat civilized bad behavior threaten all; plus Junon may simply refuse treatment. Do we know ourselves?

In morte veritas. Georgia Byrd clerks at a New Orleans department store. She defers pleasure: cooks gourmet meals, eats Lean Cuisine; likes a co-worker in silence; has savings, but hasn't left Louisiana. All that changes when a CT Scan discloses she has three weeks to live. She cashes her savings and heads to Grandhotel Pupp in the Czech Republic, where Chef Didier presides. She checks into the Presidential Suite, orders everything on the menu, snowboards, and comes to the attention of the chef and the hotel's powerful American guests: a Congressman, a Senator, a retail magnate, and his mistress. She has nothing to lose, so she tells them what she thinks. Will the truth set them free?

An episodic film about the relationship problems of 10 men and women from the Frankfurt am Main area, set during the holiday season.

In Jerusalem's orthodox neighborhoods, it's Succoth, seven days celebrating life's essentials in a sukkah, a temporary shack of both deprivation and hospitality. A devout couple, Moshe and Mali, married nearly five years and childless, are broke and praying for a miracle. Suddenly, miracles abound: a friend finds Moshe a sukkah he says is abandoned, Moshe is the beneficiary of local charitable fundraising, and two escaped convicts arrive on Moshe and Mali's doorstep in time to be their ushpizin - their guests. The miracles then become trials. Rabbinical advice, absolution, an effort to avoid anger, and a 1000-shekel citron figure in Moshe's dark night of the soul.

This Christmas, primary school teacher Paul Maddens is charged with producing the school's nativity play. Competing against the posh rival school for the honor of best reviewed show in town, the stakes are raised when Paul idly boasts that his ex-girlfriend Jennifer, a Hollywood Producer, is coming to see his show with a view to turning it into a film. The only trouble is - they haven't spoken in years. With eccentric assistant Mr Poppy fuelling his 'little white lie', Maddens suddenly finds himself a local celebrity and at the center of quarreling parents and over-excited children desperate in their bid for fame and fortune. Maddens' only hope is to get back in touch with Jennifer and lure Hollywood to town so that everybody's Christmas wishes come true.

On Christmas Eve in Finland, Santa Claus is unearthed in an archaeological dig. Soon after, children start disappearing, leading a boy and his father to capture Santa and, with the help of fellow hunters, they look to sell him back to the corporation that sponsored the dig. And then there's Santa's elves, who are determined to free their leader...

Yashvardhan Raichand lives a very wealthy lifestyle along with his wife, Nandini, and two sons, Rahul and Rohan. While Rahul has been adopted, Yashvardhan and Nandini treat him as their own. When their sons mature, they start to look for suitable brides for Rahul, and decide to get him married to a young woman named Naina. When Rahul is told about this, he tells them that he loves another woman by the name of Anjali Sharma. Yashvardhan decides to meet with the Sharma family, and finds out that they are middle-classed, unsophisticated, and will not be able to it into his family circle, as a result he refuses to permit Rahul to marry Anjali. A defiant Rahul decides to leave, gets married to Anjali, without his foster parents blessings, and re-locates to London, England, where Anjali's unmarried sister, Pooja, also lives. Rohan, who was studying in a hostel, returns home to find that Rahul is no longer living with them, and he also discovers that while outwardly his dad is not interested in seeing Rahul get back, Nandini wants the family back all together for all happy and sad moments. Rohan also misses Rahul a lot, and decides to travel to London in order to try and get Rahul to return home. Yashvardhan, is unable to prevent this, and as a result Rohan does travel to London, meets with Rahul, Anjali, and Pooja. The question remains will the hurt and sorrow that Rahul experienced with his foster parents be erased and enable the family to be reunited, or will Rahul forget about the past, and continue to live his life without getting back to his roots and the family who brought him up, leaving Rohan to return alone?

A father and son who team up to save Christmas once they discover Santa Claus sleeping in their garage after crashing his sleigh and finding himself on the run from the police.

American Holiday films have become a cinematic trope, even an entire category of film financing. Escape the bubble with some of these great holiday films made around the world - from England to India to Israel! 

Holiday Movies from Around the World

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2001 British-American fantasy film directed by Chris Columbus

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2008 superhero film directed by Christopher Nolan