Thanksgiving Movies About Gratitude: 7 Faith Films to Watch This November

Thanksgiving in the United States falls on Thursday, November 26, 2026, the fourth Thursday of November (Canada kept its Thanksgiving on October 12). If you want one faith film for the long weekend, the short answer is The Blind Side (2009) for a family with teenagers, Soul Surfer (2011) for a mixed-age group, and Amazing Grace (2006) if you want a story about why Christians give thanks in the first place.

Plenty of Christian films mention gratitude, but very few are set at Thanksgiving. The better ones show thankfulness as something people learn slowly, often after loss, rather than a lesson read out at the end. The seven below do that. For each one you will find who it suits, what to watch out for, and a question to bring back to the table afterwards.

The quick picks

• Best for families with teens: The Blind Side (2009), rated PG-13
• Best for a mixed-age group: Soul Surfer (2011), rated PG
• Best for football fans: Facing the Giants (2006), rated PG
• Best for a church serving team: Same Kind of Different as Me (2017), rated PG-13
• Best for history lovers: Amazing Grace (2006), rated PG
• Best for a quiet evening after the dishes: The Hiding Place (1975), rated PG

1. The Blind Side (2009)

John Lee Hancock's drama is the rare faith-friendly hit with an actual Thanksgiving in it. On the eve of the holiday, Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock) sees Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron) walking alone in the cold and brings him home for the night. The next day the family eats in front of the football on television, Michael quietly takes his plate to the empty dining table, and Leigh Anne switches off the set and brings everyone to join him to say grace. It is a small scene, and it says more about gratitude than a speech would: thankfulness that makes room at the table. Bullock won the Academy Award for Best Actress for the role.

Best for: families with children around 12 and up. Watch out for: a brief scene of violence, drug and sexual references, and some language. Worth knowing: in 2023 the real Michael Oher went to court in Tennessee, saying he had been led to sign a conservatorship he believed was an adoption. The Tuohys denied wrongdoing, and the court ended the conservatorship later that year. The film tells the family's version of events, so older teens deserve a sentence of context. Details are on our The Blind Side page.

Talk about it: Who in our town will eat Thanksgiving dinner alone this year, and what would it take to set one more place?

2. Soul Surfer (2011)

Bethany Hamilton was 13 when a tiger shark took her left arm while she was surfing off Kauai on October 31, 2003. Sean McNamara's film, with AnnaSophia Robb as Bethany and Helen Hunt and Dennis Quaid as her parents, follows her back into the water. The turning point is not a contest. It is a youth-group trip to Phuket, Thailand, after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, where Bethany helps children who are now afraid of the sea and begins to see her own story differently. Carrie Underwood plays her youth leader, Sarah.

Best for: the whole family, roughly 8 and up. Watch out for: the attack is brief but intense and bloody, and the tsunami scenes may upset younger children. See our Soul Surfer page for legal ways to watch.

Talk about it: Bethany's family gives thanks long before the comeback. What is the difference between being grateful for something and grateful in the middle of it?

3. Facing the Giants (2006)

The Kendrick brothers made this one with volunteers from Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia, on a budget of about $100,000. Alex Kendrick directed it and plays Grant Taylor, a high school football coach with a losing record, a failing car, a stalled hope for children and parents who want him fired. Things change when he tells his team they will praise God if they win and praise God if they lose. The "death crawl" scene, where a player carries a teammate the length of the field blindfolded, is still one of the most shared clips in Christian film.

Best for: families with kids 8 and up, and anyone whose Thanksgiving already involves football. Watch out for: the volunteer acting is uneven and the ending is very tidy. If you like it, our guide to the Kendrick brothers' films picks the next one, and the film has its own Facing the Giants page.

Talk about it: Is it easier to give thanks after things go our way? What would "praise Him if we lose" look like for us this year?

4. Same Kind of Different as Me (2017)

Based on the 2006 memoir by Ron Hall and Denver Moore, Michael Carney's film stars Greg Kinnear as Ron, a Fort Worth art dealer whose marriage is in trouble, and Renée Zellweger as his wife Debbie, who insists they start serving meals at a local mission. There they meet Denver (Djimon Hounsou), a homeless man with a hard past who wants nothing to do with them. Jon Voight plays Ron's father. The friendship that grows from those meals carries the family through Debbie's illness.

Best for: adults and older teens, and especially a church team that serves a community Thanksgiving meal. Watch out for: violence in Denver's backstory, some language and a heavy final act, so have tissues ready. More on our Same Kind of Different as Me page.

Talk about it: Debbie asks Ron to give his time, not just his money. Which is harder for you to give?

5. Miracles from Heaven (2016)

Jennifer Garner plays Christy Beam, whose daughter Anna (Kylie Rogers) is diagnosed with intestinal pseudo-obstruction, a rare disorder that leaves her unable to eat normally. After Anna falls into the hollow trunk of an old cottonwood tree, her condition changes in a way her doctors cannot explain. Queen Latifah plays a Boston waitress who befriends mother and daughter, and Eugenio Derbez plays Anna's specialist. The film's best moment is not the miracle itself but Christy's closing words at church, where she names the strangers who showed them kindness along the way.

Best for: families with children around 10 and up. Watch out for: hospital scenes and a frightening fall; it may be hard viewing for a family going through a child's illness. Our Miracles from Heaven page has the details.

Talk about it: Christy counts ordinary people among her miracles. Who would be on your list this year?

6. Amazing Grace (2006)

Michael Apted's film follows William Wilberforce (Ioan Gruffudd) through the long parliamentary fight to end the British slave trade. Benedict Cumberbatch plays his friend William Pitt the Younger, and Albert Finney is unforgettable as John Newton, the former slave-ship captain who became a clergyman and wrote the hymn "Amazing Grace." Its wide US release on February 23, 2007, was timed to the 200th anniversary of Parliament's vote to ban the trade. Gratitude here is not a mood but a debt: Newton never forgets what he was forgiven.

Best for: teens and adults, and home-school history. Watch out for: descriptions of conditions on slave ships and long political debates that younger viewers will find slow. It pairs well with our list of Christian movies about redemption, and there is an Amazing Grace page with legal ways to watch.

Talk about it: How does remembering where we came from change the way we say thank you?

7. The Hiding Place (1975)

Released by World Wide Pictures, Billy Graham's film ministry, this is the story of Corrie ten Boom (Jeannette Clift) and her sister Betsie (Julie Harris), Dutch Christians who hid Jewish neighbours in their home in Haarlem during the Nazi occupation and were sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp. In Corrie's book, Betsie insists on thanking God even for the fleas in their barracks, and the sisters later learn that the fleas kept the guards away, which let them hold Bible readings in peace.

Best for: adults and teens 13 and up. Watch out for: it is not graphic, but the camp scenes are heavy, and at about 150 minutes it is a long evening, so plan a pause for pie. Read more on our The Hiding Place page.

Talk about it: Have you ever been grateful later for something you resented at the time?

How to plan a Thanksgiving movie night

• Pick for your youngest viewer. If anyone at the table is under 10, choose Soul Surfer or Facing the Giants and save the PG-13 titles for later.
• Keep one question ready. One good question beats a list of ten.
• Showing it at church? A public screening needs a performance licence even for a free event. Our guide to hosting a church movie night explains how that works, and the movie night planner helps you pick a title by age and length.

Where to watch these legally

Availability changes month to month and differs between the US and India, so each film above links to its page here with current legal options, including free ones where they exist. For more, see our guide to where to watch Christian movies free and legally and the free Christian movies list. We never link to pirated streams or download sites.

Frequently asked questions

What is a good Christian movie for Thanksgiving? The Blind Side is the most fitting, because a Thanksgiving dinner sits at the heart of the story. For younger children, Soul Surfer and Facing the Giants both handle gratitude well without the PG-13 material.

Which of these films are true stories? The Blind Side, Soul Surfer, Same Kind of Different as Me, Miracles from Heaven, Amazing Grace and The Hiding Place are all based on real people. Facing the Giants is fiction, though it was made by a real church.

Sources: cast, release and budget details from each film's published credits and box-office records; the Thanksgiving date from US federal law (fourth Thursday of November); the flea account from Corrie ten Boom's memoir The Hiding Place (1971).