Thanksgiving is just around the corner. Every November, families come together to have dinner of roasted turkey and express their gratitude towards various boons of life.
The holiday passes with food and family, but what one especially needs is a lineup of movies with themes of Thanksgiving to binge-watch while you get over the delicious food coma. From the classics Soul Food to hilarious Friendsgiving, there are many options to choose from to share laughter and excitement with family and friends.
So, scroll down quickly to check out this list of 25 best Thanksgiving movies to watch.
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving is a short animation film where the Thanksgiving gathering is going to be held at Charlie Brown’s house. Peppermint Patty invites everyone, but he himself is leaving to go to his grandmother’s. Now it’s on Snoopy and his supportive friends to help Charlie Brown in preparing the Thanksgiving meal.
Stream on: Apple TV+
Friendsgiving
Molly and Abby, who are best friends, decide to spend Thanksgiving with each other as Molly is going through a divorce and Abby is suffering from heartbreak after her first girlfriend broke up with her. But the plan is thwarted when people start coming over, and there’s chaos and drama everywhere. The movie stars Kat Dennings, Chelsea Peretti, and Aisha Tyler.
Stream on: Hulu
Holidate
Sloane is frustrated with her meddling family, while Jackson is tired of going on blind dates arranged by his parents during holiday seasons. Meeting accidentally, the two realize that they could help each other out during family gatherings by faking a relationship. But over time, something more develops between these two fake lovers.
Stream on: Netflix
The Pilgrims
The Documentary movie The Pilgrims helps retell the history of the 17th century when the Pilgrims traveled across the Atlantic and came to Holland, exiling the English group staying there. The story behind the first Thanksgiving and its compelling history is shown vividly through this film.
Stream on: Apple TV +
You’ve Got Mail
A heartwarming movie about finding love in unsuspecting circumstances. Joe Fox, the owner of a series of book chain stores, is friends on AOL with Kathleen Kelly, the owner of a small book shop. Both of their shops are in the Upper Side West of Manhattan and pass by each other every day without knowing each other’s real-life identity. The movie stars Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.
Stream on: Tubi, Apple TV+
The Vanished
A thriller drama movie, The Vanished follows a family on a camping trip during the Thanksgiving holiday week. The couple’s vacation turns frustrating and tragic when their young daughter disappears while they are distracted. The movie stars Anne Heche, Aleksei Archer, and Thomas Jane.
Stream on: Amazon Prime Video
Knives Out
Knives Out may not be centered around Thanksgiving, but it has family drama and woolen sweaters which are common during the Thanksgiving holiday. For the birthday party of the head of the Thombrey household, every member is present in his grand mansion. But the birthday dinner turns into a funeral gathering when the head is found dead in his room, and now the whole family is on the suspect list.
Stream on: DirecTV, Amazon Prime Video
The House of Yes
It is an offbeat comedy movie about a couple of siblings where the sister is obsessed with impersonating Jackie Kennedy, dressing like her, and talking like her. But when, for the Thanksgiving dinner, her brother brings his freshly engaged fiancé home to meet his parents she is flipped with jealousy into a murderous rage.
Stream on: Pluto TV
Soul Food
Soul Food is a heartwarming family movie about the Joseph family and especially centers around the interpersonal relationships between the three generations of the family. The family has a long-standing tradition of attending Sunday dinner together, but when Mama Joe, the elder, and glue of the family, falls into a coma, the hidden resentment of the family starts to unravel the bonds that had been held together until now by Mama Joe.
Stream on: DirecTV
The Myth of Fingerprints
A Thanksgiving dinner with their old parents after a long time reunites four siblings and their parents in their house in Maine. During their stay, old resentments rose and led to confrontations, fights, and dissatisfaction. The movie stars Julianne Moore, Roy Scheider and Blythe Danner.
Stream on: Fubo TV
Tower Heist
Josh, the building manager of an apartment called the Tower, entrusted a friend, Shaw, who also lived there, to look after the staff’s pension fund. But when Shaw is put on house arrest by the FBI for being the main mastermind behind a Ponzi scheme, Josh along with the staff, grows anxious, fearing that they will never get their funds back. Their research reveals that Shaw will be out of the house on Thanksgiving because of his court hearing, and they decide to break into Shaw’s apartment.
Stream on: Hulu
The Blind Side
The movie The Blind Side is a beautiful story that gives the message that all families are not necessarily blood-related. There can be one made with heart. Leigh Anne Tuohy notices an African American boy who lives in the same school as her children and who has the potential to become a footballer, but because of his bad home life, he is passed around from one foster home to another, where he runs away from, ultimately. She decides to adopt him and give him a family to support him and his dreams.
Stream on: Amazon Prime Video
Addams Family Values
A black comedy, Addams Family Values revolves around the peculiar members of the Addams family who have supernatural abilities. Eliciting morbid laughter from one, the premise follows the family looking for a nanny for their younger son, Pugsley, when they come across Debbie, who moonlights as a serial killer hunting for rich men to marry.
Stream on: Paramount+
The Oath
Set in a future where the President of America has asked the citizens of the country to sign an oath of loyalty to him before Black Friday. During Thanksgiving dinner, a couple, Kai and Chris, invite their friends and family over for dinner, and the conversation turns to this. The whole family, except Chris, had signed the oath, but Chris is still resistant to it. When two FBI agents arrive at his door, he is made to rethink his political choices.
Stream on: Kanopy
Krisha
Krisha arrives at her sister’s house for Thanksgiving in an attempt to reconcile with her estranged sister and son. Due to her alcohol addiction, she hadn’t been part of their lives for a large portion of their lives. Now, claiming to be sober and better, she wants to restart again, but she is met with both trust and contempt, especially from her son and her brother-in-law.
Stream on: HBO Max
The Object of My Affection
A romantic comedy starring Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd, The Object of My Affection follows Nina, a pregnant woman who is frustrated with her controlling and mean boyfriend. Nina meets George, a gay man, at a party, and shortly after that, he moves in with her, and they form a bond of best friends. Nina develops feelings for the considerate and kind-hearted George and shares her plan of raising her child with him.
Stream on: Amazon Prime Video
The Humans
A drama thriller movie, The Humans follows the Thanksgiving dinner of the Blake family members. Brigid moves into a new apartment with her boyfriend, Richard, but her father disapproves of her run-down apartment. As they all sit down for dinner, they start confessing their private fears and failed dreams.
Stream on: Fubo TV
Home For the Holidays
Home For the Holiday is a comedy drama about Claudia who is disheartened after losing her job and being ditched by her own daughter who plans to spend Thanksgiving with her boyfriend, and is forced to fly home to her parents’ house for the holiday. There, the gathered family starts getting into fights with old and new secrets that are used as weapons to attack each other, ruining the whole atmosphere.
Stream on: Fubo TV, Paramount +
Instant Family
Pete and Ellie decide to adopt children through the foster care system after years of being unable to have children. Initially, they don’t plan to adopt a teenager, but meeting Lizzie and her two young siblings makes them change their minds, and they adopt all three. But raising children is not that easy, especially when the children carry scars given by their birth parents.
Stream on: Paramount +, Netflix
Hollidaysburg
A romantic comedy with a feel-good story about four friends who have started college and return home for the Thanksgiving holiday week only to discover how each one has changed over a term. The movie stars A. M. Lukas, Tobin Mitnick, and Tristan Erwin.
Stream on: YouTube
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Fantastic Mr. Fox is a movie that has themes of Thanksgiving with its spirit of familial love and happiness. Mr. Fox is normally a family man, but his inner wildness that wants to steal is constantly at war with his responsibilities towards his family. After he starts stealing from the three farmers nearby, he puts his whole community and family into trouble, prompting him to save them from the problems he created.
Stream on: HBO Max
Into the Dark: Pilgrim
A horror drama, Pilgrim is a TV movie that follows a woman who invites people who reenact Pilgrim characters over for Thanksgiving dinner to give her family an authentic experience of a historical event. But the dinner takes a turn for the dark when the characters are strange and peculiar as they hold on to their character, refusing to break it.
Stream on: Hulu
Pieces of April
Katie Holmes plays April, who has decided to make the Thanksgiving dinner for her family. Estranged for years, she invites them over as her mother is diagnosed with breast cancer, and it may be her last holiday with her. Her parents and siblings are not that sentimental though, because of their long-standing dissatisfaction with April’s life choices until now.
Stream on: HBO Max
Prisoners
In Prisoners, two families come together to celebrate Thanksgiving, but later that night, they realize that their daughters are nowhere to be found. This prompts them to alert the police, but nothing is to be discovered except a boy who looks suspicious at first and then lets go because of his low mental condition. The father of one of the girls decides to look for his daughter himself.
Stream on: Netflix
Hannah and Her Sisters
Hannah and Her Sisters follow the three sisters, Hannah, Lee, and Holly, over three Thanksgiving dinners. The family of sisters is chaotic and messed up as Hannah’s husband, Elliot, resents her strength and has a secret affair with her sister, Lee. Lee breaks off later with Elliot when she sees he can’t commit. The third sister has battled with addiction her whole life and has also been mostly dependent on her eldest sister, Hannah’s help, which she resents.
Stream on: HBO Max
