Family Movie Nights

To help families spend time together and share common experiences, The Leadership Institute provides recommendations for Family Movie Night. Each week, a new movie recommendation and explanation is available for your consideration. Enjoy the show!

If you are looking to see where a particular movie is streaming or is available online, please visit https://www.justwatch.com

Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus
Since its publication in a New York newspaper in 1897, an editor’s affirmative response to an 8 year old girl’s letter asking if Santa was real has become one of… Read More
The Book Thief
This week’s film is a war time drama that’s more appropriate for older viewers. It’s 1938 in Germany when young Liesel is forced to move in with new foster parents.… Read More
Grave of the Fireflies
This week’s film is more appropriate for older viewers. It’s also one of the saddest films ever made, so be sure to have the Kleenex nearby. It’s 1945, and the… Read More
Bumblebee
Don’t worry if you’re unfamiliar with the Transformers franchise; this week’s film is a standalone prequel, accessible to all.  It’s 1987, and teenage Charlie is grieving her father’s death, while… Read More
42
“You want a player who doesn’t have the guts to fight back?” “No. I want a player who’s got the guts not to fight back.” This week’s film tells the… Read More
A Bag of Marbles
Joseph is a young boy living in occupied France in the early 1940s. He’s not sure why he’s supposed to wear a yellow star on his jacket. His world is… Read More
Fatima
“Faith begins at the edges of understanding.” This week’s film tells the true story behind the 1917 “Miracle of the Sun” in Fátima, Portugal. When 10-year-old shepherd Lúcia and her… Read More
Shazam!
Billy Batson is a 14 year old orphan who’s determined to track down his birth mother, which means he’s often running away from foster homes and getting in trouble. Not… Read More
Nightjohn
“Words are freedom.” Sarny is a young girl growing up as a slave on a Southern plantation in the 1830’s. Though life is rough, she feels fortunate to be chosen… Read More
The Boy and the Beast
Refusing to live with his new guardians after his mother dies, nine year old Ren runs away, losing himself in the streets of Tokyo. He is soon found by Kumatetsu,… Read More
The Young Messiah
With Easter on the horizon, here’s a film that takes us back to Jesus’s day. The Bible says almost nothing about Jesus’s early youth other than being found in the… Read More