Christmas. It’s a time of unbridled joy. Ecstasy, even. But lest we all forget ourselves, strip naked and begin cavorting around the tree, driven mad with pure bliss, BFF has taken the time to compile a list of the top ten film moments that will make you remember the truth: that life is actually a sad, lonely, painful dredge. And that Christmas sucks. Just ask James Van Der Beek. He’ll give it to you straight.

In 1848, Charles Dickens wrote a little novella about a mean-spirited man at Christmas who, after being haunted by three ghosts, discovers the true spirit of the holiday and becomes GENEROUS. Sadly for Dickens, nobody needs to read his book anymore, because now we have films. Films AND a severe lack of new material; to celebrate this sorry fact, here are the top 10 Christmas Carols. May they haunt your houses pleasantly…

This Friday heralds the release of Andrea Arnold’s new film version of Emily Brontë’s beloved novel, Wuthering Heights. In honour of this occasion, which marks the FIRST TIME anyone has made a film of this book, BFF have compiled a list of…wait, what? What’s that you say? You mean, there’s been a film of Wuthering Heights before?! Seriously, though, here’s a list of the Top 10 classic novels that KEEP GETTING FILMED.

The ever-increasing presence of performance capture techniques has led to a bit of a division in the film industry: is it to be admired or discouraged? Film purists say nay. Andy Serkis fans say yay. But what do you say?

And Mars, thank goodness, is nowhere in sight.

Everybody knows Christmas is a time for cinema, but this year there aren’t many fresh festive treats being served up. So in the spirit of charity and knowing what it’s like not to want to talk to your family, we’ve scoured the charts for December and found the films most likely to placate your clan for most of the festive season. Did someone say ‘eye-popping CGI and childish plotlines’?

In this week’s Face/Off, we turn our attention to Christmas films. Classic feelgood fare or cynical attempt to convert a religious holiday into sweet sweet cash? Our dedicated team of writers take up the stance: optimism vs. pessimism, festive joy vs. humbuggery, Santa vs… well, Satan, we guess.

Like turkey, disappointing crackers and the traditional game of ‘find grandad’s wig’, Christmas films are always the same. And the strange thing is, we wouldn’t want it any other way. What is on your essential Christmas film list? We bet you’ll find at least a few of them here…