Outdoor Cinema: Christmas

The sequel to the beloved Home Alone original box office smash hit, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York follows our thief-thwarting young hero Kevin McCallister when he accidentally boards a flight to New York en route to a family Christmas trip to Paris. With the family credit cards and cash in hand, Kevin’s having a great old time until he comes face-to-face with his old foes Harry and Marv, recently escaped from prison, who are plotting a Toy Store robbery. Featuring legendary comedic performances by the late, great Catherine O’Hara as Mrs McCallister and Tim Curry as the concierge of The Plaza Hotel.

A Christmas family favourite featuring Will Ferrell as Buddy the Elf. One Christmas Eve a long time ago, a baby crawled into Santa’s bag of toys… Raised as an elf, Buddy grows into an adult three times larger than the biggest elf and realises that he will never truly fit in at the North Pole. This holiday season, Buddy goes looking for his true place in the world – in New York City. Buddy finds his workaholic father – who’s on Santa’s ‘naughty’ list, a new mother and a 10-year-old brother who doesn’t believe in Santa Claus or elves. Here, now, Buddy discovers his destiny – to save Christmas for New York and the world!​

Directed by Nora Ephron and starring co-leads Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks – Sleepless in Seattle cracked a formula for romantic 90s holiday season films that was so successful, they did it again a few years later with You’ve Got Mail. After the death of his wife, Sam Baldwin (Tom Hanks) moves to Seattle with his son, Jonah. On Christmas Eve, Jonah calls a national radio show, prompting many women across the country to respond to Sam’s heartfelt story. Annie Reed (Ryan), a journalist from Baltimore, becomes convinced she and Sam are meant to be together despite never having met.

A remake of the 1940 classic The Shop Around The Corner, You’ve Got Mail brings back the Nora Ephron, Meg Ryan, Tom Hanks romantic-comedy trifecta for another go-around. This romantic comedy-drama follows the story of two people in an online romance who are unaware they are also business rivals.

Nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture, Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of Louisa May Alcott classic American novel Little Women chronicles the lives of the March sisters (Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy) in Concord, Massachusetts, during the 19th century.  

Returning as our Christmas Eve film is Frank Capra’s beloved Christmas classic, It’s a Wonderful Life – loosely based on Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. George Bailey (played by silver screen legend James Stewart) has spent his life putting others before himself, but when a financial crisis pushes him to the brink, he begins to believe the world would be better off without him. On Christmas Eve, an angel named Clarence intervenes, showing George how profoundly he’s impacted the lives of those around him.

Frequently rated by critics as one of the greatest films of all time, Orson Welles Academy Award-winning debut feature is loosely based on real life media tycoon William Randolph Hurst. After media mogul Charles Foster Kane dies leaving a cryptic final word “Rosebud”, a news producer tasks reporter Jerry Thompson with uncovered its meaning, gradually uncovering Kane’s life story, his rise from humble beginnings to immense influence, and his ultimate personal decline.