If your festive season plans lean more towards staying in than going out, there’s no shortage of films and shows worth settling into. From buzzy releases and thought-provoking documentaries to long-awaited returns of fan-favourite shows, here are top movies and shows to add to your watch-list.
Films to stream
Goodbye June (Netflix)
Nothing says Christmas week like a good family drama – and this one has a top-notch cast to boot. Goodbye June also marks Kate Winslet's directorial debut, with the actress starring in it alongside Toni Collette, Andrea Riseborough and Johnny Flynn.
The four siblings are brought together right before Christmas, after their mother's health takes an unexpected turn. Along with their exasperated father (Timothy Spall), and blunt and honest mother (Helen Mirren), the group navigate messy family dynamics in the face of potential loss.
While the siblings spend fraught days at their mum's bedside in the hospital, eventually they find hope and warmth in each other as they reconnect and rebuild their family.
Black Bag (OSN+)
Another multi-starrer from acclaimed director Steven Soderbergh, Black Bag centres on two top-tier intelligence agents, George Woodhouse and his wife Kathryn. The latter is suspected of betraying the nation, and as a result, George faces the ultimate test: loyalty to his marriage or his country.
Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett play George and Kathryn respectively, with the cast also including Tom Burke, Naomie Harris, Rege-Jean Page and Pierce Brosnan among others.
Love+War (Disney+)
Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Lynsey Addario has repeatedly risked her life to document the stark realities of war, from the Middle East and Afghanistan to Ukraine. In Love+War, Oscar-winning documentary filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin (Free Solo) trace Addario’s rise in the male-dominated world of conflict photography, offering an intimate portrait of a journalist driven by purpose.
Kidnapped twice while on assignment, Addario is forced to confront what it truly means to follow her calling. The film captures her struggle to reconcile an unwavering commitment to front line journalism with the competing demands of motherhood, as each decision to return to a war zone carries consequences that can be measured in life and death.
F1: The Movie (Apple TV+)
After earning rave reviews and more than $630 million at the global box office, making it Apple Studios’ highest-grossing film, F1: The Movie is now available to stream. Directed by Joseph Kosinski, the film centres on Brad Pitt’s character Sonny Hayes, a racing driver who returns to the sport he left 30 years prior to mentor a brash young rookie, Joshua Pearce, played by Damson Idris.
Besides its strong cast and performances, the film was hailed for its technical filmmaking, with The National‘s review calling it “a ride full of pulse-pounding Hans Zimmer music, frenetic cuts, immersive sound design and breathtaking cinematography”.
After the Hunt (Prime Video)
From acclaimed director Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name, Challengers) comes this psychological thriller set on a university campus where the life of a respected college professor begins to unravel after a student accuses one of her colleagues of sexual misconduct. As the accusation ripples through the institution, the professor finds herself caught between loyalty, ethics and self-preservation, particularly when long-buried secrets from her own past threaten to surface.
The film explores power dynamics, moral ambiguity and the uneasy space between truth and perception, featuring strong performances by Julia Roberts, who plays the professor, Andrew Garfield as her colleague, and Ayo Edebiri as the student.
Shows to stream
Stranger Things season five, volume two (Netflix)
The final season of Stranger Things returned on Christmas Day with the second batch of three episodes, picking up the fallout from the explosive opening instalment. With Hawkins still reeling and the threat from the Upside Down far from contained, the stakes feel higher than ever, pushing the group of friends further apart even as the endgame comes into focus.
Will Byers’ newly awakened powers add another layer of tension, as his long-standing connection to Vecna becomes increasingly pronounced. Expect darker turns, bigger confrontations and long-running character arcs edging closer to resolution, as the series begins laying the groundwork for its finale, set to arrive on December 31 (5am New Year's Day for the UAE).
Percy Jackson and the Olympians season two (Disney+)
Coming two years after the debut of the first season, which was positively received by audiences, the fantasy series based on Rick Riordan’s book series of the same name follows the adventure of Percy Jackson, a young demigod and the son of Poseidon.
In the new season, Percy (played by Walker Scobell), returns to Camp Half-Blood, a training ground for demigods, a year after the ending of the first season. But his world is turned upside down – his friendship with love interest Annabeth (Leah Sava Jeffries) has changed; he learns he has a Cyclops, or a one-eyed giant, for a brother, and his best friend Grover (Aryan Simhadri) has gone missing.
Meanwhile, the camp is under siege from the forces of powerful villain Kronos, the god of time.
Four More Shots Please! season four (Prime Video)
Through three seasons, this Indian show has followed the lives of four unapogetically flawed women as they navigate life, love and career. Damini (Sayani Gupta), Anjana (Kirti Kulhari), Umang (Bani J) and Siddhi (Maanvi Gagroo) return for one last run facing the consequences of the choices they made in the previous season.
Set largely against the backdrop of Italy, season four leans into reinvention, new beginnings, unresolved relationships and the lingering pull of old patterns that threaten the future.
“It has been a privilege to watch Damini, Umang, Anjana and Siddhi become icons of a generation navigating the complexities of life and love. This finale is the crescendo of that journey,” said Rangita Pritish Nandy, president and creative director of production house Pritish Nandy Communications.
