There's nothing better than cosying up with the family and enjoying a Christmas film.

Whether you want to take the kids on a cinema trip or download the latest blockbusters for Christmas Day, these are some of the biggest and best new films to watch over the festive season…

FAMILY FAVOURITES

Wonka (PG)

Writer-director Paul King’s musical comedy based on characters from Charlie And The Chocolate Factory is a lip-smacking treat. King and co-writer Simon Farnaby combine ingredients from Roald Dahl’s books with nostalgic references to the phizz-whizzing 1971 film starring Gene Wilder. Timothee Chalamet’s childlike ebullience in the title role and Hugh Grant’s scene-stealing turn as an Oompa-Loompa harmonise perfectly with song and dance numbers and mouth-watering production design and costumes.

The Inseparables (U)

Playthings come to life when human eyes are averted a la Toy Story in a charming computer-animated fantasy adventure from the director of The House Of Magic and Bigfoot Family. The Inseparables depicts a puppet’s journey through Central Park in New York as a series of daredevil escapades unfold in the marionette’s vivid imagination.

Showing at Cineworld Ashford and Showcase Cinema at Bluewater, Greenhithe, only

Wish (U)

Wishing upon a star has been embedded in the creative DNA of the Walt Disney Company since 1940 when Cliff Edwards crooned as Jiminy Cricket in its second full-length animated feature, Pinocchio. Pointedly timed for release during Disney’s 100-year anniversary, Wish is an animated musical comedy harking back to hand-drawn fairy tales of bygone generations. The story is an ode to friendship and community spirit, led by another spunky, independent heroine who does not require a dashing prince to validate their existence.

DATE NIGHT

What Happens Later (15)

Actress Meg Ryan ventures behind the camera for a second time to helm a contemporary romantic comedy of errors, which she co-wrote with Steven Dietz and Kirk Lynn. On screen, she trades verbal blows with David Duchovny to portray old flames Willa and Bill, who are trapped together at an airport by a snowstorm. Inside the terminal, the temperature is also chilly as the former lovers pick up the bickering where they left off more than 25 years ago.

Released on Friday, December 15

The Great Escaper (12A)

Emotions run high in a lovingly fictionalised account of the 89-year-old former Royal Navy officer who made headlines in 2014 when he snuck out of a care home in East Sussex to attend the 70th anniversary commemoration of the Normandy landings. Starring Sir Michael Caine as the wartime veteran and featuring the final screen appearance of Glenda Jackson, these two national treasures portray the 60-year marriage of Bernie and wife Rene with earthy humour.

Available to buy or rent on digital platforms

The Lost Boys (12A)

Not to be confused with the Brat Pack supernatural horror, The Lost Boys is a tender French language drama about the secret desire of two inmates at a detention centre for young offenders. Zeno Graton’s debut feature centres on 17-year-old Joe (Khalil Ben Gharbia), who has served six months and is contemplating his impending release. Without family to support him, Joe’s his lonely eyes fixate on new arrival William and the young men spark a forbidden romance.

Released in cinemas and on digital platforms on Friday, December 15

CLASSIC FILMS

Elf (PG)

It’s been 20 years since Jon Favreau’s Christmas film about Buddy’s quest to find his family first hit the cinemas and, to mark the anniversary of its release, Elf is back on the big screen this Christmas. The heart-warming film follows Buddy (Will Ferrell), a human who is raised by elves at the North Pole and travels to New York in search of his biological father (James Caan).

Star Wars Trilogy (PG)

George Lucas’ original trilogy of outer space adventures sparked what is now one of the biggest and best-loved franchises in the world. A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi boast what is now considered to be an iconic cast, including Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher as they battle against the Dark Side and learn the ways of the Jedi in these three epic episodes.

Showing at the Light Cinema in Sittingbourne only

It’s A Wonderful Life (U)

After a slew of personal and professional problems, George Bailey’s life falls apart on Christmas Eve and he finds himself on the edge of a bridge, seeing no way out. However, when Clarence, his guardian angel, intervenes and shows George what his beloved hometown of Bedford Falls would be like without him, he reconsiders and begs Clarence to return him to his present life and those he loves.

Showing at Showcase Cinema in Bluewater, Greenhithe, only

SOMETHING DIFFERENT

Every Body (12A)

In the acronym LGBTQIA+, the I represents intersex – people with biological and genetic characteristics that do not adhere to binary options of male or female. Academy Award-nominated documentarian Julie Cohen meets three passionate advocates of the intersex movement who trio expose the unnecessary, non-consensual surgeries fuelled by shame and lay bare the modern-day treatment of intersex people with a view to promoting greater understanding.

Released on Friday, December 15

The Three Musketeers: Milady (12A)

Director Martin Bourboulon’s two-part romp through the pages of Alexandre Dumas’s novel saddled up in April with the sword fights and courtly intrigue of The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan, introducing Francois Civil in the title role. In the second chapter, which welcomes back Eva Green as the deadly seductress Milady de Winter, D’Artagnan faces a race against time to rescue his kidnapped sweetheart, the queen’s seamstress Constance, and King Louis XIII faces the prospect of civil war.

Released on Friday, December 15

Godzilla Minus One (12A)

To mark the impending 70th anniversary of Godzilla’s first rampage across the big screen, which lit a fuse on the longest continuously running film franchise in history, award-winning writer-director Takashi Yamazaki revisits first sightings of the behemoth – or kaiju – in a battle royale on land and sea. Punctuated by visual effects sequences overseen by the filmmaker and Kiyoko Shibuya, Godzilla Minus One pits a ragtag group of former Japanese military men against the might of a dinosaur-like predator empowered with a heat ray following nuclear tests on Bikini Atoll.

Released on Friday, December 15