My selected 20 movies to watch with family

I am not a big TV fan, but I love to have our weekly movie night all together with popcorn and I like family movies, especially those who make you dream. teach you something and leave a message!

So here are 20 I picked to share today and the reasons why, with mention of Age recommendation for your convenience:

Matilda (1996) - Age 9+

The film centers on a young genius girl named Matilda Wormwood, who develops psychokinetic abilities and uses them to deal with her disreputable family and Agatha Trunchbull, the ruthless, oppressive and tyrannical principal of her Elementary School.

What I like: I love to see how smart children are and how connected to themselves they can be. Great message!

Japanese movies like Ponyo- Age 5+

The film tells the story of Ponyo (Nara), a goldfish who escapes from the ocean and is rescued by a five-year-old human boy, Sōsuke (Doi) after she is washed ashore while trapped in a glass jar. As they bond with each other, the story deals with resolving Ponyo’s desire to become a human girl, against the devastating circumstances brought about by her acquisition and use of magic.

What I like: an insight into Japanese culture, the respect for elders, the values and habits.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) -Age 8+

Young Charlie Bucket is very poor and lives in a small house with his parents and four grandparents. One day,Charlie’s Grandpa Joe tells him about the legendary and eccentric chocolatier Willy Wonka and all the wonderful sweets and chocolates he made. However, the other chocolatiers sent in spies to steal his secret recipes, leading Wonka to close the factory to outsiders. The next day, the newspaper announces that Wonka is re-opening the factory and has invited five lucky children to come on a tour, if they find a Golden Ticket inside a Wonka Bar.

What I like: You can see how the poor family is so “rich” having each other, happy of what they have, supporting and loving each other. You can see the modesty in their behavior and feel the values of this family.

Bridge to Terabithia - Age 9+

Based on Katherine Paterson’s 1977 novel of the same name. Bridge to Terabithia tells the story of bullied kids Jesse Aarons and Leslie Burke, 12-year-old neighbors who create a fantasy world called Terabithia and spend their free time together in an abandoned tree house.What I like: a mix of some tough reality with fantasy.

What I like: The beautiful mix of tough reality with amazing fantasy.

Next Gen (2018)- Age 8+

It tells the story of Mai Su, a lonely rebellious teenage girl living in a world where sentient robot technology is commonplace, and 7723, a top-secret weaponized robot, who, through a chance encounter, meet each other and form an unlikely bond that they must use to stop a vicious threat.

What I like: In this technology world we live in, seeing a teenager refusing to have robots around her is refreshing! Also, seeing the tough times she is going through after her dad left and how she finds a way to connect again, love, show emotions, open up, is beautiful!

Coco (2017)- Age 7+

The story follows a 12-year-old boy named Miguel who is accidentally transported to the Land of the Dead, where he seeks the help of his deceased musician great-great-grandfather to return him to his family among the living and to reverse his family’s ban on music.

The concept for Coco is inspired by the Mexican holiday Day of the Dead.

What I like: the insight in the Mexican culture, the respect for dead people and the drive for music.

Maleficent (2014) - Age 8+

Maleficent is a powerful fairy living in the Moors, a magical forest realm bordering a human kingdom. As a young girl, Maleficent meets and falls in love with a human peasant boy named Stefan. On Maleficent’s 16th birthday, he gives her what he calls a true love’s kiss, but that was not to be. His love is overshadowed by ambition, and as they grow older, the two grow apart and Maleficent becomes protector of the Moors.

What I like: Children of all ages love it! This is about war and peace which is always a great topic for a discussion. What each sides is ready to do for peace, what happens at war: you may keep your side but live alone with lots of anger…In addition the costumes and fantasy world are beautiful!

Wonder (2017) -Age 10+

It is based on the 2012 novel of the same name by R. J. Palacio. The film follows a boy with Treacher Collins syndrome trying to fit in.

August “Auggie” Pullman is a 10-year-old boy living in a brownstone in Brooklyn, New York. He was born with a rare medical facial deformity, which he refers to as “mandibulofacial dysostosis”, and has undergone 27 different surgeries in order to see, smell, speak and hear without a hearing aid. Auggie has been home-schooled, but as he approaches fifth grade, his parents decide to enroll him in Beecher Prep, a private middle school.

What I like: First, I love Julia Roberts! The movie is very emotional and a mirror how we, adults or children, look at anything that looks different. Seeing the beauty behind the deformity is a great process to go through and discuss with kids!

Hidden Figures - Age 14+

It is loosely based on the 2016 non-fiction book of the same name by Margot Lee Shetterly about black female mathematicians who worked at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) during the Space Race.

In 1961, Katherine Johnson works as a human computer in the West Area Computers division of the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, alongside her colleagues, aspiring engineer Mary Jackson and their unofficial acting-supervisor Dorothy Vaughan. They are all African-American women; the unit is segregated by race and sex.

What I like: First, this is based on true story which I love! Secondly it shows woman power and the tough times African-American went through or still go through. This opens a discussion about diversity, race, skin color and gender!

Temple Grandin (2010) - Age 14+

This is an American biographical drama film about Temple Grandin, an autistic woman whose innovations revolutionized practices for the humane handling of livestock on cattle ranches and slaughterhouse.

The film won several awards including five Primetime Emmy Awards, and Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild prizes for Danes.

Temple Grandin (Danes) is an uncommunicative child who is prone to tantrums and is diagnosed with autism. The medical consensus at that time was that autism was a form of schizophrenia resulting from insufficient maternal affection. Despite recommendations to place her in an institution, Grandin’s mother hires therapists and works to help her daughter adapt to social interaction.

The Help (2011) - Age 12+

The Help is a 2011 period drama film written and directed by Tate Taylor and based on Kathryn Stockett’s 2009 novel. The film and novel recount the story of a young white woman and aspiring journalist Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan. The story focuses on her relationship with two black maids, Aibileen Clark and Minny Jackson, during the Civil Rights Movement in 1963 Jackson, Mississippi. In an attempt to become a legitimate journalist and writer, Skeeter decides to write a book from the point of view of the maids, exposing the racism they are faced with as they work for white families. Black domestic workers in 1960s America were referred to as “the help”, hence the title of the journalistic exposé, the novel and the film.

The Help received four Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Best Actress for Davis, and Best Supporting Actress for both Chastain and Spencer, with the latter winning the award. The film also won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.

What I like: I love to learn about history through stories of people, especially when it is about racism. Great way to discuss diversity with kids and explain how African-American were treated throughout history.

Joy (2015) - Age 14+

Joy is a drama based on the real-life Joy Mangano (Jennifer Lawrence), inventor of the Miracle Mop. There are lots of highs and lows in her story — including a dysfunctional family, financial insecurity, and a deep desire to fulfill dreams deferred.

What I like: I love real stories or based on real people! Here it is about a young woman who comes from a tough family and makes it to success thanks to perseverance. dreams and mainly herself. The people around were many times discouraging but she never gave up, and always helped all her family members all at once. People sometimes, close to us, do not believe in us and our success. Here is a great example to see, enjoy and discuss with teenagers!

The miracle season (2018) - Age 8+

The film is based on the true story of the Iowa City West High School volleyball team after the sudden death of the team’s heart and leader, Caroline Found, in 2011.

What I like: As I said already, I love true stories! and I love real stories about sports! It shows cooperation, group motivation and encouragement, hard work to win!

The bookshop (2017) - Age 10+

The Bookshop is a 2017 drama film, based on the 1978 novel of the same name by Penelope Fitzgerald. The film won three Goya Awards, including Best Film, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay.

In a small East Anglian town in England in 1959, Florence Green decides, against polite but ruthless local opposition, to open a bookshop.

What I like: It is beautiful to see a woman fight for her dream and succeed against all the people opinions around her. Her fight in such a gentle way is beautiful, and the feeling of success remarkable.

The windermere children (2020) - Age 14+:

The Windermere Children is a 2020 biographical drama film. Based on the experience of child survivors of the Holocaust, it follows the children and staff of a camp set up on the Calgarth Estate in Troutbeck Bridge, near Lake Windermere, England, where the survivors were helped to rehabilitate, rebuild their lives, and integrate into the British society.

This is the stark, moving ultimately redemptive story of the bonds these children make with one another, and of how the friendships forged at Windermere become a lifeline to a fruitful future.

What I like: First it is about children. Secondly to see how they arrived and acted as “animals” from the camps and as they learned to behave as humans again is beautiful. Last, seeing them in reality at the end is very emotional. Lots of holocaust movies deal with before and during the war, seeing the camps and survival. Here it is about after the camps, how they get back to life.

The butler (2013) - Age 14+:

As Cecil Gaines serves eight presidents during his tenure as a butler at the White House, the civil rights movement, Vietnam, and other major events affect this man’s life, family, and American society.

What I like: I personally do not love history. The only way it gets to me is through a person life, his feelings, his life and this is what I loved about it: understanding history through the eyes of a real person, his feelings and acts.

The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks (2016) - Age 14+:

It is based on the book of the same name by Rebecca Skloot which I read and loved! Henrietta Lacks, African-American, who was diagnosed with cervical cancer in the 1950s, and whose cancer cells (later known as HeLa) would change the course of cancer treatment.

What I like: Amazing true story and so much to learn from it: Respect for people life and parts, fight of a woman and her influence in the whole world for generations without her knowing about it, and of course historical facts about African-American in the early years in the USA.

Instant family (2018) - Age 12+

Husband and wife Pete and Ellie Wagner, taunted by relatives who think they will never have children, consider adoption. They enroll in foster care, led by social workers Karen and Sharon. At a fair to meet foster children, Ellie voices her reluctance to adopt a teen, and is confronted by 15-year-old Lizzy, who impresses Pete and Ellie. The couple will receive 3 siblings at once and the movie shows the whole process all sides go through.

What I like: Funny and emotional. Maybe because it is a bit the story of our life. We received our foster child 5 years ago and we are still in the process of adopting him but I could see the process we have been through very much close to what happened in the movie. I believe it is a great insight, some scenes with great humor, of foster families and what they are going through! It made us all laugh and cry here…

The Boxcar Children (2014)- Age 7+

This is a story of four orphaned brothers and sisters who mysteriously appear in a small town on a warm summer night. No one knows who these young wanderers are or where they have come from. Fearful of being sent to live with a grandfather they have never met, they turn an abandoned boxcar into their new secret home.

What I like: Actually, this one my younger daughter told me about and we watched it few times together. It is amazing to see how siblings care about each other, about the fear of a grandfather they never met and of course the good ending. Anything to do with children without parents brings me lots of strong feeling (since we are a foster family ourselves).

Open your eyes (2020) - Age 14+

HBO Documentary Films

Directed by Irene Taylor Brodsky, this documentary follows Manisara and Durga, an aging couple from the remote Himalayan Mountains of Nepal, as they embark on a transformative odyssey to regain the sight they lost over the years by undergoing a life-changing procedure.

What I like: I loved the inside of this culture, how they live, how they respect elders, where they live, their worries in life. I always believe that watching other culture opens us up and teaches us so much.

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